FMC Corporation today announced Amie Dunn Leopold, director of Corporation Communications, has been named vice president, Communications and Public Affairs. She will succeed Ken Gedaka, who has been vice president, Communications and Public Affairs since 2011 and has elected to retire in July.
Leopold has nearly 25 years of corporate and marketing communications experience in crop protection and the chemical industry. She currently leads FMC’s external relations, including traditional and social media, issues communications, as well as marketing communications and branding for new active ingredients. She has led numerous synthetic and biological product launches, as well as the branding and launch of FMC’s Precision Agriculture organization, Arc® farm intelligence platform and the FMC Plant Health business. Earlier in her career, she held communications leadership roles at several leading chemical and crop protection companies, including BASF, AgroFresh and PeroxyChem. Leopold will join FMC’s Operating Committee and report to Mark Douglas, president and CEO.
“I am pleased to welcome Amie to our executive management team,” said Douglas. “She brings to her new role extensive, global communications experience in crop protection and related industries. With so much ahead of us, including the planned launch of new active ingredients, expansion of FMC Plant Health and Precision Agriculture, and executing our strategic growth plan, we are fortunate to have a leader of Amie’s caliber with deep background in agribusiness to lead our global Communications and Public Affairs team.”
Gedaka will retire following 13 years with FMC and a total of 36 years in the chemical industry, including communication leadership roles at Rohm and Haas Company and Dow. During his FMC tenure, Gedaka built a global function that elevated the company’s external profile, expanded organizational communications, developed new processes to manage issues communications, co-led the company’s move to its global headquarters at FMC Tower in Philadelphia and directed communications campaigns for more than a dozen mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
“Ken is credited with elevating FMC’s profile significantly, both in our hometown of Philadelphia and around the world,” said Douglas. “I have worked with him for more 20 years. Ken is a consummate communications professional with a steady hand who has successfully guided FMC’s brand, profile and corporate reputation as our company transformed from a chemicals conglomerate into a leading crop protection company. I wish him a happy, healthy and well-earned retirement.”
