Jacqueline Heard

Co-Founder and CEO

2017 - Current

Venture Partner

2017

Anterra Capital is a specialist venture capital firm dedicated to financing the growth of technology driven companies that are transforming the sustainability of the global food and agriculture.

Partner VentureLabs / Chief Strategy Officer CiBO Technologies

2015 - 2016

Partner at Flagship VentureLabs with a focus on entrepreneurship and investments in life science and sustainability with a special interest in agriculture. Served as Chief Strategy Officer at CiBO Technologies, a Flagship Portfolio Company that builds software solutions for sustainable land and resource use efficiency across the Agriculture value chain.

Chief Executive Officer

2015 - 2015

The Two Blades Foundation (www.2blades.org) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation dedicated to developing durable disease resistance in agricultural crops. The Foundation establishes and runs programs to support and implement solutions to significant unsolved crop disease problems, both in the developing world and in major agricultural markets. 2Blades oversees a number of development programs in collaboration with leading academic institutions around the world, as well as a significant portfolio of technologies, which it brings into practical use through partnering and licensing.

Investment Director, Monsanto Growth Ventures

2011 - 2015

Monsanto's Corporate Venture Group is within the Global Strategy division of Monsanto. Worked to establish and grow Monsanto’s venture group (MGV), and then led early stage investments for Monsanto with a focus on the Boston area ecosystem. Established an investment portfolio with potential to enhance Monsanto’s internal pipeline in Big Data and IT, Biotech and Breeding, Biologicals, Precision Farming, and Crop Protection. Investments include: RaNA Rx, Preceres, Nimbus Ceres, HydroBio, Plant Response Biotech, and Vital Fields. Strategic Technology Sourcing including RNA delivery technologies and PACE for protein evolution in Agriculture (http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160427005237/en/Monsanto-Researchers-Showcase-Breakthrough-Protein-Science-Publish) - Led evaluation and due diligence teams in diverse technological areas - Build two companies in Cambridge that served as a model for open innovation in the Ag sector. - Negotiated license, collaboration, and equity agreements with academic and industry partners - Served liaison for Atlas Venture – Monsanto corporate strategic partnership. - Served as board or board observer for Monsanto investment companies. - On-going management and governance: board participation, tracking and mentoring

Platform Lead, Monsanto

2003 - 2011

Led global, multidisciplinary teams that discovered and developed new crop varieties such as those with tolerance to abiotic stresses, including DroughtGardTM Hybrids of corn.

Chairman of the Board

2013 - 2014

Preceres LLC was engaged in the discovery and development of novel materials and methods for the delivery of RNA into plants and insects to create breakthrough products for agriculture. Delivery technologies could create the opportunity for sequence-based precision in both control of plant properties and the selective targeting of insect pests using traditional foliar application. Preceres technology was based on discoveries pioneered at MIT. Preceres was refining and extending the technology to extend efficacy to a diverse range of plant and insect species.

Member of the Board

2013 - 2014

Nimbus-Ceres is a jointly owned entity between Nimbus Therapeutics in Cambridge, Mass. and Monsanto Company, to co-develop agricultural fungicides. Nimbus-Ceres combines Nimbus’ validated computational platform and innovative research tools with Monsanto’s agriculture testing capabilities to develop broad-spectrum fungicides. • A model for externalized active ingredient discovery • Synthetic fungicide with broad spectrum control optimal for seed treatment and foliar applications • Breakthrough science pairs cutting edge computational technology and robust experimental screens in a rapid cycle discovery process to identify and optimize agrochemicals • Early season seed treatment benefits demonstrated in row crops and strong foliar disease control in vegetable trials (Monsanto, public data)

Research Director

1998 - 2003

Responsible for building best in class trait discovery phenotyping platform and then directed the R&D program at Mendel. The platform combined bioinformatics and plant phenotyping for the functional discovery of the genome complement of transcription factors in a plant model system. Discoveries flowed into Agriculture Biotech discovery pipelines. Participated in IP strategy and business development.