Megan manages AbacusBio’s largest collaboration, Bayer Crop Science, a division of international health and nutrition company Bayer AG. The five-year-old partnership has matured into a robust, future-focused alliance, with a shared vision to harness data science, economic modelling, and grower-centric insights for sustainable agricultural progress. The two companies work together to integrate prioritisation and valuation of crop attributes to advance Bayer’s product development pipeline. Megan joined AbacusBio in 2021, after an eclectic career path that brought her to our Edinburgh doors equipped with the optimal skill set to intersect business and science.
Q: What was your background before AbacusBio.
A: When I was a kid in Ohio, I wanted to decorate cakes, like my granny. I would have been terrible at it. I’m not patient and more of a “big picture” person, than a tiny details person.
I was undecided when I went to Ohio State University and ended up majoring in medical dietetics, became a registered dietician and completed a masters in public health research a couple of years later at the University of Edinburgh. Let me set the scene by saying that I was a dietician for less than a year and never worked in public health.
Times were tough in 2010 as the UK slowly clawed its way out of a recession, and I fell into project management in the finance sector. For the next six years, I worked at different banks in the UK and Netherlands.
I then took the obvious next step of starting a dumpling business in Amsterdam. After five years, I moved onto my next adventure, working in a tech start-up doing blockchain for agrifood. That was my introduction to agriculture.
Q: What attracted you to AbacusBio?
A: I found AbacusBio by accident. I wanted to leave Amsterdam and return to Edinburgh. AbacusBio was near the top of the list of 50,000 businesses approved to give visas. At the time, I was working for The New Fork (a blockchain solutions company) and was organising a summit about the Future of Food and we were keen to involve a genetics business. I emailed Tim (Byrne) and we met for the dual purpose of talking about the summit and any potential opportunities for me.
It was the right time and right place. AbacusBio was one year into its first Bayer pilot project and, with the collaboration set to expand, realised it was unsustainable for the technical team to also be manage everything outside of the technical work. I led an operational transformation that allowed the business to grow and deliver more than 20 projects during that first five-year collaboration. We’re now on our second collaboration, signed last year.
Q: Describe your role.
A: It’s a mix of managing our programme of work with Bayer and some smaller collaborations, prospecting for new business/clients, and being responsible for driving strategic objectives within internal functions, such as marketing and operations.
Within the Bayer partnership, I collaborate with AbacusBio’s technical teams to quantify a project’s scope and budget, and operates as the interface between our team and the client leadership team, aligning priorities, unblocking issues, and ensuring delivery stays on track.
Q: At a strategic level, what does your Bayer role cover?
A: At the core of my work is programme architecture. I designed the operating model for the Bayer programme that defines how decisions are made, how resources are allocated, and how multidisciplinary teams work together across geographies and time zones. This includes establishing governance processes, codifying roles and responsibilities, and creating repeatable delivery mechanisms that protect technical teams’ time while maintaining pace and quality. I act as a translation layer between senior client stakeholders and technical teams, with my specialty being scope and budget management. I protect our team’s bandwidth by ring fencing unexpected work items and being responsible for client communications. My goal is to give our scientists more time to do science.
Q: What does a typical week look like?
A: A typical work week for me involves a mix of project management, stakeholder communication, and hands-on problem solving. Keeping the Bayer machine ticking is a focus, along with the work I do with other clients. I have regular check-ins with clients and team members, coordinate timelines, and ensure deliverables are on track, aiming to pre-empt any bottlenecks. Managing resourcing and trying to predict the future is all in a standard day. Later in the week, I often review progress, adjust plans as needed, and prepare reports or presentations. I also make time for strategic thinking and planning in marketing and operations, so I can anticipate challenges and opportunities. For example, strategising on more engaging lead generation so more people know about the great work we do at AbacusBio.
I do a fair amount of prospecting so researching potential prospects, developing pitch decks, and the occasional intensive tender applications are all possible activities, depending on the needs of the business.
Q: Anything comments you’d like to add?
Well… I started life as a dietician and by coming to genetics and working with food before it becomes food does feel like a full circle.
You can reach Megan at mvasko@abacusbio.com.
Keep up to date with AbacusBio news, by subscribing to our newsletter HERE and following us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Bluesky
