Jim Eckles

Mr. Eckles is the managing director of BDA which he established in 1998.  Prior to BDA, Mr. Eckles worked for 17 years in various business development and management positions for multinational companies in the US, EU and South America, including positions at Cargill, ICI and Zeneca.    His passion is creating successful business ventures and creative business transactions. He is a certified merger and acquisition advisor (CM&AA) and holds a Masters degree in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University and a Bachelors degree from the University of Texas, Austin.  

Bill Dickheiser

Mr. Dickheiser is an experienced transactional intellectual property attorneyand business development manager. Hehas a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from Fordham University, and is admitted to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office as well as in New York and Connecticut. Mr. Dickheiser drafted and successfully prosecuted more than 100 US Patents and negotiated several licensing transactions at Union Carbide Corporation, Uniroyal, Inc. and ICI Americas/Zeneca before becoming Manager of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Property for Zeneca Plant Science in 1993.  In 2000, Mr. Dickheiser became Global Head of Ventures for Syngenta, with responsibility for the negotiation of new ventures as well as for the operation of existing ventures.  Mr. Dickheiser has been working with BDA since he left Syngenta in 2003.