Karen Century

Karen brings over 20 years of experience in the agbiotech industry to her position as the Director of Operations for 2Blades. She has held a wide variety of research and business roles at companies ranging from small start-ups to a large multinational. Prior to joining 2Blades, Karen served as the Trait Research Global Indication Head, Pest Control, at BASF, where she was responsible for developing and managing the insect resistance research portfolio within the Seeds & Traits division. During her 9 year tenure at BASF, she also held positions as Disease & Pest Control Indication Leader in Global Strategic Marketing and Project Manager for the soybean and corn fungal resistance projects. Before joining BASF, Karen spent 11 years with Mendel Biotechnology, starting out as a Senior Scientist/Plant Disease Group Leader, then moving into positions as Director of Research Operations, Director of Business Development (Bioenergy Seeds division), and Director of Research Collaborations. Throughout her career, she has been focused on developing disease and pest control biotech traits and bringing those technologies to market.

She earned her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Berkeley, as a National Science Foundation graduate fellow.