The agrochemical giant is reorganizing its board of directors.
(Photo: AFP)
Zurich Jeff Rowe, 49, is moving up the ranks at the agrochemical group Syngenta: the American is taking over the crop protection business, the division with the highest sales of the Swiss-Chinese group. This was announced by Syngenta on Friday in Basel. He succeeds Jon Parr, who is retiring in September after 35 years with the company. Rowe was previously responsible for the seed business. With the new office, he is positioning himself to succeed Syngenta boss Erik Fyrwald, 62. Both managers have known each other since their years together at the US chemical giant Dupont.
The personnel is part of a larger board restructuring: Matthew Johnston, head of the vegetable and flower business, is moving to the board, as Syngenta further announced. The aim is to strengthen the strategic focus of the unit. Rowe’s successor is Justin Wolfe, who has so far headed the North American business of the seeds division.
Syngenta CEO Fyrwald said he was pleased “that Jeff and Justin, two proven experts, have accepted the challenge of continuing the growth of our crop protection and seeds business while realizing our vision of regenerative agriculture”.
For Rowe, the rise is the reward for a restructuring job: When he took over responsibility for Syngenta’s seeds business in 2016, he found a deeply insecure team. Syngenta, known for crop protection products, had bought a seed business since the 1990s. But the acquisitions didn’t work out, the division languished for years. Against the later Bayer takeover target Monsanto hardly seemed to grow a herb.
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From restructuring case to growth driver
In important crops, such as soy, Monsanto had a market share of over 90 percent. The poor performance of the seeds business also weighed on the mood within Syngenta, with many employees at the time “deeply discouraged,” insiders report. In addition, Syngenta found it difficult to keep talented people, especially in the USA. Many have switched, for example to Monsanto or Corteva.
The 49-year-old takes over Syngenta’s most important business area, the crop protection business.
(Photo: Syngenta)
Coming from a long-established farming family in the American Midwest, Rowe struck the right tone with customers, with the workforce – and made the right decisions. He relocated the headquarters of the seed business from Minneapolis to Chicago, the center of the “Corn Belt” in the USA. He also reorganized the sales team. Proximity and customer focus were the cornerstones of his strategy. As a fifth-generation farmer, Rowe understood the concerns and needs of his customers.
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He also showed a fortunate knack for company takeovers: With the purchase of Nidera in 2018, at the time the largest acquisition in the company’s history, Rowe succeeded in suddenly improving its market position for seeds in Latin America.
Success came quickly: Within five years, Rowe turned the group’s problem child into an important growth driver. Revenue grew from $2.7 billion in 2016 to $4.1 billion in 2021. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, sales increased by 24 percent. Syngenta thus grew significantly faster than its competitors Bayer and BASF. In the first quarter of 2022, sales in the seed division also increased significantly in double digits, albeit not as rapidly as the crop protection or China business.
At the same time, Rowe took advantage of the weakness of the competition: while Bayer got caught up in a takeover battle with Monsanto and the glyphosate lawsuits weighed on the company, Syngenta was on the up again. In the case of soya and corn, for example, it was possible to gain market share. The result: Instead of losing talent to the competition, Rowe managed to fill his team with top managers from the competition. The best example is his successor Wolfe, whom he guided from Monsanto to the Swiss-Chinese group.
Investors want to see synergies
Rowe’s new job is far more important. The crop protection business accounts for a good 50 percent of Syngenta sales. The American must dovetail the seed and crop protection business more closely and leverage further synergies. Investors in particular want to see that. Syngenta aims to go public in Beijing later this year. A second listing in Switzerland will follow at a later date. The currently difficult market environment for IPOs and the Chinese stock exchange operator had recently caused some delays. However, CEO Fyrwald recently expressed optimism that the IPO will succeed this year.
However, that will be a challenge. Because the owner, the Chinese state-owned company Chemchina, paid a whopping 43 billion dollars for Syngenta in 2015 and took the company off the stock exchange. Since then, Chemchina has brought in its own crop protection and seed business. Syngenta is now aiming for a valuation of over 50 billion dollars if possible, which is considered ambitious given the current bad mood on the financial markets.
The performance of the crop protection business is therefore of central importance for the success of the IPO. If Rowe fulfills expectations, he could be destined for higher things: Fyrwald could withdraw from the operative business after the IPO and a transition phase – an inter candidate for the successor would be ready with Rowe.
More: Syngenta boss calls for greater use of genetic engineering.