Ralph Beckers
Chief Strategy Officer at ELICIT PLANT
Ralph Beckers
Chief Strategy Officer at ELICIT PLANT
Brussels, Brussels Region
Overview
Work Experience
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
2022 - Current
ELICIT PLANT is an AGtech company and a pioneer in the stimulation of field-grown plants through the use of phytosterols. By reducing plant water stress, our patented technology increases yield in situation of lack of water. Elicit Plant develops and provides new effective prevention products against the stress suffered by plants grown by the intake of exogenous phytosterols in the field. Elicit Plant offers a novel solution for reducing water consumption for the cultivation of targeted plants and helps to fight against water stress. Elicit Plants develops a methodology to collect soil, plant development and climate data to quantify the results obtained under real-life conditions.
Managing Director - Founder
2021
Cultivating Success Through Innovation and Strategic Planning. At AgraNext, we understand that the realization of a vision hinges upon effective implementation. Just as a seed requires nurturing and protection to reach its full potential, innovation demands careful guidance and stewardship. Our commitment at AgraNext is to empower our clients with focused strategic planning and adept innovation management. We excel at nurturing your ideas and transformative projects from inception to market deployment, delivering tangible value at every stage. Our client base encompasses agri-businesses, startups, and investment funds within the realms of biological crop protection, Biotech, precision farming, agro-related enterprises, and the food transformation industry. Our core competency lies in deciphering the evolving trends and requirements of agricultural markets. AgraNext is your trusted partner in crafting novel products and positioning them effectively for a seamless market entry. Furthermore, we identify growth prospects for your existing portfolio, explore avenues for diversification, and pinpoint suitable acquisition targets through our M&A expertise. AgraNext is unwaveringly committed to harnessing new and sustainable technologies, fostering a pioneering agricultural and food production paradigm that aligns with ecological, social, and economic imperatives. Together, we forge a path toward a more sustainable and prosperous future for the agriculture and food industries.
General Partner
2021
We are building Europe‘s thought leader in the AgTech and AgBioTech venture capital space, fostering the implementation of the European Green Deal and targeting major challenges in the value chain, building the foundation for category leaders in their fields. > Assembling a highly synergetic portfolio combining AgTech and BioTech solutions into physical, climate and biodiversity supportive actions. > Capitalizing on increasing regulation, solving challenges arising from value chain disruption, food security and farm profitability. > Enhancing operational and economic efficiency in upstream food production. > Contribution to the overall goal of a sustainable agriculture. The future of agriculture and the disruption faced by the industry enables the combination of strong sustainable impact and maximized returns.
Global Lead - Portfolio Advancement & Innovation
2019 - 2021
Integration of crop strategies and setting direction for the yearly portfolio innovation cycle. Development of a global department for biological crop protection Responsible for global innovation projects and investment opportunities Development of a global data analytics division.
Global Lead - Crop Strategy
2017 - 2019
Understanding the agronomic and technology drivers and trends that have a major influence on the cropping techniques of farmers will also shape the strategic orientation of the agrochemical and seed industry. As a crop driven company, Nufarm is engaged in monitoring and evaluating the developments in the world's major crops such as Cereals, Corn, Soy bean, Grassland, Specialty Crops, and derive from both technology drivers and farmers needs the strategic way forward. The crop strategy function is accountable for driving this process and elaborating mid- to long term strategic business options.
Head Customer Marketing Europe, Middle East, Africa
2016 - 2017
- Creation of a EuMEA-wide Customer Marketing department. - Implementation of processes, Ways of Working, integration of country organizations into one European marketing department. - Development of stadardized approaches for product launches and campaign management. - Creation of a centralized business and market intelligence funtion. - Member of Nufarm European Management Team
Managing Director / Founder
2014 - 2016
Swiss based company dedicated to provide both consultancy services to the bio-based industry and develop and implement bio-industry projects. The fields of activities: o Technology & Innovation management o Start-up support in management and finances, organization o Project planning and implementation o Organization development and HR support o IP and patent management Projects: - Strategy and Project management for startup companies dedicated to a new bio-extraction technology destined to pre-treat and hydrolyze biomass and organic material prior to fermentation and further separation of green building blocks. - Innovation management for large agri-business / food producer. Development of new markets and products after collapse of core business. Re-conversion of activities into bio-industries and environmental technology. - Company re-structuring and organization desing for a large agro-chemical industry player. Change and transformation management.
Global Head Strategic Marketing Sugar Beet
2010 - 2013
• Strategic Portfolio Planning: strategic orientation of R&D priorities and resources. Short and midterm demand planning of seed supply; Long term analysis of Mega-trends in the sugar / bioenergy and seed sector; Priority setting in seed care portfolio. Strategic alignment of M&S, R&D and supply chain. • Business Intelligence: Analysis of sugar and seed markets dynamics. Forecast of economical and crop physiological developments (e.g. EU sugar market reform, CAP reform, disease patterns,…); competitor watch. • Strategic Scenario creation: Business case calculation for different economical scenarios. Quantitative analysis of genetic traits and implementation of Go-To-Market strategies; Development of branding and PR material • Business Development and Pilot projects: pre-commercial development of field crops related projects (e.g. biogas production form energy crops) and market creation.
Global Head Business Development Sugar Beet
2005 - 2010
Strategic analysis of long term sugar and sugar beet markets evolution/perspective, and new business opportunities in biofuels / bioenergy Identification of business opportunities and new value creation opportunities in Crop protection products, Seeds and Biofuels markets. Management of new business development projects for corporate buy-in. KAM for western European sugar and bioenergy customers Marketing support for national sales teams: go-to-market strategies for promoting sugar beet as bioenergy feedstock. Collaboration with the Syngenta biofuels department for the development of energy crop systems Development of tropical sugar beet in Asia; . Agronomic and technical concepts, organisation of marketing and sales. Biofuels development, in particular ethanol production. Development of agronomic and economic models for ethanol factories based on sugar beet in Europe and tropical areas. Development of new processing technologies. Elaboration of the agronomic concept for the first beet to ethanol plant in India and organisation of technology transfer to engineering groups and farmer communities.
Secretary General
1994 - 2005
Objective: Promotion of sugar beet and sugar production through technical innovation, research and development; information and technology transfer; 33 member countries worldwide. General management of all aspects of the institute and staff. Re-organisation of the institute: structural reshaping, improvement of information flow, implementation of new work procedures and IT management. Development of communication; editor in chief of scientific publications; creation and updating of the IIRB web site. Scientific management and follow up of research programmes. Organisation and follow up of expert groups and international congresses. Consecutive translation (EN, FR, DE) of expert meetings and drafting reports. International relations with other organisations and acquisition of new member countries. Financial accountabilities: €0.5m
Researcher / Senior Scientist
1993 - 1994
Member of the international research team on « pre-rational intelligence » around Prof. H. Kruse. Development of decentralised decision making and learning systems (self-organised, neural networks,. ). Creation of a group of mobile robots for self organised collection of randomly distributed objects. The machines have now been acquired as permanent exponent for the exhibition on "Bionics" by the Landesmuseum fur Technik und Arbeit, Mannheim (D) Proven paradigm: "the whole complexity of the decision making process does not need to be programmed centrally into the individual, but may emerge from the interaction with the environment".
Scientific Assistant
1988 - 1993
Chemical communication as basis for collective decision-making and self-organisation - theoretical and experimental work on social insects. (Prof. J.L. Deneubourg, Prof. I. Prigogine) First realisation of a group of mobile and interactive robots. Installation and organisation of a research laboratory. Scientific assistant and lecturer of a course in behavioural ecology (Prof. J. Deligne ; ULB) Training of research students.
Education
Doctor of Science
1990 - 1992
MS
1988 - 1992
Certified Coach
2009 - 2010
MS
1979 - 1984
MA
1979 - 1984