Agrinos is headed by an executive team whose primary goal is to lead our company to the forefront of the crop biologicals industry. With diverse backgrounds, each team member contributes to the collective experience that will push Agrinos towards excellence.
Kevin Helash joined Agrinos in 2017 as Chief Executive Officer. With more than 27 years of experience in the agricultural crop input industry, his background includes sales, marketing, supply chain and a variety of senior management roles with Agrium’s retail and wholesale business units. Mr. Helash has worked with most of the major agricultural markets around the world, including Canada, the United States and Argentina. He has served on the Board of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) as well as CropLife Canada. He received his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Manitoba.
Breen Neeser joined Agrinos in 2018 as Executive Vice President, North America Commercial Operations. His background includes over 25 years experience in the agriculture industry, with an emphasis in strategic management, marketing, sales, operations and supply chain management. Prior to joining Agrinos, he served in key sales leadership roles for Nutrien’s industrial and feed products division and Agrium’s global fertilizer business. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BSC in Agriculture from the University of Alberta.
Kevin Helash joined Agrinos in 2017 as Chief Executive Officer. With more than 27 years of experience in the agricultural crop input industry, his background includes sales, marketing, supply chain and a variety of senior management roles with Agrium’s retail and wholesale business units. Mr. Helash has worked with most of the major agricultural markets around the world, including Canada, the United States and Argentina. He has served on the Board of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) as well as CropLife Canada. He received his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Manitoba.
John Janczak joined Agrinos as CFO in 2014 and offers extensive financial expertise and leadership. Most recently, Mr. Janczak was the CFO and President of Falcon Steel Company. He’s also held key financial management positions at Cardinal Health, Inc., Sears Holdings and MMD Holdings, Inc. Mr. Janczak has a degree in finance from Indiana University and a Masters of Business Administration from Northern Illinois University.
Mylavarapu Venkatramesh joined Agrinos in 2014, bringing more than 33 years of experience in plant pathology, soil microbiology, plant biochemistry and metabolic engineering, including 17 years of experience in leading biotechnology discovery research. Prior to joining Agrinos Dr. Venkatramesh served as the New Technology Leader for the Seeds and Biotechnology Platform at Dow AgroSciences. He has also served in roles across engineering, project management and research and development functions at Exelixis Plant Sciences, Monsanto and Renessen. Dr. Venkatramesh received his Bachelors of Science from Bangalore University followed by a Masters of Science in Botany from Madras University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Botany from S.V. University. Dr. Venkatramesh came to the U.S. for postdoctoral research in plant biochemistry and biotechnology, which included a 2-year visiting scientist position in Germany through an Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation fellowship.
Harrison Yoon joined Agrinos in 2014 as Chief Product Development Officer and has served Agrinos as Chief Production and Operations Officer since June 2015. Before joining Agrinos, Dr. Yoon was Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of R&D for DianaPlantSciences (DPS). He has also held several R&D leadership and executive level positions for biotechnology and life science companies in the U.S. and Korea. Dr. Yoon co-founded two biotech startup companies in Korea, serving the firms as Interim CEO and CTO. For over 15 years he has worked in the area of cell culture/fermentation and bioprocess design/development/optimization at academic and industrial biotechnology sectors. Dr. Yoon holds a Masters of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering from POSTECH, Korea. Following his doctoral degree work at POSTECH he was an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Cornell University.
Terry Stone joined Agrinos as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Sustainability Programs, in 2015. Mr. Stone brings more than 30 years of experience in plant biotechnology, regulatory affairs and sustainable agriculture to his position with Agrinos. As Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Sustainability Programs, Mr. Stone directs all regulatory affairs initiatives for Agrinos, working closely with regulatory agencies on a global level. Prior to joining Agrinos, Mr. Stone held leadership roles with Syngenta, The Scotts Company and Monsanto working in global regulatory affairs, biotechnology, sustainability and industry relations. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree in International Business from St. Louis University, a Master of Science degree in Entomology from Mississippi State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Invertebrate Zoology from Southern Illinois University.
Michael Austin joined Agrinos as Head of Global Agronomy in 2015. In this role, Dr. Austin leads the global agronomy team within the Research and Development organization at Agrinos. Before joining Agrinos, Dr. Austin served as Head for North American Continuous Nurseries in Hawaii and Puerto Rico at Syngenta Seeds, research scientist and agronomist at DuPont Pioneer, and diversified crops scientist with the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center. Dr. Austin holds a Master of Science in Agronomy from the University of Florida and a Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Breeding from the University of Hawaii.
