Featuring Mary Ellis, Pherosyn

Dr. Mary Ellis, Co-founder and CEO Pherosyn

Dr. Mary Ellis is an entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience working with technology start-up companies in both agriculture and biopharmaceuticals. Trained as a pharmacologist and neuroscientist with an MBA, she is founder or co-founder of four technology companies and her own consultancy, an experienced board member and founding member of an early-stage technology commercialization fund. Mary’s extensive background in fostering innovation and navigating the complexities of early-stage ventures provides her with a unique insight into the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Q1. Tell us about your career path. Is this what you always wanted to do? How has your journey been? What is the most thrilling part of it?

I grew up on my family farm and like most farm kids of my generation I worked hard in the fields during my breaks from school. I enjoyed university and so studied for as long as I could, initially as a bench researcher to post-doctoral level and later a Science and Technology focused MBA. During my studies I discovered a strong character trait and love for entrepreneurship and recall my leadership instructor telling me that I’d always “follow the beat of my own drum.”I convinced two of my colleagues, also scientists doing the same MBA program, to join this journey and so my first company focused on technology commercialisation of basic scientific research. My entrepreneurial career of over 25 years naturally evolved from that basis with a very steep learning curve particularly around fund raising. I was driven by the excitement and the experience of building a startup initially. I love the highs and after many years I now embrace the low points as the learning opportunity that they are. The most thrilling part is seeing a team coalesce around common ground, building a supportive culture and watching people thrive. I get a real sense of achievement from those that I have mentored going on to great things which many of them have been able to do. I guess I am a nurturer at heart.

Q2. What was the driving force behind your switch from the biopharmaceutical to the BioAg sector? How would you compare the two industries on innovation and implementation of these innovations?

I started to get frustrated with the long development times in biopharma, and didn’t feel satisfied with the pace of impact in what I was doing. Simultaneously, I saw farming starting to change really dramatically. In the UK, I saw the impact of Brexit and then the perilous supply chains being stretched during COVID. I began to have lots of conversations with my brothers about climate change, subsidies and fluctuating prices at the farm gate. We have farmed since 1968 without the use of chemical pesticides – it’s what people now call Regenerative Farming, but we didn’t really label it that way growing up.

My first foray into “farming” was really indoor farming, cannabis cultivation and learning about grow lights. It was technologically fascinating, but economically I really struggled with it. I couldn’t figure out the economics and as Chair of an indoor farming industry association, I saw a lot of very tenuous claims being made. I think the industry will reinvent itself, but at the time I wanted something more tangible. Along came PheroSyn, and I immediately got it. The vision of my co-founder Daniel Bahia struck a chord and made sense to me.

There are lots of similarities between biopharmaceuticals and BioAg. Both are highly regulated and for good reason, both affect most if not all people, can be data driven, fast paced and exciting, and both can have very severe consequences when things go wrong – think of the devastating opioid crisis in North America, or the impact of DDT on the environment. I personally feel that technologies I see in BioAg are a lot more exciting than those I saw in biopharma. It is as if we are still at the early innovative stages in agriculture, despite it being as old as the hills.

Q3. I understand that you serve on the boards of various organisations working in science and technology. What is your belief for next generation women? What do you want to see for the future of younger women in their career path especially in the BioAg industry?

My view on women in BioAg or any male dominated industry has changed as I’ve gotten older. In my early 30s it would upset me that people thought there were differences between men and women, and I just got on with it. I suppose that comes from having 5 brothers and being a “tom boy.” But over time I started to realise there was a difference in how I was being perceived. I saw people, mainly men but also some women, acting in ways that I hadn’t noticed before. After a few short years, along came a few extraordinary situations, where it became abundantly clear that life in business as a women was going to be different. And those are situations that I will never forget, nor want to as it now drives me to succeed both as a female but also as a mentor.

I believe things will get tougher for the next generation of women, unfortunately. But I also believe women will become more vocal and more determined. I want to see women working together more, supporting each other and holding each other up. Women have been part of agriculture since humans started to farm, but it’s the senior management and C-suite where we need more women leaders. I hope we keep shouting about our successes and be as proud as we would be if we were men. We need more women helping women and more women role models. We need bigger platforms to share our knowledge and better foundational support from each other. It is empowering to see more women in the industry and learn from them. I wish more women reach out and seek mentorship. And I am happy to be part of that movement.

Q4. You have worked for a good amount of time with a company supporting startups and early-stage companies. What do you think are the major challenges faced by startups in scaling up in the BioAg space and how can startups increase their chances of success in this challenging landscape?

Top challenge is climate change, closely followed by how seriously the topic is taken by governments and the general public. Farmers always talk about the weather, but now extreme events are clearly affecting farming in unprecedented ways. Catastrophic weather events and ever-changing pest pressures affect farmers locally and globally.

Government policies and in particular regulations and lack of harmonization will impact start-ups trying to scale. Most start-ups will underestimate the time and resources required to navigate the ever-changing regulatory landscape and will struggle to keep a foothold.

Finance will continue to be a challenge. I think investment models will need to be adapted to BioAg companies as more Agriculture naïve investors enter the market following climate trends and sustainability/impact investment thesis. BioAg requires a sector knowledgeable investor, and while other money is welcome there will be a steep learning curve ahead.

Start-ups can increase their chance of success by bringing in the right people. It all starts and ends with attracting and retaining the required talent, and that is where start-ups should focus.

Q5. What is your future plan for PheroSyn? What are your professional and personal aspirations?

PheroSyn seeks to become a leading player in Integrated Crop Management (ICM), and we see lots of opportunity for change and growth in this marketplace. Our technology unlocks new ways of synthesizing insect pheromones in a cost-effective manner, and we are seeking to partner with existing players in the marketplace to transform the way farmers grow their crops. Our initial focus is on orchards, greenhouses and with our existing product range for legume crops. We hope over time to be able to work in large scale row crops, although very few, if any pheromone technology companies have been successful at this yet.

My interests are all around preserving and expanding biodiversity. I so desperately want to see a return to bugs on the windshield, bees bothering us and genuine expansion of the diversity of species that inhabit the earth. Mankind needs to step back and understand that without protecting the very fabric of the world in which we are so lucky to live in, very little else matters.