Brussels, 1 September 2023
The Agricultural Crop Licensing Platform (ACLP) founding members announce the appointment of Hélène Guillot as the Managing Director of the platform.
The ACLP has announced the appointment of its Managing Director – Hélène Guillot, a legal professional with a remarkable background in the seed sector, who will take on the responsibility to lead, grow and promote the platform and its objectives.
With a strong foundation in law and a diverse skill set that spans intellectual property (IP) matters, including Plant Variety Protection (PVP) and patents, as well as a good understanding of Novel Genomic Techniques (NGTs), Ms. Guillot is ideally positioned to support the ACLP mission of enabling innovation and access to patented traits.
Ms. Guillot’s career includes significant experience at the Union Française des Semenciers (UFS) and the International Seed Federation (ISF), where she demonstrated exceptional ability in harmonizing the diverse interests and positions of members, as well as gaining expertise in governance management – all of which makes her the right candidate for the role of the Managing Director of the ACLP.
“Having been working for 10 years in the seed sector, which is at the very beginning of the food chain, I am very glad to continue this mission to help seed companies to provide farmers with varieties suiting best their needs through the ACLP. I truly believe that encouraging the sharing of technologies, which is the ambition of the ACLP, is the key for seed companies of all sizes to be able to keep innovating, especially in this uncertain regulatory framework around the status of the new genomic techniques.”
Hélène Guillot (Managing Director, ACLP)
Claudia Hallebach (Head of Global Legal & Intellectual Property, KWS) of the ACLP Board of Directors expressed enthusiasm for Ms. Guillot’s appointment:
”Being an experienced professional at the crossroads between legal regulation and communication, advocating for agricultural policies to facilitate access to innovation for farmers, as well as help achieve their economic development and food security around the world through building sustainable food systems, we are convinced that Ms. Guillot is the perfect match for this position. We look forward to working together and further develop the ACLP in the future.”
About the ACLP:
The Agricultural Crop Licensing Platform (ACLP) is designed to enable and speed-up access to innovation for European-based seed companies. European breeders will be able to continue using commercial varieties for breeding, including those containing patented traits.
The initiative is currently driven by 9 European plant breeding companies and trait developers representing a wide range of agricultural crops and includes small, medium-sized, and big companies. They have jointly worked on the establishment of a simple legal framework enabling access to commercial varieties for breeding purposes and providing access to marketed patented traits on fair conditions in Europe with increased transparency, including eventually, genome edited traits.
#EnablingInnovation #EUGreenDeal #EUFarm2Fork #plantbreeding #sustainability
Contact information:
Hélène Guillot
ACLP Managing Director
