Flagship Pioneering Names Ron Hovsepian and Robert Berendes 2022 Pioneering Leaders of the Year

Annual Entrepreneurial Leadership Award Recognizes Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture at Flagship-founded Indigo Ag

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 18, 2022 -- Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today announced the recipients of the firm's annual Pioneering Leader Award: Ron Hovsepian, President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Indigo Agriculture and Executive Partner at Flagship Pioneering, and Robert Berendes, Ph. D., Chairman of the Board of Indigo Agriculture and Executive Partner at Flagship Pioneering. Hovsepian and Berendes accepted the award at Flagship Pioneering's 2022 Annual Meeting, held this week in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hovsepian and Berendes were chosen for their work leading Indigo Ag, a company leveraging nature and technology to unlock economic and environmental progress for farmers, to fulfill its founding mission to harness nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2013, Indigo Ag leverages science, technology, data, and partnerships to realize agriculture’s potential as a nature-based climate solution. Partnering with farmers, agribusinesses, and corporations, Indigo’s novel digital and biological solutions enable and reward farmers’ climate-friendly efforts, drive operating efficiencies, and increase crop resilience.

“Ron and Robert’s pioneering leadership of Indigo Ag has yielded a bigger leap towards the future of sustainable agriculture, and the development of the industry-leading carbon farming program, Carbon by Indigo,” said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. "Flagship is pleased to recognize Ron and Robert as the joint recipients of our highest entrepreneurial honor, the annual Pioneering Leader Award. Indigo Ag has great momentum as its solutions continue to expand for the benefit of farmers, business partners, and society; we look forward to a bright future for the company.”

Previous recipients of Flagship's annual entrepreneurial leadership award include Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna (2014), Ryan Watts, CEO of Denali Therapeutics (2018), Nancy Simonian, M.D., CEO of Syros Pharmaceuticals, (2019), and Eric Shaff, president and CEO of Seres Therapeutics (2020).

Learn more about Indigo Ag at https://www.indigoag.com/.

About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $100 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.1 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $19 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 42 transformative companies, including Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Indigo Agriculture, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB).

About Indigo Agriculture

Indigo Ag leverages science and technology to help improve the sustainability and profitability of the agriculture industry. The company’s core biological and digital products – biotrinsic®, Market+, and Carbon – integrate across the supply chain to optimize how the world’s essential crops are produced, sourced, and distributed. Founded in 2013 with a mission to harness nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet, Indigo connects stakeholders across the agricultural ecosystem to unlock benefits for all.