Monsanto today announced the appointment of Leticia Gonalves to the role of President of its European Row Crops business.
Gonalves takes over from José Manuel Madero, who was recently appointed to the role of International Business Development Lead to focus on the empowerment of small-holder farmers.
Her appointment, which also sees Gonalves join Monsanto's International Business Leadership Team, comes at an exciting time for the company's Row Crops business in Europe and the Middle East. The business is focused on sales of high-performance conventional maize and oilseed rape seeds and agricultural productivity products such as Roundup. Its investment strategy includes a 500-million-euro, decade-long expansion of production capacity in several countries in Europe in order to meet strong regional and global customer demand.
"I'm excited to be a part of helping to find smarter ways to nourish our world," she said. "While Europe is a unique region for us in some respects, we and our customers share a common goal of ensuring their continued success with creative, sustainable solutions that help farmers produce more, better and more affordable foods with less resources."
Gonalves joins Monsanto Europe from the U.S., where she headed the company's U.S. Row Crops Commercial Operations, the company's biggest regional business unit globally. Since joining Monsanto in 1997, she has held several U.S. and international management positions.
Gonalves has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering with a Specialization in Business Administration from the Universidade de So Paulo, Brazil, and an International Executive Master's in Business Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She is fluent in English and Portuguese and has a working knowledge of Spanish. She will relocate to Switzerland with her young family.
