The University of California, Davis, Seed Biotechnology Center will host Seed Business 101 Field Crops, Sept. 12-16, in Durham, North Carolina. A few spots remain, and the center has extended the early registration deadline until July 29.
Seed Business 101 is a one-week course designed to expose participants to the five functional areas of a seed company — research and development, production, operations, sales and marketing, and administration.
On the first day, participants are introduced to the fundamentals of genetics and plant breeding, variety life cycle, supply chain and production planning, profitability, and the financials of the seed and trait business. By creating a virtual seed company and case studies for each functional area, participants are encouraged to learn in a very interactive way.
Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to visit a local seed company, university or other business related to the seed industry.
The course gives participants a broad understanding of the major aspects of a seed company’s operations and cross-departmental knowledge of best practices for profitability.
The class is taught by widely respected industry executives with additional help of industry experts participating as guest speakers. Instructors include: Rale Gjuric, education director for the Seed Biotechnology Center and president of HAPLOTECH; Tom Francis, a seed industry consultant and former researcher; and Dave Westphal, CEO of D3 Consulting.
For individuals who register by July 29, registration costs $3,250. After July 29, registration costs $3,500 per person. Registration can be one online at http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=16911.
Seed Business 101 was created with input from industry executives to accelerate the careers of promising new employees and young managers. Since 2010, more than 350 seed professionals have completed the course.
For more information, visit http://sbc.ucdavis.edu/Courses/Seed_Business_101/. For questions and additional information, contact Rebeca Madrigal at rsmadrigal@ucdavis.edu.
