J. Erik Fyrwald (born July 29, 1959 in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) is an American businessman and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the Syngenta Group. He serves

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

of the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

and

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the Syngenta Foundation.

Early life

Fyrwald was born in the United States in 1959, where he spent much of his childhood. Fyrwald’s parents are originally from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, where he also lived. After school, he attended the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

, where he received a

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

. He also completed the advanced management program at the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

Career

Fyrwald began his professional career at the chemical company

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

. He held various management positions in production, sales, and marketing, for example. In 2003, he assumed responsibility for the entire

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...

division. Alongside, Fyrwald was appointed to the board of directors of

CropLife International CropLife International is an international trade association of agrochemical companies founded in 2001. It was previously known as ''Global Crop Protection Federation'' and started out as ''International Group of National Associations of Manufactu ...

, too. In 2008, Fyrwald was appointed chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of Nalco, a water treatment provider. Following the acquisition by

EcoLab Ecolab Inc. is an American corporation that is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It develops and offers services, technology and systems that specialize in treatment, purification, cleaning and hygiene of water in a wide variety of applic ...

in 2011, he served as president at the parent company. In 2012, Fyrwald became president and chief executive officer of

Univar Univar Solutions Inc. is a global chemical and ingredients distributor and provider of value-added services. The company was founded in 1924 as Van Waters & Rogers. It was also formerly known as Vopak, Royal Vopak and later Univar. The company ...

, a distributor of chemistry and related products. In 2016, Fyrwald was appointed chief executive officer of Syngenta, mainly because of his long experience in the

chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. The ...

. A year later, Syngenta was acquired by the state-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) and delisted from the stock exchange. Fyrwald expressly supported the takeover by ChemChina, as he considered the acquisition an important step with regards to growth prospects, especially in China. To date, the transaction has been the largest acquisition of a Chinese company abroad. In 2020, the Syngenta merged with

Sinochem Sinochem Corporation () is a Chinese state-owned multinational conglomerate primarily engaged in the production and trading of chemicals and fertilizer and exploration and production of oil for civilian and military purposes. Its majority ow ...

and

Adama Adama ( Oromo: ' or ', Amharic: አዳማ), formerly Nazreth ( am, ናዝሬት), is a city in the central Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, the city sits between the base of an ...

to create the Syngenta Group. Syngenta is accused of selling highly toxic pesticides as part of its business. Fyrwald addressed this by aligning the company to digital innovation and new agricultural technologies in the combat against

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. After President Joe Biden recommitted the United States to the Paris Accord, Fyrwald wrote an op-ed calling for the US to embrace

regenerative agriculture Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, ...

Memberships

Fyrwald is a member of the board of directors of

Bunge Limited Bunge Limited is an American agribusiness and food company, incorporated in Bermuda, and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. As well as being an international soybean exporter, it is also involved in food processing, grain tr ...

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 countries. The company was founded in 1876 by, and named after, Colonel ...

, the Swiss-American

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

and Breakthrough, a community service organization in East Garfield Park, Chicago. Besides, he is chairman of the Farm to Market Alliance of the United Nations

World Food Programme The World Food Programme; it, Programma alimentare mondiale; es, Programa Mundial de Alimentos; ar, برنامج الأغذية العالمي, translit=barnamaj al'aghdhiat alealami; russian: Всемирная продовольствен� ...

Notes and references

External links

Executive Team
of Syngenta (official website)
Interview
with

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

at the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fyrwald, Jon Erik 1959 births Living people People from West Virginia American chief executives Swiss businesspeople