Our Story

Dr. Darren Anderson is the co-founder and CEO of Vive Crop Protection and serves on the Board of Directors.

Anderson is passionate about using technology to improve the sustainability of agriculture while creating quantifiable results for growers. Anderson is on the Board of Croplife America and CropLife Canada, the trade associations for the pesticide industry in the USA and Canada. Anderson earned his PhD from the University of Toronto as an NSERC doctoral fellow.

Under Anderson's leadership, Vive raised over $100M CAD of equity and debt, launched the first nanotechnology-enabled pesticide products that are approved by the EPA and PMRA, landed on Deloitte's Fast 50 Cleantech List and Fast 500 Growth three years in a row, and built a patent portfolio of 112 granted patents.

Jordan Dinglasan earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Toronto where he helped develop Vive’s patented Allosperse® technology. Dinglasan is one of the co-founders of Vive Crop Protection.

Under the leadership of Chief Technology Officer Doug Baumann, Vive is on the path to having the highest velocity innovation engine in agriculture. With a goal of putting a Vive product on every acre, Baumann’s scope of responsibility now includes Research, Development, Regulatory, and Manufacturing.

Baumann comes to Vive from Syngenta Canada where he most recently worked as Crop Protection Development Manager. An experienced R&D manager with a strong record of achievement in the agrochemical industry, Baumann brings 11 years of experience in crop protection formulation, application, and field development to Vive. In his own words, he has been, “Living the science life since ‘99” with additional research activity spanning synthetic chemistry, biochemical engineering, and polymer science. He holds a BS in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University and a PhD in Biomedical and Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

David Rummel is responsible for developing key partnerships with other agrochemical and biological manufacturers to increase the availability of Vive Crop Protection’s patented Allosperse technology in the US and global marketplaces. He is also be responsible for in-licensing new chemical and biological active ingredients that Vive will add to its existing branded product portfolio.

Rummel has over 20 years of experience in the crop protection industry, including business development, strategic sourcing, portfolio management and marketing roles at ADAMA (now part of Syngenta Group) and Monsanto (now part of Bayer Group). He is currently completing his MBA at Webster University and holds a Bachelor of Science, Business and Finance from the University of Wisconsin and an AAS degree in Production Ag and Dairy from the University of Minnesota.

Jeff Lacrooy has been part of the Vive team since 2021, bringing over 20 years of experience leading finance, operations, and accounting functions. He has been instrumental in strengthening Vive’s financial and operational foundations, enabling the organization to scale responsibly and pursue its mission with clarity and confidence. Jeff is passionate about empowering teams with the tools and insights they need to excel. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).

Robert is General Counsel at Vive, where he leads the legal department, and is Corporate Secretary of the Board of Directors. Robert previously worked as in-house counsel at Chemtrade Logistics and prior to that, as a corporate and securities lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. He is a graduate of Queen’s University Faculty of Law and Western University.

Katie Grace joined the Vive leadership team as the People & Culture leader and works closely with the leadership team to develop Vive's people strategies in alignment with the overall business strategy. With +15 years of experience in operational, people management, and leadership roles, Katie combines her experience and passion for a human-centric approach to business to build first-class people programs at Vive. She is a graduate of Western University with a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies, and a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL), and a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario.

Bill Lambert is a former Partner at Birch Hill Equity Partners (TD Capital), a private equity partnership that has $1.7 billion in capital under management. Birch Hill is a leader in mid-market buyout private equity in Canada. Bill has sat on the boards of several companies including Marsulex Inc., a Toronto-based environmental services company, BIOX, a biofuels company and Ag Growth International, a leading manufacturer of grain handling, conditioning and storage equipment. He has 22 years of experience in the private equity and merchant banking industries, and ten years experience in consulting.

Keith Thomas is a proven entrepreneur and was most recently CEO of Vive Crop Protection during its startup and initial rapid growth phase. Previously, Keith was CEO of Vector Innovations, which was backed by a number of well-regarded venture firms and successfully exited. He has led a number of large-scale projects, restructuring companies in 3 countries at New York-based Tandon Capital, managing strategy and operations projects at Booz Allen & Hamilton and completing corporate finance transactions at Citibank in the US and Europe. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a Governor of the University of Toronto. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. in Economics and a B.A.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Susanne Wasson is a senior commercial executive with 33 years of experience in the global agriculture industry. Susanne recently retired as President of the Crop Protection Business Platform of Corteva Agriscience.  She held commercial leadership roles, as well as global portfolio roles in the crop protection and seeds and traits businesses. 

Susanne is a current board member of Cultiva, LLC, SePRO and HGS BioScience. She was Chairman of the Board of CropLife America and was Chairman of the National FFA Foundation Sponsors Board. She was on the boards of the American Chemistry Council, AgriNovus Indiana, the United Way of Central Indiana, and Indiana Humanities. She is currently on the board of Governors for Oklahoma State University.

Kyle is the Managing Partner of Emmertech, a Canadian based AgTech venture capital manager. Prior to this role, Kyle was a Vice President, Private Equity with Clairvest Group Inc. where he led the firm's agriculture investment strategy and an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company where he led projects in private equity due diligence, and strategy and operations serving clients across North America and internationally. 

Kyle holds an HBA and MBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.

Dr. Schlicher has more than 30 years of global life sciences experience leading the identification, development, commercialization, strategy, marketing, sales and financing of early to late-stage agricultural technologies as an executive at Monsanto and Mallinckrodt as well as startups in the agricultural sustainability space. She serves as a Biosciences Expert Advisory Committee Member to Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and as a past advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernie Moniz. She has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Will McAndrew, a highly accomplished global finance leader with more than 25 years of experience in agriculture, has joined Vive’s Board of Directors.

McAndrew brings extensive expertise in strategy, financial planning, mergers and acquisitions, investor relations, and team leadership. Over the course of his career, he consistently delivered results by aligning financial support with long-term business growth, building high-performance teams, and driving operational excellence across complex organizations. 

Most recently, McAndrew served as Vice President of Strategic Financial Planning and R&D Finance for Bayer Crop Science, where he oversaw the finance function for Strategy and Sustainability. He played a pivotal role in strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, licensing, pipeline valuation, and deal support.

McAndrew holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Iowa State University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Missouri–Kansas City.

Dr. Darren Anderson is a co-founder and CEO of Vive Crop Protection and serves on its Board of Directors. Darren is passionate about using technology to improve the sustainability of agriculture while creating quantifiable results for growers. Darren is on the Board of CropLife America, the trade association for the pesticide industry in the USA; a member of the Advisory Committee for CHLOE, an organization committed to increasing STEM learning through agriculture and natural resources; and a founding member of ElectSTEM, a non-profit encouraging people with STEM backgrounds to run for political office.

Under Darren’s leadership, Vive has raised over $43M CAD of equity and debt, launched the first nanotechnology-enabled pesticide products that are approved by the EPA, and doubled its commercial business annually for the last 4 years. Dr. Anderson is the inventor on 13 issued patents and 44 pending applications. Dr. Anderson earned his PhD from University of Toronto as an NSERC doctoral fellow.