Pam Marrone and Jim Boyd announce formation of companies to combat invasive species

Two innovators in the development and production of bio-based products, Dr. Pam Marrone and Jim Boyd, have announced the formation of The Invasive Species Foundation (ISF) and the Invasive Species Control Corporation (ISCC), which will discover, develop, manufacture, and market products to control invasive species around the globe.

Together the foundation and corporation will generate and deploy a portfolio of urgently needed targeted sustainable solutions to control invasive species currently destroying forests, freshwater fisheries, damaging crops, livestock and wildlife, damaging utilities, maritime vessels and tourism destinations.

Dr. Pam Marrone, co-founder of ISCC and ISF is an entrepreneur who has started three bio-based product companies in the agtech industry that were successfully sold or IPO’d. Jim Boyd, co-founder, is an experienced senior executive in the agtech and semiconductor industries, including multiple startups and midcap public companies.

Most recently, the two executives were CEO and President of Marrone Bio Innovations, a public company that successfully launched more than eight bio-based products into the agricultural industry.

The foundation and corporation were established because ″invasive species are profoundly disrupting and damaging native ecologies at an alarming rate of growth and are getting worse due to climate change,″ explains Dr. Marrone.

The World Wildlife Fund lists invasive species as one of five direct drivers of loss of biodiversity, along with habitat loss, overexploitation, climate change and pollution (1). The estimated damage from invasive species worldwide is estimated at more than $1.3 trillion annually and is rising rapidly (2,3). Approximately 400 of the 958 species listed as threatened or endangered are at risk primarily because of competition with, and predation by, invasive species.

″More needs to be done to sustainably combat or control these costly invaders,″ Dr. Marrone added. The Invasive Species Foundation is being formed to educate people about the threats invasive species pose and to discover biopesticide control solutions. The Invasive Species Control Corporation will then complete development and take to market potential products that have been discovered by the Foundation and other research institutions.

Marrone and Boyd have initially prioritized the production of biological solutions for six high impact invasive pest groups, including: a) zebra and quagga mussels b) Asian carp c) multiple forest beetles and borers, d) pine wilt nematode, e) toxic algae and f) aquatic weeds.

″We are confident that we can discover and develop biological solutions that cost effectively and sustainably control invasive pests. We have the technical, manufacturing and marketing know-how to make and scale the products and are well on our way with two already commercialized products for Asian carp and zebra and quagga mussel control,″ says Dr. Marrone.

″We are currently seeking capital to scale these impactful solutions,″ said Mr. Boyd. ″We have a team of appropriate experts ready, but to be successful we also need to bring together members of impacted industries, government agencies and affected communities to collaborate in defining targets, optimizing application methodologies and accelerating adoption. Ideally those strategic partners will also be our investors,″ added Mr. Boyd.

1 World Wildlife Fund Living Planet report. https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-us/

2 Zenni R.D., F. Essl, E. García-Berthou, et al. 2021. The economic costs of biological invasions around the world. NeoBiota 67:1-9

3 Christophe Diagne, Boris Leroy, Anne-Charlotte Vaissière, Rodolphe E. Gozlan, David Roiz, Ivan Jarić, Jean-Michel Salles, Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Franck Courchamp. High and rising economic costs of biological invasions worldwide. Nature, 2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03405-6