Ohad Zuckerman, president and ceo of Israeli leading seed company Zeraim Gedera, will leave the position at the end of March.
Zuckerman (44), who has held the roles for eight years and worked at Zeraim Gedera for 18, will be replaced by Amnon Eshet, who has been with the company for 12 years and is its current executive vice president, marketing and sales. Zuckerman will continue as a member of the board of directors of the company, which has been a subsidiary of Syngenta since July last year.
Zuckerman, second generation of one of the founding families of ZG, joined as marketing manager in 1989. Since 2000, under his management, the company survived a crisis when the Turkish market collapsed in 2001, and has subsequently seen sales multiply four-fold. ZG grew by 22 per cent in 2006, and a further 24 per cent in 2007, to become the leading vegetable seed supplier in the Israeli market.
Zuckerman said: "I was privileged to lead the team that turned it into a multi-national company and later on to a part of a global company. With the sale to Syngenta and the termination of the building of the merger strategy, I feel the company reached a safe harbour and that I can step down and start a new way, especially when I know I leave behind one of the best management teams in the industry.
“I was very pleased that Syngenta accepted my recommendation that Amnon, with whom I worked as a team for 12 years will replace me. Amnon is talented manager who knows very well the company and the vegetable seed industry and has fantastic connections with all the seed and produce industry leaders. I have no doubt that the company will continue its growth under his leadership within Syngenta."
