Pete Rowe

Pete is passionate about developing circular economy solutions to make the world a better place. Pete founded Deep Branch (now Aerbio) in 2018, and led the company's efforts to provide animal feed producers with locally-sourced, sustainable and low-carbon protein. This saw the successful construction of a first-of-a-kind pilot facility, commercial partnerships across the value chain, growing a team of >30 across two sites and securing >€25M in funding.

Pete holds a BSc in Biotechnology and Enterprise from the University of Manchester and a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Nottingham's Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC). During his time at the SBRC, Pete designed and implemented a CRISPR-based genome editing toolkit for use in both industrial biotechnology and in human health applications. He was listed by Forbes as "30 Under 30" for Manufacturing and Industry in 2019. Having held technical and commercial roles within biotechnology companies in Spain, The Netherlands and the UK, Pete has helped develop a range of future-positive processes, including sustainable aviation fuel production, preventing the needless killing of day-old chickens, and novel cost-effective therapeutics for allergies.