Pesticide Giant Syngenta Appoints New CEO

By Patrick Thomas

Syngenta Group chief executive and Illinois farmer Jeff Rowe plans to step down from the company's top job, and he'll be replaced by the operating chief and former head of its China business.

Syngenta is headquartered in Switzerland and is a subsidiary of China National Chemical, a state-owned enterprise known as ChemChina. The company is the largest seller of pesticides in the U.S. and a major supplier of crop seeds, competing with Corteva and Bayer to sell farmers the supplies they need.

Rowe will remain in the role through Aug. 1 before returning to the U.S., the company said Wednesday.

Syngenta said Hengde Qin, the company's chief operating officer and head of its seeds business, will take over as CEO. He had previously served as chief financial officer and head of Syngenta's China business and as CEO of two other Chinese companies.

Rowe, a fifth-generation Illinois farmer and former DuPont Pioneer executive, ran Syngenta's largest business unit before becoming CEO in January 2024. He helped steer the company through a difficult farm economy that had put pressure on the business.

He also scrapped Syngenta's plans for an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, citing the industry environment. During the company's most recent fiscal period, it recorded a 2% year-over-year increase in sales alongside an improved adjusted profit margin.

Syngenta has also proven to be a lightning rod with critics of pesticides and some politicians critical of China's influence in American agriculture. In 2017, ChemChina bought Syngenta for $43 billion.

A native of Princeton, Ill., a city of about 8,000 people, Rowe's job included easing tensions between China and the U.S. farmer.

"If I see someone on the street in Princeton, they think 'that's Jeff Rowe. I know who that is--he's not a Chinese spy," Rowe told the Wall Street Journal in 2024. A few times a year, he travels back to his family farm to help plant and harvest a couple of thousand acres of corn and soybeans.

Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 01, 2026 10:08 ET (14:08 GMT)