BRANDT elevates Discovery & Innovation (D&I) Company; D&I charged with global responsibilities

BRANDT has restructured its Discovery & Innovation, LLC operating company to give it a broader, global mandate. Going forward, D&I will sit alongside BRANDT’s revenue-generating units and have dotted line responsibility for research and development efforts with BRANDT Europe and BRANDT South America, in addition to its traditional role as the innovation engine for the US domestic market.

Brian Haschemeyer will continue to lead the group as VP of Discovery & Innovation. He will now, however, report into the newly formed BRANDT Executive Team in Tampa, Fla. Since BRANDT’s global restructuring in 2020, D&I had been a part of BRANDT Specialty Formulations group under Executive Vice President Bill Engel.

D&I is responsible for product discovery, field trialing & testing, product registration support, field technical support and formulation quality control. This structural change will ensure that all of BRANDT’s formulations, labs, field trials and quality controls are held to the same high global standards.

″D&I is the lifeblood of our global organization,″ said Rick Brandt, President & CEO of BRANDT. ″This move recognizes the great job that Brian has been doing. Going forward, he and his team will be able to look across the entire BRANDT product development portfolio and help bring the best ideas and products to market, no matter where they are discovered or developed.″

These structural changes are effective immediately.

″This move truly sets us up for the future,″ added Brandt. ″Now, we’ll be able to optimize product research and development: D&I will be able to drive and support all of the BRANDT global businesses in addition to all of the domestic Team BRANDT companies.″

As part of the restructure, BRANDT’s US regulatory team will move into D&I. Stephanie Brenden, director of U.S. regulatory, will report to Haschemeyer.

″Our mission at D&I is to bring unique solutions to our global Ag markets that provide true value to our end growers and distribution partners,″ said Haschemeyer. ″I’m excited, for example, to be able to bring a citrus product from Spain to our growers in Florida or a soybean solution from Pleasant Plains to our growers in Brazil. I think this is a move that helps us deliver the BRANDT vision of being the world’s premier plant health company.″

BRANDT Discovery & Innovation, LLC will be moving to its permanent home in the Evelyn Brandt Thomas Innovation Center in Pleasant Plains, Illinois later this summer.