Leadership

Oliver J. Ratcliffe, Ph.D., M.B.A.
CEO

Oliver is a senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in leading biology related companies.  He is a co-founder and board member of several start-ups in the biotechnology sector and an inventor on more than 100 published patents and applications.  Oliver is responsible for overall management of Mendel's business activities, including licensing of the firm's IP estate.

Oliver originally joined Mendel in 1999 and spent 15 years at the company, primarily in the position of Vice President of R&D, running Mendel's R&D operations and managing its major research collaborations, including with Monsanto Company and Bayer CropScience.  He then served as President, prior to the sale of Mendel's R&D operations to Koch Industries in December 2014.  Following a 5-year period at Koch, as VP, Business Development, for Koch's newly formed ag biologicals business unit, Koch Biological Solutions, Oliver rejoined Mendel to lead the company's operations in January 2020.

Oliver was educated at Cambridge University in the UK before undertaking doctoral studies at the John Innes Centre at the University of East Anglia, where he completed his PhD in 1998.  More recently, in 2013, Oliver was awarded an Executive MBA from The Judge Business School.

Dave Eichler
Chairman of the Board

Dave joined the Mendel Biotechnology Board of Directors as Chairman in September 2024 and previously served as CFO of Mendel in 2010-2011. 

Mr. Eichler has over twenty years of CFO experience with other high growth, public and pre-IPO technology companies in Silicon Valley including Marvell Technology, where he retired in 2016; Hyundai Electronics; Catalyst and Alliance Semiconductors. He has also held senior executive positions with various multinational companies including; Adobe Systems, Tandem Computers (HP) and Syntex Corporation (Roche), as well as public accounting experience with Arthur Andersen & Co.

He earned a MBA in Finance from the University of California, Los Angeles, a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern University and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).  He currently serves as Chairman of the Audit Committee for the Town of Woodside, California.

Dr. Brian Staskawicz
Director

Dr. Brian Staskawicz is a co-founder of Mendel and has served on its Board of Directors since the Company's inception in 1997.

Brian is a world renowned expert in plant biology who has made seminal contributions to the scientific literature on the genetic mechanisms of pathogen responses in crops. He is Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and Scientific Director of Agricultural Genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI). Brian is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and has been elected as a Foreign Member of the British Royal Society.  In addition to his academic work, throughout his career, Brian has served as a Director and/or Scientific Advisor for a range of companies in the agritech space, including both large multinationals and small start-ups.

Brian was educated at Yale University before undertaking doctoral studies at University California Berkeley, where he was awarded his PhD in 1980.

Omer Ayfer
Head of Information Technology

Omer manages Mendel's IT infrastructure, including its proprietary database of plant gene regulatory mechanisms.  He currently provides fractional CIO services for a number of companies in the tech sector and has spent the last decade in “head of IT” roles at several biotechnology organizations ranging from molecular diagnostics to agriculture. Previously Omer was a programmer working on improving the interface between scientists and computational resources.  In addition, he is a frequent speaker at executive education programs offered by the Haas School of Business in Berkeley, and is an Adjunct Professor at Merritt College where he teaches a variety of courses in the premier cybersecurity program at the community college level. 

Omer holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Purdue University. When not in front of a computer, he can be found cooking elaborate meals with his two sons and wife in Oakland, California.

Jeff Libby, Ph.D.
Head of Intellectual Property

Jeff is a patent professional with deep experience in developing and implementing strategies to protect intellectual property derived from functional genomics projects. Jeff oversees Mendel's IP estate and has been instrumental in establishing the firm's broad estate of granted patents around genetic trait technology for crops. 

Jeff has a strong background in biochemistry and microbiology, and holds a PhD from Cornell University. Following his graduate studies, he was a member of the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at Miami University. His research interests concerned the study of virulence factors and the detection and analysis of pathogens using silicon-based biosensors. After switching gears to the corporate world, he has spent most of the last thirty years in early-stage life sciences companies.