Industry luminary, Chuck Warta, has joined the team at Lewis & Clark AgriFood, a St Louis based food and agriculture investment firm. He will be an operating partner.
Before joining Lewis & Clark, Warta spent over 30 years at Cargill, most recently as the president of Cargill Health Technologies, where he was responsible for growing both the human and animal health business portfolio. He also served on the investment board of Cargill’s Venture Capital team.
“We’re very excited to welcome Chuck to our investment team,” said David Taiclet, general partner and managing director of Lewis & Clark AgriFood. “His venture investing background, leadership, and extensive knowledge of the animal nutrition and food technology industries will prove valuable to the investment team during deal diligence, as well as to our portfolio companies post-investment.”
Beyond Cargill, Warta has served on the board of directors and executive committee of the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF), and he is currently on the board of Heifer International.
Warta holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture economics from Kansas State University and was named the Kansas State University Agriculture Alumni Fellow in 2018.
Lewis & Clark AgriFood invests in companies that are at the growth stage of their evolution, poised to scale their technology to a national or global scale.
DSM and Firmenich recently announced the future leadership team for the merged business.
The new company's executive committee will have a balanced team of individuals drawn from both DSM and Firmenich, representing the "diversity, skillset, and ambitions" of the combined entities.
The existing executive management teams of DSM and Firmenich will remain unchanged until the completion of the merger, which is expected in the first half of 2023.
The future executive Committee of DSM-Firmenich will consist of:
Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze. As previously confirmed, they will be Co-CEOs. Currently Co-CEOs of DSM, they will continue to hold additional CFO (Matchett) and COO (de Vreeze) responsibilities respectively for the future combined company.
Emmanuel Butstraen will be chief integration officer, overseeing the merger of these two iconic companies. A French national, Butstraen joined Firmenich in 2018. He had spent the previous ten years leading businesses at Solvay. Prior to that, he spent 17 years with BASF.
DSM-Firmenich's global network of 15 R&D facilities will be led by Dr Sarah Reisinger. A US national, she holds a PhD in microbiology from the University of California, Berkeley and has extensive experience in biology and related fields, previously holding leadership roles at Ginkgo Bioworks and Amyris. She joined Firmenich in 2018 to lead its biotechnology and process engineering teams, taking on her current role of chief research officer in 2021.
DSM-Firmenich will have four complementary businesses, each led by a member of the future executive committee. They will include: Perfumery & Beauty, Food & Beverage/Taste & Beyond, Health, Nutrition & Care, and Animal Health & Nutrition.
Ivo Lansbergen, who was appointed DSM's executive VP for animal health & nutrition in 2019, will continue to lead that business.
Photo credit: GettyImages/fotostorm
Robert Schubert has joined the US-based Livestock Nutrition Center (LNC) as its chief operating officer, adding to its senior management team.
The LNC is a provider of targeted nutrition programs for pre-feedlot cattle producers in South Central US. It operates 15 feed manufacturing facilities across Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Kansas.
Schubert most recently served as managing director of North America Beef/Pork/Poultry for Cargill Animal Nutrition, and he has over 20 years of feed experience across multiple geographies and segments of the feed industry.
During his tenure at Cargill, he led the rollout of significant operational expansion and capital expenditures, noted LNC.
"Robert brings a deep understanding of the feed industry and commercial cattle producers. Livestock Nutrition Center has grown tremendously over the past five years. He is ideally suited to lead our growing team and accelerate the commercialization of our portfolio," said Ben Baer, president, LNC.
Schubert holds a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness from Texas A&M University.
Mars Inc has named Ikdeep Singh as the new global president for its pet nutrition business.
The role also sees Singh become a member of Mars Petcare’s global leadership team.
In this role, he will be responsible for some of the world’s largest pet food brands and he will lead the strategy for growing the portfolio in over 50 global markets, overseeing a team of 18,000 employees in global locations.
Singh joined Mars in August 2020 as regional president of pet nutrition, North America: the largest market for the pet nutrition business.
"Under his leadership, the business saw its largest growth momentum thanks to a focus on digital transformation, prioritizing innovation, and leveraging data."
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) has begun a nationwide search for an executive director.
The role, it said, is focused on providing leadership and guidance in support of AAFCO’s vision, mission, strategic objectives, and initiatives for promoting a safe feed supply through unified system-based regulation and feed-ingredient standards.
The organization guides US state, federal and international feed regulators in relation to ingredient definitions, label standards and laboratory standards.
Reporting to AAFCO’s board, the executive director will work with the leadership team and the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS).
The organization said it is looking for individuals able to show evidence of organizational, leadership and communications skills, inter-organizational networking, membership development, and support.
Potential candidates can submit an application to AAFCO via email: aafco@aafco.org. The deadline for final proposals is close of business on June 29, 2022.
Photo Credit: GettyImages/Adie Bush