Cecilia Chi-Ham manages the global strategy process for the R&D portfolio at HM.CLAUSE, a vegetable seed company and business unit of Limagrain Group. She also leads the company’s intellectual property program and oversees the UC Davis HM.CLAUSE Life Sciences Innovation Center, a business incubator for entrepreneurs. Prior to joining HM.Clause, she spent over 11 years at UC Davis developing international initiatives, such as the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA), Seed Central and UC Davis Chile, focused on transfer and commercialization of public-sector based agricultural technologies for humanitarian and commercial purposes. Her scientific research and publications span topics in agricultural biotechnology, regulatory and intellectual property analyses. She holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and biochemistry and specialized in plant biology during her post-doctoral research at Michigan State University and UC Davis. She is a Patent Agent registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.