CFO Studio Magazine with Bernd-Peter Bier, CFO, Bayer

TAKING INSPIRATION FROMAGRISCIENCE, CFOBERRY BIER IS TRIMMING, TENDING, ANDGROWING BAYER’S U.S. SUBSIDIARY TOREAP REWARDS I n August of 2014, when the corn was high and ambitious American political figures were already jetting in and out of Iowa prior to the first big test in the 2016 election race, Bayer Corporation CFO Berry Bier made his own trip to the state. He, too, was interested in meeting Iowa farmers face-to-face, but his purpose differed significantly from the politicians’. They were testing the waters for presidential runs. Bier, plucked 10 months earlier from the global headquarters of Bayer AG in Leverkusen, Germany, to become CFO of the Pittsburgh, PA–based U.S. organization, wanted to meet customers and find out from them how growers use Bayer CropScience products. For Bier, such exchanges were every bit as important as a politician’s pressing of the flesh. The growers he met showed him two side-by-side plots of corn. One was treated with Bayer Sonata™, a biological product, and the other was untreated. The first exhibited green-husked corn bursting with kernels, and it demonstrated to Bier that Bayer was creating value for its customers. He could now better imagine how the businesses in which Bayer invests are improving lives and livelihoods. That trip came just prior to an extraordinary period, during which Bier was responsible for spinning off part of Bayer. CFOs often have the opportunity to help shape their company through M&As or divestment, but Bier had a high-profile carve-out to accomplish on a short deadline. In achieving his goal, he found it useful to look up from the flowcharts and spreadsheets and envision ... cornfields. Bier and his carve-out team were fundamentally renewing the 150-year-old Bayer’s focus on life sciences: health care and crops. Shaping the Company On Oct. 30, 2014, just one year into his new job, Bier was given the task of spinning off one of Bayer’s three major product - BY JULIE BARKER - Photography by David Yellen COVER STORY Method Scientific 8 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 4th QUARTER 2015