Steve Hughes has 20 years experience as a research and innovation manager in the food, agriculture (plant breeding) and biotechnology industries in Italy and the UK and is cited as inventor on five biotechnology-related patents. Steve's current research project focuses on the impact of advanced genomics-based tools for agronomy, plant breeding and food production on local agricultural practices.

Some of Steve’s other appointments are/have been:

Director of Unilever’s International Agribusiness Applications Unit, and Director of Biotechnology for Plant Breeding International Cambridge, with a wider brief, linking agriculture with the food processing chain.

Unilever Industrial Research Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Exeter, and Visiting Professor of Biotechnology, West Virginia State College.

He has served on the BBSRC Agricultural Systems Directorate, the Advisory Committee on Genetic Manipulation, (HSE), the British Society of Plant Breeders Biotechnology Working Group, and various ad hoc advisory panels for EU Framework Programmes, OECD and FAO/IAEA joint programmes.

Director of (CAMBIA), and DEFRA appointee to the International Roster of Experts on the Cartegena Biosafety Protocol.

Appeared as an expert witness at the House of Lords and the New Zealand Royal Commission on GM.