Biopolymer Network

About Us


Our New Zealand based company was formed in 2005 born of a desire by its shareholders to exploit specific niche areas of bio-research to create new bio-based chemicals, biopolymers and applications. In keeping with today’s style of doing business we are a small but agile company able to draw upon the skills of a large pool of talented research scientists sub-contracted from our shareholders AgResearch, Plant & Food Research Ltd and Scion.

Governance


  • David Hughes
    Chairman
    BPN Chairman
    David Hughes, CEO, The New Zealand Institute of Plant & Food Ltd

    David is currently the CEO of Plant & Food Research, a Government owed Science Company with a focus on horticulture, food & beverage, and seafood.  The company has 1000 staff spread over 17 sites in New Zealand, Australia and the USA. Through its work with its partners, Plant & Food Research is creating the world’s most sustainable food production systems.​

    Background

    David has 32 years of international experience with the food industry with 13 of those years spent living outside of NZ in Japan, the USA, the Middle East, and Australia.  His roles have included directorships, general management, business development, innovation management, sales and marketing.

    David has also served as a director, chair or trustee for 16 organisations ranging from early stage companies through to joint ventures and industry organisations. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and the Business Leaders’ Health & Safety Forum.

    Qualifications

    BTech (Hons), Manufacturing, Massey University, New Zealand 1987
    PGDip, Applied Statistics, Massey University, New Zealand

    Professional Memberships

    Member, New Zealand Institute of Directors
    Business Leaders' Health & Safety Forum


     

  • Kieran Elborough
    Kieran Elborough, Group General Manager - Technology Development, The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd

    As Group General Manager of technology development at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd, Kieran is involved in aligning the majority of New Zealand's horticultural/arable breeding.   Kieran’s governance experience includes a Ministerial appointment on the Authority of the Environmental Risk Management Agency NZ and more recently several plant based companies both in NZ and overseas.

    Background

    Kieran has had a diverse science career to date, with a background that includes a lectureship at the University of Durham in the UK, and commercial research with a subsidiary of Fonterra.  In that time he has worked in cancer research, microbiology and plant molecular/breeding biology, working for a time in metabolic engineering of plants for bioplastics production.

    Qualifications

    BSc, Microbiology/Microbial genetics, University of Dundee, United Kingdom
    DPhil, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Imperial College, University of London, United Kingdom

    Professional Memberships

    Director and decision maker for the New Zealand government's environmental protection agency (ERMA NZ)


  • Jolon Dyer
    Jolon Dyer, Associate Research Director, Agresearch Ltd

    Jolon's research specialises in protein chemistry, proteomics and structural biology, and their application to wool, meat, dairy and personal care products. He is particularly active in the application of redox proteomics approaches to understanding and controlling protein damage within these substrates, and also in evaluating molecular level interactions between proteins and other biomolecules, especially in foods and textiles.

    Jolon has achieved significant national and international recognition, including the AWI Award for Scientific Achievement and AWI-DWI Excellence in Wool Science Personal Award (2005), NZIAHS Significant Science Achievement Award (2008) and American Society of Photobiology New Investigator Award (2010). Dr Dyer also has adjunct positions within the Biomolecular Interaction Centre at the University of Canterbury (Senior Fellow), the Wine and Food Molecular Biosciences Department at Lincoln University (Associate Professor), and the Riddet Institute based at Massey University (Associate Investigator).


  • Stuart Hall
    Stuart Hall

    Stuart is currently the Partnerships and Programmes Director for AgResearch, responsible for broad commercial activity, a role he commenced in late 2017.

    Background

    Prior to joining AgResearch, Stuart commenced his career with DB Breweries Ltd, spending 15 years in a variety of New Zealand based commercial roles, the last being National Sales Manager.

    In 2009 Stuart joined ANZCO Foods, a significant New Zealand Agri-Business with a global export focus. He spent 8 years in Sales & Marketing roles, the final 4 as General Manager of Sales & Marketing with responsibility for global commercial activity including responsibility for several international offices.

    Stuart graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and Post Graduate Diploma from Otago University in 1993 and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Our Management Team


  • Sarah Heine, CEO
    Sarah Heine

    Sarah has served as CEO of the company since late 2008 and prior to this was the Manager of ATLAS Technology which provides integrated forestry management and processing software to the forestry industry. The board unanimously selected Sarah based on her demonstrated strong managerial and leadership skills. She leads a dedicated and talented team of scientists working alongside development and commercialisation specialists to deliver pioneering research in bio-based technologies.


  • Anne Harris

    Anne Harris
    Anne is the company secretary responsible for governance and compliance, however her skill set means she also works across a broad range of other areas within the company including marketing, external communication, reporting and contracts.


    Sally Williams

    Sally is BPN’s extremely capable Office Manager a role which encompasses a multitude of tasks both operational and administrative across a team of scientists spread from Auckland to Christchurch along with extensive customer engagement here in New Zealand and internationally.

     
    Sally Williams

    Sally is BPN’s extremely capable Office Manager a role which encompasses a multitude of tasks both operational and administrative across a team of scientists spread from Auckland to Christchurch along with extensive customer engagement here in New Zealand and internationally.

     

  • Barbara Forbes
    Barbara Forbes

    Barbara is a lawyer with many years’ experience in research, development and intellectual property in the science sector. She obtained her BSc at the University of Alberta followed by a law degree. Barbara is all about practical legal solutions to add value to the business. Barbara provides advice across a wide field of commercial matters with information technology, intellectual property and corporate governance being strong areas of expertise.


  • Sally Williams

     

    Sally Williams

    Sally is BPN’s extremely capable Operations Manager a role which encompasses a multitude of tasks both operational and administrative across a team of scientists spread from Auckland to Christchurch along with extensive customer engagement here in New Zealand and internationally.


  • David Hall
    David Hall

    David has an educational background in synthetic organic chemistry, and industrial experience in dairy related process development and process engineering. He is an independent technical consultant and has worked closely with the BPN for several years helping to scale up and test our ZealaFoam process.


  • Meeta Patel

    Meta Patel

    Currently Research and Production manager for BPN, Meeta received her PhD in Chemistry from The University of Auckland (New Zealand) in 2004 and worked as a research scientist with Scion for 17 years with a focus on biomaterials and material characterisation and, later on, environmental science. Her current job includes: production and process optimisation.

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