Alain Godard

advisor and board member of Cellectis, France

Debate Dinner

He participated in the "OGM et société : la nouvelle génération d’OGM sera-t-elle mieux acceptée ?" debate dinner as a moderator.

Biography

Alain GODARD, 63, is an agronomist graduated from the Ecole Nationale Agronomique de Toulouse.
He started his career in Africa as a researcher in the Institut de Recherche pour les Huiles et Oléagineux.
In 1975 he joined Rhône-Poulenc Agrochimie where he had various high management positions, till becoming CEO of the company in 1991.
In 1997, he became member of the Rhône-Poulenc Group Executive Comitee, supervising  Rhône-Poulenc « Plant and animal health » and global activities of the Group in Asia.
In 1999, he participated actively to the merger between Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc to create Aventis. He took then the position of CEO of the newly created Aventis Cropscience, member of the Group Executive Comitee.

He left Aventis at the end of 2001 to become olive oil and wine grower in the south of France.

During his career, Alain Godard has been member of the board of various international companies and research organizations, mainly INRA (Institut National de la Recherche agronomique)  and CIRAD (Centre International pour la Recherche Agronomique et le Développement). He was one of the fondators of the French plant genetic programm Genoplante, an original concept of cooperation between private and public research.

In 1999, he published « Engagements, espoirs, rêves » a book relating his management experience and translated in English under the title of « Transformational Management ».

Today, apart his position of ag/food advisor with Biovision, he is advisor and board member of Cellectis, a biotech company based  in Paris.