Harry Stine & family
Agriculture · Adel, Iowa
Net worth
$10.2B
Today
$00.00%Past month
$00.00%As of Nov 11, 2026, 1:50 PM EST
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.
Net worth over time
Principal holdings
1 positions| Company | Industry | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
Private holdings | Food & Beverage | 100.0% | $10.2B |
Also known for
- 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.
“We're going to be able to double corn yields very easily. And apparently a lot of people working in the same industry can't see that...They think, 'How can this be? And furthermore, how can this little farm kid out here be doing this?'”