James Ligon

Bio

I had a long career working in the field of Ag Biotech. The first 20 years was focused on research, primarily in the area of biological disease control in agriculture and the genetics of natural product production in bacteria. In the last 15 years of this career, I worked in regulatory affairs and stewardship of GM crops. About 4 years ago I decided to strike out on my own and do consulting in the area of regulatory affairs and stewardship. I started consulting for a company based in Boston that is producing animal feed enzymes in the grain of corn. In May of 2015, I started working for them full-time as VP, Regulatory Affairs and I developed a regulatory program for their products and helped them to get FDA approval for their first product, a phytase for use in poultry feed. In 2017, I changed my relationship with Agrivida. I desired to create a situation in which I had more time to pursue some of my other passions (more about those later) while still being able to work with Agrivida. I formed a team consisting of myself and three other regulatory consultants, and together we cover the needs of Agrivida for regulatory affairs for its products. In this arrangement, I work about 1 full week per month on Agrivida’s projects. That leaves me more time to spend on my 36 ft sailboat that I keep in Oriental, NC. My wife and I did a weeklong sail from Oriental up to Edenton and back. We also enjoy sailing to Ocracoke and Cape Lookout on the NC coast. My wife and I also enjoy traveling to new places. In the fall of 2016, we spent a month in Thailand, which included a week on a sailboat that we chartered there. We have also traveled to southern Italy for 3 weeks, and Vietnam for 4 weeks where we traveled from the Mekong delta in the south up to Hanoi in the north. We have also taken a monthlong trip to Greece that also included a one week sailing charter. In addition to traveling and sailing, my wife and I like to create culinary dishes that delight. We put on monthly healthy cooking demos at the Chapel Hill/Carrboro YMCA. As you know, I’ve had a long relationship with NCSU and I enjoy being able to contribute to my alma mater in any way that I can. I served on the Board of Directors for the Alumni and Friends Society of the College of Ag and Life Sciences; I served on the NCSU Institutional Biosafety Committee; I taught Microbial Biotechnology at NCSU from 1998 to 2004; and currently I serve on the committee that manages the G.H. Elkan Distinguished Lecture Series that is managed now by the Parks Scholars Program.

Area(s) of Expertise

Biological Disease Control in Agriculture, Genetics of Natural Product Production in Bacteria