The promise of growth.
Our Company
Performance Plants Inc. (PPI) is a Canadian, privately owned and internationally recognized agricultural biotechnology developer with a series of powerful, validated ‘game-changing’ technologies that can be readily applied to major staple crops for significant improvement of their productivity.
Our Kingston, Ontario-based R&D lab conducts gene discovery, trait development and commercialization of technologies for seeds to protect and enhance yields. Our technology will allow farmers around the world to adapt to climate change by reducing the need for irrigation and improving heat tolerance, while still increasing yields to feed a growing population. Furthermore, our technology can also contribute to climate change mitigation by increasing biomass yields for non-food biofuel crops.
PPI does not introduce any foreign genes into our climate-ready products - we regulate the plant's own genes to increase or decrease expression of those responsible for key traits.
Our Mission:
To provide solutions that enable agricultural products to flourish in a rapidly changing global climate.
Our Vision:
A world in which biotechnology allows humankind to adapt and thrive under increasingly volatile climatic conditions.
Our Team
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Dr. Yafan Huang
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Dr. Yafan Huang joined PPI in 1998 and became President and CSO of the company in 2010. Dr. Huang has authored extensive research papers on plant signal transduction and stress tolerance. He has presented many keynote seminars and symposia at prestigious research conferences and research institutes around the world. Dr Huang was the President of the Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology from 2014 to 18.
Dr. Huang received his PhD in Biology from Queen’s University in plant molecular biology and biochemistry in 1995.
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Dr. Jiangxin Wan
PRESIDENT & CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Dr. Jiangxin Wan joined PPI in 1998 and was promoted to the position of Director of Research in 2010. Following this, in 2021 she was once again promoted to the title of President and Chief Technology Officer for the company. Dr. Wan, who is the key inventor of most of the company’s patents, has authored many research papers, which have been published in prominent academic journals.
She received her PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the Biology Department at Queen’s University in 1996. Dr. Wan also completed postdoctoral research work in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago.
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Jo Ann Hamilton Varey, CPA
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
Ms. Hamilton Varey has extensive experience with manufacturing industries and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, specializing in fixed assets, manufactured costing and project controls.
Ms. Hamilton Varey received her Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen’s University in 1991. She became a CGA in 1999 while working with DuPont Canada Inc.
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Dr. Roger Beachy, Ph.D
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR, DIRECTOR
Dr. Beachy is the founding President of the world-renowned Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA since 2001 and in 2009 was appointed by President Barack Obama as the first Director of the National Institute of Food & Agriculture. In 2020 he was appointed to the National Science Board.
He obtained a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Michigan State University and completed postdoctoral research work at Cornell University.