Photo courtesy of Biotrop
Biotrop, the microbiological solutions division of BioFirst Group, announced the appointment of Andre Cerignoni as general manager of Biotrop North America, effective August 2026.
In this newly created role, Cerignoni will lead the combined North American platform encompassing BioWorks North America and Biotrop USA, reporting directly to Jonas Hipolito, president of Biotrop.
Cerignoni brings more than a decade of experience in biological crop protection and biostimulation across Brazil and the United States. He joins Biotrop from Koppert, where he most recently served as marketing and commercial manager for the United States, based in Indiana.
Previously, he spent over 10 years at Koppert Brazil in progressively senior commercial and operational roles, culminating in marketing and commercial manager for the Brazilian market. He holds an MBA in agriculture from the University of São Paulo and an MBA in supply chain management from Fundação Getulio Vargas.
"North America is the largest and most competitive biologicals market in the world, and our ambition matches the opportunity," Hipolito said. "Andre has exactly the profile this moment demands — deep market knowledge, commercial execution capability and experience building teams across hemispheres. He inherits a strong foundation built by Chris Rose at BioWorks and Matheus Gueratto at Biotrop USA, and together this trio gives us the leadership horsepower to pursue a bold target: more than $260 million in North American revenue by 2034."
Cerignoni will spend his first 90 days in an intensive discovery and assessment phase, meeting with employees, customers, distributors and partners across both organizations. By day 90, he will deliver an integrated North America strategy, including a common mission and vision, a platform operating model, a BioWorks/Biotrop integration roadmap, and a KPI architecture aligned with the financial ambition.
Cerignoni joins a leadership team that includes Chris Rose, a BioWorks veteran since 2013 who led the company through its 2026 leadership transition, and Matheus Gueratto, head of Biotrop USA, who built the company's row-crop commercial operation, secured a presence across 23 states and registered 13 products with U.S. authorities.
"Chris and Matheus have done the hard work of establishing credibility and building relationships in North America's most demanding agricultural markets," Cerignoni said. "My role is to build on that foundation — to create a platform where BioWorks and Biotrop are stronger together than either could be alone, while preserving the identity and strengths that make each organization special."
BioWorks and Biotrop USA will operate as distinct organizations under the Biotrop North America platform, each preserving its brand, market focus and go-to-market strategy. BioWorks remains focused on greenhouse horticulture, ornamental and specialty crops. Biotrop USA remains focused on broad-acre row crops, including soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton and peanuts.
The companies said that the platform will enable shared capabilities in areas where scale creates advantages: regulatory excellence, market intelligence, agronomic development, product launch governance and customer success practices.
"The objective is not to make both companies identical," Cerignoni added. "The objective is to create more value together than either could create alone."
The financial targets are supported by biologicals group BioFirst Group, with over $580 million in annual revenue; it also includes Biobest.