Where we work
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Improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers
Foundation Staff
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Marco Ferroni
Executive Director
Marco Ferroni is the Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. He is a Swiss national and joined the Foundation from a career at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C., the World Bank and the Swiss government, where he worked in development cooperation in the Foreign and Economic Ministries (DEZA and SECO) in Bern.
Detailed Bio
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Marisa de Faveri
Office Manager
Marisa de Faveri has been responsible for administrative matters since 1992, initially at the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, and since the start of 2001 at the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. |
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Laura Ciliberto
Administrative Assistant
Laura Ciliberto joined the Foundation as Administrative Assistant in 2009. She previously worked for six years at Sandoz Agro Ltd., and then moved to Novartis International. Laura was responsible for the Novartis Foundation (formerly Ciba-Geigy-Jubilee-Foundation) for 12 years. |
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Felix Nicolier
Head of Project Management
Felix Nicolier has worked at the Foundation since 1983, starting out at the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development. He previously spent 15 years working in the agricultural sector in African countries. He is involved with many organisations including Intercooperation, Swisscontact, Third World Solidarity, and the Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries. |
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Yuan Zhou
Policy Analyst
Yuan Zhou brings experience in environmental economics and water management. She has worked on a range of interdisciplinary projects in developing countries, including economics and management of water resources, cost evaluation of water treatment and desalination technologies, integrated studies on water/food/environment relations and rural development issues. Yuan holds a PhD in environmental economics from University of Hamburg and previously worked as a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). |
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Michael Robinson
Chief Science Advisor
Mike Robinson has over 20 years' R&D experience in industrial biosciences and, more recently, biofuels technologies, renewable energy and carbon accounting in agriculture. Previously, he worked as Senior Technology Analyst for the Syngenta Corporate Strategy & Technology group. He has been involved in the establishment and project management of several global collaborative research programmes with academic and commercial organizations. Mike holds a PhD and graduated from Nottingham and Leeds Universities and Rothamsted Experimental Station in the UK. |
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Partha DasGupta
Principal Advisor, Agronomy, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Partha DasGupta is an agronomist by training, with a professional career of more than thirty-five years in the seed industry. He has been working for the last decade in various leadership positions with Syngenta and its legacy companies. Partha provides agronomic advice to Foundation programs in general, and particularly in India. He holds a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan. |
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B T Seshadri
Executive Director, Syngenta Foundation India
B T Seshadri became Executive Director of Syngenta Foundation India (SFI) in 2009. He previously worked in Syngenta and its legacy companies in R&D, Marketing, Customer Relations and as Sales Head for South India. He has designed and implemented successful business strategies with a strong focus on customer-facing activities. As SFI Director, B T aims to achieve better and more extensive outreach in the area of Growing Systems. |
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Oumar Niangado
Delegate for West Africa
Oumar Niangado is Syngenta Foundation delegate in West Africa. Previously, he was Director of the Cinzana Research Station in Mali and later on he became the Director General of the Mali Institute of Rural Economy. He has been a member of CIRAD and of the Technical Advisory Committee of CGIAR, and numerous other scientific institutions. He is presently member of the Board of Trustees of the International Foundation for Science and of the Scientific and Technical Committee of CERAAS. He holds a PhD in Agriculture Science from Paris-Sud University, France. |
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Miriea Idiaquez
Coordinator, Business Partnerships
Mireia Idiaquez joined the Foundation in 2010. She previously worked for more than 10 years in both the private and non-for-profit sectors. In her previous assignments she concentrated mainly on business development, financial administration and project management in Europe, North America and Africa. In her spare time, she is involved with an NGO conducting social entrepreneurship programs to provide access to water in slums. |
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Rose Goslinga
Agricultural Insurance Initiative Coordinator
Rose Goslinga is responsible for developing the Foundation's agricultural insurance initiative. She initiated the development of a drought insurance product in her previous position as an ODI fellow to the Ministry of Agriculture of Rwanda. As an ODI fellow she also developed Rwanda’s national rural insurance strategy and led training programmes for local banks and microfinance institutions in developing financial products for the agricultural sector. Rose has a background in working in Africa, and was previously involved in the establishment of a London-based African microfinance fund. She holds a Masters degree in Political Economy of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and a Bachelors degree in Business and Economics from the University of Amsterdam. |
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Paul Castle
Communications Manager
Paul Castle joined the Syngenta Foundation as its Communications Manager in April 2010. He has previously worked for a decade each in the agricultural and healthcare industries. In addition, his projects as a freelance writer and translator covered areas as varied as water treatment and desalination, government-sponsored biotech programs and a global review of children’s Physical Education. Before moving to the Foundation, Paul led the Corporate Affairs editorial team at Syngenta. He is an international rowing commentator in his spare time, and has covered three Olympics. |
External Collaborators
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Vivienne Anthony
Consultant, Regulatory Affairs &
Technology Donations
Viv Anthony supports the Syngenta Foundation on product development matters and technology donations. Viv has more than 20 years experience in high-energy, cutting-edge research and development in the Seeds and Crop Protection industries. She is a named inventor on over 25 patents. As a former head of global regulatory affairs in agricultural biotechnology she has significant expertise in governmental affairs, international issues management, stewardship and communications. Viv is British and has a PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Wales, UK. |
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Andres Binder
Consultant, Biotechnology
Andres Binder has been with the Syngenta Foundation since 2004, as research and management consultant in various biotech-related projects, including the new initiative to build up an African bioscience center in Nairobi (BecA). Before his retirement, he was working for Novartis and Syngenta where he was responsible for coordinating global projects in genomics and biotechnology. He is a faculty staff member at the Botanical Institute at the University of Basel. He is a member of the program advisory board of the Swedish Development Agency, as well as other scientific and management advisory boards.
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