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Frank Jaksch
Founder and former CEO at ChromaDex with over 25 years in life sciences
Frank Jaksch is the Chief Executive Officer of Ayana Bio, a position he has held since July 2022.2 He is a veteran in the health and wellness industry with over 25 years of experience in life sciences and consumer products, particularly in the areas of food, beverages, and dietary supplements.12
Career Highlights
Ayana Bio: As CEO of Ayana Bio, Jaksch leads a company that focuses on producing sustainable bioactives for health and wellness products using plant cell cultivation rather than traditional agriculture.13 The company aims to address challenges in the ingredient supply chain by providing standardized, high-quality plant bioactives without the limitations of agricultural production.3
ChromaDex: Prior to joining Ayana Bio, Jaksch was the founder and longtime CEO of ChromaDex, a Nasdaq-listed company (NASDAQ: CDXC).23 He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board at ChromaDex, which he co-founded in September 1999.2 ChromaDex is known for its flagship ingredient, NIAGEN® nicotinamide riboside, sold directly to consumers as TRU NIAGEN®.2
Other Roles and Expertise
- Advisory Board Member at Yuva Biosciences, Inc. since September 20192
- Board Member of the Natural Products Association since September 20132
- Recognized global expert on natural products chemistry, longevity, and healthspan3
Education
Jaksch attended Valparaiso University.2
Vision and Approach
Frank Jaksch is passionate about revolutionizing the health and wellness sector by providing affordable and reliable ingredients.1 He believes that Ayana Bio's technology platform is key to developing scientific solutions to reliability and cost issues in the industry.1 Jaksch aims to modernize the production of plant bioactives, addressing challenges such as supply chain issues, climate change impacts, and quality control in the botanicals industry.3
Highlights
Welcome to the Ayana Bio board Jill Zullo, PhD!
After over 25 years in the food and nutrition industry, I’m all too familiar with the fragility of our current food system. David Wallace-Wells essay in The New York Times perfectly captures my sentiments as he paints the stark reality of the persistent “food polycrisis.”
So is our food system destined to fail? Not necessarily, we have time before real problems emerge, however if we don't start working on solutions now we will have a problem. Innovation and change is needed to avoid total failure driven by the many pressures within the food system, including the declining nutritional composition of many crops. Ayana Bio’s plant cell cultivation exists to solve this exact problem through the production of affordable, nutrient-dense plant cell ingredients that bypass the natural limits of agriculture.
Yet with a multitude of intersecting problems plaguing the food system – inflation, climate change, hunger, and ecosystem threats – a bundle of innovations in agricultural and food technologies is also needed to develop a comprehensive toolbox for building a stable and secure food supply. The global food crisis will only get more complicated over time but I am hopeful with increased collaborative industry action we’ll achieve a resilient, nutritious, and sustainable future for generations to come.
https://lnkd.in/g9Ezre_B
#FoodTech #PlantCell #ClimateChange #FutureOfFood #Agriculture
