Episode 29: St. Louis Agtech Ecosystems: Accelerating Solutions Through Global Connectivity with Elzandi Oosthuizen

Join host Gene Cunningham and guest Elzandi Oosthuizen, Senior VP and Head of Corn Product Team at Bayer as they discuss Elzandi’s path to Bayer and keeping the world’s farmers connected in an everchanging field.   This conversation is an excerpt from the 2024 Bayer International Business Conference that took place on December 4, 2024, at Saint Louis University.Elzandi Oosthuizen is part of the global strategy leadership team at Bayer’s Crop Science division where she leads the enterprise corn product team. She has held various global and regional leadership roles across the company’s Seed & Traits, Crop Protection and Vegetable operations and lived and worked in several countries. Prior to her current role, she was part of the R&D leadership team leaning the crop technology team focusing on corn, soy and cotton crops. Before working in the corporate setting, she taught post graduate mathematics, and high school science and math for six years. She regularly advocates for S.T.E.M. education and is passionate about inspiring and developing people. Elzandi is passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion, as well as helping empower women.  She demonstrates this passion through her involvement in several initiatives over the past decade. She was a recipient of the 2024 Women in Agribusiness Demeter Award of Excellence, she was also an advisory board member for the 2019 Women in Food and Agriculture event and was named an Eisenhower Fellow for the Zhi-Xing 2017 program.Elzandi holds a Bachelor of Science in Natural Science and Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science Honors in Genetics from the University of Pretoria. She also holds a Master of Science in Agricultural and Horticultural Plant Breeding from University of the Free State and an MBA from North-West University in South Africa.View Guest, Elzandi Oosthuizen's LinkedIn