Dr Andreas Wais
OF RCC LIMITED FEPROATUREFILE
Forty four-year old Dr Andreas Wais of RCC Ltd was born
in Germany and now lives in Switzerland with his wife and
daughter. He has wide-ranging experience in chemistry
and agronomy from German industry, national research
laboratories and organisations. His major academic
interests are residues of pesticides in soil and he is still in
great demand for scientific publications and lectures on
that topic.
What are the biggest challenges of your job?
Our customers always have a very tight time schedule, and the
testing and registration job has always unforeseen events due to the
results and reactions of the authorities. My biggest challenge is to
satisfy both the clients and regulatory authorities and find solutions
with my team to cope with all this.
Your most enjoyable studies/projects, and why?
Personally, I enjoyed working in the field on plant and soil residues
Andreas’s role within RCC
or efficacy studies where you could instantly see the effect and
In 1996, Andreas Wais started his career at RCC, a Swiss-based CRO,
purpose of your work, which is to help the farmers to produce
heading the residue and field trials department. From this year on he
agricultural goods.
is head of the combined business units Agro and Chemicals and is a
member of the management committee overseeing the company.
how do you see your job developing in the next year/
few years?
how has the role changed over the past year, if at all? RCC Ltd will continue to build up its role as a global player which,
When I came to RCC in the mid-1990s, I started in the German branch for me, means more travelling to see customers and our staff in our
heading the residue and field trials department. Then I moved to subsidiaries worldwide.
Switzerland, having the same responsibility there. In 2002, I was
promoted to project leader of the newly formed business unit Agro
From your perspective, what is the single, biggest
where I’ve since been the key person for RCC client relationships,
challenge facing the agrochemical industry at the
especially for Asia. In 2006, I was appointed to deputy head of the
present time?
Agro business unit and in 2007, the business units Agro and Chemicals
CROs have become a reliable partner, with excellent results at
were combined into one under my leadership.
lower cost than internal labs in industry. Now, the agrochemical
industry has to challenge the outsourcing of not only the surplus, but
how many projects and staff do you manage?
complete parts of their regulatory work.
RCC Ltd and especially the Agro business unit is growing year by year.
Last year, we had 1,720 ongoing studies or projects with more than
What’s your favourite food?
850 people involved.
As a world traveller I enjoy food all over the world but I learned that
local fresh food is always the best.
What do you particularly like about your job? Did you
always want to have such a job? Where would you take a client for an evening’s
In German we call it “Traumjob”, a job you would dream about getting. entertainment/dinner?
When I started with the soil and chemistry issue, I was focused on Preferably, I like to invite people to typical places in Basel or its
single components and their effects only. Today I see and handle surroundings for dinner in a pleasant atmosphere, with good local
the complete scope of a component’s lifecycle: the creation of new food….. in winter time, a nice evening with a good Swiss wine and
molecules, the testing, negotiations with the regulators and the a cheese fondue together with Bündner meat. If someone stays over
registration for different countries worldwide. More and more, CROs the weekend short trips into the Alps are also always welcome.
get involved in follow-ups and helping [the] industry to maintain
registration of their products over the time of the first registration,
What’s your favourite sport?
which is for all partners a great challenge but also [means] a
Hoops (basketball). I liked to do some running but do not have time
successful business.
anymore except during holidays. So watching some major sporting
events is what is left.
What does a typical day in your job involve?
There is nothing like a “typical day” …
www.agrow.com  • July 2007 3
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