Bayer Appoints New R&D Head of Crop Science Division
March 26, 2025 On March 24, Bayer announced that Mike Graham, Ph.D., will become the new head of Research and Development (R&D) for its Crop Science Division and serve on its Leadership Team. He will succeed Robert Reiter, Ph.D., who decided to retire after 27 years with the company and 34 years in the industry. The change will become effective on April 15.
Dr. Reiter joined the company in 1998. He helped revolutionize breeding through the use of genotypic selection and led the development of an industry-leading genotyping platform. Over the years, he has held various senior roles in R&D helping to further shape Bayer’s industry-leading seed and trait capabilities. After serving as Head of Global Supply Chain, he became Head of R&D for the Crop Science Division in 2018. Under his leadership, Bayer successfully advanced products like the new herbicide Icafolin and the Preceon Smart Corn System.
Dr. Reiter will actively support Dr. Graham in taking over his responsibilities to ensure a smooth transition. Since he first joined Bayer in 1996, Dr. Graham has been deeply involved in the design and development of next-generation seed, traits and customer-focused solutions. Most recently, he has led Bayer’s global Plant Breeding Organization, driving the advancement of the breeding pipeline by reimagining breeding and technical methodologies. The successor to Dr. Graham as Plant Breeding Lead will be announced at a later point in time.
Forward-looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development, or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
