In honor of International Women's Day 2025 we share this piece that recognizes the significant accomplishments of our long time leader Jacqueline Heard as she transitions from CEO to advisor, continuing to influence the way the world grows:

On March 3,  Enko announced that Tony Klemm would assume the role of CEO, leading the company into its next phase of growth and innovation in sustainable crop protection. As part of this transition, Enko’s long-time CEO and Co-founder, Jacqueline Heard, has taken on a new role as strategic advisor, continuing to provide guidance to Tony and the team.

Under Jacqueline’s leadership since its founding in 2017, Enko has evolved from an early-stage startup into a world-class agricultural research organization that is revolutionizing crop protection by developing products that fight pests, weeds, and plant diseases without harming the earth. Enko has quickly become a ready research ally to multinational players in the crop protection industry.

Over the past seven years, under Jacqueline’s lead, the company secured millions in funding, built a state-of-the-art research facility, and established a solid team of employees. As noted above, Enko has also formed major global collaborations with industry leaders such as Syngenta Crop Protection, Bayer Cropscience, Nufarm, and the Gates Foundation, reinforcing its role as a pioneer in agricultural innovation.

Jacqueline’s forethought and vision placed Enko in the AI discovery space early on by applying pharma’s R&D model to crops. Today, Enko’s “scientist-in-the-loop” approach prioritizes safety and optimizes innovation, speed, and precision in mode-of-action (MOA) and molecule discovery. The company has initiated over 50 pipeline programs and continues to leverage AI to accelerate research, streamline processes, and empower chemists in hypothesis generation.

Additional milestones under Jacqueline’s leadership include the acquisition of EnkoDEL technology and the development of Enko’s discovery platform ENKOMPASS.  Enko has also been honored with numerous awards, including AgTech Breakthrough Award's Company of the Year and Fast Company’s "Next Big Things in Tech" AI and Data Innovation category award. And, Jacqueline was instrumental in aligning Enko with the World Economic Forum in support of one of its critical missions to help farmers feed the world.

Since relocating its headquarters from Woburn, Massachusetts to Mystic, Connecticut in 2021, Enko has been recognized for its innovation and sustainability efforts -- core values that continue to drive the company forward.

Jacqueline’s impact extends beyond Enko, as she has been widely acknowledged for her leadership, including being named one of Forbes’ Top 50 Over 50 Leaders in 2024.

In her new advisory role, she will remain actively engaged in supporting Enko’s mission, ensuring a seamless transition and continued momentum for the company’s future growth.

“Jacqueline’s dedication to transforming the plant health industry by bringing cutting edge and scalable innovation has been remarkable,” says Tom Meade, CSO. “It was her early and visionary investment in AI-informed, drug discovery tools, leading their integration into a unique and proprietary research platform aligned to addressing the needs and challenges of agriculture, and championing the recruitment of an exemplary team that has brought us to where Enko is today.”

“On behalf of the entire board, I want to express my sincere thanks to Jacqueline for her vision and tremendous contributions in establishing Enko as an innovative, world-leading crop protection development company,” says Tim Hassinger, Enko Board Chair. “Enko is poised for an exciting next chapter, building on the strong foundation Jacqueline helped create and advancing its mission to revolutionize agricultural discovery and sustainability.”

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