Embracing women in leadership: Pheronym welcomes Bio-Ag leader Dr. Pam Marrone to the board of directors
Dr. Marrone’s accomplishments have had an extraordinarily positive impact on the agriculture and food industry. Dr. Marrone started three successful, high-impact agricultural natural product companies (Novo Nordisk Entotech, Inc., AgraQuest, Inc., Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc.,) to bring sustainable, eco-friendly pest control to farmers. At AgraQuest, she developed eight products from three active ingredients (two microbials and one adjuvant). Serenade® Biofungicide for vine, fruit, nut, and vegetable crops became the biofungicide industry standard. At Marrone Bio Innovations, she commercialized ten award-winning products from six active ingredients including one to control invasive zebra and quagga mussels. She also developed a nematicidal/insecticidal seed treatment used on millions of acres of corn, soy, and cotton acres. Further products are on the pipeline: three more EPA-approved and one more submitted including three bioherbicides and a biofumigant. Furthermore, Dr. Marrone was way ahead of her time when she decided to bring her vision to agriculture. She had major challenges ahead of her. She had to knock down barriers to bring innovative, science-based, and environmentally responsible natural product solutions to market. She has changed the paradigm of how to discover and develop new products based on optimization of natural product chemistry as well as how these products are used by farmers in integrated programs with conventional solutions for a better return on investment (ROI) to the farmer. Currently, we are all becoming familiar with the benefits of soil health and biological solutions. Now, consumers are enjoying the option to buy food that is treated with organic pest control solutions thanks to Dr. Marrone’s efforts for the past 30 years.
Dr. Marrone has created opportunities not only for her company but also for anyone in the biopesticide industry. To be successful she needed to improve the market perception and credibility of biopesticides in the agriculture pest control industry. This was a difficult task. So, in 2000, she started the Biopesticide Industry Alliance trade group (now called the Bioproducts Industry Alliance with hundreds of members) that required industry members to adhere to a set of quality and efficacy parameters. This was instrumental in the passage of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (to bring predictability to the Environmental protection Agency (EPA) regulatory process) and helped everyone in the biopesticide industry. She continuously created opportunities and tackled major issues. During the 2008 recession, the EPA’s Biopesticide Pollution Prevention Division (BPPD) dramatically slowed down registrations of biopesticides. This puts all of the small companies’ survival at risk. Dr. Marrone went to Washington to get this changed. Using her own resources to help the industry, she hired a lobbyist to meet with key legislators to require the BPPD to meet its legislated PRIA (Pesticide Registration and Improvement Act) timelines. This led to changes in the BPPD, greater dialog and agreement with the biopesticide industry, reducing the time to get a new product registered, benefiting everyone in the industry.
Dr. Pam Marrone is one of the “22 women who launched and led startups to an IPO, an accomplishment few female founders have ever reached” since 1967 according to Business Insider. There are very few women in CEO, decision-making, or leadership positions in agriculture and Dr. Marrone is one. I met Dr. Marrone in 2017 at the Fellows of All-Star Team (FAST) business advisory program at the California Life Sciences Institute. She and other mentors together provided me guidance for 3 months. I immediately noticed that Dr. Marrone had a deep understanding of startups in the biopesticide market and a great network in the agriculture ecosystem from funders (angel investors, venture capitalists), influencers, distributors, to growers. She was a great resource long after the program was over. After a year of free business advising and introductions, I asked her how we could compensate her. She said she did not want money, but she would be OK with equity. In 2019 she became Pheronym’s formal advisor. She told me that this was the first time she took any compensation in the past 30 years she has been advising. She has been a great resource, role model, and advisor to many women entrepreneurs. Currently, she is advising six women founders. She does not ask for any compensation except for small equity. Everyone knows that it is a big risk to work for a startup for free, but she believes in us, women entrepreneurs, that we can make great leaders and positive changes in agriculture.
Dr. Marrone’s professionalism has been recognized by many different organizations during her career. To name a few, she has been awarded “Most Admired CEO Distinguished Career Award” by the Sacramento Business Journal, Agrow’s “Best Manager with Strategic Vision”, Businessperson of the Year by the Sacramento Business Journal, and Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. Dr. Marrone is a great inspiration and a role model for women in the industry.
We welcome Dr. Pam Marrone to our board of directors. Our goal is to recruit extraordinary members to Pheronym at all levels as we grow.
Author: Dr. Fatma Kaplan is the CEO/CSO of Pheronym and Activate Berkeley Fellow & Berkeley Lab Affiliate Cyclotron Road Cohort 2021. She is also an entrepreneur and an accomplished scientist with experience in both biology and chemistry. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. Dr. Kaplan discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and published it in Nature. Then she discovered that pheromones regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Dr. Kaplan conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in Space at the International Space Station in 2020. She has very high impact publications, and her dissertation (beta-amylase’s role during cold and heat shock) was cited in textbooks within 5 years of publication. Dr. Kaplan worked as a scientist at NASA, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory, and the US Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Research Service. Dr. Fatma Kaplan and Mr. Karl C. Schiller co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and to provide effective, non-toxic, sustainable pest control for farmers and gardeners.
