Colin Steen, one of Syngenta Ventures' managing directors, has departed from the unit after more than two years for a chief executive role elsewhere.
Colin Steen (pictured) has left Switzerland-based agribusiness Syngenta’s corporate venturing unit, Syngenta Ventures, to become CEO of US-headquartered seed producer Legacy Seed Companies.
Steen had been managing director at the unit for more than two and a half years following the departure of Derek Norman to Bayer. He held a board seat at portfolio company Premier Crop Systems and a board observer role at Greenlight Bio. David Pierson, Jason Gabriel and Shubhang Shankar, the other MDs at Syngenta Ventures, remain in their posts but Shiri Ailon will be heading up the group as they determine the next leader of the Ventures team, Steen said.
China government-owned ChemChina bought Syngenta for $43bn in a 2017 deal that represented the largest ever overseas acquisition by a Chinese company.
Earlier this year, ChemChina and domestic peer SinoChem consolidated their agricultural chemical businesses into a new holding company within ChemChina called Syngenta Group, and it is expected to relist the business in China by mid-2022, according to news provider Caixin.
Caixin calculates that Syngenta Group has total assets of about RMB200bn ($23bn), including roughly 75% of Adama, the Israel-based crop protection product maker acquired by ChemChina, as well as 52.7% of fertiliser supplier Sinofert and 39.9% of Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical.
Photo of Colin Steen courtesy of Syngenta. Updated to include Ailon’s role and Jason Gabriel and Shubhang Shankar as the other two MDs alongside David Pierson.
