KWS hires new Trait Development Lead

The global seed specialist KWS has hired Hongwu Jia as the Head of Trait Development, building on its commitment to develop new seed and technology to improve the efficiency and sustainability of production agriculture to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

″Hongwu will guide the trait development research globally, and he will be located at the KWS Gateway Research Center in St. Louis, Mo.,″ said Dr. Thomas Ehrhardt, Head of Global Research and Services at KWS. ″Hongwu shows a lot of passion for trait product development and he strongly resonates with our company mission and core values.″

Jia has a track record of more than 15 years in managerial roles in trait-related research and development in the seed industry.

Jia began his career with Monsanto in 2004, where he held various leadership positions including responsibilities for the native trait and the genetic modification trait discovery and deployment.

After working for Monsanto for more than 10 years, he joined Bayer CropScience to oversee the development and implementation of the global molecular breeding strategy and to manage the native trait pipeline across different crops.

In 2018, Jia began work at BASF to lead a global department of seed innovation and technology. His most recent role was holding an executive position at the RiceTec seed company, leading the information technology department focusing on digital transformation.

Jia earned his doctorate in genetics and master’s degree in statistics from Iowa State University, and he has a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. He holds 24 granted patents.