IARN — A former Bayer and Monsanto executive has joined Pivot Bio’s Board of Directors as an independent director.
Pivot Bio recently announced Lisa Safarian’s appointment to its board of directors, bringing 34 years of experience in the ag industry. Safarian was most recently responsible for Bayer’s $9.5 billion North American crop science business and led Monsanto’s $12 billion business prior.
In an interview with the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, Safarian said she’s thrilled to join Pivot Bio and feels she brings a strong track record of establishing market leadership.
“After the integration of Bayer-Monsanto, I was fortunate to be able to consider retirement as a path to try something new,” said Safarian. “I’ve been doing a lot of the same things for many years. I’m really lucky this board position became available on Pivot Bio. It really met what my criteria is for doing something post-retirement, and that is to do something that is still very meaningful. I feel that agriculture itself is very meaningful.”
As a long-standing champion for diversity and inclusion, Safarian was named Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women and is involved in the G100 Women’s Network.
Safarian explains some of her current roles since joining the board of directors.
“I’m a co-chair on the nominating and governance committee,” said Safarian. “One of the things we’re working on right now is we still have two directors to add to the board, and so I’m working with the other members of that team to define what are the skills we need and want to bring onto the board so that we can make some really good choices to add additional members to the board per the charter, so to speak. Spending quite a bit of time making sure we pick the right folks for that. And then just working with the team as they desire to talk about commercialization and scaling as we go into the future.”
In a press release, Pivot Bio CEO Karsten Temme said, “It is an honor to have Lisa join our board and share her experience and knowledge of the agriculture industry as an independent director.”
Pivot Bio recently secured $430 million in Series D funding and launched its second-generation nitrogen product, PROVEN 40, to increase farmer productivity and deliver improved sustainability.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
Pictured: Lisa Safarian (Photo by Pivot Bio)
