Steve Ward has managed the UK patent department of Syngenta for around 17 years. Syngenta is a global agrichemicals and seeds company headquartered in Switzerland and recently acquired by ChemChina. His department currently has eight patent attorneys and three trainees out of a Syngenta global total of 27 patent professionals. Syngenta patent attorneys have global responsibility for portfolios of R&D projects and commercial products worldwide. Ward has a chemistry degree from Oxford and briefly worked in polymer research before qualifying first as a UK and EP patent attorney and then as a trademark attorney with ICI.