Marathon man sets Bayer's pace

Lessons learned in running help instill a spirit of success for top chemical company

Liam Condon knows what the long haul is like and how to plan for the road ahead. Condon, head of the crop science division of German life science giant Bayer AG, has run the Beijing marathon twice, and the spirit of long-distance running garnered over 25 years has helped the Mandarin-speaking executive to set the pace at work.

Condon hails from Ireland and is a Bayer veteran who can break into a number of foreign languages with consummate ease. Apart from English, he can speak German, Gaelic, French, Japanese and Mandarin, and has risen through the ranks over the past 10 years of his career at the company.