BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pivot Bio, a leading sustainable agriculture company, announced today James C. Collins Jr. has been elected to the Pivot Bio Board of Directors, effective Jan. 23. Collins brings to the company an impressive resume that includes leadership positions at various well-known agribusinesses.
“Jim is a highly regarded business leader, with significant experience in world-class agriculture companies,” said Pivot Bio CEO Chris Abbott. “Jim will be a great addition to our dynamic slate of directors. He has an outstanding track record leading large agricultural companies, with a strong strategic growth agenda. I am thrilled to have him join the board and confident that his fresh perspective and contributions will help advance the company's strategy and growth."
A current director of Archers-Daniels-Midland and Vestaron, Collins recently retired as CEO of Corteva Agriscience. He was previously chief operating officer for the agriculture division of DowDuPont. Prior to the DowDuPont merger, he was an executive vice president for DuPont, where he was responsible for the agriculture segments, which included DuPont Crop Protection and Pioneer Seed.
Beginning with the announcement of the DowDuPont merger, Collins led the integration of legacy DuPont and Dow agricultural businesses to drive readiness for the ultimate spin of Corteva – a new leading pure-play agriculture company – that successfully separated from DowDuPont on June 1, 2019. During this time, Collins drove execution actions that led to the realization of aggressive midterm net sales and operating EBITDA growth targets for the business. These included launching 14 products from the innovation pipeline, implementing a multichannel, multibrand growth strategy and making significant progress toward a best-in-class cost structure.
Collins joined DuPont in 1984 and later served in key leadership roles across several DuPont businesses. His work in the agriculture segment began more than 35 years ago when he joined the company as a sales representative and product manager, followed by roles supporting seed and crop protection businesses for DuPont around the world. Prior to heading up the agriculture segment, he led two other large DuPont business segments: Performance Materials and Electronics & Communications.
In addition to ADM and Vestaron, Collins is a member of the advisory board of the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources at the University of Delaware, his alma mater. He is a longtime supporter of youth education and leadership development, having served on the National 4-H Council Board and receiving an honorary American FFA degree for his efforts to promote agriculture education for young people in the United States. Collins also was a member of the Business Round Table, serving on the Special Committee on Equity and Racial Justice, and Climate Policy and Trade committees.
Collins has a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Christian Brothers College and an MBA focused on international business from the University of Delaware.
About Pivot Bio
Pivot Bio is a leading sustainable agriculture company delivering farmers patented crop nutrition technologies that harness the power of nature to reliably and productively grow the food the world needs in the face of increasing volatility. Currently available in North America and soon in Brazil, the company’s products are a breakthrough innovation. They are among the industry’s most promising climate solutions because they deliver nitrogen to plants without the negative impacts of synthetic fertilizer. Our nitrogen is weatherproof, safer to handle, and does not leach or contribute to nitrous oxide pollution. By making this possible for the first time at scale, Pivot Bio is upending the 190 billion USD nitrogen market. Pivot Bio has been recognized twice by Time magazine on its annual list of best inventions, by Fast Company on its World Changing Ideas and World's Most Innovative Companies lists, by CNBC in its Disruptor 50 list of private companies, and by Fortune on its Impact 20 list of startups driving social good. The company recently announced its fourth consecutive year of growth. For more information, visit PivotBio.com.