Giant Biographies – December 2014

Neil Bentley

Neil Bentley, BASF director of marketing for the U.S. Crop division, oversees the marketing activities for the U.S. crop protection business. He grew up in a small farming community in southern Minnesota where he began his agricultural career working summers while still in school. After earning his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Bentley started his professional career in the retail agriculture business. In 2001, he joined BASF as a sales representative and has most recently worked abroad for BASF managing several active ingredients in their global marketing fungicides group.

JanWillem Breukink

JanWillem Breukink is senior executive member of the board for INCOTEC Group BV. He has been working in the seed industry for more than 30 years. Breukink started his career in 1978 with Royal Sluis in the vegetable seed industry. Since then, he has filled different positions in the previous mother company Royal Sluis and in INCOTEC. He helped lead the development of INCOTEC from a small department within Royal Sluis to a full-fledged independent seed technology company, servicing the global seed industry with facilities in more than 10 companies and more than 530 employees. Since 1987, he has been a member of the International Seed Federation’s Seed Treatment and Environment Committee, where he served as chairman for 10 years. Today, Breukink serves as chairman of the Seed Treatment and Technology Working Group within the European Seed Association.

Pierre Cohadon

Pierre Cohadon has been the territory head of Syngenta China since June 2011. Previously, he was the marketing manager for Syngenta’s crop protection business in France. Before joining Syngenta, Cohadon was the Zeneca marketing manager of research and development in France. He has a long career in the ag industry, in many different countries, including general manager positions in Russia and Hungary, plus various roles in the United Kingdom, France and Ghana. He speaks several languages. A 1980 graduate of Paul Sabatier University in France, Cohadon majored in biology. Continuing his education at L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Toulouse (ENSAT), he specialized as an engineer in crop protection in 1983.

Bryan Gerard

Bryan Gerard is the president and co-owner of Gerard Seed Solutions, Inc., a company that provides project and consulting services. He is also the cofounder of ACCESS Plant Technology, Inc. ACCESS is designed to be the bridge between companies, universities and institutions that are developing technology, and the companies that are the marketers of the products of plant technology. Prior to his current role, Gerard was the president and co-owner of JGL, Inc. — a supplier of soybean and wheat genetics in North America, South America, Europe and Africa. JGL was sold to Syngenta in June of 2012. Gerard chairs the American Seed Trade Association’s Intellectual Property Committee and is a past chair of the association’s Small Grains Committee, Farm Seed Division, Stewardship Committee and International Executive Committee. At the international level, he is a member of the International Seed Federation’s board and chairs its Field Crop Section.

Greg Ruehle

Since 2005, Greg Ruehle has served as the chief executive officer for the Independent Professional Seed Association, based in Omaha, Nebraska. In this capacity, he has managed the day-to-day administrative and fiduciary responsibilities for the national trade association representing nearly 100 independently-owned seed companies throughout the United States and Canada. At the time of printing, Ruehle had just announced his resignation from IPSA, effective January 2015. Previous to his position at IPSA, Ruehle served for nearly 10 years as the executive vice president of the Nebraska Cattlemen, with primary association management and government affairs responsibilities for the nearly 5,000-member statewide group. 

Marty Turner

Marty Turner is the director of stewardship and compliance for STEP, Ltd — an innovative corporation chartered in 2003 to provide customized ancillary support and services to the agriculture industry. With 15 years experience in the agricultural industry, Turner works directly with trait providers and their retailers, dealers and farmers. Before joining STEP, Turner was the manager of sales, reporting customer operations for Monsanto from 2005 to 2008. In this position, he managed a team within customer operations responsible for independent dealer and field sales team relationship building with purpose of influencing product sales reporting and data reconciliation management of 25 million product units annually.