Prior to his appointment as Group General Counsel at Syngenta Group, Lars Benecke was Global Head of Law, Patents, Compliance of the combined Bayer Crop Science-Monsanto business, leading an international team located in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America. He previously also served as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for the Bayer Group in the United States.

He is a native of Germany and holds degrees from the University of Cologne, the European University Institute in Florence and a PhD, Doctorate in Law from the University of Bielefeld. He obtained a Master of Laws, LLM, at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to being certified as an attorney in Germany, he is licensed in New York and was licensed as in-house attorney in Pennsylvania during his time in the US.