Dr. David Ross Appleton

Dr. David Ross Appleton, 51, Male, New Zealander, is the current Chief Innovation & Technology Officer of SD Guthrie Berhad, effective 1 February 2026. Bringing over 25 years of experience in this field, he was first appointed as the Chief Research & Development Officer on 1 January 2024, and was subsequently redesignated as Chief Innovation & Research Officer on 1 April 2025.

Dr Appleton’s journey with SD Guthrie Research & Development (R&D) started in 2010 when he joined as the Head of Applied Chemistry at the SD Guthrie Technology Centre. In 2015, he assumed the role of Head, Biotechnology and Breeding, overseeing the development and commercialisation of GenomeSelect™ and other genetics, breeding, and biotechnology programmes.

In 2020, Dr Appleton assumed the role of Head, Product Innovation and Development in SD Guthrie International, the downstream division of Guthrie. He was later appointed Deputy Chief R&D Officer of Guthrie in June 2023.

Dr Appleton’s career traces back to 1996, when he began as a Process Engineer and climbed the ranks to become the Steelmaking Production Team Leader at BHP New Zealand Steel. In 2003, he joined MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd, initially as a Senior Research Scientist and later served as Principal Research Scientist. He was instrumental in developing and implementing an automated high-throughput extract fingerprinting system to assess productivity and chemical diversity within extracts.

Dr Appleton relocated to Malaysia in 2008 on attachment to Universiti Malaya with the Centre of Natural Products Research and Drug Discovery.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Organic and Physical Chemistry from the University of Auckland and earned his PhD in Chemistry from the same institution.

Additional Information

• No family relationship with and is not related to any director and/or major shareholder of Guthrie, nor has any personal pecuniary interest in any business arrangement involving the Company.
• No conviction of offences within the past five years, nor public sanctions or penalties imposed by the relevant regulatory authorities during the financial year other than traffic offences, if any.
• No conflict of interest with Guthrie.
• Does not hold any directorship in public companies and listed issuers, other than companies within the Guthrie Group.
• Does not hold any direct or indirect (deemed) shareholdings in Guthrie.