WEF Annual Meeting Spotlights Collaboration Across Sectors

I recently traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting. It was an incredible opportunity to learn, explore new ideas and share our innovative technology and mission with a new and diverse audience, including industry leaders across a variety of sectors who are impacting our work.

Pivot Bio is proud to be part of WEF's Unicorn innovator community, which brings together private companies leading the way in innovation. It’s inspiring to hear from fellow community members about their budding, cutting-edge technologies that are helping build a better future for all of us.

Throughout the week, WEF hosted sessions on a range of climate-focused topics, including technology’s role in climate adaptation, the importance of soil health and the impacts on local food systems.

It was a true honor to speak on WEF’s “Biology as Consumer Technology” panel, along with Sarah Reisinger, chief science and research officer at tdsm-firmenich; Noubar Afeyan, CEO of flagship pioneering; Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority; John Schultz, EVP, COO and chief legal officer at Hewlett Packard; and Amy Webb, CEO of the Future Today Institute. The panel discussion focused on the importance of working together across industries in order to solve a challenge as big as fertilizer.

Beyond the official event agenda, media-hosted events throughout the week dug into complex issues. For example, CNBC hosted a panel on “Innovating to Feed the World,”with Bayer CEO Bill Anderson, Protix CEO and founder Kees Aarts and myself. Much of our discussion centered on the need for collaboration to modernize our regulatory framework and a rebalancing of resources to bring existing technological innovations to scale.

Between these events, I learned from leaders in agriculture, water, energy, transportation, and even consumer products, who share Pivot Bio’s commitment to collaboration and the evolution of a global food system. I left each of those conversations energized and with hope for the future.

Agriculture is incredibly complex, and no single product or company can solve the industry’s challenges alone. This is why the entire value chain has a responsibility to come together to build a better future and why it is so important for Pivot Bio to be on the ground at events like the WEF Annual Meeting.