Fractional C-suite leadership

Technology alone will not transform agriculture. It is people with passion who drive change. Our fractional C-suite roles provide the technical, managerial and scientific expertise on your management team, ensuring that your R&D activities and pipeline are guided by experienced and inspirational leadership.

Here are just a few areas we can help with:

Fractional CTO

A fractional CTO provides technical leadership to your startup or scaleup, ensuring that your crop development and biological protection discovery activities are guided by an experienced and inspirational leader. A fractional, experienced CTO working at 30–50% FTE can effectively lead a small R&D team during early scaling. This provides cost-efficient leadership while bridging the gap until the next funding round supports hiring a full-time CTO or head of R&D.

Interim R&D head

A interim R&D head provides R&D leadership as part of your management team, ensuring that R&D activities are continued and further improved during a period of transition. An interim R&D head can implement the essential and often difficult changes that junior or long-tenured staff may find challenging and can support recruitment after the transition and onboard their successor.

CBO or Head of Strategic partnering

Innovation is as much about finding the right partners as it is about building new products and services. Studies show that partnerships have grown significantly in recent years and now account for nearly a third of corporate revenue and value. Yet despite extensive guidance on collaboration, partnership failure rates remain close to 70 percent. The most successful partnerships focus on managing the relationship—not just the deal. Early-stage companies often don’t require a full-time CBO—but they do need experience. As a fractional CBO or partnership lead, we provide deep networks and specialized expertise in collaboration models and licensing for germplasm, traits, gene editing, and novel biologicals. We help you identify the right partners, negotiate licenses and agreements, and build strategic collaborations that deliver long-term value.

Digital transformation

If your organization is going through a digital transformation, AgKnowledge can help your teams to drive operational efficiencies, apply new tools and improve data-based-decision making. Digital transformation involves much more than adopting additional technology — it is a deeply rooted managerial challenge.

Building effective teams

To succeed, companies not only need to attract and retain technical talents; they must integrate those people into core business culture and processes. We can help you to build effective multidisciplinary teams around specific projects or challenges and can coach leaders in your organisation to improve internal collaboration and integration.

Other offerings

Fundraising support

Business forecast, modeling and plan

IP strategy and patent portfolio

Partnership and licensing

Term sheet and agreement negotiation