Russell J. Howard has been co-founder and chairman of the board at NovoNutrients, a San Francisco biotech manufacturer of alt-protein produced using fermentation and CO2, and the research company Oakbio, since the latter’s foundation in 2009.  During this period, for a year,  Howard also worked as head of commercial strategy at Genome.One, a genetics startup. Howard is also on the board of executives of two Australian pharma companies, Immutep and NeuClone. Previously, between 1997 and 2009, he was CEO at California-based Maxygen, dedicated to the commercialization of molecular breeding and gene shuffling in protein. The year before that, Howard was president and scientific director at global pharma giant GSK in Santa Clara, and between 1994 and 1996, he held the same position at AFFYMAX Research Institute, working on new drugs research. Howard also held long-term research positions, heading up the laboratory at Palo Alto’s DNAX Research Institute of Molecular & Cellular Biology for six years, and earlier spent nine years at Bethesda’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) working on identifying new malarial pathogens. The doctor of biochemistry from the University of Melbourne has over 140 peer-reviewed publications. Following his studies, Howard spent three years undertaking postdoctoral research at Australia’s WEHI (formerly the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research).