Duraiswami (D) Narain
D Narain (D) is 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 worked in leadership roles in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. He is a passionate advocate of transforming Smallholder Agriculture globally to improve livelihoods and fostering 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.
Did you know?
D speaks four Indian languages: Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Kannada !
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 went on to hold various global Finance and Commercial roles across the world. In 2015 he was named Monsanto’s Executive Officer, Vice President & 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 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. He is also a Chartered Accountant