During ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference in Lexington, one of our favorite traditions is the opportunity to gather and share ONE insights while enjoying a Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. beverage (or two or…!). Grab a pint and join Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, and a few friends for a reflection on Alltech ONE Virtual Experience launch week.
For 40 years, innovation fueled by science has been at the heart of Alltech. Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder of Alltech, was a scientist and entrepreneur who valued the foundation of collaborative research in the development of industry-relevant solutions. In 1990, Dr. Lyons started a tradition of recognizing people who have pioneered breakthrough scientific discoveries that have paved the way for generations of agri-food solutions and inspired scientific talent with the Medal of Excellence. Awarded to more than 30 recipients from around the world, join us for a conversation with previous Medal of Excellence recipients about a new era of innovation.
Are we looking at a new normal — or just the next normal? There is no denying the significant impact COVID-19 has had on all of our lives and businesses, but we must always adapt to prepare for what’s ahead. How can we take what we’ve learned during this momentous time in history and move forward? Join Professor Damien McLoughlin and a panel of industry leaders in a discussion about the current state of the industry and where to go from here.
Research Director, Alltech
Dr. Richard Murphy is the research director at Alltech’s European Bioscience Centre in Dunboyne, Ireland. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1994 from the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway, he received a research scholarship from Alltech and completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Biochemistry at NUI, Galway in 1999. His doctoral research focused on the production of enzymes of industrial importance. Following his move to Alltech’s European Bioscience Centre, his research focused on the physicochemical characterization of organic trace elements and minerals in addition to microbial fermentation technologies.
Murphy maintains strong links with numerous universities and research institutions and has been appointed as an adjunct professor on the faculty of science and health studies at Dublin City University. His research activities are diverse, including areas such as trace element and mineral bioavailability, the influence of the microbiome on gastrointestinal health, pathogen control, antimicrobial resistance, coordination chemistry and cellular redox reactions.
Professor Emeritus of Animal Sciences, University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois
Dr. James E. Pettigrew is a professor emeritus of animal sciences at both the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois, where he has engaged in research, teaching and outreach.
Pettigrew received a bachelor's degree in animal industries from Southern Illinois University, a master's degree in animal nutrition from Iowa State University and a doctoral degree in animal nutrition from the University of Illinois. After completing his doctoral work, Pettigrew served as the manager of swine research for the Moorman Manufacturing Company in Quincy, Illinois, for five years. In 1980, he accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Minnesota, where he taught and conducted research for 17 years. His research emphases included mathematical modeling and the connections between sow nutrition and reproduction. He also led the development of the first mathematical model of pig metabolism, with a focus on the lactating sow.
Upon leaving the University of Minnesota, Pettigrew founded Pettigrew Consulting International, LLC, which led to work opportunities in several countries, especially in Latin America, and across a wide range of activities. Pettigrew was recruited to the University of Illinois in 2001 under the Faculty Excellence Program. His research there emphasized the connections between the diet and the health of the pig. Since his retirement, he has remained active in consulting.
Pettigrew is a fellow of the American Society of Animal Science and has received both the American Feed Industries Association Nonruminant Nutrition Research Award and the Animal Industry Service Award from that organization. He has also received the Minnesota Honorary Swine Honor Roll Award from the Minnesota Pork Producers Association, the Alumni Achievement Award from the Southern Illinois University College of Agricultural Sciences, and the Medal of Excellence from Alltech. He served two terms on the board of directors of the American Society of Animal Science and was president of the Midwest Section of that organization. He led the public policy programs of both the American Society of Animal Science and the Federation of Animal Science Societies.
Pettigrew was a member of the National Research Council subcommittee that produced the tenth edition of "Nutrient Requirements of Pigs" and served on a World Health Organization panel to evaluate the termination of antimicrobial growth promoters in Denmark. He speaks often to scientific and industry groups around the world.
Vice President for Research and Research Advisor, Alltech
Dr. Karl Dawson is a vice president and the former chief scientific officer at Alltech. He currently serves in an advisory position, overseeing activities at the company’s bioscience centers around the world, including Alltech’s Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky. He provides advisory assistance for scientific programs in Alltech’s research department and in the company’s external contract research, which includes programs for graduate students around the world and Alltech’s more than 20 global research alliances.
Dawson is an adjunct professor of nutritional microbiology at the University of Kentucky and served as director of the nutritional microbiology laboratory in the university's department of animal sciences for 20 years. He has also served as the research coordinator for the department of animal sciences and as the chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Coordinating Committee at the University of Kentucky.
Dawson received a bachelor’s degree in bacteriology from Utah State University, a master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Wyoming and a doctoral degree in bacteriology from Iowa State University. He worked for two years as a microbiologist at the National Animal Disease Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and was a professor in the department of animal sciences at the University of Kentucky before joining the research team at Alltech in 1999.
Dawson is the author of more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, popular press articles, book chapters and reviews. His research has focused on strategies for improving animal performance and health by altering microbial activities and digestive processes in the gastrointestinal tract. Studies in his laboratory have examined microbial population changes and digestive activities in ruminants, horses, pigs and poultry. Of particular interest to Dawson are strategies that use antimicrobials, microbial products and substrate availability to beneficially alter microbial growth in the digestive tract.
In recent years, Dawson has provided leadership for nutrigenomics research initiatives at Alltech, which have led to strategic programs that use epigenetic switches to more effectively control nutrient utilization and improve animal health. These nutritional programming strategies are effective alternatives to the use of growth-promoting antibiotics for enhancing performance and health and are changing the face of nutritional science in agriculture and the impact of agriculture on the environment.
Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Alltech
Dr. Ronan Power is the vice president and chief scientific officer at Alltech. Since 2002, Power has been based at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky, USA. He maintains a broad range of research interests related to the application of Alltech products in animal nutrition and human health, with an emphasis on preventing syndromes and diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and gastrointestinal stress.
Power joined Alltech in 1991 as the European director of research, initially based on the campus of the National University of Ireland, Galway, where he was an adjunct professor in the department of biochemistry. During this time, he also directed Alltech’s regulatory affairs division in Europe. In 1998, he re-established Alltech’s European Bioscience Centre at its new headquarters in Dunboyne, County Meath, Ireland, where he maintained an active graduate student program through which many doctoral and master's degree candidates have successfully obtained their degrees.
Power received a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from the National University of Ireland. Subsequently, he completed his postdoctoral training in cell biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where he studied aspects of steroid hormone action in reproductive physiology and disease.
Vice President of Alltech; CEO of Alltech Coppens
Patrick Charlton is vice president of Alltech and CEO of Alltech Coppens, a specialist aquaculture feeds company acquired by Alltech in 2016.
Before joining Alltech Coppens, Charlton oversaw the activity of 32 Alltech offices across the European region. He joined Alltech U.K. in 1991 and became a technical manager in 1995.
In 1998, Charlton moved to Cape Town, South Africa, to become the technical director for Alltech’s efforts in Africa and the Middle East, working with customers in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Charlton took on the role of general manager of Alltech Canada in 2000, where his responsibilities included working with customers, consultants and researchers across the country. In 2005, he was promoted to global Bioplex® manager, making him responsible for all activities relating to Alltech's Bioplex series of organic minerals.
Charlton graduated from the University of Nottingham and received a master’s degree in fermentation and distilling from Heriot-Watt University in 2006. He currently lives in the U.K.
Director, The Silk Initiative
Coralie Danks has more than 20 years of experience advising and building businesses, with a focus on finance and food.
Danks started her career in banking with PriceWaterhouse (PwC) at the People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank), where she embarked on a multi-year project to help the bank enhance its regulatory oversight of the financial sector. Subsequently, she transferred to PwC’s New York office, where she worked on strategic and operational engagements for Fortune 500 companies, with a particular focus on helping non-bank financial institutions build online banking businesses. Danks then joined Goldman Sachs as a vice president in their legal and compliance division and was appointed to oversee internal compliance functions during the 2008 financial crisis.
Danks returned to China to start the next phase of her career in food as a co-owner of Blue Horizon Hospitality Group, one of only a handful of Western restaurant chains to succeed in building a brand and a substantial business in China. As president of the group, Danks oversaw the profitable growth of the business from 14 to 44 restaurants across 10 cities, with more than 1,700 employees. She continues to invest in China and is a board member and adviser to growth companies with substantial businesses in that country. Her focus continues to be on food.
Danks holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and studied Chinese at the Second Foreign Language Institute in Beijing. She has attended graduate programs at New York University, Stanford University and the Sichuan Culinary Institute in Chengdu.
Managing Partner, Bluegrass Partners
John Young Simpson is an entrepreneur and agri-business investment professional with extensive international experience. He is a managing partner of Bluegrass Partners Asia, which provides advisory services to agri-business companies and their financiers in deal structuring, commercial strategy, operations and government relations.
Based in Singapore for over a decade, Simpson was part of a team that invested more than $600 million of equity and debt into the agri-business supply chain in Asia and Africa on behalf of institutional, strategic and high-net-worth investors. He also provides policy input on global initiatives for responsible and sustainable agriculture investing, particularly for the United Nations Committee on World Food Security and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
Simpson is currently a director on the board of the Women in Agri-Business (WOMAG) Asia association, as well as at the Rice Council of Tanzania. He received a master's degree from the London School of Economics and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s General Management Program.
Anthony C. Cunningham Professor of Marketing, University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
Damien McLoughlin is the Anthony C. Cunningham Professor of Marketing at the University College Dublin (UCD) Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in Ireland. He previously served as a visiting faculty member at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, the Indian School of Business, Purdue University and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD).
Between 2011 and 2014, McLoughlin was a faculty member for the Harvard Business School's agribusiness seminar, and he continues to contribute to this program as a researcher. Some of his recent contributions include C-suite case studies of Tyson Foods (2019) and Bayer Crop Science (2020). Since 2014, he has been a visiting professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
McLoughlin has published two books and more than 70 papers on strategy and marketing issues. He has also written more than 25 case studies, mainly relating to leadership and strategy issues in the food and agribusiness supply chain, covering all geographies and major sectors. He has consulted and led executive programs in Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia and Africa. He has also collaborated with some of the worlds’ leading organizations, including Alltech, the Agricultural Bank of China, Allianz, Bobst, Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board), Bunge, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), Dairygold, Dawn Farm, DeLaval, Dogpatch Labs, EY, Eversheds, FAO, Google, Hewlett-Packard, ICON, Kerry Group, Microsoft, New Zealand Beef & Lamb, Normet, OSI (Europe), Rabobank, Ridley, Ryanair, Smurfit Kappa Group and Zespri.
An experienced board member, McLoughlin has served as a director and consultant for several public and private-sector organizations. In 2017, the Irish minister for agriculture, food and the marine appointed McLoughlin to the board of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the body responsible for innovation in the Irish fish industry, for his second three-year term.
McLoughlin received a bachelor's degree in business studies from Dublin City University, a master's degree in business studies from UCD and a doctoral degree in marketing from Lancaster University.
Chief Executive and Co-Founder, The Currency
Tom Lyons is the chief executive and co-founder of online business publisher, The Currency. He is an award-winning journalist covering business and finance. He has previously worked for The Sunday Times and The Irish Times. He is the author of two bestselling books on the Irish financial crisis.