Dr Prabhat (Pete) Desai

India/Canada

Pete is President of Desai & Desai Inc., a consulting company he started in Calgary, Canada, after his retirement from Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc. (DASCI) in January 2001. His main focus is in developing strategies, business and research collaborations for agricultural biotechnologies and their applications. Pete continues to consult for DASCI for technology at Canadian research organizations.

Pete’s career has evolved through many aspects of the agriculture industry over the 27 years he spent with Dow Chemical (Canada, USA, DowElanco and DASCI). Pete worked in the areas of field market development, field research and development, field sales and marketing herbicides. Pete made the transition to management as Research Manager, Technical Manager for the Western and Coastal Region with Dow Chemical USA. From 1990 to 2000, Pete was Director of Research and Development for DowElanco Canada Inc. and, later, Director, Global Biotechnology Research Alliance and Licensing for Asia and Canada. 

Pete presently serves on the following Boards besides CABI: Ag-West Bio Inc. (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan); PEI BIO Alliance (Charlottetown, PEI); Alberta Research Council (Edmonton, Alberta); Chairman, Crop Development Centre Advisory Board, University of SK (Saskatoon, SK); Bio-Control Network – NSERC Centre of Excellence (Montreal, PQ); Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (Federal Gov’t. Ottawa, Canada). He has served on other Boards such as Plant Biotechnology Institute; NRC, Canada; Alberta Science and Research Authority; Alberta Agriculture Research Institute; and Genome Prairie. 

He has consulted or helped the management of companies such as Okanagan Specialty Fruits; SciMed Lab Inc.; Plantigen Inc.; Bioriginal; SynGene BioTek Inc. and Agrisoma Biotech Inc.