HOW TO GROW IN YOUR CAREER EP 251

D Narain | President, South Asia, and Global Head of Smallholder Farming
for Bayer.

 As President for South Asia, D oversees Bayer’s Life Science business operations across
India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, and as Global Head of Smallholder Farming, he leads the
efforts focused on providing holistic and innovative solutions for farmers in developing economies to
enable them to grow their farms into sustainable businesses.
D has more than 3 decades of global experience in the Food and Agriculture sector, having
leadership roles in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. He is a passionate advocate of transforming
Smallholder Agriculture globally to improve livelihoods and foster rural development through
building and scaling socially focused commercial enterprises. He has also been a pioneer in bringing
innovative financing and risk management solutions to farmers across the world.
He started his career with ITC in India and was part of the team that spearheaded ITC’s entry into
Agribusiness. In 1998, he joined Monsanto as Chief Financial Officer for the India Region and held various global Finance and Commercial roles worldwide. In 2015 he was named
Monsanto’s Executive Officer & Treasurer at its global headquarters in St. Louis, USA. Passionate
about driving leadership and organisation development including inclusion and diversity, D has
mentored hundreds of leaders across functions throughout his career. In 2017, he was named as one of
the top Diverse Business Leaders by the St Louis Business Journal for his continued focus on
expanding the impact of inclusion and maximizing a growing diverse workforce within Monsanto and
in the community. Post-acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer in 2018, D took over his current role, steering
the integration of Monsanto with Bayer in the region, resulting in a significant acceleration in business
growth. He is also a Chartered Accountant.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Madras in Chennai, India, and an
MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA.