Italy Native Di Tommaso Takes Reins at CropLife International
Given a voice in global agriculture, Giulia Di Tommaso can’t wait to sit down now and discuss the industry with other international leaders.
Di Tommaso on Sept. 5 was named the new CEO and President of CropLife International. The trade association, founded in 2001 and based in Brussels, Belgium, comprises six agrochemical companies — BASF, Bayer CropScience, Corteva, FMC Corp., Sumitomo Chemical, and Syngenta — and 15 member associations.
Giulia Di Tommaso
“I was attracted (to CropLife International) by the opportunities to work directly with leaders (and) CEOs,” Di Tommaso says. “CropLife International gathers leaders, and you don’t have many organizations with this kind of reputation. Personal engagement with CEOs is even more important nowadays to shape the thought-leadership space. For me, it’s very intriguing. Everything is coming together. I have an amazing team, amazing colleagues.”
Di Tommaso succeeds Howard Minigh, who resigned as CEO and President after leading CropLife International since June 1, 2006. The organization, in a press release, stated that Minigh “installed modern governance, revitalized our crop protection unit, built a strong global plant biotechnology team, and, by example, set a high standard for professionalism for the CropLife International team and the global CropLife network.”
Minigh is remaining with the organization while assisting its board of directors and Di Tommaso with the transition.
“Howard has been a great support,” Di Tommaso says. “I continue to thank him for allowing this to happen in the smoothest way.”
With CropLife International, Di Tommaso, a native of Rome, plans to spend most of her time in Brussels and the United States while returning periodically to Italy to visit family.
“My grandparents were farmers. The part of the family that didn’t emigrate to the States remains (in Italy) and tries to make a living as farmers,” Di Tommaso says. “In a way, it’s going back to the future, back to my roots, and being projected into the next century — the new chapter — of agriculture.”
Di Tommaso’s tenure with CropLife International begins with her version of a 100-day plan.
“It’s a good way to force you to think short term but also to form the basis for the long term,” she says. “I’m working together with my colleagues and team to shape our vision, our purpose, and strategy and build on the amazing work that we’ve done so far. We are conscious of new challenges. We need to take into account that the landscape is broader and more and more complex.
“I would like to wear the glasses of the opportunist. Behind the challenges, there are always opportunities. There must be opportunities.”
During her professional career of 30-plus years Di Tommaso has served in several executive global roles, including strategy, transformation change, sustainability, communications, reputation management, and risk and issues management as well as legal and compliance.
Before joining CropLife International, Di Tommaso was the Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer at the Ferrero Group. Based in Luxembourg, she spearheaded global communications, sustainability, and risk and issues management.
“Communications allows you to think about reputation — reputation as an intangible but also as an asset,” she says. “The experience of communications really forces you to think about this asset and how it’s important. Communications means that you really understand the value of reputation and that everybody in the organization owns that reputation.”
Di Tommaso’s international career includes more than a decade with Unilever at its London headquarters as well as in Brussels and Africa. She led the company’s communications and legal teams in reputation and sustainability in global and national executive roles.
She has also served as a senior strategic advisor to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on private sector partnership engagement.
Her involvement with international organizations includes the World Economic Forum, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Investment Climate Facility for Africa, Transatlantic Business Dialogue, EU-Africa Summits, Southern Corridor of Tanzania, UN organizations (FAO, IFAD, WFP), World Bank, and EU institutions.
Di Tommaso was also an attorney at law in Brussels and holds a master’s in European law. She is alumna of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, UK.
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