Meet the Team

At De Ruiter, we approach our products with a mix of art and science. Our greatest source of inspiration is our growers. It is our mission to bring the same level of passion to our work as they do to theirs. We match our customers’ enthusiasm for their crops by delivering one-on-one service. Our dedication comes from the knowledge that while distinctive seeds grow great fruit, only partnerships grow success.

Geena is our Testing Research Associate for the De Ruiter North America team, who works to ensure the execution of experimental protocols, the proper use of agronomic practices and crop management techniques, and high throughout data collection to enable advancements of our vegetable pipelines in high tech glasshouses. Her work will help us to better select De Ruiter varieties for our region, as well as offer information and advice about the varieties to further successful growing.

She holds a double Bachelor’s degree in Horticulture and Environmental Landscape Horticulture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Dalhousie University’s faculty of Agriculture as well as a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland.  Throughout her university years she has worked in greenhouses, labs, and in research fields and has led various research projects.  She has worked with crops such as tomatoes, eggplants, blueberries and cranberries. On 2019, she also published a paper on native pollinators in The Canadian Entomologist Journal.

In her free time, Geena enjoys nature walks, identifying plants and insects, and painting on canvas.

Meet Carlos Buzio. This year, he joined our North America team as the Regional Product Manager for De Ruiter seeds. He approaches his role as a connection between all parts of De Ruiter Seeds: taking learnings from breeding, production and the commercial organization, and leveraging those insights to enable the team to bring new products to the market to fit your needs. At the end of the day, your success as a grower is his main focus. He works hard to understand current consumer and market demands/trends to make decisions about future products that will make your operation more successful.  

“Customers are always a part of the conversations we have,” he says. “For example, there are a handful of products that we may not have advanced in years prior, but with customer feedback and input, we are now taking a second look at them and re-evaluating their space in the market.”

Carlos’ gift to you is letting you know that there’s a De Ruiter red blocky pepper that we have been trialing for 3 years, launching this summer. It has great yield potential and fruit shape, and is just the right size.

Micaela wakes up very early in the morning, and with a sip of coffee, she’s fueled up and motivated to support De Ruiter customers throughout their entire ordering process—her day starts when yours starts!

She serves our customers as Customer Interface Account Specialist from Oxnard, California, where she makes sure that their experience of ordering, buying, and getting seeds delivered goes smoothly while also helping with any questions they may have. A core part of her job is to ensure customers have a seamless experience with De Ruiter.

And while she may be located in a different time zone than the customers she serves, her day matches theirs so she’s available when customers need her.

“I’m definitely passionate about coming to work early to resolve whatever our customers need for the day,” Micaela told us.

Even while growing up, agriculture was a part of her life. With a strawberry field right next to her backyard, she would often go pick a sweet treat from time to time! Nowadays, she still loves being outdoors. When she isn’t at work giving her best to support our growers, Micaela likes to go hiking, taking trips to the beach, or just spending quality time with her big family, enjoying the great weather of the Golden State. 

Of the De Ruiter® portfolio, her favorite variety is our new tomato Marinice! She enjoys it for its texture, color, and flavor – “It looks so flavorful, and tastes exactly the way it looks!”. A perk of the job Micaela mentioned is taste testing new varieties as they come out, as De Ruiter continually innovates to make each masterpiece better than the next, flavor first.

De Ruiter is lucky to have Commercial Business Analyst and Financial Lead Mark Fahy on board. While he likes to consider his job the “algebra behind the scenes,” interacting with customers has always been his ultimate goal. After eight years of traditional accounting roles, he now has opportunities to meet customers during visits and at events, discussing finance topics such as increasing wages and how De Ruiter can assist in growing your business.

During his time at Webster University in St. Louis, Mark achieved a Master’s Degree in Forensic Accounting. Today, he assists in developing market funding programs tailored to each customer’s business. He also works with De Ruiter Product Management and Technical Development Representatives to help determine what new varieties would be ideal to release in the market, as well as supporting the De Ruiter Sales Representatives.

Growing up in St. Louis where he now works, Mark’s family had a small backyard vegetable garden. He has childhood memories of enjoying that feeling of picking a tomato off the vine and eating it on the spot. So, it’s no surprise that his favorite De Ruiter varieties are snacking tomatoes, preferring the orange and yellow ones. To his palate, they are a bit sweeter.

It might surprise you to learn that despite growing up on a farm, Megan Groennert did not grow up enjoying vegetables. "I have never been a big vegetable eater. I guess my parents never really made me eat them growing up. I’m a meat and potatoes kind of gal, I blame the Midwest farm background for that."

But through her role at De Ruiter Seeds, as the company's Propagator and Sales Operations Representative, Megan has come to embrace and enjoy trying new vegetable products. "I am starting to appreciate the taste of vegetables and started tasting tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers this year. In the past, I would pick tomatoes and cucumbers off a salad, for example, but now my curiosity gets the best of me because I have to compare them all."

Prior to her current position at De Ruiter, Megan previously served as a Customer Interface Account Specialist for De Ruiter (US/CAN) where she had the privilege to work with De Ruiter customers every day. "The knowledge of the customer base and the internal processes I have been able to bring with me into my current role have been invaluable."

Today, Megan spends much of her time managing the day to day operation of the Trusted Propagator Program (which includes the relationship management of De Ruiter propagator customers in Canada), partnering with De Ruiter's US Dealers and providing operational support to the De Ruiter sales team.

"My role impacts the grower experience before the seeds are even sold to the grower. I coordinate pre-season seed tests with propagators so they know what to expect from batches of the same seed during the busy season. These test results help me work with the propagators to ensure they are able to deliver the right number of plants, at the right quality and the right time to our mutual customer, the grower," says Megan.

So which De Ruiter product does a previously self-proclaimed vegetable naysayer enjoy eating most? "I like the sweet taste of the DR0603TC." And when she isn't sampling new De Ruiter varieties, you are most likely to run into Megan outdoors, where she enjoys walking and bicycling.

Rafael Lacaz Ruiz is the Tomato Technology Development Representative for Protected Culture in North America.

He enjoys supporting De Ruiter growers every day and always wants them to feel comfortable reaching out to him for assistance. "I feel passionate about working for De Ruiter because we’re doing something very important; we’re growing vegetables to feed people all over the world – and that’s something truly special,” shared Rafael.

He believes it is his responsibility to collaborate with others in the industry to make sure De Ruiter is delivering the best results for growers and make them successful. 

Part of the De Ruiter® team, Stephanie handles marketing for our North America Protected Culture segment. She continually works to create a strong connection with customers by understanding their pain points and applying her past experiences in digital solutions and the latest on farm technologies to explore new, innovative approaches to business opportunities and challenges. She also partners to share information about the De Ruiter portfolio of products, and what options would be the best fit for your operation.  

Based in St Louis, Missouri, Stephanie previously worked at Bayer’s Climate Corporation for 5 years before joining the De Ruiter Team.  At Climate, she cultivated her experience in forward-thinking digital solutions, assisting farmers, dealers and sales reps on customer activation and engagement in key areas of the FieldViewTM product.  Stephanie leverages her experiences in the digital Ag sector to bring new ideas forward for De Ruiter customers.

Stephanie hails from Evansville, Indiana where agriculture played a role in her family and close friends lives. She enjoys assisting her father-in-law on their family farm in Southern Illinois, and is deeply passionate to continue learning and advocating for farmers and sustainable agriculture production.  She has gained experience in other industries but is adamant on the authentic passion that comes from customers, colleagues, and rural communities involved in the agriculture industry as the most fulfilling sector she has experienced.  “Everyone is committed and focused on one common goal: To serve the global population and feed the world. That purpose is so strong that it drives good energy for people.  I love working in agriculture and want to continue to build my future and legacy here.”

Her hobbies include soccer, traveling and cooking.  She loves vegetables, so much that she has her own garden where she grows peppers, tomatoes, and a variety of herbs; which she uses in special recipes and cooking. 

Keyur Patel is a Market Development Representative for protected culture residing in Leamington, Ontario. Our Market Development team has a specialized focus on your success as a customer, and helping you both to 1) find the perfect varieties for your operation and 2) to provide expertise throughout growing to help ensure you have the best possible crop. You will find Keyur collaborating with our sales team, visiting your farms, and placing trials locally around Canada – as we always work to thoroughly trial our products to ensure they offer optimal performance for your area.

Keyur brings key growing knowledge from the industry to the team. He has experience working with companies to grow heirloom tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, while focusing on climate control, irrigation, and labor management. He loves sharing knowledge and ideas. “I invite growers to contact me to discuss the right resources and right solutions,” shares Keyur. “I enjoy providing technical support and when we can all grow successfully together”.  

A combination of experience and education is important. Keyur has a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and a Master of Science degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding from Anand Agricultural University. He is vegetarian and loves to eat all kinds of veggies, his favorite being tomatoes. When he’s not working with vegetables, you can probably find him playing ping pong or bird watching.  

Marcin Piechota hails from the Wielkopolska region having graduated with a master’s degree in Horticulture Science from Life Science University of Poznań, Poland, and joined us back in 2012 as a Technology Development Specialist. Now, a little over 8 years later, Marcin is excited to discover the Canadian and American ways of understanding horticulture as De Ruiter’s new Technical Sales Representative.

Born and raised in a farm, Marcin has firsthand experience on how cultivation technologies are evolving to follow new market expectations and to adapt in an ever-changing climate. His personal experience, spanning over 14 years both in the vegetable and perennial businesses, have helped him to better understand grower needs, turning him into an expert in choosing varieties that fit their expectations.

As a passionate gardener, Marcin truly believes in providing growers with reliable, easy-to-produce varieties that can perform under unstable conditions and is looking forward to enrich his knowledge and experience with local grower’s expectations, conditions, and wisdom.

Although Marcin has a preference toward cucumbers, his own personal favorite De Ruiter variety is Tomimaru Muchoo—or how he likes to call it, the “King of the Pink Beef Tomatoes”—because of its taste, cultivation characteristics, and the profits it tends to bring to growers.

His favorite thing about working with North American growers and coworkers is their friendly attitude and positive outlook on life. Marcin enjoys the quietness of Canadian life and experiences the country through hiking and landscaping.

From her base in Ontario, Yolanda Pryztocki handles technical sales and trial placement for customers in Canada East, including cucumber, tomato, pepper, and eggplant growers. After five years with De Ruiter, Yolanda says her mantra is: what you plant now, you will harvest later.

"My background is in agriculture. I had experience before as an owner and as a grower heading up my own business, so that helps me understand my customers' needs," Yolanda says. "If there's a problem, I don't look at it as a stop sign. Once a solution is reached, I make sure to give my customers even more than they expected."

Andres is based in Mexico City, where he starts his day at approximately 6:30 AM ready to work with his team to align and set strategies to get seeds to you, our growers, on time. He wants to make sure that we are able to serve you by delivering on what you need, when you need it, where you need it – every time.

Being that he has been a part of our team for about 19 years, Andres has a vast amount of experience in marketing and managing programs that optimize your experience as a customer, as it is our goal to put you our customer at the center of everything we do.

Andres is really excited to help you keep growing over the next couple of years, improving operations and marketing abilities by providing more options, solutions, products, and innovation.

“Our customers can expect high quality standards because they are going to have the best product available in the market for their production niche. They can expect innovation, new things in the different segments that they're working in, and a whole team dedicated to their needs.”

He thinks that the most rewarding part of working at De Ruiter is having a bigger purpose and knowing that what we’re doing as a team is improving the quality of life, not only of our growers, but for our consumers.

For many members of the De Ruiter team, agriculture is much more than a career; it’s a lifestyle. Federico “Freddy” Salazar is no exception.

With a lifelong passion for agriculture, Freddy serves our growers as the Protected Culture Strategic Accounts Lead for North America. Joining the team from Sinaloa, Mexico—not far from where his family grew corn, beans and roma tomatoes during his childhood—Freddy brings a wealth of experience and an innovative spirit to De Ruiter.

Freddy believes the most important part of his job is building relationships with growers and marketers by providing them with resources and insights to better their businesses. Every day, he strives to anticipate customer needs and help them achieve their goals in creative ways—all in the spirit of nutritiously (and deliciously) feeding our growing world.

“Everyone needs food, so I couldn’t be in another business that’s more beneficial for everyone,” he said.

Having spent his entire career in agriculture, Freddy remains optimistic about where the industry is headed and how De Ruiter can use developing technologies to improve the lives of growers and consumers alike. When he isn’t supporting our growers or snacking on his favorite De Ruiter cherry tomatoes, he can often be found spending time with friends or playing sports outdoors with his two sons.

Having worked previously at different St. Louis marketing agencies, Emily Standley is no stranger to the intricacies and challenges of brand management. But it was at De Ruiter that she found an opportunity to be part of a team that focuses on true customer service.

To Emily, focusing on customer needs is at the core of her role. The most rewarding part of working at De Ruiter is when she can develop professional insights based on direct contact with customers. “It’s hard to pick my favorite part of this job,” Emily says, “But anytime I can solve a grower’s challenge by communicating information they need is the best part of my day.”

Though she doesn’t have a background in agriculture, she’s taken advantage of every opportunity to educate herself. “Starting out, I spent as much time talking to growers as I could,” she remembers. “Talking to the experts is the best way to learn.”

It wasn’t long before Emily discovered agriculture was a uniquely fascinating industry to employ her talents. “There’s so much innovation and science behind the way we grow our food. I think that’s what a lot of consumers don’t often see—all the effort it takes to bring them food every day.”

When she’s not brand managing, Emily heads outdoors. Though her paddle boarding and hiking options are limited at the De Ruiter office in St. Louis, she looks forward to trips where she can take some time and explore a new place.

Lindsay Walsh manages the distribution center in Canada. She is the dedicated person who has the honor of making sure your shipment is perfect when it comes to the order, packaging and quantity. With her co-worker, Kathy, she has worked tirelessly to ensure that orders are above and beyond expectations, 100% of the time. Our distribution centers focus every step and checkpoint toward acting as a reliable partner that provides cutting-edge seed genetics for generations to come.

While she’s always been an impassioned vegetable eater, Lindsay wasn’t always in agriculture. She grew up on a tobacco farm but ended up going into law. It was a strange coincidence that she ended up working at Monsanto: first in rural crops and soybeans.

Lindsay has a hard time picking her favorite De Ruiter vegetable, but especially loves the Camaro cucumber.

As a child, Marcin wished that candy grew on trees. And as one of our Technical Sales Reps, he’s found that his youthful wish has almost come true. Marcin is quick to tell clients about the incredible, sweet-tasting, snackable qualities of his favorite De Ruiter ® variety, grape tomato DR0603TC.

A Technical Sales Rep differs from other Sales Reps in that they have extensive backgrounds in agriculture. Marcin grew up working on his family’s small greenhouse in Poland, growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers during the warm seasons. He obtained his college degree as a teacher. Today, these two skills help Marcin inform and troubleshoot on the spot when he visits his De Ruiter customers.

Based in Leamington, ON, Marcin gets the first glimpse of products coming down the pipeline. With his accessibility to new product introductions, Marcin is able to take this knowledge to growers in Quebec and Ontario, New York, Michigan and Europe. During his travels, if a question arises that could be better answered by a specific expert, Marcin hops on the phone with De Ruiter advisors in Holland and Poland to find an answer quickly. Previously a Head Grower, he enjoys traveling and the pride that comes from seeing De Ruiter products thrive at operations around the world and ultimately, in market.