The rest of the 50 (in alphabetical order): Paimun Jared 'PJ' Amini, director of venture investments, Leaps by Bayer
Paimun Jared ‘PJ’ Amini is a director of venture investments at Leaps by Bayer, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Germany-headquartered life sciences and agricultural products group Bayer.
Amini said: “We make investments across consumer health, pharma and agricultural verticals. I focus on finding new investments for our crop science – agriculture vertical – that spans a wide range of technologies, including artificial intelligence, hardware, digital agriculture, biotech, chemistry and microbials, and help grow companies to hit their technical and fiscal milestones.”
Derek Norman, vice-president of venture investments at Leaps by Bayer, said in his nomination of Amini: “PJ has shown over and over that he can work through challenging deals. Combined with his strategic thinking, his technology acumen and his ability to build trusting personal relationships, he will go far in the world of CVC.”
Regarding his background, Amini explained: “I joined the Leaps organisation in March of 2019 at the same time as Derek where we both inherited a portfolio of 12 companies in our crop science space.” Together with Norman, he oversees the development and execution of Bayer’s investment strategy.
Leaps seeks to identify both emerging technologies and new business models, matching those needs with innovative startups and integrate innovation into Bayer’s platform and investment portfolio. The group invests from seed through series C, facilitating partnerships, collaborations and mergers and acquisitions between emerging companies and the corporate.
Amini had previously held other roles in Bayer’s R&D organisation, having headed the digital strategy and innovation team from September 2018 where he sourced advancements in the tech sector and introduced them to different units across the company.
This stemmed from his previous work as the biotechnology and chemistry IT lead at agrochemical producer Monsanto before it was acquired by Bayer in mid-2018, where he led the implementation of data, hardware, software and analytical assets to enable new chemical and biological product discovery and development.
Amini holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and an MBA from Washington University in St Louis.
