Rui Gomes, born in Angola, holds an M.Sc. in Food and Agricultural Biotechnology from Reading University, UK. He is a specialist in fermentation and bioprocessing, with extensive experience in pilot to large-scale production. Gomes began his career at iBET in Portugal, advancing to fermentation manager after 12 years. He later became R&D Director at Algaeling, focusing on microalgae production systems, and founded Geaqua in 2008. He served as Technology Director at Solazyme, overseeing the establishment of operations in Brazil and later as Process & Technology Development Director in San Francisco before joining SECIL-CMP in 2016 as general manager.