AlgaEnergy S.A has recruited a new executive leadership team to drive growth in the United States and Mexico. Bill Schwoerer joins AlgaEnergy as national sales director for the United States, and Geovainer (Geo) Zúñiga joins AlgaEnergy as country manager for Mexico.
Schwoerer has an MBA from Palm Beach Atlantic University and a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural economics from the University of Georgia. His track record includes building successful relationships for several agriculture companies such as Concentric Ag Corporation, Valent BioSciences, Harris Moran Seed Company, and Seminis Vegetable Seeds, Inc., Abbott Laboratories and A. Duda and Sons.
Bill Schwoerer
Zúñiga is an agricultural engineer graduate of the University of Costa Rica with an MBA from the UNED of Costa Rica. He brings over 18 years of international experience in the agricultural sector. His previous experience includes leading marketing and new product development for BASF and Monsanto.
Geovainer (Geo) Zúñiga
Charlotte Hebebrand is new Executive Vice President Stakeholder Relations and Chief Sustainability Officer with Nutrien, effective May 1, 2020.
Charlotte Hebebrand
Hebebrand is former Director General of the International Fertilizer Association and former Chief Executive of the International Food and Agriculture Trade Policy Council. She also brings broad global experience in international development, trade, agriculture and food safety.
Hebebrand holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and a M.A. in International Relations from John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
The UK’s Crop Protection Association (CPA) has announced the appointment of Dave Bench as its new chief executive. Bench joins the CPA from the government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) where he was director, EU Exit – Chemicals. Dave brings a wealth of public sector experience, having worked in a range of scientific roles dealing with risk assessment of chemicals, policy development and providing scientific advice.
For the past three years Dave’s work has focused on developing operable post EU Exit chemicals regimes for the UK. This included crop protection products, but also other chemicals regimes such as Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of Chemicals (REACH), Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) and Biocides.
Dave Bench
New Ag International JUN/JUL 2020
In order to strengthen its R&D&i department, AlgaEnergy announced the appointment of Dr. Jose Antonio del Campo as director of that department, effective February 2020.
Del Campo has a degree in biology from the University of Malaga.
Del Campo provides the biotechnology company with valuable knowledge and experience in the microalgae sector. He has accumulated over 24 years of research experience, half of which was focused on microalgae and the other half on biomedicine. In this time, he has authored more than 40 academic publications.
Dr. Jose Antonio del Campo
The U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has appointed George Woodward, Trilogy CEO, to the FCC Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in America. Woodward is a founder of Trilogy Networks, an early market leader in the emerging Edge Computing ecosystem.
In a news release, Woodward said the precision agriculture segment is focused on solutions to drive the next generation of efficiency in agricultural output. “We are at the genesis of what converged technologies can achieve,” he noted.
The task force groups will work across industry and government to ensure the rapid deployment of technologies like 5G, IoT, Edge Computing and AI.
Additionally, Trilogy is spearheading a global initiative within the Kinetic Edge Alliance to promote state of the art edge computing and edge storage solutions to the world’s leading innovators, said Woodward.
George Woodward
J. Alex Thomasson is the new head of Mississippi State’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, effective July 1. A 15-year veteran and current endowed chairholder in cotton engineering, ginning and mechanization in Texas A&M’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Thomasson is returning to Mississippi State University (MSU), where he worked early in his career.
Thomasson served as an agricultural engineer and research scientist in the U.S. Cotton Ginning Laboratory for the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Stoneville, Mississippi, working closely with faculty in the university’s Delta Research and Extension Center. Upon completion of his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, he then moved to Starkville, Mississippi where he served on the faculty in MSU’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering from 1997-2004.
During his tenure at MSU, he also served as agricultural research coordinator for the then Remote Sensing Technologies Center, now the Geosystems Research Institute, a unit of the High Performance Computing Collaboratory.
MSU’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering is a dual department in the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The department offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in biological engineering, biomedical engineering and agricultural engineering technology and business.
A fellow in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Thomasson has been honoured numerous times for teaching and research.
J. Alex Thomasson
The International Federation of Agriculture (IFA) has appointed the IFA’s Senior Director of Agriculture, Patrick Heffer, as IFA’s Interim Director General as of May 1. A formal search process for the next Director General has already been launched.
IFA Director General Charlotte Hebebrand stepped down at the end of April to assume a new role as Executive Vice-President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Nutrien.
Heffer joined IFA in 2002 and for the past 18 years has coordinated the association’s global agronomic, market and policy activities in relation to fertilizer use. Before joining IFA, Heffer spent 15 years with the seed industry, including five years with the International Seed Federation, and two years with the FAO’s Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service.
Patrick Heffer
