DAVIS, Calif., Sept. 29, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBII ) (MBI), a leading provider of effective and environmentally responsible pest management and plant health products, announced today that the Company’s Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Government Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer, Keith Pitts, was elected to a three year term on the Board of Directors of the trade group the Biopesticide Industry Alliance (BPIA).
At MBI, Keith leads the Regulatory and Government Affairs function, which also includes Quality Control and Assurance. Keith has been instrumental in MBI’s success of getting multiple unique, new Biopesticide Active Ingredients through the EPA process. He also helped pioneer the acceptance of the first of its kind bioinsecticide, Grandevo, into the EU Green Deal Initiative being led by the government of the Netherlands.
Keith has served in numerous senior legislative, administrative, regulatory and public policy roles for more than three decades, and has been actively involved in shaping domestic and international policies regarding pesticides, organic agriculture, agricultural biotechnology, invasive species, climate change, specialty crops and food safety. In the early 1990s, as a subcommittee staff director for the US House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Keith, seeking to promote the commercialization of reduced-risk pesticides, led a multi-stakeholder initiative to create a regulatory framework specifically for biopesticides. He joined MBI in 2008, after working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a special assistant to Secretary Dan Glickman and to Deputy Secretary Richard Rominger, who also serves on MBI’s Board of Directors.
BPIA’s mission is to increase the awareness of biopesticides as effective products, realize further improvements to the regulatory process around the world, and provide valuable networking opportunities for our members. The Biopesticide Industry Alliance ( http://www.bpia.org ), now with over 100 members, was formed in the year 2000 after Pam Marrone (MBI’s CEO and Founder), while leading AgraQuest, sent a letter to industry colleagues inviting them to help form a trade group to enhance the perception and to increase adoption of biopesticides, and to improve consistency and transparency of the regulatory process. Many of those founding BPIA members are still active, such as Valent Biosciences, Certis USA and Bioworks; others (AgraQuest and Becker Underwood) have been acquired by larger companies who are now BPIA members. Jeff Blackwood of BASF was also elected to the BPIA Board at the fall meeting.
About Marrone Bio Innovations
Smart. Natural. Solutions. Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBII ) strives to lead the movement to a more sustainable world through the discovery, development and promotion of biological products for pest management and plant health. Our effective and environmentally responsible solutions help customers operate more sustainably while controlling pests, improving plant health, and increasing crop yields. We have four products for agriculture on the market (Regalia ® , Grandevo ® , Venerate ® and Majestene ® ), and also distribute Bio-tam 2.0 ® for Isagro USA in the western U.S. MBI also markets Zequanox ® for invasive mussels for water markets. We also have a proprietary discovery process, a rapid development platform, and a robust pipeline of pest management and plant health product candidates. At Marrone Bio Innovations we are dedicated to pioneering better biopesticides that support a better tomorrow for users around the globe. For more information, please visit www.marronebio.com .
Marrone Bio Innovations Contacts: Nancy M. Hood, VP Marketing (530) 302-8290 nhood@marronebio.com MBI Investor Contact: James Palczynski, ICR Telephone: +1 (203) 682-8229 Email: James.Palczynski@icrinc.com
