Christian Busse, MBA
AI product manager and transformation consultant at IBM; founder of Zentari and YieldGuard. I lead AI-enabled transformation and assurance in sensitive environments, and I work where regulation, technology and food systems meet, with a background, which spans enterprise project governance, strategic risk management and AI ethics, including workstream leadership on IBM's Tech Ethics Board.
Experience
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Current
Founder, Zentari
Building the digital twin for cultivated meat: design, simulation and validation of texture and bioprocess in silico, ahead of any wet-lab commitment. The product lives at zentari.bio.
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Apr 2025 to Present
Founder and CEO, YieldGuard
Trusted, compliant on-chain cash solutions for professional investors. I set vision and strategy; I lead fundraising, partnerships and board relations; I oversee controls, security and legal coordination; I represent the firm with regulators and the broader ecosystem.
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Jan 2026 to Present
IBM, Product Manager, Agentic AI Transformation
Product Manager on an IBM delivery engagement within an SAP programme; I lead the development of AI agents in an agentic workflow, which bridges SAP-adjacent tools and automates cross-system processes, and I oversee multiple product teams, Product Owners, and AI and ML engineers.
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Nov 2022 to Present
IBM, People Manager
A light-touch, growth-first management system for a cross-functional team of 15: explicit goals, candid career conversations, and transparent promotion gates, with steadier delivery and calmer checkpoint feedback as the evidence.
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Jan 2023 to Present
Founder, Food Biotech & AI
An insights platform on AI and biotech, including cultivated meat and the ethical considerations of technology; the platform delivers actionable analysis for immediate business impact.
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Dec 2025 to Feb 2026
IBM, Transformation Consultant, Data & AI
Data and AI transformations, which improve how work gets done and how decisions get made: practical roadmaps, operating models and delivery plans across people, process, data and technology.
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May 2024 to Feb 2026
IBM, Project Manager, Augmenting Human Intelligence
Workstream project manager on the Tech Ethics Board: a disciplined cadence, a monthly AI forum with internal and external experts, and sponsored publications on change management and augmenting human intelligence.
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Jul 2025 to Dec 2025
IBM, Coach, AI & Data
Executive enablement for AI and data: curated toolsets, guided practice, mentoring and coaching, with a durable library of enablement materials as the legacy.
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Oct 2023 to Jun 2025
IBM, Enterprise Project Governance
Oversight of a 500-person public-sector programme: architecture compliance checkpoints, root-cause analysis on schedule variance, and concise heat-map reporting to the governance board.
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Feb 2023 to Sep 2023
IBM, Enterprise Strategy Consultant, Life Sciences
A life-science modernisation programme in Barcelona: capability maps connected to the target technology blueprint, risk assessments linked to architecture control points, and test frameworks, which lowered the client’s risk exposure.
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Feb 2022 to Jan 2023
IBM, Public Sector AI Specialist
Enterprise-architecture guardrails in defence AI programmes, with leadership of the quality assurance workstream: assurance protocols for predictive models, with measurable gains in system security and mission effectiveness.
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Sep 2022 to Oct 2025
enABLE Foundation, Director of Finance and Operations
Leadership of global efforts against dementia-related stigma: dementia training, caregiver support and public awareness campaigns, with board trusteeship from May 2022 to October 2025.
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2006 to 2022
Career foundations
ML monitoring compliance at voestalpine; charging and billing control at United Internet; HR analysis at Lumesse; software test consulting at Sogeti; Xbox compliance testing at Adecco; freelance graphic design across 13 years.
Education
- 2020 to 2023 MBA, Business Administration, Management and Operations, University of Bradford
- 2008 to 2012 BA, Psychology and Philosophy, The Open University
Certifications & languages
- IBM AI Associate Leader
- Six Sigma Black Belt
- German and English (native or bilingual); Spanish and Italian (elementary).
Publications
- Accelerating Business Value through AI-Focused Change Management (PDF)
- Augmenting Human Intelligence: the IBM Point of View (PDF)
Why cell-based agriculture
Throughout my life, the intertwining of medicine, technology, and innovation (deeply rooted in philosophical inquiry) has guided my career path. The potential of CRISPR, quantum computing and AI, and the revolutionary idea of sustainably feeding the world without harming animals or the environment, led me to one sector: cell-based meat, which embodies all of it. It encapsulates technology, genetic engineering and robotics while addressing a crucial ethical challenge, reducing harm to our planet.
That conviction is why I moved my career into cultivated meat, and why I'm building Zentari: the industry's bottlenecks are well understood (I've spent years mapping them), and the next step is building the tools to remove them.