Dr. Andrew Powell has been in Singapore for over 30 years and is the CEO of Asia BioBusiness Pte. Ltd. He has worked as a consultant since 1995, primarily focusing on the agriculture and food sectors. Projects have included agri-food sector policy, food security, agritech and food tech, and management of open innovation systems. Clients come from both the private (MNCs and SMEs) and public sector and include Syngenta, Bayer, Tate and Lyle, Dupont Biosciences and Nutrition, CropLife Australia, USDA, APEC, UNDP, UNEP, FAO, NZ Bio, The Inter-American Development Bank, and the governments of Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Chile, Malaysia, Australia, etc.

Andrew is also one of three  Global Senior International Industry Advisors to Edinburgh Innovations, the commercialization arm of Edinburgh University. Andrew is Chairman of the not-for-profit Agri-Biotech Knowledge Information Centre Ltd. in Singapore and is a mentor for The Yield Lab Asia Pacific and Big Idea Ventures agri-foodtech accelerators in Singapore.

Andrew is a highly effective resource mobilizer with a global network across all areas of life science but especially in food and agriculture. He has also been active in Risk Communication for more than 15 years, conducting training and offering advice to both public and private sector clients. He is especially interested in how innovation is communicated and advises clients on communication strategies to ensure consumer acceptance and social license to operate.

Andrew graduated from the University of Edinburgh with honours in Biology and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary, Canada. He has held research and academic positions at the University of Guelph, Canada, the National Institute for Health Sciences in Tokyo, and Tsukuba, Japan and the National University of Singapore. He is a lecturer in programs run by The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and the Asia Productivity Organisation in Tokyo.

Andrew was a member of the Alberta Government’s Research and Innovation Advisory Committee (ARIAC) from 2017-2019 and sat on the advisory board for Syngenta’s Rice Bowl Index (measuring Food System Robustness) from 2012 2018.