PROFILE
Tom Francis:
The Latest Canadian to Move Up the Novartis Ladder
By Owen Roberts
Eastern Canadians are having a lot of success getting to the top rungs of Novartis, one of the world’s leading seed companies. Dr. Bob Brawn from McGill University in Montreal was chosen to head the corn research division when the company was still Funk’s Seeds. He was followed by Dr. Bruce Hunter, a former University of Guelph professor in the crop science department. Then Dr. Wally Beversdorf, a former crop science chair, went on to become Novartis’s worldwide research director.
And now,
another Canadian is shining bright: Dr. Tom Francis of Novartis Seeds, Arva, has
been named the company’s director of product advancement for North America. The
affable Francis, 50, received his PhD in crop science at the University of Guelph
in 1977 and has been with the company almost his entire career. He’ll now be responsible
for advancing all the company’s lines of corn, soybeans and other crops.Francis says Eastern Canada’s unique climate and geography – combined with education and training from the University of Guelph – have been key in helping feed the executive pipeline. Ontario’s diverse environment means you can travel from a 2,500-heat-unit zone to a 3,500-heat-unit zone in a matter of hours, he says, making Canadian corn breeders familiar with a wide spectrum of maturities.
And many of the breeders are Guelph aggies.
“The University is very much on top of what’s happening in research,” he says. “Graduates are respected and well versed in real-world agriculture.”
Francis’ movement through the corporate ranks has had its normal share of challenges. But none were quite so great as the one he and his family – India natives living in Uganda – faced at the hands of dictator Idi Amin in 1972. After assuming power, Amin purged Ugandans of non-African descent, forcing them to flee the country. In the nick of time, Francis married his long-time sweetheart Joan the day before they emigrated to Canada, arriving in Montreal October 17, 1972, along with Francis’s two brothers and mother.
There was another love affair taking place at the same time – that is, his passion for agronomy. Francis had started an agronomy master’s degree at Makerere University in Kampala before the Ugandan coup. When he arrived in Montreal he set his sights on continuing his studies, at McGill University. Later, he came to Guelph to pursue his PhD, under Prof. Lyn Kannenberg. His research questioned why some hybrids are so much more stable than others; he found those that flowered early and had rapid grain development were best for stability. He went on to apply this understanding to his work with the federal government and later, with Northrup King (now Novartis Seeds).
Francis’s new position suits his long-time interest in seeking the most appropriate germ plasm for Ontario corn producers. For example, Stewart’s leaf blight started appearing in Ontario over the past seven years or so, but has been prevalent in the U.S. for much longer. Corn breeders there have selected and developed hybrids that are less affected by it; Francis is eyeing that germ plasm, to have hybrids here ready if the blight problem escalates in Ontario.
“Trends start in the Corn Belt,” he says. “It’s important to keep watching what’s happening there.”
Those trends can also shape the face of research. Francis credits the Ontario Corn Producers’ Association for staying at the forefront of technology development. “The association has done a tremendous job promoting the crop and supporting research,” he says. “Industry is taking responsibility for new hybrids, which makes sense because companies want to sell the best varieties.”