World Coffee Research has assigned Dr. George Kotch as Research Director. The position is the senior scientific leadership position at the collaborative research organization.
Dr. Kotch will be accountable for leading World Coffee Research’s global research portfolio and building partnerships. He is one of the world’s foremost professionals in building effective plant breeding programs and networks. Particularly, he has concentrated on linking the needs of ‘customers’ (farmers, as well as those who eventually consume the food farmers grow) to the research process and strategic R&D investments.
Over the last three decades, Dr. Kotch has managed several of the world’s biggest global breeding programs.
” George brings tremendous experience accelerating impact in breeding programs, bringing new varieties that reply to farmer needs and market demands for quality and consistency,” stated Jennifer ‘Vern’ Long, CEO of WCR.
” Coffee faces serious challenges in the 21st century, and George brings experience from a series of crops. He will leverage networks and methods from across the globe to focus on coffee’s challenges. This is the best moment to bring him to our community as we face the combined threats of climate change and low prices.”
Dr. Kotch previously served in several senior positions leading breeding teams at HM Clause as a Vice President of R&D (Americas & Pacific) and Head of Global Vegetable Seed R&D at Syngenta. He directed all aspects of Syngenta’s international vegetable research and development program, covering 20 crops, from strategy development to international implementation, and oversaw a team of over 800 employees. He also holds a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Kotch left the private sector to bring his skill set in order to improve the capacity of Asian and African national breeding programs focused on agricultural innovation for food security. He was the leader of breeding at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, part of the GCIAR global agricultural research centre.
Most recently, Dr. Kotch led the product design and management effort of the international ‘Excellence in Breeding Platform,’ an ambitious program to modernize and enhance breeding outcomes for the global community of international agricultural research centres and national breeding programs in low and medium-low income countries.
Under Dr. Kotch’s leadership, the program supported breeding programs to change behavior. As opposed to approaching breeding from a tool-based or academic method (what problem do the researcher think needs to be solved?), the programs pivoted to user-led design methods (what problem does the individual– a farmer or a consumer– need to have solved?).
Linking individual needs to breeding methods, supported by increasingly low-cost genotyping tools, has caused substantive behavior change among national and global breeding programs worldwide.
