WAITSBURG, WASH. — Jean-Bruno Beaufumé and Jeron Chatelain are joining the Washington state offices of Limagrain Cereal Seeds, the North American subsidiary of farmer-owned seed company Group Limagrain. Mr. Beaufumé will relocate to the Pacific Northwest region from France, while Washington State University graduate Mr. Chatelain has been hired as a research associate.

“Jean-Bruno has been designing and developing wheat breeding programs for nearly 20 years, and brings with him myriad leadership qualities that have contributed to Limagrain’s success,” said Frank Curtis, executive vice-president and chief operations officer for Limagrain Cereal Seeds. “Jeron grew up on a dryland wheat farm in eastern Washington. His education and experience gained in the region are unparalleled. Together, these two will add considerable depth and breadth of knowledge to the Limagrain Cereal Seeds Pacific Northwest team, and we are fortunate to have them both on board.”

Mr. Beaufumé, who has been employed by Group Limagrain as a wheat breeder for more than a decade, set up the Northern France wheat breeding program for Limagrain Europe. He has been a part of several public/private research project committees, served as a member of the French official wheat and small grains varieties registration commission, and has managed numerous testing, research station and wheat breeding teams throughout his career.

He is a graduate of Ecole National Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes, with a master’s of science degree in genetics and plant breeding.

Mr. Chatelain received his master’s of science degree in crop science with an emphasis in wheat breeding from Washington State University and was a research assistant in the university’s wheat breeding department. He most recently was employed as a faculty research assistant for Oregon State University at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center