Giovanni Salerno

The CEO is the newest member of the Sundew, having joined the company on 1 March 2021. He has more than 20 years’ experience of industrial biotech in Switzerland, USA, Germany and Denmark and has taken several natural molecules to market for both bio-industrial and pharmaceutical applications.

Giovanni spent the last few years developing nootkatone as an active ingredient for tick control, obtaining the first registration of a new biopesticide active ingredient by the USA EPA in 20 years. Giovanni has previously worked at Evolva, GARDP (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative), Dako, Cytomation, Imperial College and Pfizer. He has a PhD in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Trieste. He has worked extensively with US government agencies including the DoD, NIH and BARDA, in particular on resistance to novel pathogens via immune system responses.