Jean-Charles Bocquet to Lead ECPA
16 October 2013 
The European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) said it named Jean-Charles Bocquet as its new Director General, effective Nov. 5. Bocquet will replace Dr. Friedhelm Schmider, who is retiring after having held the top ECPA position since May 2002.
Bocquet is French and has been the Director General of the Union des Industries de la Protection des Plantes (UIPP), the French crop protection association, since 2002. He previously held executive positions with DuPont and Roussel Uclaf, and earned a degree in Plant Protection and Environment from the Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique in Rennes, France.
Schmider is German and has spent more than 30 years in the crop protection industry, working in a variety of technical and commercial leadership roles. ECPA said he has been “instrumental in steering the industry through two main pieces of European legislation governing the placing of plant protection products on the market, whilst helping the ECPA team adapt to an ever more politically driven policy-making process.”
Schmider has also been key to setting the foundations of the joint industry initiative “T2C, Time to Change,” which looks to better address public concerns about the risks associated with the use of pesticides and encourage sustainable agricultural productivity. T2C delivers projects in the fields of water protection, the safeguarding of human health, and biodiversity enhancement; it also has introduced train-the-trainer programs which aim to ensure that a more responsive mind-set is adopted throughout the industry.
“It has been my pleasure to work on behalf of the crop protection industry – in Brussels and around the world,” Schmider said. “We have accomplished a lot in showing how vital our industry is to the future of sustainable and productive farming, and how integral it is to our very way of life in Europe. There is still a lot to do to ensure that policy in Europe better supports R&D and innovation, crucial to job creation in Europe as well as maintaining a competitive, sustainable agriculture. I am confident that Jean-Charles Bocquet and the ECPA team will continue this important work in the years to come.”
Bocquet said: “I welcome this opportunity to represent the crop protection industry in the capital of Europe. Friedhelm will be a tough act to follow, but I look forward to continuing his work in making a strong case for crop protection as an important component of a productive and sustainable agricultural sector and take the opportunity of the Time to Change to take into account and accelerate the dialogue with all stakeholders.”
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