b"PARTNER CONTENTCorteva Celebrates Five Years with all Eyes ForwardC asey Onstot had a very clear path planned for when he finished college.I was going home to farm. I love the farm, he says. Instead, he took a sales job with Dow AgroSciences right out of college. In the subsequent dozen and a half years, he has pro-gressed through a wide variety of first Dow and, more recently, Corteva leadership roles. In January, he took on the role leading Corteva marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ive always told myself: when I quit having fun, Im going to go home and farm. That was 18 years ago and Im still having fun. I love agriculture. I love the people. Thats what keeps me motived every day. This June, Corteva celebrates its fifth anniversary. In its first years of existence, Corteva had two key priorities. The first was to merge successfully. The bringing together of essentially three en-titiesDow AgroSciences, DuPont Crop Protection, and DuPont Pioneerwas no small challenge. Our step one was: how do we bring the organization together and become something new? Onstot says. How do we leverage having so much history and so much experience yet not let that slow us down from where we want to be going into the future? Thats been a significant accomplishment that I think we've done very successfully. Were Corteva: everyone wears the same hat now.Priority two was clarifying the new organizations goals and focus.Cortevas mission is to enrich lives: the lives of those who pro-duce and those who consume. If you think about that statement, it means a lot. Being a pure-play ag company, the only way we win is if our farmersif our customerswin in the marketplace. That's brought a lot of clarity on where we want to focus, Onstot says. Though Corteva is an agricultural input company, its focus ex- Casey Onstot is the Europe, Middle East & Africa Marketing Leader tends well beyond delivering products and technologies.at Corteva AgriscienceIt's about how do we put those into the hands of farmers, and ultimately, how do we help those farmers utilize those products tointeract with and help them. Whenever theres a challenge, it usu-maximize production so we can feed more people with healthier,ally signifies that theres something we can improve or somewhere more nutritious diets in an ever changing, ever more challeng- we can add value.ing market. There are a lot of dynamics coming at us, so a criticalWhile looking backwards is important, Cortevas primary component is our continuing to evolve, Onstot says.gaze is focused full steam ahead. Corteva has enjoyed continuous Any company, particularly one navigating the human andgrowth over the past five years; now the goal is to build additional systems integration of a major merger and new branding, facesmomentum. That starts via product innovation driven by Cor-challenges. In Cortevas case, its earliest days were upended by thetevas R&D pipeline. global pandemic.Our goal to continue to increase our R&D investment over Our company culture is to look for opportunity in challenge,time, Onstot says. Its critically important to continue to invest Onstot says. Farmers didnt stop through the pandemic, so weto ensure we can support future generations and future solutions had to pivot to prepare digital solutions and tools to continue tothat add value for farmers.36/ SEEDWORLD.COMINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2024"