Yield10 Bioscience appoints agriculture industry veteran Sherri M. Brown, Ph.D., to board of directors

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN today announced that Sherri M. Brown, Ph.D. was appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors effective February 11, 2020. In connection with her appointment, Dr. Brown will serve as chair of a newly formed Science and Technology Committee of the Board. Dr. Brown previously served as a Special Commercial and Technical Advisor to the Company.

“We are delighted that Sherri is expanding her role with Yield10 by serving on our Board of Directors,” said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Yield10. “Her extensive experience in the agriculture industry including her deep knowledge in plant science, the assessment of yield traits in the field, global business management experience, and knowledge of the commercial landscape will continue to provide our team with invaluable strategic insights and guidance as we build Yield10.”

“Since joining Yield10 as a Commercial and Technical Advisor, I have witnessed significant progression of the Company’s GRAIN technology platform, an exciting new approach for identifying gene targets for novel crop traits,” said Dr. Brown. “The Company is using its Camelina platform to determine field performance for its novel yield traits as a basis for establishing collaborations with leading seed companies to evaluate these traits in major crops. In addition, Yield10 has developed traits to improve the value of Camelina as a crop for producing high value oils for food and feed, and low cost PHA biomaterials for industrial markets. I am excited about the Camelina system and its potential to provide additional opportunities and revenue sources for farmers and I look forward to continuing to work with the Yield10 team and contributing to the Company’s technical and commercial success.”

Since 2017, Dr. Brown has served as the managing director of The Yield Lab, a global agrifood tech accelerator based in St. Louis. She previously served in several leadership positions involving the development and global commercialization of new biotechnology traits for canola, soybean and corn at Monsanto Company for 28 years. She served as Vice President, Science Strategy at Monsanto from 2014 to 2017 and as a member of the Monsanto Leadership Council. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Global Commercial Technology/Product Development from 2008 to 2014 where she was responsible for evaluating and launching the seed and trait pipeline, including eight new biotech traits. In addition, she was Vice President, Technology, Global Corn Business (1999-2004) and Vice President, Technology, Oilseeds Business team (1998-1999). Dr. Brown earned a Ph.D. at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN with a major in Genetics/Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. She earned a B.S. at Hope College, Holland, MI with a double major in Biology and Chemistry.

The Company also announced today that Peter Kellogg has stepped down from the Board of Directors, effective February 11, 2020. Further, the Company announced that Board member Anthony Sinskey, Ph.D. has been appointed to serve as a member of the Audit Committee of the Board, effective February 11, 2020.

Dr. Peoples commented, “On behalf of the Board and management team, we thank Peter for his support, leadership, valuable insights and many contributions over the past thirteen years and wish him every success in the future.”

Mr. Kellogg recently retired as executive vice president and chief corporate strategy officer of Celgene Corporation in conjunction with the acquisition of the company by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2019.