Rebecca Thompson

North America Australia New Zealand Breeding Lead

Rebecca Thompson is the Head of North America Plant Breeding at Bayer Crop Science and is an established leader with 25 years of experience working in the agricultural industry. In her current role, she and her team are focused on developing the best germplasm in corn, soybean, cotton, canola, and wheat to meet the needs of farmers across US and Canada. As farmers needs are complex and localize, she and her team bring together diverse innovations in genomics, field testing, data science and analytics to design and develop elite germplasms for hybrid and varietal row crops. ​

Rebecca joined the company in 1998, having received her B.S and M.S. degrees in Biology from Southern Illinois University.  Prior to current role, Rebecca was the Global Head of Stewardship, Compliance, and Quality focused on developing and implementation strategies to enable development and launch of products through robust stewardship practices. Throughout her career at Monsanto, she garnered extensive experience in many aspects of plant biotechnology such as discovery, early product development, collaboration management, and Regulatory. ​

She is a native of the St. Louis region and currently lives in St. Charles. She and her husband, Brian have two daughters, Emma and Ella.  In her free time, her interests include running, hiking, soccer, and traveling.