Ponsi Trivisvavet
Former President, Syngenta Seeds, inc.
Expert Bio
Ponsi Trivisvavet was named Syngenta North America Region Director and President of Syngenta Seeds, Inc. in July 2014. She shared responsibility for the North American business with Vern Hawkins, Region Director and President of Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC.
Ponsi brings broad knowledge of the seeds business and commercial experience to this role. In the seven years she was with Syngenta, Ponsi has held a variety of commercial roles around the world.
Prior to her current role, Ponsi was responsible for leading the Syngenta business across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) territory during a period that saw significant sales growth. In this role, Ponsi led the operations of agricultural business in five major countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. This included managing the development of key crop solutions to help increase the productivity of rice, corn, vegetables, and specialty crops.
Before leading the ASEAN business, Ponsi was based at Syngenta global headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, where she served as the global leader for the Corn Crop Unit. There, she led the development of the global corn strategy focused on the needs of growers and managed the overall corn portfolio, including seeds, traits, crop protection, and new assets. She was responsible for developing the overall biotechnology traits strategy, including traits licensing deals across all crops.
On her first assignment in North America, Ponsi co-led the development of the Syngenta global seeds growth strategy, including agribusiness, biotechnology, R&D and licensing. She worked closely with the North America Commercial Units to develop campaign plans.
Prior to joining Syngenta, Ponsi held positions with McKinsey & Company in the United States, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, and Asia as well as with Merrill Lynch in Asia.
She holds a Master of Business Administration with distinction from Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Ponsi, and her family live in Minnetonka, Minn.
Studies, Articles and Answers
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A: Genetic engineering is an important process for breeding crops that are safe and provide important benefits for farmers and consumers around the world. I have personally been involved in this business for many years and have seen the success that both farmers in the U.S. and smallholder farmers in emerging nations are having with these crops. Since the first plantings in 1996, more than 4 billion acres of biotech crops have been successfully cultivated. In 2014 alone, biotech crops were planted in 28 countries by 18 million farmers, according to the International Service for the Acquisition o [...]
A: Thank you for your question. Our CEOs and executives are proud to eat food with ingredients derived from GMOs and serve it to their families. This is because they know that foods produced in whole or in part with biotechnology are as safe and nutritious as the same foods produced conventionally. In fact, the FDA has determined that “…there is no significant difference between foods produced using bio-engineering, as a class, and their conventional counterparts.” “GM crops are extensively reviewed by governments and scientific experts to make sure they are saf [...]
A: As a molecular biologist working in industry, I have a passion for innovation that enables us to grow more food more with less inputs. I come to work every day to try and help bring breakthrough innovations into the hands of growers around the world that enable the sustainable intensification of their farms. As a human being, I am also interested in contributing to making the world a better place, in which my children and my children’s children will have a future. For me this means that I should live a life that is congruent to those ideals. I personally believe that if we are [...]
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