Queens Award Winners 2022

STALLION AI SERVICES LTD HAS WON A QUEEN’S AWARD FOR ENTERPRISE

Announced today, Thursday 21 April 2022, Stallion AI Services has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, for its excellence in Innovation.

The Queen’s Award for Enterprise is the most prestigious award available to a UK business.

Stallion AI Services was set up in 2000 and under the leadership of Tullis Matson, it has become a global centre of excellence for equine semen collection, processing, storage and distribution. It is one of the most successful and advanced stallion semen collection and freezing centres in Europe, enjoying a reputation for global leadership in technology advancement, and has established itself as the world’s most respected equine reproduction service provider. In the past 20 years, its elite and specialist team have carried out in excess of 20,000 collections from over 1200 stallions, from rare breed ponies to Olympic legends.

Tullis attributes the secret of Stallion AI Services success to “Our dedicated team who have a passionate commitment to excellence, and what we do for the international sport as well as for the preservation of some of our rarest and most valuable gene pools.”

Kate Ashmore, General Manager of Stallion AI Services added, “Reflected in our ongoing investment in research and development that put us at the forefront of technological innovation and scientific discovery, we continuously push the boundaries, to make the impossible possible. Our semen collection and treatment process is the best in the world. To us, every stallion is a VIP and receives outstanding care and treatment from our passionate and hard-working team who lead the way in equine welfare.”

Having established this process on the commercial side, Stallion AI Services wanted to see if similar technologies could be adapted to save endangered species, and ground-breaking work with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and Chester Zoo has enabled Stallion AI Services to branch out into cryopreserving semen from not only protected equines, but a variety of other rare and endangered species.

In 2020, in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Stallion AI Services bred the first Suffolk Punch foal in the UK to have been born using sex-sorted semen from a genetically matched stallion determined by NTU and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. This combination of technologies is a major step towards securing the future for all critically endangered breeds threatened with extinction as a result of inbreeding.

One of the highlights of 2021 was the result of a subsidiary company of Stallion AI Services, Gemini Genetics, who are uniquely partnered with world-leading pet cloning company, ViaGen Pets & Equine, successfully breeding the genetic clone of world-famous show jumping stallion Arko. Arko was the leading showjumper in Europe for three years.

Working on his idea to create a cryopreservation biobank in the UK which specialises in storing living regenerative material from animal species threatened with extinction, Tullis founded the charity, Nature’s SAFE, one of Europe’s first living biobanks on a mission to save animals from extinction by indefinitely preserving live cells from endangered species, and home to some of the planet’s most precious natural resources. Currently, 100 species are lost each day to extinction, and as the last few species die, their genetic blueprint is removed forever from our planet. Nature’s SAFE partners with accredited zoos to collect and process tissue and reproductive cell samples from threatened and endangered species, storing them in an indefinitely cryopreserved living state at -196℃. Once thawed, these stored living cells could one day be used in cell culture or assisted reproductive technologies to maintain genetic diversity in the species gene pool. In a race against time, Nature’s SAFE began its work in late 2020, and acts as an insurance policy to preserve rare, and threatened animals, so they can be protected for generations to come.

Tullis explained “We passionately believe our genetic preservation service is highly innovative – a vital resource to long-term species’ wellness and protection from damaging population loss and irreversible extinction.” It is in recognition of its innovative work in creating Nature’s SAFE that Stallion AI Services has been honoured with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.

Now in its 56th year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen’s Awards Emblem for the next five years.

Tullis thanks The Shropshire Lieutenancy for encouraging him to enter Stallion AI Services into the Queens Award for Enterprise and their enthusiasm to recognise the talent in so many hugely successful businesses across Shropshire.

“Myself and all the team at Stallion AI Services are hugely proud to win the most prestigious award in the business world. The Queen’s Award Emblem is recognised globally, and the Royal Seal of approval helps to legitimise our work not only in the UK, but on the world stage. I simply couldn’t be prouder of the wonderful team who have achieved this,” explained a highly delighted Tullis Matson.

Applications for Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2023 opened on the 1st May 2022. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise.

For further information please contact:

Tullis Matson – 07801 592111

Email: tullis@stallionai.com

Web: www.stallionai.com