Syngenta ranked among top 10 employers in biotech science

For the second year in a row, was ranked among the top biotechnology and pharmaceutical employers according to a Science magazine poll, this time moving up the ranks from number 20 to number seven in a field of 575 companies. The rankings were based on survey results published in a special feature of Science magazine.

Science magazine, along with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), commissioned a Web-based survey aimed at determining the companies with the best reputations as employers. There were 2,444 survey respondents who were asked to write in the names of companies they considered the best, average, and worst employers in the industry.

"We are honored that our employees and the biotechnology industry have once again recognized us as a top employer, and we are especially proud to have moved up so considerably in the rankings,” says Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, head of Syngenta Biotechnology R&D. “We need continual innovation in agriculture to meet the needs of our growing global population. When you have talented people, challenging work and a collaborative environment, you can accomplish great things. Syngenta people are doing this every day.”

Syngenta and other companies were rated based on 23 different attributes including corporate image, financial strength, leadership and direction, work culture and environment, location, and academic and intellectual challenge.

Syngenta has two key biotech facilities – the North American biotech headquarters, Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc (SBI), located in Research Triangle Park, NC, and Syngenta Biotech China (SBC) in Beijing, China. Last year, SBI celebrated its 25th anniversary. In May, the company expanded its facilities to include a 100,000 square foot office space in the Keystone Office Park. Moving into this supplemental space concluded the first phase of a longer-term expansion plan that will allow SBI to continue to grow. SBC opened in October of 2008 and is the first foreign-funded agricultural biotech research institution in China.