About Us

In April 2021, Mick was named President and Chief Executive Officer of DPH Biologicals, bringing twenty-five years of experience in crop protection, seed treatment and biologicals after serving in commercial leadership roles at two leading multi-nationals and emerging agtech companies. Today, Mick is leading DPH Biologicals to deliver more value to partners and growers through collaborative relationships and access to its trusted biological platform.

Mick has held increasingly senior marketing and commercial leadership roles in agricultural companies over his career. Recently, Mick served as Chief Commercial Officer at Greenlight Bioscience, where he built an agricultural team and worked with partners to prepare for the launch of innovative biocontrol solutions. Previously, Mick built and led DuPont’s seed applied technology and biologicals business, where he led the efforts to create a new portfolio built through internal discovery and collaborations. Mick joined DuPont Pioneer in 2009, holding several commercial roles across the seeds and crop protection businesses, with an emphasis on emerging technologies and building new portfolios and businesses. Prior to DuPont, Mick held global and U.S. commercial roles at Syngenta, where he worked in early-stage businesses and market development.

After growing up on his family farm in Nebraska, Mick earned a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness from University of Nebraska and an MBA from Colorado State University.

Alex Cochran, Ph.D., joined Douglas Plant Health in June 2021 as Chief Technology Officer, responsible for advancing the company’s science and technology portfolio. He brings more than twenty years of agricultural research & development experience, holding multiple leadership roles at Syngenta and Corteva focused on crop protection, seed treatments and biologicals. Alex has an exceptional record of developing some of the most successful active ingredients and product concepts for foliar, seed, soil and turf applications.

Most recently, Alex served as Corteva’s R&D discovery and development leader for seed applied technologies, disease management and controlled environment development science. In addition, he also led the global insect and nematode management development and the biologicals development team focused on building product pipelines for application on commodity crops in a variety of growing regions. Alex began his career at Syngenta in 2001, serving in field, research and global R&D roles focused on technical product development and agronomy services.

Alex earned his Bachelor and Master of Science, and Doctorate in plant pathology from Purdue University. His graduate research focused on understanding and mapping the genetic diversity of Phytophthora root rot caused by Phytophthora sojae, a major disease that impacts soybeans across the U.S. Alex and his family currently reside in Indianapolis.

Chris Feiden is the Chief Operating Officer of the Plant Health Division and serves on the corporate leadership team. Before joining Douglas Products in 2016, Chris served as supply chain manager with BioZyme where he implemented a robust planning process to meet customer demand and anticipate market shifts and an automated bagging line to expedite the production processes.

Prior to his time at BioZyme, Chris was the Biological Operations Manager for BASF. During this time, worked on integrating the acquired locations from Becker Underwood into the BASF systems. In addition, he was the Global Head of Operations and Supply Chain at Becker Underwood in 2012, responsible for the fermentation sites, seed coating facilities, mulch colorant manufacturing and the chemical and biological blending and packaging in Ames, IA.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Missouri Western State University. In his spare time, Chris enjoys coaching his youngest daughter’s travel softball team and traveling to watch his kids sporting events.

Brad Holzworth joined DPH Biologicals in August 2021 as the vice president of marketing, a newly created role reflecting the company’s goal to advance its proven technology across the global agriculture industry. Brad brings more than 25 years of experience building and implementing multi faceted marketing programs for ag inputs.

Previously, Brad served as Director of Marketing-North America for Advanta, a leading international supplier of proprietary agricultural crop genetics and seed, as well as business director for the Mexico operations. For 17-years, Brad worked at Syngenta where he held global sales and marketing roles, including head of retail strategy and growth.

Brad holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and received an MBA from Arizona State’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Roberto’s experience includes leadership roles with Syngenta, where he led strategic planning, new business development and the Lawn, Garden and Ornamentals Business Unit.

Roberto also led business development and corporate venture in construction, mining and materials technology industries, and played senior advisor roles for some startups, including ag startups.

He also worked in management consulting at McKinsey and other consulting firms With bachelor's degree in civil engineering, graduate degree in Finance, and an MBA from University of Maryland, Roberto started his career in finance in the construction industry.

Cliff Watrin joined DPH as vice president of agronomy in March 2022 and is responsible for advancing the company’s technical product positioning and customer agronomic support. Watrin brings more than 30 years of leadership and agricultural research and development experiences to this newly created role.

Previously, Watrin led research and development for Winfield United, focused on development and product support for seed treatments, crop nutrition inputs, crop protection and biologicals. In addition, he held leadership roles in R&D at Syngenta, including global nematicide and fungicide development lead, seed treatment development lead for the U.S., and manager of the Seed Care Institute. Watrin served as section leader for Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s seed, noxious weed and industrial hemp programs, where he worked closely with farmers, academia, businesses and NGOs to improve growing conditions across the state.

Our Leadership Team

Mick Messman

Alex Cochran

Chris Feiden

Trey Soud

Brad Holzworth

Roberto Werneck

Cliff Watrin

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