Maurice Moloney

Maurice Moloney is the Director and Chief Executive of Rothamsted Research, assuming the full duties of his post from 15 April 2010. He is the Chief Scientific Officer of SemBioSys Genetics Inc., a post that he will leave on March 25, 2010, remaining a consultant to SemBioSys. SemBioSys is a plant biotech company well known for its controversial work on pharma crops (eg producing insulin from safflower seeds). A GM pharma specialist, Moloney worked at SemBioSys on deriving a blood anti-coagulant from canola.

Previously, Moloney led the Cell Biology group at Calgene, acquired by Monsanto in 1997. At Calgene he developed the world's first transgenic oilseeds, which resulted in RoundUp Ready Canola and other novel crops. Moloney holds more than 300 patents.

Biography

The following is Moloney's biography from a SemBioSys Genetics Inc. document, "Company Overview", located on the Canadian government Foreign Affairs and International Trade website:

Dr. Moloney, our scientific founder, has over twenty years of extensive experience in plant biotechnology and has been our Chief Scientific Officer since July 2001. Dr. Moloney held the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Industrial Research Chair in Plant Biotechnology from 1995 – 2004. Dr. Moloney is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary where he has been teaching since 1990. Prior to these positions, Dr. Moloney was the head of the Cell Biology Group at Calgene Inc., where he developed the first transgenic oilseed plants using canola as the model crop. This resulted in a landmark patent in plant biotechnology and eventually became the basis of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready® and Liberty Link® canola products. Dr. Moloney has published more than seventy original research papers and is an inventor on eighteen issued or pending patent families. Dr. Moloney serves on many federal and corporate advisory boards and is currently a member of NSERC Council and the Chairperson of NSERC’s Committee on Research Partnerships. Dr. Moloney has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Alberta Science and Technology (ASTECH) Award for leadership in Alberta Technology. Dr. Moloney received his B.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from Imperial College at the University of London and his doctorate in Plant Biochemistry from Leicester Polytechnic in the United Kingdom.