Fresno, California, USA and Adelaide, Australia
August 27, 2015
S&W Seed Company (Nasdaq: SANW) announced today that Walter van Leeuwen has been appointed as the Company's Vice President of Australian Sales and Marketing, where he will have primary responsibility for expanding the market for the Company's non-dormant Australian-grown varieties. Mr. van Leeuwen has more than 20 years of extensive experience in a wide diversity of management roles within the agricultural industry. Since November 2013, Mr. van Leeuwen has been functioning as the Sales & Marketing Manager for Seed Genetics International (SGI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of S&W Seed Company, based in Adelaide, South Australia.
Mr. van Leeuwen joined SGI in February 2009 as Sales & Logistics Manager. In this role, he developed and implemented strategies to facilitate the efficient delivery of proprietary and private label alfalfa and white clover seed products into numerous overseas markets from the production base in Australia. Prior to joining SGI, Mr. van Leeuwen was Operations Manager, Seed Certification of Seed Services Australia, where he joined in 2004. In this position, he oversaw the production of certified small seeds, including alfalfa, cereals, grain legumes and cotton seed. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. van Leeuwen was employed as a Potato Agronomist by McCain Foods South Africa. In early 2002, Mr. van Leeuwen was promoted to the position of managing the entire potato seed supply chain for McCain Foods South Africa.
Mr. van Leeuwen graduated from the Pretoria University of Technology in South Africa where he obtained a Bachelor degree in crop production.
Mark Grewal, chief executive officer of S&W Seed Company, commented, "Walter has a tremendous knowledge of international seed markets and has proven to be a strong asset to the S&W organization since joining us in 2013, when we acquired SGI. As our business has expanded over the last two years, Walter's ability to integrate and leverage his relationships, as well as those of the organization as a whole, to drive sales and meet the needs of customers has become a key factor in our recent success. Walter will play a critical role in meeting customer's requirements as we work to become the 'go-to' alfalfa seed company in the world. We look forward to many great years ahead."
Mr. van Leeuwen commented, "I'm very enthusiastic about the future of agriculture and look forward to continuing to build and expand the S&W business along with our very experienced internal team and business partners. Through the continuous product development, expanded production base, and sales & marketing of our unique range of forage and specialty crop products, there are many opportunities to continue to grow the S&W business in the future."
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