Calyxt, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLXT), a plant-based synthetic biotechnology company, today announced the hiring of two senior roles important to furthering Calyxt’s recently announced strategic direction. Joining the Company are Vijay Gullapalli, Ph.D., as Vice President, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Data Science, reporting to Travis Frey, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer; and Pete Ball as Technology Licensing Leader, reporting to Debra Frimerman, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.
“I welcome Vijay and Pete to Calyxt as key hires to help drive our strategy to deliver plant-based synthetic biology solutions to important customers in our identified key end markets. We aim to enable these customers to create target products from formerly finite ingredients while delivering against their corporate sustainability goals,” said Michael A. Carr, President and Chief Executive Officer at Calyxt.
“At Calyxt, we are using our PlantSpring™ technology platform to create bespoke molecules from plants, for a variety of end markets. PlantSpring relies on an iterative prototyping cycle of design, engineer, verify and learn, aided by AI and machine learning capabilities. Vijay’s experience and expertise building innovative AI-based solutions will be invaluable as we continue to develop and augment those AI and machine learning capabilities within PlantSpring,” added Mr. Carr. “Further, Pete’s addition to the team will enable us to advance our licensing activities in both our platform technologies, including IP relating to gene-editing in plants, and our portfolio of crop innovations. We welcome Pete’s deep legal acumen and proven ability to build value through partnering.”
Dr. Gullapalli brings nearly 25 years of experience in developing solutions for businesses across diverse industries utilizing his expertise in data technology and AI/machine learning. He joins Calyxt from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, where he served as Vice President of Analytics & Insights. Previously, he worked at Capital One, serving as Director, Card Machine Learning and Data Transformation and HSBC, as Vice President, Global Information Management. Prior to these roles, Dr. Gullapalli served as Chief Technology Officer at Hypertech Solutions. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Mathematics from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Mr. Ball has nearly 35 years of legal and technology licensing experience and joins Calyxt from North Shore Therapeutics, where he served as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to North Shore, he served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at ConsenSys Health. Previously, Mr. Ball served as Senior Technology Licensing Manager at Mayo Clinic Ventures, and as Portfolio Director, Technology Licensing at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. In addition to his experience in software development, Mr. Ball has a background in operations management, having begun his career at United Parcel Service. Mr. Ball holds a B.A. in Psychobiology from Hamilton College, an M.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University, and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore, School of Law.
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