Meristem names Chris Thrasher Director of Innovation and Product Management

Meristem Crop Performance named Chris Thrasher as their director of innovation and product management. In this role, Thrasher, with more than a decade of experience bringing the benefits of biologicals to farmers, will support Meristem’s effort to bring more novel products to market.

″I’ve already worked with Chris Thrasher off and on for more than six years as we shaped Meristem’s product portfolio and vision for widening the pathway for new, innovative technology,″ said Mitch Eviston, Meristem Founder and CEO in making the announcement. ″I’m really excited about focusing his full attention now on even more solutions that will help farmers increase nutrient-use efficiency, grow big, healthy plants fast, and gain more bushels for less.″

″The opportunity to join Mitch Eviston and the Meristem team was an easy choice,″ said Thrasher of the new role. ″Having the opportunity to work with a company that shares my same passion and drive to revolutionize the ag industry makes it a really, really good fit.″

Thrasher grew up in rural Alabama working on dairy farm from an early age. He grew fond of farm life and growing crops and enjoyed his work in 4-H and FFA. Thrasher earned his bachelor’s degree in agribusiness education from Auburn University and taught high school agriculture for 11 years before moving back to his home area to work retail ag sales for Southern States Cooperative. He worked at their largest row crop location in Alabama.

″My time in retail sales fueled my passion to deliver products that would change agriculture,″ he remembers. ″I wanted to bring products to farmers that were easy to use and could provide value year after year. It was then I saw a big opportunity to delivery that value was with biologicals.″

Thrasher signed on with a family-owned company, Advanced Biological Marketing (ABM), where he saw that the value of biologicals at field-level, firsthand. He worked his way up with ABM, first regional manager, then sales manager, then director of sales. In 2021 he earned his master’s in business administration from Purdue Global University. That same year, ABM was purchased by Lesaffre to become part of a global biological producer division, Agrauxine. Thrasher became Agrauxine’s Director of North America.

″That brought the chance to better understand the entire process of managing product development from concept to finished product,″ he says, ″with a better focus on technologies that not only provide value, but ease of use to growers.″

Thrasher, who resides in Cullman, Ala., with his wife Keli, children Will, Caroline, and Max the pup, says he is excited about the chance to work with Meristem’s growing number of dealers and customers all across the Corn Belt to further refine Meristem’s offering and study the opportunities for new ones.

″Meristem provides me personally an opportunity to leverage the passion and experience I have gained over the last 23 years in the industry,″ smiles Thrasher. ″When I can pair that up with the vision and intensity I see in the Meristem leadership, I believe we can benefit more farmers and have a greater impact on the industry of agriculture at a much more rapid pace.″