Dennis Organ has joined BinSentry, an Ontario, Canada-based agtech start-up, as the chair of its board of directors.
Organ is a food executive who has spent the majority of his career in executive leadership positions, most recently as CEO of Smithfield Foods Inc.
Having headed up the global operations of the world’s largest pork processor, his vast experience in supply chain management and optimization makes him a significant contributor to the BinSentry team, said the Canadian company.
“This is a huge vote of confidence in what BinSentry is building,” says BinSentry CEO and co-founder Randall Schwartzentruber. “Dennis’ wealth of experience and depth of industry expertise will be a huge asset to BinSentry moving forward. His belief in our mission to automate the feed supply chain equips BinSentry with another strong advocate as we strive to build the “Mill of the Future,” enabling feed mills, livestock producers, and nutritionists to operate more sustainably, efficiently, and profitably via the integration of emerging technologies.”
The agtech firm has recently launched BinSentry Horizon. The software is aimed at helping feed mills and their customers view, track, place, and manage all their feed orders in a one-single platform to be more proactive and responsive to customers’ needs and improve, as a result, overall efficiency and profitability.
Ÿnsect, a France-based insect protein and fertilizer producer, recently added to its management structure with three new hires.
Joining Ÿnsect’s executive committee are Shankar Krishnamoorthy – EVP, chief strategy officer, Tina Lawton – EVP, chief growth officer and Isabelle Toledano-Koutsouris – EVP, chief financial and administrative officer.
Shankar Krishnamoorthy [pictured] has nearly four decades of proven track record as a global executive in the energy sector, said Ÿnsect.
He has led multiple business entities across the globe, rising to the position of a member of the executive committee of Engie SA.
As the head of Asian business development and CEO of Middle East and Africa, Krishnamoorthy led the opening of new markets, leading the development, construction, and operation of several multi-billion energy infrastructure projects for the international growth of Engie as well as portfolio management including the IPO of the company’s Thai assets, commented Ÿnsect.
Tina Lawton comes to the French innovator with more than 25 years of experience in life sciences and adjacent industries.
Throughout her career, she has engaged a wide variety of stakeholders to achieve shared business objectives and achieve growth in both traditional, start-up and digital environments, said Ÿnsect.
She was previously global head of business transformation at Syngenta, and, in 2018, she won the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Leading Woman Award for growing the business sustainably and empowering women in agriculture.
Isabelle Toledano-Koutsouris has over 20 years’ international finance experience at top-tier investment banks. She has extensive expertise in international capital markets, most recently having ran the debt capital markets group, and later creating the private capital markets group at UBS in EMEA.
“With these three new appointments, Ÿnsect continues in its ambition to accelerate the consumption of protein and plants across the globe. We are delighted to now include Shankar, Tina and Isabelle as critical parts of our executive leadership team, particularly as we continue to strengthen our international expansion efforts,” said Antoine Hubert, CEO of Ÿnsect.
He added that 2021 has been a great year for the company.
“We have moved forward faster than expected, especially with the acquisition of Protifarm in the Netherlands. Today Ÿnsect has three sites, including two in production, and has expectations to hire 500 new employees by 2023.”
ForFarmers said it continues to expand its offering to robotic dairy herds in hiring Laurence Loxam as its new UK robotics commercial manager.
“For those farms investing in robotic technology there is demand for a quick and sustainable return on their investment. Nutrition has a huge role to play, and this is what attracted me to ForFarmers,” said Loxam.
“Understanding how you move from a feeding a cow who visits a traditional parlour twice a day, to feeding a cow visiting a robot five times a day is vital. Getting this right means you’re far more likely to see a good return on investment,” he added.
Automatic milking systems (AMS) are becoming increasingly important in UK dairy farming, with some 10% of GB dairy herds are now milking via AMS, according to ForFarmers, which has a range of robotic milking feeds, specifically formulated for such systems.
The role of robotics on farm will only continue to grow said Loxam. “Labour is now the driving force behind the majority of robotic investments, and we believe that this will continue to drive the sway towards the investment of robotics on farm.”
Loxam previously worked as general manager for Lely Midlands where he specialized in both the sale of robots and in maximizing robotic performance.
Arm & Hammer Animal and Food Production reports that Dr Xandra Smith will be stepping into the role of director of innovation and product development.
She replaces Dr Tom Rehberger; he retired from the company at the beginning of December.
Dr Scott Druker, general manager, Arm & Hammer Animal and Food Production, said Smith’s extensive academic and industry experience make her the perfect choice for the role. She will lead a team of highly skilled researchers working to solve some of the pressing challenges in animal and food production.
Smith has been with Arm & Hammer since May 2017. Throughout her time at the company, she has led research efforts examining the genomics and ecology of microbes to provide new Bacillus strains, utilizing genomic sequencing to understand pathogens important in livestock production systems.
With his retirement, Rehberger concludes a long and notable career pioneering applications of microbial ecology in livestock production, said the company.
During his time with the organization, he fine-tuned Arm & Hammer’s high-throughput molecular microbial ecology platform, Microbial Terroir, for the development of customized probiotics for the livestock industry, added the US firm.
Aquaculture industry veteran, Wally Stevens, who over the past 14 years, has held various leadership roles with the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA), formerly the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), and is currently its CEO, is retiring at the end of December.
Brian Perkins, who joined GSA as chief operating officer in March, will assume the role of CEO, effective January 1, said the non-profit organization.
While stepping away from his day-to-day responsibilities, Stevens is to remain a member of the GSA board of directors and GSA executive committee.
His retirement comes at the end of a transitional year for GSA, which underwent a rebranding initiative and name change from the GAA with the introduction of the Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification program.
“It has been an honor to work with such professional, passionate, devoted, smart women and men here at the Global Seafood Alliance and throughout the industry. We have done good for society globally through our education and advocacy work as well as by providing third-party assurances through certification for farm-raised seafood and more recently for wild-caught seafood. The challenges that lie ahead will be best addressed by our associates at GSA, working collectively and collaboratively with others to find solutions,” said Stevens.
He joined GAA as executive director in 2007. The organization said he played a critical role in the its growth, particularly the development of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program. The number of BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills has ballooned from just over 100 in 2007 to well over 3,000 today.
Stevens was also instrumental in the establishment of the multi-stakeholder Standards Oversight Committee (SOC), which oversees the BAP standards development process, said GSA.
Belfast headquartered animal nutrition company, Devenish, is expanding its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with the appointment of Whad Fayed to the new role of poultry nutrition product manager.
Based in Egypt, Whad will be responsible for leading the development of poultry nutrition in the MENA region and driving sales throughout Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Ian Atterbury, managing director, Devenish International said the Middle East and North Africa is a key market with huge growth potential.
“Over the past five years, our business has gone from strength-to-strength in the region as we have built a solid customer base for our innovative nutritional solutions, and I’m very pleased to welcome Whad to the team.
“With a background in poultry disease and nutrition, an MBA in major international business and over 12 years’ experience in feed additive sales in Egypt, Whad brings with him both a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise which will help to support our customers and strengthen our team in the region.”
Devenish International continues to expand its geographical reach with recent recruits including Russell Trainor, area manager for Australasia; Leanne Jordaan and Amelia du Preez, who were both appointed as technical advisors, Sub-Saharan Africa.
