The decision to move to Gatersleben was made in 1991 at a conference in Tucson, Arizona. There, he met his doctoral thesis supervisor again, who had an advertisement for a vacant position at the IPK with her. After spending several years at Cornell University in New York State with his wife, Marion Röder, they had to decide whether to stay in the US or return to Germany. “We only came as a couple; that was our condition in the discussions with the IPK,” recalls Martin Ganal. An agreement was reached, and in 1993, he started at the IPK as head of a research group, in which his wife also got a job.

Today, 33 years later, Martin Ganal (66) sits in his office at SGS TraitGenetics on a spring-like February day, looking back, but also looking ahead. In a few days, the company will celebrate its 25th anniversary, after which he will retire. “We didn’t want two celebrations, just one,” he says. But it will last for three days,” laughs the company’s founder and long-time principal owner. More than 100 business partners and long-standing colleagues have confirmed they will attend. Martin Ganal’s journey on the research campus is unique.

“I have always wanted to build a bridge between science and industry,” says the 66-year-old, explaining his motivation. Initially working on tomatoes and the molecular isolation of genes at the IPK, the biologist, who hails from near Lindau on Lake Constance and studied in Tübingen, was very much in the tradition of the institute’s founder, Hans Stubbe. Meanwhile, his wife worked with molecular markers in wheat and caused quite a stir in 1998 with her paper, ‘A microsatellite map of wheat’. But that’s not all: Martin Ganal, Marion Röder and one of their postdocs also filed a patent. “The institute’s patent attorney at the time was immediately convinced of its success - and he was right,” Martin Ganal recalls. The sale of licences brought in more than a million Deutschmarks.

This success encouraged Martin Ganal to continue on his chosen path. His goal was to make money from scientific findings. To this end, he founded TraitGenetics and left the IPK in October 2001. “Many at the institute did not understand why I was taking this risk and giving up a secure job,” he recalls. However, it was not only his colleagues who had doubts. “The German Federal Technology Investment Company (TBG) didn’t see any potential in us, which meant we were short of one million Deutschmarks in start-up capital.” Another investor therefore had to be found, in the form of the Mittelständigen Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbh (MBG). However, Martin Ganal firmly believed in the idea of turning molecular markers into a business model. “We Swabians are always said to be good with money, and many members of my family have also taken the courageous step of becoming self-employed, so maybe it’s in my genes.”

Twenty-five years after its foundation, the company is performing well. The company is in a strong position and is growing steadily. Its customers include breeders from all over the world. “Although our focus is on Europe, we also have customers in countries such as Chile, the USA, Canada, India, and South Africa.” The company also maintains business relationships with numerous academic research institutions, however. “We tailor our services precisely to our customers’ wishes and offer high quality, but that naturally comes at a price,” says Martin Ganal. “We are more of a specialist retailer than a discounter.”

When asked if the company is the institute’s most successful spin-off, the founder responds diplomatically yet clearly: “We are at least the only one of the companies that still exists today.” Admittedly, the company is no longer in its original form, as in 2018, the main shareholder, Martin Ganal, and his co-shareholders decided to sell it to the SGS Group. The company now bears the somewhat unwieldy name ‘SGS Institut Fresenius GmbH Trait Genetics Section’. Financially, it was a lucrative move, but emotionally it was difficult. Martin Ganal remained as managing director under the new ownership for three years, after which he also stepped down from the position. “You have to learn to make room, even if it’s not that easy.”

Heike Gnad has long been appointed as Martin Ganal’s successor as managing director, and the schedule is in place. Martin Ganal will leave the company at the end of the year, after which he will only be available to provide advice as needed. His wife retired five years ago, giving herself this gift for her 60th birthday. Now her husband is following suit on the company’s 25th anniversary. According to Martin Ganal, the State Secretary from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Magdeburg has announced that she will attend the event in Wernigerode in mid-March.

Is he at peace with himself? Martin Ganal pauses for a moment. “In my view, more could have been achieved in terms of joint marketing of the research campus and cooperation between science and industry,” he says after a short pause. But that’s history now. Then, at the end of the conversation, he suddenly jumps up.

“Come here. I have something to show you,” says the 66-year-old, opening a cupboard and pointing to six file folders. “These contain all my publications.” There are more than 150 in total. “Two folders are from my time at IPK, but the other four are from my time at TraitGenetics.” He is keen to be perceived as a scientist today, not just an entrepreneur. He plans to attend a potato conference in Kenya in October, followed by an oat conference in Chile in November. Subsequently, he will return home to Lake Constance. “We are settling in a small wine village near Lindau.” This will bring the ‘Gatersleben’ chapter to a close, which began in 1991 after a conversation in the Arizona desert.