Rob Horsch spent his entire career as an agricultural research and development specialist discovering, developing and deploying agricultural innovations that improve the welfare of farmers and consumers while protecting the environment and supporting broad, equitable economic growth and poverty reduction. His career has included building a billion-dollar portfolio of grants at the Gates Foundation and leading Monsanto's plant tissue culture and transformation efforts that led to improved crops grown by millions of farmers around the world. He received the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton, was appointed to the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger and awarded Monsanto's highest award for science and technology.