Q&A: Jeff Rowe, Global President Of Syngenta Crop Protection

By Chelsea Dinterman

Jeff Rowe didn’t know what the future held when he graduated high school.

″I wish I could tell you that I had some grand plan when I graduated from high school, but I really didn't. I just knew that I enjoyed agriculture, wanted to stay close to farming and continue learning,″ says Rowe, global president for Syngenta Crop Protection.

An agricultural economics degree from Iowa State University and a position with Pioneer were the first steps, but Rowe was determined to keep learning.

″I was working in the seed industry, and it was at the time when biotechnology was really starting to gain momentum,″ Rowe says. ″Being a bit naive, I thought, well, maybe I'll just go do a graduate program in that area. I started taking classes at night and weekends at Iowa State focused on plant biology, with the intent of learning more about biotechnology and how it affects agriculture.″

Rowe also continued to work in the industry while he obtained a law degree from Drake University in the hopes of better understanding the law and how it can impact agriculture. His varied experiences and lifetime of learning guide Rowe in his career and keep him looking to the future.

SF: WHAT DID YOU LEARN AS AN ATTORNEY THAT HELPS YOU TODAY?

JR: While a bit unconventional for a business leader, a legal education is broad and helps develop skills that can be quite useful in business.

Some of the most important decisions I make today involve complex agreements. And while I’m not qualified to draft these documents, I understand enough about legal agreements to ask the right questions and ultimately help me negotiate effective contracts.

Additionally, law school teaches you to look at issues from all sides. I’ve found this skill to be quite useful when forming strategic collaborations. One of the things that we're focused on at Syngenta is being a collaborator of choice. I've found the best way to be a good collaborator is to truly understand what the other side is trying to accomplish. Whether that be an NGO [non-governmental organization], a competitor, or whoever you're talking to, putting yourself in their shoes and really understanding their situation is key. In essence, trying to help solve their problems or their needs as part of a collaboration is something that I try to do all the time.

SF: WHERE DO YOU SEE NEW TECHNOLOGIES TAKING SEED DEVELOPMENT?

JR: One of the great things about our industry is that we are continuously delivering a tremendous amount of innovation to farmers around the world. Some technologies I’m excited about include more advanced plant breeding, data science, and genome editing. It’s important to bring a lot of previous disciplines together and shorten the innovation cycle. Genome editing holds the potential of having lots of benefits, but also a much shorter innovation cycle.

Read the full article at Successful Farming.