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 于 9 月 5 日被任命为新任首席执行官兼总裁 国际作物生命. 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.
“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 将留在该组织，同时协助其董事会和 Di Tommaso 进行过渡。
“Howard has been a great support,” Di Tommaso says. “I continue to thank him for allowing this to happen in the smoothest way.”
通过 CropLife International，罗马人 Di Tommaso 计划将大部分时间花在布鲁塞尔和美国，同时定期返回意大利探亲。
“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.”
在她 30 多年的职业生涯中，Di Tommaso 曾担任多个全球高管职位，包括战略、转型变革、可持续性、沟通、声誉管理、风险和问题管理以及法律和合规。
在加入 CropLife International 之前，Di Tommaso 是费列罗集团的首席传播和可持续发展官。她常驻卢森堡，领导全球传播、可持续发展以及风险和问题管理。
“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.
她还曾担任联合国粮食及农业组织（FAO）关于私营部门伙伴关系参与的高级战略顾问。
她参与的国际组织包括世界经济论坛、世界可持续发展工商理事会、非洲投资环境基金、跨大西洋商业对话、欧盟-非洲峰会、坦桑尼亚南部走廊、联合国组织（粮农组织、农发基金、粮食署）、世界银行和欧盟机构。
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.