Founder and CEO
‍
Toby has a Bsc in Biology and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bath. During his PhD, Toby worked on developing an understanding of how plants communicate with microbes where he used this knowledge to develop a new technique for producing disease resistant plants. Toby also spent time as a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew working on the Millenium Seed Bank Project to develop cryopreservation and tissue culture techniques for storing and regenerating plant embryos.

Since completing his PhD Toby has been on a mission to translate his academic knowledge into applications that are biodiversity positive and carbon negative which has culminated in the launch of Rhizocore Technologies in 2021.

Co-founder and Chief Mycologist

David holds a master’s degree in Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Diversity and Conservation from Queen Mary University of London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and has spent the last several years exploring how fungi can be used to solve some of our largest ecological problems. He is a former Species Conservation Researcher at RBG Kew where he contributed to IUCN Red List assessments of tropical plant species.

David is the founder of Rewilding Mycology, a conservation advocacy organisation that aims to reverse the ongoing decline of fungal diversity by advancing practices of recording, land management, and ecological restoration.

Laboratory Manager

Róisín completed a BSc. in Biotechnology from University College Cork, where she researched the use of novel marine lipases for commercial use and production and was awarded a scholarship of biotechnology from Janssen Pharmaceuticals. She completed her MSc. in Precision Medicine and Pharmaceutical Innovation through a scholarship at the University of Glasgow. Since completing her masters, Róisín decided to combine her passion for mycology and bioremediation with her academic skills of biotechnology, genetics and microbiology and now specialises in developing cultivation techniques of mycorrhizal fungi. She joined Rhizocore in 2022 as a mycological laboratory technician and now manages our laboratory team.

Business Development and Marketing

Jessy completed her BA in International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh and went on to do a MSc in Marketing and Business Analysis at the same institution. Her educational journey led her to learning about corporate sustainability and reinforcing her desire to work in an industry that promotes cleaner futures. She came across Rhizocore and their fungi-based solution for accelerating forest regeneration which inspired her to join the company in 2022 as part of their business development team.

Technician

Alison has a Bsc in Ecological and Environmental Science from the University of Edinburgh. During her degree, she developed an interest in understanding reforestation and how different organisms can impact woodland establishment. She has experience analysing remote sensing data to track the movement of invasive species and has carried out studies analysing soil samples to assess nutrient changes in commercial and natural woodland environments. She has joined Rhizocore to support their development of a mycorrhizal fungi product, where she will use her environmental background to support their research and lab work.

Bioprocess Engineer

Alex completed a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University. As part of this, he also holds a Diploma in Industrial Training obtained during his research at the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), specialising in the upstream fermentation of a wide variety of organisms including filamentous fungi, algae and mammalian cells. This allowed him to more fully comprehend the potential far-reaching benefits of the biotechnology industry.

Combining the skills acquired during these experiences, Alex joined Rhizocore in 2022 to contribute towards the scaling-up of fermentation processes employed by Rhizocore to produce fungal organisms.