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Mike Eade appointed to lead Plant Impact USA and North America Commercial Operations

Plant Impact,recently announced that the establishment of its North American business operations and the senior appointment of Mike Eade as Commercial and Marketing Director, effective 15 February 2016. The Group’s US subsidiary, Plant Impact Inc., will establish its permanent offices in the Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina.

This new US and North America business for Plant Impact follows several years of consistent, yield-improving success for the Group’s technologies and products in other markets, in particular Brazil. The early priorities for Plant Impact in the US are the final technical development and commercial launch of new products to enhance yields and improve returns for growers dealing with tough soybean and wheat crop prices.

Mike Eade joins Plant Impact from DuPont Pioneer, a division of DuPont and a global leader in seed technology and seed production. At Pioneer he was most recently the Commercial Unit Lead in Sales and Marketing for the Delta Commercial Unit, an area with significant soybean, cotton and corn production. In addition, Mike brings more than 30 years of sales and marketing leadership experience in animal health, agrochemicals, and crop insurance at industry leaders such as Merial, American Cyanamid and RCIS. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Mike will be responsible for the success of Plant Impact’s US sales and marketing programs as well as for its relationships with strategic and channel partners in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In addition, building on the Group’s solid basis of technology performance for horticultural crops in EMEA, Mike and the Group’s US team will be evaluating the growth opportunity for Plant Impact’s products in specialty crops, including tree fruit, tree nuts and specialty turf.

John Brubaker, CEO of Plant Impact, commented:

“I am delighted to welcome Mike to Plant Impact. His appointment and our establishment of a North American business reflects our confidence in the growth opportunities ahead for us in US broad acre crop markets following positive 2015 product trial results for our soy and wheat research programs. Our product range, pipeline and commercial expertise position us to bring new technologies to the American grower, and Mike brings with him a wealth of experience and industry relationships. I have every confidence that under his leadership, North America will develop into a significant business for our Group.”