Biographies
Bill Latham
Latham Hi-Tech Seeds

Latham grew up on what is now a Century Farm near Alexander, Iowa. After college, he covered Louisiana and Eastern Nebraska as a Marketing Agronomist for Monsanto, and then after a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, joined Latham Seed Company in 1966. Previously as President of Latham Seed, Latham directed tremendous growth from a small retail seed farm to a large regional seed company. In his new role as Chief Technology Officer, Latham is responsible for the direction and implementation of new technologies, including genetics and traits from global technology providers.

David Pickenpaugh
Incotec

As President and General Manager of

Integrated Coating and Seed Technology

Incorporated since 1998, Pickenpaugh is responsible for managing and directing the coating and seed technology company’s

North American business operations. Incotec, whose goal is to improve plantability and seed emergence through technologies such as pelleting, film coating, priming, upgrading and disinfection against seed-borne diseases, is active in the vegetable, flower, tobacco and large field crop markets. Previous to joining Incotec, Pickenpaugh held various positions for

Asgrow.

Bill Wyffels Jr.
Wyffels Hybrids

Wyffels Jr. is a leader in the seed corn industry. His innate ability to connect with customers, understand their seed needs and put the pieces in place to respond to those needs is widely recognized. Bill and his brother and Co-Owner, Bob Wyffels, have developed Wyffels Hybrids into one of the nation’s largest independent seed corn companies. Bill’s commitment to innovation, integrity and excellence are evident throughout the company and has been shared through his active involvement in several business and community organizations.

Mark Lawson Monsanto Company As Corn Technology Yield and Stress Lead, Lawson’s current responsibilities include Monsanto’s corn drought, nitrogen, cold and intrinsic yield projects. Prior to this role he was the company’s

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Global Corn Trait Integration Lead, where he was responsible for integrating the results from Monsanto’s Corn Breeding and Biotechnology groups into products that combined the benefits of both advanced plant breeding activities and the new capabilities that have emerged from Monsanto’s biotechnology effort including Roundup Ready, Yield Guard Corn Borer, and Yield Guard Root Worm. Lawson has been a member of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America for 30 years. He has chaired the American Seed Trade Association’s Soybean Seed Division, Soybean Basic Research Committee and Legal and Legislative Concerns Committee.

Marcel Bruins
International Seed Federation

Bruins has been the Secretary General of

ISF since 2007. Prior to that, he worked for Seminis Vegetable Seeds as Manager of

Plant Variety Protection World Wide but also worked on other aspects of intellectual property such as patents and trademarks. During this period he was a member of several international committees for organizations such as the European Seed Association, the

Dutch Seed Association Plantum and the International Seed

Federation. Bruins completed his studies in plant breeding and plant pathology at the University of Wageningen in the

Netherlands in 1989 and, based on the research he did on fusarium resistance in wheat at Plant Research International, he was awarded a Ph.D in 1998.

Karen Arthur
Valent U.S.A Corporation
Arthur joined Valent in July 2005 as
Product Development Manager for seed
protection. She has 25 years experience
in seed protection with Valent and
Gustafson, serving in various research
positions involving screening and development of fungicides,
insecticides, plant growth regulators and biocontrol agents for
seed protection use.

Peter Bretting
United States Department of
Agriculture’s Agricultural Research
Service

Bretting has been the USDA/ARS

National Program Leader, Plant

Germplasm and Genomes since 1998, and was promoted to the rank of Senior National Program Leader in 2004. This position involves co-leadership, coordination and direction of a national program of crop genetic research

SEED WORLD

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