Origin Agritech appoints James Chen as Chief Executive Officer

Origin Agritech Ltd. recently announced the Board of Directors has appointed Dr. Z. James Chen to be the Chief Executive Officer effective onMarch 1, 2018.

Dr. James Chen served as Origin's CFO from 2012 to 2016 and was appointed a director of Origin on August 30, 2017. Dr. Chen's previous professional experience includes CFO of Yunji Inc., a fast-growing e-commerce business, investment manager at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and senior analyst positions at Morgan Joseph and BB&T Capital Markets. He holds an MBA in finance and accounting from New York University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut.

"It's a great pleasure for me to welcome back James who has previously contributed significantly to the company during his prior tenure as CFO," said Dr. Gengchen Han, Chairman of Origin Agritech, "James not only has been involved deeply in our e-commerce project since 2014, he is also instrumental in bring together the cooperating project with Elastos Foundation.  The board and I believe that James' return to Origin as the CEO will bring new strategic directions for the Company and build a new platform based on the strength of Origin's biotechnology, germplasm foundation technologies, and e-commerce activities."

"I'm very excited to return to Origin as Origin is a leading technology provider for the Chinese and global agribusinesses. Despite the weak seed business in China over the last couple of years, Origin has developed various technologies and stayed in the forefront of ag technologies for the global agribusiness," said Dr. James Chen, "I believe Origin can not only provide biotechnology to the farmers in China or globally, the joint development program between Origin and Elastos also has the potential to provide e-commerce solutions, allow seed providers and farmers to track original source of the seed product, and more comprehensive needs of Chinese farmers."