b'2 0 1 920 MOST innovative breedersin the European seed sectorHENDRIK TSCHOEPR&D DIRECTOR AT SESVANDERHAVEIN BELGIUM Hendrik studied breeding and plant biology and holds a PhD in molecular plant physiology. He started his career within SESVanderHave as a breeder in 2008. In 2014, he became the Head of Inbred Line Development, in which he coordinated the research activities around the development of new breeding lines. And in 2019, he took up the role as R&D Director. In his current role, he is responsible for the integration and coordination of the global research and breeding activities within SESVanderHave. Hendrik coordinates the R&D program with the goal to deliver high yielding, competitive varieties that withstand a wide range of pests and diseases. Especially the demand for a higher resistance against all types of insects and secondary pathogens they transmit, is one of his top priorities. He and his team do so through the exploitation of big data and its integration into new breeding methodologies such as predictive breeding.ABELARDO JORGE DE LA VEGAPLANT BREEDING LEADER - EUROPE AT CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE INJOHANNA WINKLER DR. CLINE ZIMMERLI SWITZERLANDPLANT BREEDER AT SAATZUCHTLEAD BREEDER - HYBRID WHEATAbelardo has been in active in plant breed- GLEISDORF GMBHAT BASF ing for the past 28 years, mostly in sunflower,Johanna is a successful breeder in bothAfter her PhD in Plant Molecular Biology, and has developed over 40 commercialsmaller local crops as well as major cropsCline Zimmerli has worked for several hybrids adapted to several countries.like soybean. She has worked as breeder ofyears as a discovery breeder and is Besides being a plant breeder, he has 14Styrian oil pumpkin, legumes and minor cropscurrently leading the BASF French breeding years of experience in international researchat Saatzucht Gleisdorf GmbH for the past 35operations for wheat. Cline and her leadership: as Global Sunflower Researchyears. The Styrian oil pumpkin is a regionalcolleagues Dr. Antje Rohde, a plant Lead and Argentina Research Managerspecialty in Austria, and Johanna managedgeneticist and Dr. Anne Marie Kuijpers a at Advanta and Sr. Research Manager,to overcome a relatively narrow gene poolcell biologist based in Ghent, Belgium share Sunflower Research Director and Europeand initiated hybrid breeding in the 1990s.expertise and their passion to improve Plant Breeding Leader at Corteva. He alsoAfter a heavy epidemic of the virus ZYMV wasthe hybridization of wheat with the aim of wrote more than 20 peer-reviewed papersdefeated, the cultivation area has increasedlaunching a performing pipeline mid-2020s. and book chapters and over 40 conferenceconsiderably. As the only Austrian breederCline is part of a young generation of communications on plant breeding, geneticsof the traditional crop faba bean, Johannabreeders designing the future by connecting and physiology. He is regularly invited asalso had great success, both with springall the modern tools driving genetic gain a lecturer, conference speaker, manuscriptand winter types. With regard to soybean,towards sustainable, productive, stable and reviewer and thesis supervisor and evalu- Johanna was ahead of her time, as shesafe products for farmers and consumers. ator. Most recently, Abelardo has led thealready started to test and breed this emerg- Within a couple of years Cline and her re-organization of the Corteva world-classing crop more than 20 years ago.team have implemented a stable wheat sunflower breeding team, optimizing adap- hybridity system associated with genetic tation zones and building a cutting-edgediversity, predictive breeding and GWAS technology hub for accelerated generationstrategy.cycling.18IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'