Nyon, Switzerland
April 11, 2007
 |
|
Bernard Le Buanec and Marcel Bruins
discussing the Secretary General position in Zurich last
week |
The President of the
International Seed Federation
(ISF), Mr. Deon van Rooyen, has confirmed the recent appointment
of Mr Marcel Bruins as the Secretary General Designate of the
ISF. He will be succeeding the well-known incumbent, Mr. Bernard
le Buanec who will be retiring shortly after the ISF Congress in
Prague in May 2008. The intention is that Marcel Bruins will
deputize from 1st September 2007 and officially take over as
Secretary General on 1st January 2008 with Bernard le Buanec
staying on in a full-time advisory and management support
capacity until May 2008. Marcel is married with two children and
the family will be moving to Switzerland where Marcel will be
joining the ISF Secretariat in Nyon.
Marcel Bruins completed his initial studies in
plant breeding and pathology at the University of Wageningen in
the Netherlands in 1989. Based on research he did on Fusarium
resistance in wheat at Plant
Research International he was awarded his PhD in 1998. He was
responsible for the patent portfolio of a large research
institute for a number of years and then moved to Rotterdam to
work at the Innovation Centre for Inventions where he was active
in the commercial aspects of agricultural and biotech
inventions. Since 1998 he has been involved in intellectual
property and plant variety protection with Seminis Vegetable
Seeds. Of recent he has held the position of Manager Plant
Variety Protection at Seminis Vegetable Seeds Holland B.V.
Marcel is a member of several international
seed-related committees, such as the European Seed Association’s
Committee on Intellectual Property Rights, the Plantum NL
Intellectual Property Committee and the ISF Sustainable
Agriculture Committee. He also chairs the Intellectual Property
Working Group on Genetics within the European Seed Association.
Since 1999 he has represented the ISF at the UPOV Technical
Working Party for Vegetables.
“Marcel joins the ISF with extensive and sound
seed industry experience and in particular a good background and
credentials in the fields of plant breeding as well as
Intellectual Property Rights. IPR was identified by our members
as a major and ongoing challenge for the ISF as well as the
global seed industry during our recent strategic planning
exercise and Marcel’s extensive experience in this field will be
of great value to us”,
said the
President of ISF.
In announcing the appointment Deon van Rooyen
also expressed his satisfaction at the very high standard of
applications received for this important position.
He thanked the members of the ISF
Executive Committee as well as the Secretary General for their
involvement in the exhaustive selection process and the final
interviews that took place in Zurich last week. |
