Distinguished Industry Executives with Global Insight

Kincannon & Reed is unique in the retained executive search profession in that our Principals have each served in executive positions in our three target industries. As a result, they have an understanding at a personal—not just an intellectual—level regarding the dynamic environment in which our clients and candidates operate. This understanding allows them to serve as a trusted resource for clients, and at the same time, interact on a collegial level with prospective candidates.

 

Bernard P. Auxenfans, Senior Advisor. After beginning his Monsanto career as a sales representative in France, Mr. Auxenfans rose through the company ranks in marketing and general management positions in the US, Canada, and Latin America, culminating as General Manager for Europe-Africa. He was named VP and General Manager of the company's global agricultural operations divisions and President, Monsanto Europe-Africa (Mesa). Later he served as COO of the Agriculture Business and Chairman of Mesa. After leaving Monsanto in 2000, he became CEO of FOLNetworks, the United Kingdom's number-one Internet portal company in agriculture, which now operates as FarmingOnline. He received his Baccalaureate degree from the Institution Sainte Marie at Bourges, France, and his MS in Agricultural Economics from the Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique de Rennes in 1967 as Ingenieur Agronome. He is a 1985 graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program. A French national Auxenfans is fluent in English and Portuguese.
Brussels, Belgium

 

Stewart Baker, Managing Director. Mr. Baker is responsible for Kincannon & Reed's expanding practice in the United Kingdom and also serves clients across Euope and other parts of the world. A lawyer by training, he joined the firm after distinguished service with Zeneca, successor to ICI's crop protection business and one of the world's leading biosciences companies. Fluent in French and Turkish, he has extensive general management experience running ICI businesses in the UK as well as South Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East. He also had global human resources, legal, and public affairs responsibilities for the company, including managing mergers, acquisitions, and start-up ventures.
London, England

 

Mike Banks, Managing Director. Mr. Banks has had a long, varied, and challenging career in the crop protection industry spanning four continents and six companies, in "hands on" senior marketing and sales roles. He commenced his career as a sales representative with May & Baker in the UK and then later joined Hoechst UK as a product manager. Transferring to the company's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany he held various international positions including global Product Management and Regional Marketing Management assignments for North America. Banks then accepted a Marketing Director posting with Hoechst Australia maintaining this position after the merger with Schering and the advent of AgrEvo. There he was responsible for herbicide sales development in Asia Pacific as well as two biotechnology projects for major grain crops. Recently, Banks has held senior marketing and sales director positions for Aventis and Bayer CropScience, respectively. He is a graduate of London University with a degree in Chemistry and Biological Sciences.
Melbourne Australia

 

J. Suzanne Cox, Managing Director. Ms. Cox joined Kincannon & Reed following a career in strategic marketing and brand development with premier organizations in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. She served as the first Corporate VP for Marketing of the American Red Cross, a multi-billion dollar global humanitarian organization. Prior to that, she led marketing and new product development for Prudential Resources Management, a global supplier of human resources services. Over a ten-year period, she held senior positions in marketing and brand management with l'Oreal, the French multinational consumer products company, in Madrid, Paris, and Tokyo. Fluent in Spanish and French, she holds a BA in sociology and anthropology from Wellesley College, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania in cultural anthropology, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Washington, D.C. USA area

 

Remy Goetgheluck, Managing Director. Mr. Goetgheluck spent his entire career in the agribusiness industry, beginning with Roussel Uclaf in Paris. Later he was posted to Dubai and spent five years in Singapore as head of the Southeast Asia regional office. He then headed the Insecticide Business Unit, where he played a critical role leading the integration of insecticide activities during the merger of Hoechst and Schering to form AgrEvo, and later when Hoechst AG and Rhone Poulenc SA were combined to form Aventis. Following Bayer's acquisition of Aventis, he headed the organization's 1.4 billion (Euros) Insecticide Business Unit. Mr. Goetgheluck has been an active member of the Executive Committee of AgrEvo and Board Member of Bilag, a joint venture of Bayer CropScience based in India. Mr. Goetgheluck is an Ingenieur Agronome from the National Agronomy Institute in Paris, and holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD in Fontainebleau. In addition, he has continued his education through senior executive management seminars at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. Mr. Goetgheluck is a French citizen and is fluent in English and conversant in German.
Lyon, France

 

David G. Jensen, Managing Director. Mr. Jensen has nearly 30 years experience in executive search for biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, research products, medical devices, nutraceuticals, and academic research. He is the founder and former CEO of two executive search firms focused on life sciences -- Search Masters International (now a part of a $4.4 billion human resources organization) and CareerTrax Inc. In 1983, Jensen established a life sciences practice for a leading Arizona search firm. His monthly column "Managing Your Career" has been a visible part of the biotech industry for nearly twenty years and is now in each issue of Contract Pharma where Jensen is Contributing Editor. A popular speaker at biotechnology events, Jensen has delivered keynote presentations or workshops for NIH, the EPA, Karolinska Institute, Princeton, Harvard, and regional affiliates of BIO, such as MassBio, SoCalBio and BayBio. For more than a decade, Mr. Jensen has authored a popular monthly column for scientists at the AAAS website, publishers of SCIENCE.
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 

Jim Longnecker, Managing Director. Mr. Longnecker brings a broad background in food and consumer products manufacturing and operations to Kincannon & Reed. Most recently, Longnecker was responsible for over 30 contract manufacturers around the globe with $300 MM in sales producing food and household products for the Dial Corporation. These businesses are located in South Korea, Singapore, China, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Germany, and the USA. Previously, Longnecker held two plant manager positions where he supervised multiple facilities for Dial. Early in his career, he was an Operations Research Analyst for the Bendix Corporation. Directly after college, Longnecker served as a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army. He manages his family's grain farm located in northwest Iowa where he was raised. Longnecker holds an Industrial Engineering Degree from Iowa State University and an MBA from Western Illinois University.
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 

Andreas Lorenz, Managing Director. Throughout his career Mr. Lorenz has been active in leadership and board roles in the life sciences. He joined Hoechst Agricultural Division, Germany, and moved to Latin America, where he led AgrEvo (a JV of the agricultural businesses of Hoechst AG and Schering AG) for the Andean Region, Central America, and Caribbean. When Hoechst AG and Rhone Poulenc SA merged to form Aventis Pharma and Aventis CropScience, he led the integration of the two regional organizations. He later led the integration of Aventis Crop Science into Bayer AG and ran the combined operations for the Andean countries and Chile. Mr. Lorenz then founded CropTech to manufacture and distribute crop protection products in the Andean region and Panama. This business was sold to Cheminova A/S. Mr. Lorenz, a German national, holds degrees in agricultural sciences and economics and is fluent in English and Spanish.
Bogota, Colombia

 

Fred Medero, Managing Director. An entrepreneur, risk management expert, and venture capitalist, Mr. Medero is an attorney who has served with distinction on both Wall Street and Capitol Hill. He has been VP of Investment Banking with Kidder, Peabody & Co.; Director of Risk Management for Deloitte & Touche, LLP, San Francisco; and Executive Director of the International Swaps & Derivatives Association, New York. Highlights of his government service include being COO of the Farmers Home Administration, the largest federal agency for lending to agriculture and rural agribusiness enterprises, General Counsel of the Farm Credit Administration, and Director of the Securities and Corporate Practices division in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. A native New Yorker, he graduated with a BA from Queens College, earned his JD from St. John's University School of Law and took his LLM from New York University Graduate School of Law. He is a Board Member (Northern California) of the Federalist Society, a Trustee of the Society's Center for Law and Entrepreneurship, and a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals.
San Francisco, California USA

 

Paul Miller, Managing Director. Mr. Miller offers extensive experience in food processing and distribution in his career as a senior executive and entrepreneur. As the President/CEO of Upper Crust Bakery, Miller profitably grew a small commercial bakery into a national player. Under his leadership, sales increased by nine hundred percent in nine years. Much of that growth was a result of targeting and acquiring key accounts and fostering true partnerships. Miller's early career centered on the meat processing industry where as Vice President, Operations, of a $100MM beef company, he directed three facilities with 350 employees (union and non-union). He also managed the business's most consistently profitable division. Earlier, as Vice President/General Manager at a $70MM beef company, he managed a processing division that he drove to record volume ($25MM) and profits. Miller has an MBA from Harvard and Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Agricultural Economics from Cornell and Michigan State.
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 

Elizabeth Olsen, Director. Ms. Olsen joined Kincannon & Reed in 2008 after 10 years as Principal of Olsen/Clark Company, a firm specializing in retained executive search and research. Her executive search practice is focused on serving clients in the interrelated realms of food, agribusiness and the life sciences. She has global recruiting experience with a worldwide network of clients, candidates and contacts. Prior to founding Olsen/Clark, she co-owned Executive Horizons, a corporate career transition firm that was acquired by a nationwide staffing and recruitment company in 1995. She also has more than 10 years of corporate staffing management experience with Harcourt Education, Apria Healthcare, and Mazda Motors USA. She holds a BA from the University of California, Irvine, and an MA from the Claremont Graduate University, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management in Claremont, California.
Seattle, Washington USA

 

John Reasner, Managing Director, brings broad and deep human resources experience and expertise to Kincannon & Reed. Mr. Reasner served as VP of Worldwide Human Resources for a start-up medical device business, a rapidly growing IT consulting company, and a global medical device business with manufacturing and commercial operations in the US, Asia, and Europe. Mr. Reasner also spent 13 years in the foodservice/hospitality business, where he was the worldwide head of human resources for a 3500-employee division of Dial/Greyhound. He holds BA degree from Monmouth College and is a member of the Society of Human Resources Management and has the SPHR certification, Senior Professional Human Resources. Mr. Reasner has also been a member of the Conference of Human Resources Officers, an organization for the top HR officers of hospitality companies.
Phoenix, Arizona USA

 

Kenichi Ueno, Senior Advisor. Ueno-san's long and successful career includes experience in human resources, public relations, strategic recruitment, management development, change management, and supply chain leadership. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Kagoshima University and began his career in sales, distribution, and marketing before he assumed roles in human resources with subsidiaries of companies including Shell (petrochemicals), UCB (pharmaceuticals), and Continental Teves (automotive). Before joining Kincannon & Reed, Ueno-san held the post of Chief Career Consultant for a Japan-based executive search firm.
Tokyo, Japan

 

Pieter van Kesteren, Senior Advisor. Mr. Van Kesteren came to Kincannon & Reed from the international vegetable seed sector, where he built an impressive career, beginning as an assistant salesperson and culminating as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Nunhems BV in The Netherlands. Mr. van Kesteren has in recent years also served as a member of the Management Committee of Bayer Crop Science - BioScience in France. Mr. van Kesteren's accomplishments include pioneering and developing markets throughout western, northern, and eastern Europe, exploring business potential in Asia, and building the North American subsidiary for Nunhems into a market leader in seed technology and the vegetable seed business. Earlier in his career Mr. van Kesteren as Managing Director led Sunseeds, Inc., a major US hybrid vegetable seed company acquired by Nunhems.
Boise, Idaho, USA

 

Henk van Wielink, Managing Director. Mr. van Wielink joined Kincannon & Reed following a career in the vegetable and flower seed industry, where he began at Royal Sluis, a pioneer in hybrid vegetable and flower breeding. After more than a decade in sales, he took global leadership of production and logistics functions to build up new worldwide supply chains for all species. Later, at Seminis, Mr. van Wielink became General Manager of the Dutch Business Unit and the European Production and Logistics Center. Following that experience, he served as Senior V. P., Production & Logistics and successfully turned around the performance of the Seminis global supply chain. In more recent years, he had his own business as a recruiter to the seed industry, focusing on organization and automation projects. Mr. van Wielink served for many years as a board member of NAK Tuinbouw (the Dutch inspection service for horticulture) and Plantum (the Dutch association for breeding, production, and trade of seeds and young plants), and was a member of the strategic committee of the International Seed Health Initiative for Vegetables. He is a graduate of the Agricultural College in Dordrecht, Netherlands and the Institute of Nijenrode. Mr. van Wielink is a Dutch national, and is fluent in English, French, Italian, and German.
Enkhuizen, Netherlands

 

Ellen von Fange, Managing Director. Marketing has been Ms. von Fange's focus. As a consultant, she relaunched a dying regional soft drink brand in Mexico creating significant market share growth. She spent seven years with Terra Industries, a Fortune 500 company, reporting to the CEO in executive positions, with responsibilities for creating a cohesive corporate identity and improving investor relations, advertising, and public relations. At Terra she doubled Riverside crop protection line sales and tripled profitability in just three years through innovative dealer programs and revamping and promoting the product line. She was also responsible for EPA label development and field testing of Riverside products. Prior to Terra, Ms. von Fange was Manager of Consumer Market Development for General Electric's Lighting Group, where she worked in product development and market research. Ms. von Fange holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Washington, D.C. USA area

 

Warren Ward, Managing Director. Mr. Ward brings extensive consumer products, animal nutrition, and Latin American experience to Kincannon & Reed. Immediately prior to joining the firm, he provided consulting services to Nestle and other organizations throughout Latin America. Before that, he had a long career at Ralston Purina where he was moved to Mexico to become the company's Director of Administration. Later he was appointed Ralston Purina's Managing Director for both its agricultural and pet food divisions, and ultimately VP & COO for Ralston Purina Latin America, with responsibility for over 1,000 employees in 10 countries. When Nestle acquired the company's pet care business, Mr. Ward led the integration of the two organizations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Before his career at Ralston Purina, he rose through the finance ranks at the Scott Paper Company (now part of Kimberly Clark) and eventually became its Director of Finance and a Board Member of Scott's affiliate in Madrid, Spain. Mr. Ward earned degrees in Finance and Economics from Texas Christian University and is fluent in Spanish.
Dallas, Texas USA

 

Gary Weihs, Managing Director. Mr. Weihs is a senior executive with a 30-year track record of leading domestic and international organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurial start-ups. Weihs was COO of then NYSE-traded RDO Equipment, which owns and operates the largest group of John Deere dealerships in North America with over 1600 employees, 54 locations, and $650M in sales. In the consumer products and food arenas, Weihs gained over 15 years of progressive management experience in strategy, manufacturing, and supply chain roles with Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, and ConAgra. Weihs' management experience in the chemicals industry includes leading Monsanto's crop protection products' supply chain for North and South America and serving as Global VP/GM of Industrial Products for Solutia (a Monsanto spin-off company) where he managed three specialty chemical companies as well as its Asian business units. Weihs' agribusiness entrepreneurial experiences include starting and managing large pork, dairy, and farming operations in U.S., Brazil, and Eastern Europe for which he raised over $60M in private equity. Gary received a Civil Engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Omaha, Nebraska area, USA

 

Janet Wightman, Managing Director. Ms. Wightman was a senior executive in the financial services industry with a focus on the agribusiness sector prior to joining Kincannon & Reed in 2011. Most recently, Ms. Wightman was President and CEO of Victoria Park Capital Inc., a venture capital and private equity fund manager with an asset portfolio valued at $700 million, primarily in the agricultural sector. Prior to this position, she was the first President & CEO of Investment Saskatchewan, a start-up provincial Crown Investment Corporation responsible for managing the province’s $600 million in private equity assets. Before these posts, Ms. Wightman served for 10 years in Farm Credit Canada, a national institution providing financing and other services to Canada’s primary producers, value-added operators, agribusiness suppliers, and processors. At FCC, she was Executive Vice President & COO with accountability for all operational divisions within FCC and for its first venture capital division. She earlier served as Vice President of Agribusiness and Eastern Operations, and VP, Human Resources and Administration. Ms. Wightman holds the governance designation awarded by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and has served on several private and public company and non-profit boards.
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada