Syngenta Group Chief Executive Jeff Rowe will step down on Aug. 1 and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Hengde Qin, the company said Wednesday, handing the top job to a former head of its China business as the pesticide and seed company navigates political and economic pressures.
Rowe, a fifth-generation Illinois farmer and former DuPont Pioneer executive who ran Syngenta’s largest business unit before becoming CEO in January 2024, will return to the U.S. after the transition, the company said.
Hengde Qin, the company’s chief operating officer and head of its seeds business, will take over as CEO. Qin previously served as chief financial officer and head of Syngenta’s China business and as CEO of two other Chinese companies, Syngenta said.
During his tenure, Rowe steered Syngenta through a difficult farm economy that had put pressure on the business. He also scrapped the company’s plans for an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, citing the industry environment. Syngenta’s most recent fiscal period recorded a 2% year-over-year increase in sales alongside an improved adjusted profit margin.
Syngenta, based in Switzerland, is a subsidiary of China National Chemical Corp., the 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 for farmers’ supply business.
The company has drawn criticism from pesticide opponents and from some politicians who have raised concerns about Chinese ownership of American agricultural assets. ChemChina bought Syngenta in 2017 for $43 billion.
Rowe, a native of Princeton, Ill., a city of about 8,000 people, told The Wall Street Journal in 2024 that easing tensions between China and U.S. farmers was part of his job. “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 said at the time. A few times each year, he returns to his family farm to help plant and harvest a couple of thousand acres of corn and soybeans.