Our team

Natalie joined Weatherbys Scientific in August 2024, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in the genetics and genomics industry. With a PhD in Molecular Biology, Natalie is a global sales, marketing and business development specialist, driven by a passion for fostering business growth and delivering outstanding customer service. In addition to her role at Weatherbys Scientific, Natalie contributes her expertise to several not-for-profit boards in the healthcare sector in Australia.

Tamarah joined Weatherbys Scientific in 2022 following 4 years in customer support roles within the red meat industry. She has completed a Bachelor of Sustainable Agriculture and brings with her a passion for the agricultural industry, a wealth of experience in fostering strong customer relations and always ensures the highest level of support for all of our customers.

Russell Ferris is Chief Executive of Weatherbys and Weatherbys Scientific, having joined the company in 2016. He has over 16 years senior management experience including 5 ½ years as Managing Director of Limerick Racecourse. In addition to his role with Weatherbys Scientific, he is also the CE for the Weatherbys General Stud Book in Ireland and Great Britain.

Rebecca is an executive leader with 20 years’ experience in the agri-genomic industry. She has leadership experience through direct management of the laboratory operational teams and is directly responsible for managing the overall functions of the business. As an executive director, she is also involved with strategic & tactical decisions to align with business growth strategy.

Paul joined Weatherbys in 2002. He is a molecular geneticist with over 15 years’ experience within the Agrigenomics sector, specialising in the application of latest genomic Technologies and Bioinformatic Solutions. He holds an MSc and is currently undertaking a research PhD in Bovine Conservation Genetics.

Dorian began his research career at Massey University after a B.Agr.Sc (Hons) degree.  His research in the early 1980’s applied new prediction methodologies to sheep and swine improvement.  He did a PhD at Cornell University on the theory of pedigree prediction of genetic merit and estimation of variance components in beef cattle.  Back at Massey University he developed new across-breed approaches to national evaluation in dairy cattle. He was appointed a Full Professor at age 34.  In 2002 Dorian moved to Colorado State University and in 2007 he took up the inaugural appointment to the Lush Endowed Chair at Iowa State University.  Dr. J.L. Lush wrote the first text book on Animal Breeding in 1937 and is world-recognized as the father of animal breeding. Dorian returned part-time to Massey University in 2016 as the Chief Scientist of the AL Rae Centre of Genetics and Breeding, as well as being a founding partner in ThetaSolutions LLC, a company that licenses the BOLT system for genetic and single-step genomic evaluations and the TREE system for handling SNP genotypes that are widely used internationally in livestock improvement.

Donagh Berry is a senior principal investigator in quantitative genetics at Teagasc, Moorepark as well as director of the VistaMilk SFI Research Centre; he holds professorship appointment at several (inter)national institutes. Following his bachelor degree in Agricultural Science at UCD, he undertook a PhD in dairy cattle genetics in Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He later completed a part-time MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at University College Cork, Ireland. His main interests are in the derivation of breeding goals, genetic and genomic evaluations, decision support tools and breeding programs. As Director of VistaMilk, he leads a team of >200 scientists in the development and deployment of digital technologies in precision dairy production.

Maarten joined the Weatherbys board as a non-executive director in 2021. He has over 15 years experience in the life science industry in executive roles for companies involved with (non-human) service work and the supply of laboratory reagents and equipment. Besides his executive experience, his in-depth knowledge of applied animal genetics is demonstrated with multiple publications in renowned scientific journals.

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