Gerard Backx was born in 1959 in the Netherlands, studied plant breeding and marketing at the Wageningen University. In 1984 he started to work for the seed company VanderHave as international salesmen for sugar beet seeds. He developed his career in different management roles at different locations within that company, mainly in sugar beet seeds and grass seeds. In 1996 VanderHave merged into the company Advanta and in 1998 Gerard became member of the executive board of the entire company.

In 2001 Gerard left Advanta to become CEO of HZPC. HZPC was just formed out of a merger of two midsize seed potato companies. The company breeds new varieties and market the seed potatoes of those varieties worldwide. Over the last decade, the company developed well and became the leading company in the world wide seed potato sector. It has developed from a Dutch exporting company to an worldwide company with employees over several countries.

Gerard Backx has been president of Plantum from 2011-2014. Plantum is the Dutch branch organisation for propagating material. He still is board member.

Currently Gerard is president of ESA, the European seed association. He became president in 2012 and will continue till the end of 2015.