Harry Stine & family

Net worth over time

Biography

• Farm boy turned seed-genetics savant Harry Stine has made a fortune licensing corn and soybean genetics to multinationals like Monsanto and Syngenta.
• Stine founded and runs Stine Seed; his current obsession is tinkering with seed genetics that allow for better yields or pesticide resistance.
• The son of a hardscrabble farmer, Stine became fascinated with seeds when he was a boy growing up in Iowa.
• He started farming at just five years old, driving a tractor to pick up straw bales.
• Stine, who is dyslexic and mildly autistic, is also a math and data wiz and a formidable negotiator.
• In the 1990s he struck highly lucrative licensing deals with large multinational corporations across the globe, which form the backbone of his empire.
• He's donated to numerous Iowa institutions, including McPherson College, Drake University and Spurgeon Manor, a skilled nursing facility for seniors.
• Stine owns a small home down the road from the Stine Seeds headquarters in Adel, Iowa, and drives to work in his Ford F-150 pickup truck.
• Stine's an avid table tennis player and enjoys hunting morel mushrooms.