Robert Berendes

Robert Berendes is an accomplished executive and strategic advisor with a global track record in innovation, growth, and sustainability, particularly in the agriculture and nutrition sectors. As an Advisory Partner at Flagship Pioneering, he works closely with pioneering ventures to drive transformative impact across food systems and environmental health.

Robert has been co-founder and board chair/member of Indigo Agriculture, CiBO, Inari, and Invaio Sciences. He currently holds board positions at Inari and Indigo Agriculture. His governance experience is backed by extensive leadership roles at Syngenta, where he was Head of Business Development and a member of the Executive Committee, overseeing more than 30 acquisitions and founding the company’s industry-leading Corporate Venture Capital group. He also led Syngenta’s global R&D on an interim basis and headed its diverse field crops unit.

Earlier, Robert was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the European Chemical Practice, and began his career as a process engineer at Procter & Gamble. He holds a degree in chemistry from the University of Cologne and a Ph.D. in biophysics from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the Technical University of Munich.