Mission:
Our mission as a committee is to provide a commercial plant breeding perspective to NAPB on topics and issues that help build a broader and deeper knowledge of plant breeding across the organization.
Achievements:
A soft skills training workshop has been held for graduate students at Texas A&M and the University of Minnesota in addition to a workshop at the annual meeting each year. This series of outreach programs is intended to bring information to plant breeding students from a commercial breeding perspective on topics our committee feels are often missing from university curricula, but are also of high value to industry and important for graduate students and aspiring plant breeding candidates to understand.
For the last two years, the commercial breeding committee has been given a portion of the NAPB Annual Meeting to organize a presentation on a topic of particular interest to industry. During the 2021 Annual Meeting, the committee sponsored an overview presentation on sustainability to explain how focus on this subject can benefit a plant breeding organization. In 2022 the committee decided to focus on this topic again and bring clear examples of how breeding can affect change with regard to sustainability. At the 2022 Annual Meeting the commercial breeding committee sponsored a session of presentations and panel discussion entitled “Breeding for a Sustainable Future.” The four speakers represented a wealth of expertise from both private companies and universities.
The commercial breeders committee regularly holds webinars for NAPB members on topics relevant to the membership. These webinars have included topics such as Intellectual Property (IP) in plant breeding from an industry perspective and “The Way to my First Job,” a webinar on interviewing strategies and negotiation tactics. Several more webinars are planned for the coming year in collaboration with the Graduate Student Working Group and the Education committee.
Members:
John Gill – Chair – AgReliant Genetics – Send Message
Liana Nice – Vice Chair – Nature Source Improved Plants – Send Message
Chibwe Chungu – Secretary – BASF Vegetable Seeds – Send Message
Rick Harrison – Past Chair – Driscoll’s – Send Message
Klaus Koehler – Corteva – Send Message
Brian Pfeiffer – Innovative Seed Solutions – Send Message
Ben Beyer – Advanta Seeds – Send Message
Brittney Jones – Bayer – Send Message
Clint Steketee – Syngenta – Send Message