New management of FiBL Switzerland

The foundation board has elected: Knut Schmidtke, Marc Schärer and Lucius Tamm form the new management of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland. As of April 1, they will take over the management of FiBL from Urs Niggli.

Knut Schmidkte has been vice-rector for Research and Development at the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTW) since 2015. The agricultural scientist, who holds a doctorate in agriculture, initially worked at the university of Göttingen. After visiting professorships in Vienna and Sapporo, Japan, he moved to the HTW as professor of organic agriculture. The 57-year-old was elected director of research, extension and innovation by the FiBL foundation board following a recommendation by the appointments committee.

The management is completed by Marc Schärer, currently head of administration and finance, and Lucius Tamm, currently deputy director and head of the department of crop sciences at FiBL.

The new directorate will take over the management of FiBL from Urs Niggli on April 1, 2020. Under his leadership, FiBL has developed into one of the world’s leading research institutes over a period of some thirty years, with 280 employees at locations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France and Brussels.

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