Leyland Minter, Renowned Industrial Bioscientist, Joins ONIT Sciences
May 29, 2019
NEWPORT BEACH, CA— ONIT Sciences, a cannabis-focused agriculture technology company, announced that Leyland Minter, noted Australian agriculture chemist, product developer and business development expert, has joined the company’s Board of Advisors and science team. Leyland will take an active role in the research and development of new ONIT products, while also heading the company’s expansion efforts in Australia and New Zealand. He will also assemble a world-class team of scientists to aid in the development, testing and productization of new technologies for ONIT Sciences.
Leyland was introduced to ONIT Sciences through a mutual associate of the company and given a sample of ONIT Grow™. He was astonished at how quickly and effectively it penetrated the leaves of the banana and avocado plants he used in the test. Those leaves have very thick, waxy cuticles, and ONIT Grow™ broke the surface tension and was absorbed almost immediately. Curious, he lessened the dilution to a single drop in a liter of water—and it still absorbed into the leaf. At that point he knew ONIT had something very special and reached out to express interest in joining the team.
With a degree in agriculture economics, Leyland started his career as Chief Technical Officer with Geigy, which he and his partners sold to Syngenta. He is recognized as the first industrial agronomist in Australia. Leyland has worked with Dow Chemical and has developing product for Scotts Miracle-Gro. Today, Leyland is a leading consultant in the organic agriculture and horticulture industries in Australia and New Zealand, developing products for home and garden markets, as well as organic commercial agriculture.
“Leyland brings many decades of experience, working at the highest levels of the international agriculture-chemical industry,” said Gerry Martin, ONIT’s CEO. “Not only is Leyland renowned for his achievements in the lab, developing product for the largest companies in the business, he is a business development expert who has overseen the expansion of companies throughout Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. We expect his combination of talent, experience and extended professional network will help ONIT expand into new markets with exciting new products.”