Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, Founder & CEO

Dr. Patell was awarded a Ph.D in 1993 in Plant molecular biology from University of Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg in France and did a Post-doctoral tenure from University of Ghent, Belgium. She has received several prestigious grants from Institutions such as The Rockefeller Foundation, Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR), DFID etc. Dr. Patell and her group at Avesthagen have to their credit several patent applications in the field of Gene Discovery, Gene Functionality, Gene Transformation, Bioinformatics and Biotherapeutics.Dr Patell currently is the Founder & CEO of Avesthagen, Bangalore and Chairman of AQUAS, Hyderabad and Avgen Inc., USA. Besides this she holds the position of Professor Emeritus, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore and was also the Principal Investigator and Visiting Scientist, National Centre for Biological Sciences, (NCBS) at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bangalore from April 1995. Dr Patell is a member of Advisory Board for Biotechnology at Mysore University as well.Owing to her pioneering work in the field of molecular biology, Dr Patell has long-standing professional relationships with individuals, institutions and corporates working in the domain of Agri-Biotechnology across the world. She is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and also a key member of the Task Force and Vision group for Biotechnology, instituted by the State Government of Karnataka.

Mr. Koen Wentink, Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Koen Wentink is Chief of Logistics of the Avesthagen since September 2000. He Completed his Master of Science Degree in Agriculture (Crop Science) at Wageningen Agricultural University. The Netherlands with Majors in Plant Breeding, Crop Modeling and Business Administration, he has immense experience in productivity improvement and management control in Europe and Asia in diverse businesses. Here at Avesthagen he is a member of the management team and responsible for ensuring that contracts secured are deliverable in terms of capacity, consumables, quality and time. He is also responsible for overall control and follow up on the Financial, Legal & Administrative functions of the company.

Mr. Manan Bhatt, Vice President - Business Development

He is Vice President - Business Development at AQUAS since July 2003. He has 20 years' rich experience in business development of Indo-European trade,finance and investments acquired by working with international organizations such as IRI and ENI groups of Italy and BNP of France having multidisciplinary activities mainly in the area of agriculture,power,petrochemical,finance and aviation.

Between 1994 and 1997 he was selected and nominated by the Ministry of Industry,Govt of India to work with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation as the Representative of India in France,at the UNIDO office in Paris for the promotion of Indo-French business partnerships.

He attended an Intensive Management Training Programme on International Economic Relations at the prestigious "Centre des Hautes Etudes sur l'Afrique et L'Asie Moderne" (CHEAM) in Paris,(1995-96)

Dr. L Praveen Kumar, Scientist

Dr. L. Praveen Kumar completed his M.Phil. in Seed Technology in 1997 and was awarded his Ph.D. in 2003 following his research into "Management of some Important Seed-borne Fungal Pathogens of Rice" at the Department of Applied Botany and Biotechnology, University of Mysore, India. Over the years, he has worked on various projects on Molecular Plant Pathology. In AQUAS, Dr. Praveen is involved in setting up and heading our Agbiotech solutions handling GMO Testing & Certification, Molecular Markers development & validation, DNA Fingerprinting, Seed Purity Analysis and is also in-charge of related regulatory and IPR issues.

Mr.Pramod Deshmane, Business Development Associate

Pramod Deshmane completed Master's Degree in Business Administration from Pune University. with specialization in Marketing. Prior to Avesthagen, Pramod worked with Seminis Vegetable Seeds (India) Pvt. Ltd. on a project to ascertain vegetable seed market potential and to develop a business strategy for the state of Madhya Pradesh (India). At Avesthagen, he is responsible for Business Development activities in the Ag-Biotech and Analytical Food testing business.