Gentec Management Team

Graham Plastow
CEO

Graham is a Professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences and is the CEO of Livestock Gentec. Graham has led or participated in numerous international research collaborations and has served on boards/committees for groups such as Roslin Institute, Genesis Faraday Partnership, Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation, as well as CTO of Sygen International.

John Basarab
Director of Beef Operations

John is a research scientist at the University of Alberta and Head of Beef Operations at Livestock Gentec. John has over 30 years experience in beef cattle production and management. His work includes the development of one of the largest genotype-phenotype databases for beef cattle in Canada, and for genetic marker discovery, global collaborations, and validation of genomic tools like EnVigour HX(TM). 

Anna Szenthe
Administrative/Office Manager

Anna is an administrative assistant at the University of Alberta and Office Manager for Livestock Genetc. Anna has over 30 years of laboratory and research experience in microbiology and related sciences. She is also an administrative assistant to the Honorary Consulate of Northern Alberta to Hungary and President of the Hungarian Diaspora Council.

Gentec Support Team

Clinton Brons
Beef Industry Liaison

Clinton is the Beef Industry Liaison for Livestock Gentec aims of consensus, coalition building and collaboration. Clinton was also a past Regional Manager with Berlex/Bayar Canada and Regional Direction with Boehringer Ingelheim.

 

Kira Hames
Knowledge Transfer Lead

Kira is the Technology Translator Lead with Livestock Gentec. Kira has experience in both research and research extension as a past research assistant in dairy reproduction and health at the University of Alberta, as well as a communications consultant for Alberta Milk. Kira divides her time between Livestock Gentec and coordinating the annual Western Canadian Dairy Seminar.

Jennifer Patterson
Swine Industry Liaison

Jennifer Patterson obtained her MSc in Animal Science from the University of Alberta where she is currently a Research Associate and the Swine Industry Liaison for Livestock Gentec. This involves developing research projects that address current industry challenges and providing continued support to producers to implement results at the farm level, putting “science into practice”. Jennifer has worked with many pig industry groups around the world and her current focus is on gilt management to improve sow lifetime productivity and retention. She also loves working with farm production data, through which powerful insights can be developed to make data-driven decisions that positively affect overall herd performance.