Linda is the head of Field Crops Seed & Traits R&D where she is responsible for the oversight of the global R&D organization for canola, cotton, soybean, wheat, sunflower and rice. She joined BASF in 2018 with the acquisition of the seeds business.
Linda holds a bachelor’s in plant Cell and Molecular Biology and a doctorate in Biology from Texas Tech University where she studied gene regulation in plants. She co-founded a biotech company in Lubbock, Texas in 1994 and in four short years was acquired by a large agricultural corporation where she began her now 20+ year career dedicated to delivering high-performance traits into the hands of farmers.
In her early career, Linda evaluated traits i as an event selection manager responsible for the development of engineered traits, and progressed in her career as a crop development manager and eventually the R&D manager for cotton in Gent, Belgium. There, she executed the R&D strategy and operational plan for the cotton seed business, contributed to the cotton crop strategic business plan, managed the R&D pipeline of cotton and explored technologies to expand to new markets. She transitioned to the head of Trait Development role located in the US in 2008 and led the Trait Development team in the development of several trait packages in cotton,corn and soybean including LibertyLink®, GlyTol™,TwinLink®, TwinLink® Plus and GT27™. Her role expanded to include wheat, canola, rice, and sunflower in 2018. In January 2020, Linda was appointed the Senior Vice President of R&D for Field Crop Seeds & Traits.
Linda holds 14 worldwide patents in plant transformation, herbicide tolerance and insect control. She is a participating member in several agriculturally important associations such as the National Cotton Council Germplasm Committee, International Cotton Genome Initiative, both the American and Texas Seed Trade Associations, the Lubbock Regional BioScience Initiative and the Lubbock Economic Development Association.