The UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center congratulates the graduates of the first Seed Business 101 Horticulture course held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, February 22-26, 2016.
This session’s graduating class represented a strong and diverse mix of international participants from the following countries: Thailand, India, Japan, France, Philippines, Korea, China, Tanzania, and the USA. Students included: Anne Sam (Thailand), Butwa Godluck (Tanzania), Caleb Orchard (Thailand), Chandra Thirukannapiran (Thailand), Dimple Sokartara (Thailand), Nanda Kumar (India), Piyush Kothari (India), Roderick Labay (Philippines) from East-West Seed ROH, Ltd.; Chanyayan Chiaranvanond (Thailand), Mithlesh Agarwal (India), Pitakpon Angsupanich (Thailand), Prirote Kietisirikajorn (Thailand), Sumitra Kantrong (Thailand), Supat Mekiyanon (Thailand) from Chia Tai Co. Ltd.; Erwan Ching (Thailand) and Mathias Luong (Thailand) from HM.Clause; Kairi Okuyama (Japan) and Toru Otsuka (Thailand) from Sakata Seed Corp.; Abigail Attavar (India), Indo American Hybrid Seeds; Naoto Shinozaki (Italy), Kagome Co., Ltd; Zhang Gang (China), Kaiping Clover Seed; Junho Kim (Korea), Nongwoo Bio Co.; Aileen Uy (Indonesia), PT Asian Hybrid Seeds Technologies; and Atsushi Sugimori (Japan), Takii & Co.
Course instructors included Maurice Smith, Pieter Vandenberg, and Mike Pereira. Participants also heard from expert guest speakers Anthony Tse, Clover Seeds; Ole Johansen, HM.Clause; Darush Struss, East West Seed ROH Ltd.; Bruno Lefeuvre, East-West Seed ROH Ltd., and Johan Van Asbrouck, Centor Group.
The UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center would like to recognize Chia Tai Co. Ltd., East-West Seed ROH Ltd., and HM.Clause, Thailand as joint sponsors of the course. Participants had an opportunity to tour and visit the Chia Tai Research Station and the East-West Seed Research Center. Their hospitality was key to the success of this session.
Seed Business 101 is a one week course designed to expose participants to the five functional areas of a seed company (R&D, production, operations, sales and marketing and administration). By creating a virtual seed company and case studies for each functional area, the course content is delivered in a very interactive way. During each of the 4 case studies, participants assume a different functional responsibility within the company. The course gives employees that are new to the seed industry a broad understanding of the major aspects of a seed company’s operations and cross-departmental knowledge of best practices for profitability. The course is taught by widely respected seed business executives with additional help of industry experts participating as guest speakers.
Upcoming sessions:
- Seed Business 101 – Horticulture in Davis, California (December 5-9, 2016)
- Seed Business 101 – Field Crops in Durham, North Carolina (September 12-16, 2016)
- Seed Business 101 – Field Crops in Chicago, Illinois (December 2-6, 2016)
For registration and course details please visit sbc.ucdavis.edu or contact Rebeca Madrigal at rsmadrigal@ucdavis.edu.
