Mark S. Brooks Email & Phone Number

Chapel Hill, NC, US

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US

Leading the venture capital arm of FMC Corporation. Purpose is to find and invest in game changing startup companies that are shaping the future of agriculture and food production. Emphasis on Seed, Series A, Series B stage Global scope. #AgTech #ClimateChange

Glasgow, GB

Peptide discovery platform for insect control in crop protection. FMC Ventures co-led the oversubscribed $14m Series A round in mid 2024.

Charlottesville, VA, US

AgroSpheres is developing game changing biodegradable encapsulation technologies that enable the development of high efficacy biological pesticides. The platform directly addresses the three key bottlenecks facing biologicals today: cost, performance, and stability. FMC Ventures invested in the company's Series B equity round.

Ramonville-Saint-Agne, Occitanie, FR

Micropep is developing micro-proteins to turn up or down gene expression in plants. Company is building a discovery platform to identify solutions that (1) increase plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, (2) improve yields.

São Paulo, SP, BR

Traive is a FinTech startup, reimagining credit in agriculture. The company's platform assesses farmer's credit profiles by looking at their credit scores and considering factors like agronomic performance, behavior, experience, and growth potential, thereby enabling agricultural businesses to improve financial decisions based on the risk score of each.

Des Moines, Iowa, US

Board director and member of compensation committee. Premier Crop Systems is a leading precision ag-data processing and analysis company. Premier’s technology drives better agronomic decisions, leading to higher yields, increased profits and more sustainable practices for their customers. Often working behind the scenes and headquartered in Des Moines, IA.

Woburn, Massachusetts, US

Agrivida is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing a new generation of enzyme solutions to feed livestock more efficiently, reduce negative environmental impacts, and produce more healthful food for an expanding consumer population. Agrivida has been in the Syngenta Ventures portfolio since 2011.

Research Triangle Park, NC, US

AgBiome is a venture-backed agricultural product discovery company based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. AgBiome uses its proprietary platform to collect, isolate, analyze, and test microbes for use in agriculture as biological products and as sources of trait genes.

Basel, Basel-Town, CH

• $150m Venture Capital fund of Syngenta Group, a leading agriculture inputs company
• Co-led development of a re-imagined strategy for the fund. The approach included comprehensive approaches to AgTech, FoodTech, FinTech, regenerative ag, AI/ML, automation, Sustainability, and generally ClimateTech
• Served as a Board member on 4 companies in the portfolio. Responsibilities included shareholder governance, serving on comp or audit committee, and advising management on corporate strategy, org design, growth, product.
• Led 3 new equity investments, including diligence, syndicate negotiation, and investment committee approval
• Supported 10+ equity investments as member of the investment team
• Led a global pitch competition with 150+ startup companies in alternative proteins

Durham, NC, US

• Ignited strategic insights and revenue growth by being a skilled internal consultant for senior executive leadership, Board, and 50+ global internal teams to identify and exploit adjacent market opportunities and.
• Pioneered and led the accounting and finance profession's first startup accelerator, a type of corporate venture capital (CVC). Generated investment opportunities and deal flow, conducted due diligence, made.
• Although not an accountant, recognized in 2018 by CPA Practice Adviser as a “20 Under 40 Superstar leading the development of technology in the accounting and finance profession”
• Led mergers and acquisitions strategy, pipeline, and deal development with other accounting bodies and associations worldwide to expand our global reach and capabilities, particularly in adjacent markets (e.g..
• Transformed the culture of innovation through org-wide innovation contests, training, and thought leadership. Designed and oversaw an internal innovation contest for staff resulting in >40% global staff being engaged.
• Coached and developed team reports to achieve high professional growth, empowered them to elevate their level of responsibility, span of control, higher performance, and space to be themselves

Durham, NC, US

• Convinced senior leadership to support the developing a corporate venture capital function designed to accelerate R&D and growth into adjacent markets by investing in and partnering with startups within the global.
• Piloted 5 new business models in emerging markets with 13 state-level partners resulting in new revenue in <1 year, 1800 new student members, organization learning, and enhanced collaboration
• Transformed the internal culture of innovation by developing and executing an innovation tournament, an innovation training program for staff in 9 countries, dedicated innovation spaces, and other high impact cultural.
• Spurred new innovative thinking and thought leadership by launching a platform for idea sharing within the Accounting profession; awarded $10k innovation grant to implement from the American Society of Association.
• Propelled thought leadership by becoming a routinely sought after speaker and author within 2 years with 20+ accepted invitations to speak at conferences, publish magazine articles and blog posts, and ad-hoc consulting.
• Drove high performance and high caliber output of millennial direct reports through focused professional development and coaching

Cary, NC, US

• Managed data analytics and metrics to identify opportunities and measure successes of the Asset Health Strategic Initiative, a program worth $40 million to Railinc and ~$650 million to the freight rail industry..
• Led development of intellectual property strategy, including draft of IP policy, thereby protecting technologies and customers while facilitating the dissemination of knowledge and ideas.
• Developed repeatable, draft innovation strategy and process for opportunity discovery, idea capture, idea evaluation, and product incubation which is helping to grow the commercial portfolio.
• Developed opportunity pipeline for new products and services based on ideation sessions, customer visits, data analytics, and design thinking.
• Actively worked across all functions of Railinc and with customers on the front-end of innovation to identify, evaluate, and incubate new products and services.
• Routinely delivered high-level, and sometimes high-stakes, presentations to customer executives resulting in continued support of strategic programs and intra-industry collaboration.

Raleigh, North Carolina, US

• Led portfolio of over 25 products for external clients including a peanut disease forecast system, cucurbit downy mildew forecast system, rainfall monitoring and alerts system, smart turf irrigation, and early warning.
• Scouted for new project opportunities, developed value propositions, wrote winning proposals totaling $1.2 million.
• Managed matrix teams of 3-10 highly skilled professionals who built and developed innovative, decision support systems.
• Led new product development and wireframing using Lean Startup Methodology (e.g., Minimum Viable Product) resulting in rapid prototyping and short time to market.
• Designed and implemented customer-relationship management system that kept track of 6,000+ clients and trained staff on its use. Oversaw 3,800+ client interactions and service requests.
• Revised services charging policy that resulted in 80% revenue increase and 30% faster response time.

Raleigh, North Carolina, US

• Developed software in LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment to visualize and disseminate complex environmental data and derived products that are used by decision makers throughout the Southeastern U.S..
• Architected MySQL database of environmental data, including climate, from over 30,000 sources, which has since become the foundation for all products and services of the organization. The database, called CRONOS.
• Managed enterprise IT infrastructure including servers, IT policy, metadata management, database architecture, software development, and > 2 TB data.

• Developed decision-support applications to help vintners and other climate sensitive businesses adapt to climate related risks. Developed strategic alliances and distribution channels with other firms resulting in.
• Created automated crop advisory product for strawberry growers in the U.S. Attracted more than 40% of the addressable market in the Southeast U.S. during beta production resulting in protection of $4 million worth of.
• Led company to profitability within 2 years by identifying a niche market need, building relationships with potential customers and maximizing operational and R&D efficiencies.

• Evaluated sugarcane biotech licensing opportunities in foreign markets, including Asia and S. America.
• Developed partnership in South American market and presented detailed market analysis and recommendations to executive officers, which were used in expanding product pipeline and eventually in the firm's acquisition by.

• Founded this one-stop weather web site that was ranked in the top 3% of the Internet in 1999.
• Wrote software to assimilate satellite, radar, weather cams, surface analyses, and other imagery from hundreds of sources into one simple interface.
• Responded to over 7,000 customer e-mails, published 50+ newsletters with a circulation of 1,800+, and profitably sold advertising space.
• Website no longer active.

Researched and prepared detailed, suitable for programming documentation for calculating Sun rise/set/noon and Moon phases/rise/set for any location on Earth given the desired date and latitude/longitude coordinates.

• Founded this automated Bulletin Board System (BBS) in the pre-Internet days.
• Became the first local service provider in Stanly County, NC, for Internet email, which was synchronized twice daily to the Internet.
• Developed content to encourage repeat customers. Content included games and basic encyclopedia information.
• Developed pricing and value capture models, which generated revenue.
• Completely unprofitable. Total business failure. Rapidly lost market share as the Internet became accessible in ~1996. Learned a lot about electronics, Internet, and business. Great fun at the time for this 12-16 year.

Mba, Technology, Entrepreneurship & Commercialization

B.S., Meteorology

Graduate Certificate, Technology Entrepreneurship & Commercialization