The Regional Secretary for Science, Technology and Infrastructures received John Melo, the world president of Amyris - a multinational biotechnology company headquartered in California.  During the meeting, the government official invited the Azorean president of Amyris to join the Azores Prestige Network.

John Melo, a native of Pico, was honoured with the invitation, which he accepted immediately. The Azores Prestige Network Project aims to create a network of advisers who provide response to general and specific questions as well as to connect the Azorean spread around the world, whose work is relevant to scientific and technological areas.

One should recall that the Azores Prestige Network, formally presented on September 26, 2011, is an initiative developed by the Government, though the Regional Secretariat for Science, Technology and Infrastructures. The network currently includes 17 advisers.

"What is the geostrategic role of the Azores?" This was the last question to which advisers answered, providing a wide range of qualified and substantiated responses according to the respective areas of expertise and training of each adviser.

During the meeting, it was also discussed the possibility of company Amyris providing traineeships to Azorean university students. The business model of Amyris is based on the establishment of partnerships with companies in the sugar-alcohol sector, building factories that produce chemical input and biofuels next to existing plants that operate in sugar-alcohol sector.

John Melo, who has over 20 years of experience as a business leader and expert in global fuel, held the position of senior manager of BP (former British Petroleum) and chairman of North American fuel operations before joining Amyris. Currently, he is an appointed member to the U.S. Section of the Forum Renmatix and the U.S. Section of the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum. He also took the position of Vice-chairman of Bay Area Bioscience Association (BayBio).