Pluton Biosciences’s founder, Dr. Barry Goldman, PhD, has assumed the role of chief executive officer, while Pluton's first CEO, Charlie Walch, has been named the company's chief business officer. Walch will remain active on Pluton’s board of directors and continue to oversee the company’s day-to-day operations, as well as negotiate customer contracts in his new position. Goldman, who previously held the title of Pluton’s chief scientific officer, will continue overseeing the company’s science team while taking the lead as CEO for the growing biotech startup.
Prior to going full time at Pluton, Goldman worked for Boston-based Indigo Ag from 2016 to 2019 where he served first as vice president of discovery, then as head of research. From 1999 to 2016, Goldman launched various science initiatives at Monsanto Company. He founded the data science department and served as the microbial discovery lead for what is now Bayer Crop Sciences. He has a Bachelor of Science in botany from the University of Washington and a PhD in microbiology from the University of Utah. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed studies and is an inventor on more than 16 patents. ●
In addition to his current role as chief executive officer (CEO) of Certis Europe, Mark Waltham is appointed to the position of CEO of Belchim Crop Protection. His objective will be to ensure Belchim Crop Protection maximizes opportunities created by joining the Mitsui AgriScience family of companies, including leading value creation initiatives between Belchim and Certis Europe.
In a further change, Johan de Saegher is appointed to the new position of chief operating officer (COO) with a specific focus on Belchim Crop Protections’ day-to-day operations, to ensure the company’s financial and company objectives are achieved. De Saegher is also appointed as a member of the board of Mitsui Agri Science International (MASI) Brussels to help MASI with its extensive crop protection industry experience and to ensure strategic alignment of the Belchim acquisition with the MASI strategy. ●
Barry Goldman
Mark Waltham
Johan de Saegher
Marco Schouten is appointed as the new CEO of Agriterra. By mid-September he will succeed Kees Blokland, the founder of Agriterra, who will retire at the beginning of Q4. Schouten is a business economist and has had the opportunity to work in a diversity of roles and countries during his career. Since 2014, Schouten served as CEO of VEI B.V., which entails overall management of a social enterprise active in 18 countries in the field of water and sanitation with an annual turnover of 22 million euro. He is also part-time director of the charity foundation Water for Life, the largest water charity in the Netherlands. In 2009, Schouten received his PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam on the topic of strategic management. Prior to VEI, he worked for about 10 years as an international management consultant and for seven years in academia at UN-IHE Delft. ●
Marco Schouten
Atlántica Agrícola announces the appointment of Marta Gutiérrez as CEO. With her new role, Gutiérrez’s goal is to guide the company towards global expansion, digitization and a comprehensive transformation, all of which she hopes to achieve over the next few years. With over 15 years of experience in the industry sector, Gutiérrez has been responsible for projects such as managing production processes in international markets like Asia and Australia, and developing business across
various continents, which has enabled her to gain expertise in manufacturing, taxation, costs, logistics, purchasing and quality control in a range of global markets. Gutiérrez has occupied the position of CEO, associate director and director of strategy and business development in companies in a number of sectors, including cement, technology and pharmacy. ●
Marta Gutiérrez
Nutrien Ltd. has appointed Mayo Schmidt as president and chief executive officer. Schmidt succeeds Chuck Magro, who is stepping down from his management and board role at the company to pursue new opportunities. Schmidt brings over 30 years of agricultural business experience to his leadership of Nutrien. He joined the Agrium board of directors in 2012 and has served as chair of Nutrien’s board of directors since May 2019. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of Viterra Inc., a Canadian agri-business company. He also held senior positions in other agricultural focused companies such as ConAgra Grain, Canada and General Mills, Inc. Schmidt was also president and chief executive officer of Hydro One Limited, Canada’s largest utility. He serves as a member of Washburn University’s board of trustees and Harvard’s Kennedy School’s private and public, scientific, academic and consumer food policy group and as a mentor for Catalyst Women on Board. ●
Mayo Schmidt
Nancy Vosnidou joined the BioConsortia team in the newly created position of IP & Portfolio Strategist. She brings experience in patent portfolio development and strategy, as well as competitive intelligence. Most recently, Vosnidou managed the CRISPR and molecular engineering IP portfolios for Corteva, with previous IP experience in pharmaceutical biologicals, ag microbials at a unicorn startup, and transgenic crop development with another of the big five agricultural companies. Vosnidou holds a PhD in Biophysics, MS in Pathology/Clinical Chemistry, and BS in Biology from University of Missouri. ●
Nancy Vosnidou
Lavie Bio Ltd., a subsidiary of Evogene Ltd., announced the appointment of Russ Putland as vice president commercial. Putland’s commercial experience includes more than 30 years of leadership within large multinational agriculture companies. In his last leadership role, he led a sales organization at DuPont crop protection, accountable for US$175 million in sales annually. Putland brings a broad understanding of the commercial value chain and his experience includes working directly with farmers, retailers, distribution channels and manufacturers.
He will lead Lavie Bio's commercial strategy and execution, focusing on establishing relationships and partnerships with strategic and channel partners, driving revenue from ag-biological biostimulant and biopesticide product lines. Putland will be based at Lavie Bio's U.S. site in St. Louis. ●
Russ Putland
Rogério Castro is appointed CEO of UPL in Brazil. He will lead UPL's partnerships in Brazil and will be a member of the board of Grupo Sinagro and Serra Bonita Sementes. Castro has over 30 years of experience in the agribusiness sector. He has a degree in agronomy from the Federal University of Lavras, has a certificate in financial accounting from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and studied the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Between 2011 and 2019, he was head of business at UPL in Brazil. ●
Fabio Torretta, who led UPL and Arysta LifeScience for six years, now assumes the role of global head of sustainable solutions at UPL. With more than three decades of experience in agribusiness, Torretta will focus efforts on developing strategies to strengthen innovation of natural origin to protect crops. ●
Rogério Castro
Fabio Torretta
