Davis man takes over local operations of Canadian startup

Articles   |   Industry News
Posted on September 4, 2016

Davis Enterprise

Davis man takes over local operations of Canadian startup

Bee Vectoring Technologies, a Canadian biotech startup, has announced that it plans to move its main operations to the Sacramento area and hire Davis resident Ashish Malik as its president and CEO.

Malik is the former vice president of global marketing for biologics at Bayer CropScience in West Sacramento and previously worked at AgraQuest, the Davis biotech company acquired by Bayer in 2012.

Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc., which uses bees to apply its pesticides and other products to crops, will retain operations in its hometown of Mississauga, Ontario.

Malik succeeds Michael Collinson, BVT’s former CEO, who will maintain his position as executive chairman. Malik is tasked with building a strong presence in the Davis/Sacramento region, an area considered a global hot spot for food and agricultural biological technology startups.

“I’m immensely excited by the opportunity to join a young company which I believe has significant potential to be an integral future player in the global crop protection business,” Malik said. “Improving agriculture using responsible and sustainable practices to make it more productive (i.e., higher yields, better crops) is something we all should be focusing on and something I am passionate about.

“BVT’s disruptive technology and the systems it has developed, along with the team assembled to drive it into mainstream adoption, is something very unique and special.”

Added Collinson, “The significance of having an industry figure such as Ashish join the company at this early stage cannot be overstated. It is unquestionably a remarkable endorsement of BVT’s products and potential.

“Ashish is an exceptionally skilled specialist in our industry and has a rich and well-proven talent for driving innovative new products into global markets,” he continued. “We feel privileged to have Ashish on the team and excited about his ability to move BVT to the next level.”

Prior to joining Bayer CropScience in 2012, from 2008, Mr. Malik held the position of Senior VP of Global Marketing at AgraQuest Inc.

As a member of AgraQuest’s executive team from 2008 to 2012, Malik had global responsibility for its marketing and development functions (field development and regulatory affairs). He co-led the strategic transformation of the company to become a “go-to” partner for big ag companies.

During his tenure, AgraQuest became recognized as the global leader in biological crop protection products within the industry and contributed to significant value creation, which led to the $425 million acquisition by Bayer CropScience in 2012.

Before AgraQuest, Malik served as the head of commercial operations for the Home Care Division at Syngenta. During that time, he was responsible for the overall leadership of the newly developed division, where he defined growth strategies, developed go-to-market approaches and identified opportunities for brand value building.

Malik serves on the board of the Biopesticides Industry Alliance. He holds an MBA with concentrations in finance and marketing from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Swarthmore College.

He lives in Davis with this wife and four children.