International news in brief: People in Pest Control

IPCadmin | November 1, 2018

New independent director at Crop Enhancement

Crop Enhancement Inc., a venture-backed agriculture technology corporation based in San Jose, California, has appointed Marcus Meadows-Smith to its board of directors. Mr. Meadows-Smith will assist the management team with the development of business models and go-to-market strategies that position Crop Enhancement as it reaches a key inflection point – commercialisation of its technology.

Kevin Chen, CEO with Marcus Meadows-Smith

Mr. Meadows-Smith is currently CEO of BioConsortia Inc., a discoverer of microbial crop protection and enhancement products. Prior to that, he turned around the biopesticide business AgraQuest Inc. over a four-year timeframe, culminating in that company being acquired by Bayer CropScience for over $400 million. Following Bayer’s acquisition of AgraQuest, he became head of biologics for Bayer CropScience.

Crop Enhancement’s market momentum is growing as the company gears up to launch its first crop protection product, CropCoat®. Extremely successful field trials with cacao growers and food value chain partners demonstrated double-digit yield increases, confirming that Crop Enhancement’s unique approach gives growers a powerful new tool to address the demands of consumers who want sustainably produced foods.

“Crop Enhancement has achieved the two most telling milestones for the success of a startup in agriculture — indeed for any product or company in agriculture— by generating great field trials results, as well as excitement for product adoption by key partners and major players in the food value chain,” said Marcus Meadows-Smith, board director of Crop Enhancement. “Crop Enhancement is well positioned to gain registrations, identify partners who can deliver rapid growth, and then collaborate with them to maximize crop yield.” .

Changes at Liphatech

Aware of customers’ expectations, Liphatech has implemented a new organisational structure by strengthening the operational side of its business.

The goal of the new organisation, effective since July, is to strengthen the dynamics of the company both in France and for the export market. To achieve this, the main task for the company is to provide close support to distributors and end-users, through an organisation focused on operational activities.

Liphatech staff from left to right : Damien Barrau, Marc Gelineau, Patricia Mora Matel, Jean-François Testut, Véronique Tressens

The company believes its new structure will allow it to better fulfil customer expectations, optimise its links to the market and improve its responsiveness to regulatory and political changes at the local level:

Marc Gelineau becomes Sales Manager France and export and in partnership with Patricia Mora Matel, COO, will define the growth strategy for the coming years.

The new job of International Marketing Manager is entrusted to Veronique Tressens; with a broadened operational marketing team, she will build the roadmap supporting the company’s strategy.

Jean-François Testut will undertake a double mission: Sales Manager for key accounts & Bio control Project Manager. He will set up the company’s bio control offering for the Home & Garden market in France and internationally.

Damien Barrau, who arrived in May 2017 and remains in charge of the Technical Department. ¢

My time with an Innovator – David Nimocks III

David Nimocks III

David Nimocks III, founder of Ensystex and former president of Terminix Company of North Carolina, died on August 13th 2018 aged 64.

I first met David in Singapore in the year 1999. I was running an Economic Development Board (EDB) funded project, as part of Singapore Government work for topicalization of pest control goods and products. Products developed elsewhere in the world were being tested for their efficacy, before being accepted in the country for public use. David was keen to test his Exterra Termite Interception Baiting System under the tropical conditions of Singapore. The product was developed in USA and had secured a registration for use by pest control practitioners.

When I first met David, he was sporting a T-shirt with the characteristic Exterra logo and I asked him to explain the meaning of his brand. He said it stood for “Exterminating Termite from Terra”. We joked about the seriousness of his challenge then, even though we knew very well it was only intended for the pest termites. Thus, began our association.

At that time little was known about termite feeding behaviour and about specific termite attractants and stimulants. Even less was known about bait presentation methods to termites.

David had worked out every aspect of his new product. I found him to be an innovator but an inventor first and a businessman second. His hunger for information and details was that of a scientist. We used his digital camera to take many pictures which allowed us to compare the feeding characteristics of termites. The work slowly got more complicated as we found multiple termite species with differing food choices and feeding patterns in our test sites. His singular goal was to develop a common bait which would satisfy all the economically important species. He recognised this was the key to developing a viable business.

The result of his effort is now well known. An article written by Dan Moreland in PCT magazine “David vs Goliath” (Sept 2004) sums it up. Said David, “I think ultimately the product stands or falls on its own merits in the field. Exterra is now in place in over 25,000 structures and has been in use for almost two termite seasons. During that time, we have not had a single operator telling us that the product did not work. Our biggest hurdle has been convincing people that we are for real.”

Exterra bait today is one of the finest termite bait formulations available to pest control practitioners. I have personally used it in all types of situations from landscape trees to sea-going ships. It uses multiple formulation types, tested and proven for termite management across diverse geographical territories. It has been scientifically shown to work for both lower and higher groups of termite species with equal efficiency. Several scientific papers have been written on its bait efficacy against multiple species of termite.

I didn’t meet David that many times in later years but thanks to the internet we remained in touch and continued our work. I was happy to see the popularity of the brand grow across Asia Pacific, Australia, Africa and Europe. True to his wish he succeeded in giving the power back to the practitioners. ¢

More about him: http://www.pctonline.com/article/-pct-cover-story–david-vs–goliath/

Author: Partho Dhang*

* Independent Consultant, Makati City, Philippines