Mr. Olivier Goujard has been appointed as the IPI Coordinator for sub-Saharan Africa as of May 2010. With his rich experience in the field, including expertise in two different input markets, Mr. Goujard brings an excellent mix of capacities to IPI, which will enable him to coordinate the newly established IPI activities in the region. Mr. Goujard's predecessor, Dr. Georg Ebert, is now the Head of Research & Development at COMPO Germany, a subsidiary of K+S Group.

Mr. Goujard, was raised on a family farm located in the field crop growing areas of the Champagne region. After completing his Baccalaureate degree in maths, physics, chemistry and biology, he studied agriculture for five years, achieving the diploma of "Ingénieur en Agriculture" from Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs et de Techniciens pour l'Agriculture in 1995.

Mr. Goujard's professional career started in the crop protection sector. He worked first for Rhône-Poulenc Agro France, where he was responsible, as a field development technician, for setting up and conducting field trials, preparing reports and organising trial visits. In 2000, he joined Aventis CropScience (then Bayer CropScience) where, as a product development manager and then global product manager, he developed worldwide expertise in insect pests and crop protection insecticides in order to build up technical profiles for the development of new products.

Mr. Goujard joined K+S KALI in 2005, where he is the technical manager for all the company's agronomical activities in France. As part of the international team of agronomists, he also has responsibility for African markets. In addition, Mr. Goujard represents the company in key professional organizations, including as the coordinator of the sulphur working group of COMIFER (French committee for integrated fertilization) which is the official organization responsible for fertilizer recommendations in France.

In his spare time, Mr. Goujard enjoys mountain biking and fishing. We warmly welcome him to IPI and look forward to him developing his role as our activities expand in sub-Saharan Africa.