Our team

Dr. Bernd Büter

Bernd Büter is a co-founder of breeding botanicals international (bbi) and acts as CEO and chairman of the board.

Bernd is an all-rounder in the field of bioactive plants with more than 20 years of experience and a profound background in plant breeding, plant variety registration, biotechnology, plant propagation, multi-location-multi-accession field trials as well as commercial cultivation in temperate, subtropical and tropical climates.

Previously Bernd acted as founder and CEO of VitaPlant, Switzerland, and, still earlier, as senior researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich where he also received his Ph.D and still is engaged as lecturer in plant breeding. Before starting his career as an entrepreneur, Bernd completed research stays in the US, Bolivia, and Thailand.

M.Sc. Vasant Pusalkar

Vasant Pusalkar is a partner and close collaborator of bbi from the very beginning. He acts as Director Asia and supports bbi’s agricultural activities in Asia and Africa. He and his team are responsible for all field operations including research, development as well as production projects in Asia.

Vasant presents a rare combination of first-class botanical expert and agricultural practitioner. He has an enormous, 35 year experience in the domestication and large scale, commercial production of bioactive plants in India; today’s Gloriosa, Coleus, and Taxus cultivation in India, to a large extent, goes back on Vasant’s pioneering work.

Formerly, Vasant worked as an independent supplier with his private company Aruna Planta Medica, India. He received his M.Sc in Botany from the University of Bombay (Gold Medalist). Before joining bbi, he worked with the NBRI in Lucknow, Ciba-Geigy, Roussel Pharmaceuticals, and Indena before he started his career as entrepreneur with Aruna Planta Medica.

Dr. Karin Berger

Karin Berger is a co-founder and shareholder of bbi and acts as Director R&D. She and her team are responsible for all activities related to botanical identification, phytochemical and pharmacological analyses, extraction as well as new product development.

Karin is a pharmaceutical biologist with an extensive, 25- year experience and a truly broad background in pharmacognosy, phytochemistry and pharmacology. In addition, she is a dedicated teacher with lecturing positions at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich and the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL in Zollikofen / Bern. Finally, Karin is member of the expert committee ”Phytochemistry“ of the Swiss pharmaceutical authority Swissmedic.

Before joining bbi, Karin worked as a Postdoc and Senior Researcher at the Pharmacy Institute of the University Basel. Later, she joined VitaPlant, Switzerland, where she built up the analytical and preclinical working group and was involved in the development of several, patent protected plant extracts, e.g. the Avena extract Neuravena, a Rhodiola rosea extract, and a Sambucus nigra extract. Karin was originally trained in Biology and holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Biology which she obtained from the University of Basel, Switzerland.