Seedcare Leadership Team | People Of Seedcare

Jonathan Brown

Head of Syngenta Seedcare

Based in Basel, Switzerland

Jonty is the Head of Seedcare in Syngenta. He joined the legacy company Ciba in 1990 directly from University having studied Applied Biology in Nottingham, UK. He had numerous commercial roles in the UK organization, starting as a salesman to growers and distributors and finishing as Head of UK Strategy, just prior to the merger of AstraZeneca and Novartis. During this period, Jonty completed an MBA to broaden his skill set. Jonty later joined Syngenta as EAME GTM and Arable Portfolio Head, moving from the UK to Basel, Switzerland in 2004. After these roles, he led the CP organization in the Benelux, the marketing and BD team of Cereals and DFC in the ICS, and then became the Head of Russia.

Jonty is a big sports fan, enjoying rugby and cricket and when given the chance spends time travelling with his family having 3 children, 2 studying in the US and a young daughter of 2.

“Seedcare is passionate about serving customers in order to co-create solutions that add value to their business and to Syngenta’s. To enable that Seedcare has a community of dedicated Seedcare specialists who are able to listen and support the customers with the leading portfolio of products and supporting services. Our ambition is “to be the most innovative and collaborative seed treatment team in the industry growing our customers investments from seeds to young plants”.

Andreea Popa

Global Key Account Lead Seedcare
Based in Basel, Switzerland

Andreea is Romanian and has an international career. She completed her Business Administration degree in Rome, Italy and joined Syngenta in 2008, working in several countries, including Turkey, before joining the Seedcare team in April 2020.

She is proud to be part of an energetic, innovation-driven team that is close to our customers and is dedicated to making them successful.

During her free time, Andreea enjoys reading, nature and good food and wine.

Palle Pedersen

Head of Product Management
Based in Basel, Switzerland

Palle is originally from Denmark and was born into a farming family. He moved to the US in 1998 where he obtained his PhD in Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his international MBA at Duke University. He joined Syngenta Seedcare in 2010 and is passionate about it because:

Seeds are the most critical decision growers make every year. Protecting seeds’ genetic potential gives crops the best start, maximizing yield
How can you not be passionate about giving the grower peace of mind and relief around his investment in a crop
The Syngenta Seedcare pipeline looks incredible and will bring protection and yield benefits to a new level

In his free time he enjoys fishing, hunting, traveling, cooking and good wine.

Mareike Tischhauser

Global Head of Seedcare Institute
Based in Basel, Switzerland

Mareike is originally from Germany. She has spent one half of her career in marketing & sales positions and the other half as a strategy & innovation leader. Mareike joint SYT in 2010, after an international career in sustainability and the completion of her MBA in Spain and China. In Syngenta, she held several roles in Sales, Marketing and Digital before joining the Seedcare team in 2022.

Mareike is passionate about Seedcare and believes that it is a fantastic people focused team with strong commitment to serve its customers in the best way possible. She is proud to work in the Seedcare Institute which has the capabilities, commitment, and passion for innovation to bring services and application alongside the Seedcare portfolio. This makes her proud and brings her joy.

Mother of two wonderful young children and loving wife of an Aerospace enthusiast and entrepreneur, Mareike enjoys mountaineering (climbing, skiing, hiking and biking) as well as water sports in her spare time.

Norton Chagas

Global Product Biology Syngenta Seedcare Lead
Based in Basel, Switzerland

Norton is originally from Brazil. He joined Syngenta directly from university having finished his PhD in Agronomy at the UNESP/University in Brazil, 2008. He has held numerous technical roles in the LATAM organization. He started his career in 2008 as a temporary researcher in Brazil before joining the global organization in early 2019. He rejoined the Seedcare team as Global Product Biology Seedcare Lead in 2022.

His passion for Seedcare began in 2010, while in Brazil, when he became deeply involved in the development of Fortenza® and Fortenza® Duo. He describes this as one of his proudest professional achievements while working at Syngenta Brazil. Today, Norton is delighted to have returned to the Seedcare family team.

In his free time, he enjoys: playing with his children, walking the family’s dogs, reading, watching and playing soccer, cooking and enjoying wine with good friends.

Marc-Oliver Zwicky

Syngenta Seedcare Head Europe, Africa, Middle-East. Based in Basel, Switzerland

Marc-Olivier was born and raised in Basel Switzerland. He spent 7 Years in Boston, the United States completing Bachelor in Marketing and MBA from Bentley University.

Marc has been working over 12 years for Syngenta across Production & Supply, and Marketing & Sales, and has spent also years in Brazil. He brings an ample experience of the crop protection and seed business, understanding customer needs and the industry. He is fluent in 4 languages including German, French, English and Portuguese.

He describes his passion for Seedcare in the following words: “The customers are what gives me the energy. I love the innovation we can offer to customers as Seedcare is the ideal precision technology for the complex farming system!”. In his free time, he plays hockey, goes skiing or hiking with his lovely wife. He also likes a good (South American) BBQ.

Igor Lyra

Head of Seedcare LATAM
Based in Sao Paolo, Brazil

Igor Lyra is the new Head of Seedcare LATAM/Brazil and comes with a strong track record of growing our Seeds business.

Igor’s career began when he qualified as an agronomist in 2001. He worked in several roles, from Sales Rep to Director, most of his career has worked with seeds and always in marketing and sales. Among the achievements he is most proud of, the main one is to be able to help the development of his team, enabling them to take roles with more responsibilities at Syngenta

One of his guiding principles throughout his career, he says, has been: “If it is not necessary for our customers, take it out. Be simple and prioritize – all the time.”

Together with his marketing team (32 members last year), he also relaunched the NK brand in Brazil at the height of the pandemic. This too ranks among his proudest achievements. “We had to raise awareness, re-adapt our plan after a year and we managed to deliver more market share.”

Now, with this brand-new project and challenge in his career, he just want to keep playing a fair game, with lots of responsibilities to reach strong results.

Jiayi Zhu

Head of Seedcare, China
Based in Beijing, China

Jiayi is from Shanghai and spent several years of her career in Basel, before returning to China.

Jiayi has an extensive education, including Economics and MBA qualifications. Prior to joining Seedcare in 2022, Jiayi held several commercial roles in Syngenta within Customer Marketing, Commercial Excellence and Portfolio & Product Management. Jiayi is passionate about her team and is motivated to bring the best-in-class Seedcare technology and services to millions of Chinese growers.

Will Salter

Head of Seedcare APAC
Based in Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Raised in rural Australia, Wills father is an ag-entrepreneur, which inspired Will to study agricultural systems at university. He balanced his study with industry experience and leadership positions in student and sporting groups. “I’ve always been drawn towards opportunities to build fun and functional teams”.

Will joined Syngenta Australia in 2013, eventually leading the Seedcare team there through the launch of the Wagga Wagga Seedcare Institute. He relocated to Singapore in August 2019 to drive an ambitious growth strategy in this diverse and emerging market. “APAC is an agricultural frontier begging for technology and we have the best products and talented teams to deliver them”.

Will loves people, music, and escaping into the ocean or natural spaces.

Quinn Showalter

Head of North American Seedcare
Based in Stanton, USA

Growing up on a multi-generational corn and soybean family farm in North Central Iowa has kept Quinn entrenched in the business of production agriculture since a young age.

Quinn started his career as a Crop Protection Sales representative in 2002 after graduating from Iowa State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Agriculture. Quinn served as a Crop Protection CU Marketing Lead and then Crop Protection District Manager in Kansas and Colorado before moving to Minneapolis to work as an Agrisure Trait Marketing Manager in 2010. While in Minneapolis, Quinn helped establish the Sales Services Team in 2013 and lead the implementation of SFDC before becoming the Head of NK Sales in 2016.

In the summer of 2019, Quinn and his family relocated to St. Charles, IL which is where they reside today.

Outside of work, Quinn enjoys watching and helping his children in youth sports, staying active, spending time with his immediate and extended family and friends, and trips to Iowa to help on the family farm when he can.