David Leaper

Position: Seed technical specialist
Company: Agrii

In 1997, he moved to Monsanto to launch take-all seed treatment Latitude. At the time he also assumed technical responsibility for the PBI seed portfolio.

He was responsible for co-ordinating Monsanto’s field-scale biodiversity trials on genetically modified crops.

In 2007, by then in a marketing role, he was responsible for launching Monsanto’s seed brand, Dekalb, in the UK, where he spearheaded the significant growth of the company’s share of the oilseed rape market through the promotion of hybrid varieties.

Moving to a more European role in 2008 he had a co-ordinating role between marketing, breeding and technical functions with specific responsibly for the phased technical launch of Clearfield tolerant oilseed rape varieties across Western Europe.

In 2011, he was appointed arable technical manager at Openfield, one of UK's biggest grain and seed companies, and subsequently moved to Agrii, where he is now seed and seed treatment technical specialist.