New leadership in East-West Seed pushes forward with company’s mission to serve tropical smallholder vegetable farmers
East-West Seeds names Bert van der Feltz as new CEO
From its humble beginnings up to today, the company continues to take a significant role in revolutionizing the tropical vegetable seed market in Southeast Asia and beyond. East West Seed continues to serve its market of Asian smallholder vegetable growers, assisting them to obtain higher yields, thus fueling economic growth in the rural economy. Currently the company is actively expanding in India, Vietnam and Myanmar, leveraging on its experience in developing superior performing varieties of indigenous vegetable varieties for the Asian tropics.
Bert van der Feltz
Incoming CEO Mr van der Feltz has been with the company since 2000 and is a long-time member of the Board of Management. He previously helped start East-West Seed International to spearhead the internationalization drive of the Group. Under his leadership the East-West Seed International brand was launched in India, which is now the Group’s fastest growing market. The company is exporting to over 60 countries, reaching more and more vegetable growers in the tropical world.
Outgoing CEO Mr Pekelharing will continue to serve as a non-executive member of the Supervisory Board and in addition lead the further development of East-West Seed Foundation.
The Board of Management of East-West Seed will now be composed of Bert van der Feltz as President and CEO, and Simon Jan de Hoop and Michel Devarrewaere as Vice Presidents.
Mr Devarrewaere, presently Group Manager Seed Operations, is the latest addition to the Board of Management. He is an experienced seedsman with a long career of 20 years within operations in the company.
Based in Asia, East-West Seed employs more than 4,000 staff and operates 12 R&D stations in 7 countries. East-West Seed varieties are planted in the fields of 18 million farmers worldwide. It was founded in 1982 by Dutch seedsman Simon Groot, presently Chairman of the Supervisory Board and majority owner of the privately held and fiercely independent company.