Verdant BioSciences is a privately held corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Our leadership team combines experience from a wide variety of disciplines and industries including natural products chemistry, extraction technology, plant-made pharmaceuticals, seed, agrochemicals, and food technology.
Management
J. Steven Barnard, President and CEO, has founded several successful start-up companies. He has served as an officer and director of several agribusiness including companies engaged in agricultural equipment manufacturing, grain processing and agricultural finance.
Ronald D. Harkrader, PhD, Vice President Technology Development was a founder and director of Hauser Chemical Laboratories, Inc. Hauser was instrumental in the development of paclitaxel (Taxol) for Bristol-Meyers Squibb. Dr. Harkrader has extensive experience in analytical chemistry methods development, separation extraction and characterization methods for natural products, pharmacokinetics modeling, and validation and regulatory agency submissions.
Stephen D. McCurry, PhD, Vice President and CSO, was formerly the Vice President, General Manager of Central Research for Cargill, Inc. where he lead and managed the Central Research Department which included new opportunity investigations investigations which included biobased plastics. Previously, he was Corporate Vice President of Research of Kellogg Company. Dr. McCurry has wide experience in analytical chemistry, food product development, nutraceuticals and product and process development.
Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board
Our board of directors provide industry experience at a senior management level at companies such as Cargill, DuPont/Pioneer Hybrid Seeds, and American Cyanamid (now BASF) and StarTek, Inc. Our scientific advisors are world-class and at the cutting-edge of scientific research in disciplines relevant to our research and development.