Naomi Stevens
Global Policy Advocacy Manager for the CropScience Division of Bayer
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Naomi Stevens is the Global Policy Advocacy Manager for the CropScience Division of Bayer responsible for global policy engagement and advocacy strategies in the areas of plant breeding innovation, intellectual property rights and biodiversity.
Her mission in global policy is enabling advancement of plant breeding innovations like genome editing across diverse users and geographies with consistent policy, enabled by clear and accessible intellectual property rights and demonstrating enhanced biodiversity from sustainable and regenerative agricultural production systems. Naomi represents Bayer on the Board of the International Seed Federation and since 2024, chairs the coordination group plant breeding innovation.
Naomi has worked in the plant science industry for over 3 decades, including global leadership positions located in France, Germany and Australia. Her extensive experience spans crop protection, biotechnology and seeds, with roles in regulatory affairs, communications, branding, training, market acceptance, policy advocacy, strategy, public and governmental affairs.
At industry level, Naomi represents Bayer in the CLI Global Industry Coalition (GIC) steering committee, the CLI Biodiversity Expert Group and ICC Biodiversity Committee and leads Bayer delegations at the Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations. She is also in the CLI Plant Breeding Innovation Expert Group.
Previously, Naomi represented Bayer on the CLI Plant Biotechnology Strategy Council (2012 - 2019). She chaired the Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI) Executive Committee (2014 – 2017) responsible for creating the societal dialogue platform GMO Answers.
Naomi is a graduate of Agricultural Science from the University of Melbourne, Australia and holds a postgraduate diploma in Agribusiness from Monash University, Australia. She started her plant science career in 1991 with Shell Chemical Pty Ltd in Australia and joined AgrEvo in 1994, which merged with Rhone Poulenc in 2000 to form Aventis CropScience and was purchased by Bayer in 2001. In 2018, Bayer completed the global acquisition of Monsanto.
She enjoys gardening, horse riding and long-haul flights.