Rüdiger Scheitza was born in Harting, near Regensburg, Germany, on March 17, 1953. Having studied agricultural science in Munich, he joined Bayer AG in 1982, where he held a number of positions in Applications Technology and Consulting in the former Crop Protection Business Group. In 1992 he was placed in charge of the business group’s Eastern German Region. In 1993 he moved back to headquarters, initially as Head of Marketing in Western Europe and subsequently as Head of Global Registration for crop protection products. From 1997 to 1998 Rüdiger Scheitza was responsible for Bayer Vital’s crop protection business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In October 1998 he was given responsibility for global crop protection development and since June 2002 he has been in charge of portfolio management at Bayer CropScience.

Rüdiger Scheitza is married and has a daughter.