The right team

Date of Appointment: August 2012

Dr. Christopher Richards joined the Company as Non-executive Chairman in August 2012. He became Executive Chairman in April 2015 then Interim Chief Executive Officer in November 2018.

Christopher spent 20 years at Syngenta and its predecessor companies in various strategic management positions in South America, Europe, and Asia. He then served as CEO of Arysta LifeScience from 2004 until 2010, leading Arysta LifeScience’s transformation into a global agrochemical company with sales above $1.6 billion. He was then Chairman of Arysta LifeScience until 2015. He serves on the Board of directors of Origin Enterprises plc, a service provider to farmers for food production solutions, and is Chairman of Nanoco Group plc, a nano-materials technology company conducting research, development and commercialisation of products based on heavy metal-free quantum dots.

Date of Appointment: September 2013

Richard Webb joined the Company in September 2013 as a Non-executive Director.

In January 2015, he was appointed as an Executive Director, responsible for leading the PREtec strategy and licensing. In January 2019 he became a Non-executive again, taking over as Chairman in October 2019. Richard held various positions at ICI plc including, early in his career, managing laboratory, field, and commercial development programmes for its public health pesticide business. Later he held corporate strategy roles at the time of ICI’s demerger and restructuring. Thereafter, he worked as a consultant, mostly with life sciences businesses. It was in this capacity that he was originally engaged by the Company in 2012 to work on the development of its new business strategy. His doctorate in Pest Biology was from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Date of Appointment: November 2019

Jeffrey Hovey joined the Company as Chief Financial Officer in September 2013.

He became an Executive Director in November 2019. He has over 25 years’ financial management experience and is a CPA with IFRS and US GAAP experience. Jeffrey Hovey has held numerous senior financial and accounting roles in private and publicly listed retail, life sciences and technology companies. While with a regional office supply company, he led the accounting and financial due diligence effort which ultimately led to the sale of the company to an international office supply company.

Date of Appointment: November 2019

Jeff has been with Plant Health Care since October 2017. In 2019, Jeff was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and Executive Board member after leading the growth of the Commercial business in North and South America. Under Jeff’s leadership, the go-to-market strategy was transformed to align Plant Health Care’s technology with several of the largest distributors globally to broaden market access for Harpin αβ.

Recent growth of the North American Commercial business has been due to several exclusive distribution agreements signed for Harpin αβ. The first was signed with a leading supplier to the USA corn grower market, which has given the Group access to the 90 million-acre USA corn market. The second agreement was with Wilbur-Ellis, one of the largest USA agriculture distributors, for applications to specialty crops (fruits and vegetables) which comprises more than 7 million acres in the USA. Since 2019, these two agreements have delivered a Harpin αβ revenue CAGR of 53% and $2.4 million of revenue in 2021.

Jeff also led the commercialisation and launch of Saori™ as a seed treatment for soybeans in Brazil. Saori™ is the first product from the Group’s PREtec platform to be brought to market, and Brazil is the largest producer of soybeans in the world. Saori™ was approved for sale in January 2021 for the control of Asian soybean rust, after only 12 months of government regulatory evaluation. This unusually short evaluation period was because of Saori’s™ effectiveness and sustainability profile. Through Jeff’s leadership, the Group has secured a distribution agreement with Nutrien Ag Solutions, the world’s largest provider of crop inputs and services.

Jeff also led the Group’s goal of rationalising its supply chain and driving down its manufacturing costs. To this end, in 2021 he signed a production and supply agreement with a leading EU-based fermentation company. This has secured production capacity of PHC279, the active ingredient in Saori™, to meet projected global demand. Volume production cost targets were met, ensuring an attractive gross margin for the Company while still delivering an attractive return on investment for soybean farmers in Brazil.

Jeff brings 30+ years of technical, product development, sales management, and executive leadership to the Plant Health Care team. Jeff holds a Bachelor’s of Science and Master of Science from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Date of Appointment: November 2019

Guy van Zwanenberg joined the Board in November 2019 as a Non-executive Director. He is the Chair of the Audit Committee, a member of the Remuneration Committee and the Senior Independent Director.

Guy has more than 40 years’ experience in industry and practice. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Grant Thornton and then spent three years working with James Gulliver.

Guy subsequently moved to become UK Finance Director of an American computer accessory company which was taken public in 1989. In 1991, he established his own interim financial management business and has since been involved in a number of SME businesses providing strategic and financial help. Guy joined Gamingking plc in 1998 (when listing on AIM) on a part time basis as Finance Director and became Company Secretary and Non-executive Director in 2006, remaining until May 2013, during which time he helped acquire several businesses and to reverse the company into Sceptre Leisure plc, which was then delisted. He joined Quixant plc as a non-executive in March 2013 as part of the float team. In 2015 he joined as a non-executive at Coms plc and was part of the team which transformed the business into the SaaS business Smartspace plc and became its Chairman in July 2018. Guy is both a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a Chartered Director.

Date of Appointment: April 2015

William Lewis joined the Company as a Non-executive Director in April 2015. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee. Since June 2014, William Lewis has served as President and CEO of Summit Agro USA, LLC, a joint venture agrochemicals business between Sumitomo Corporation and ISK Biosciences. He previously held senior roles within Arysta LifeScience, Syngenta Crop Protection and Zeneca/ICI.

William Lewis has also been an owner/operator of two John Deere dealerships in GA where he improved the overall operations and value of the business, which led to the successful sale of the businesses. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee. Since June 2014, William Lewis has served as President and CEO of Summit Agro USA, LLC, a joint venture agrochemicals business between Sumitomo Corporation and ISK Biosciences. He previously held senior roles within Arysta LifeScience, Syngenta Crop Protection and Zeneca/ICI. William Lewis has also been an owner/operator of two John Deere dealerships in GA where he improved the overall operations and value of the business, which led to the successful sale of the businesses.