Pamela Marone

Pam Marrone has over 30 years’ experience innovating, commercializing and building organizations. She is an experienced chief executive and corporate officer having started and run companies with the most recent, until August 2020, a fast-growing agbiotech company and since then, as Executive Chair of a pair of firms assisting agbio innovators with their go to market strategy and taking selected products to market. Dr. Marrone has traveled extensively globally, launching products and setting up distribution deals in more than 40 countries.

From founding in 2006 to August 2020, Dr. Marrone was CEO and board member of Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBII) and remains a board member and advisor. Marrone Bio has reported a 5-year revenue compound annual growth rate of ~30% (well above industry averages) and increased gross margins from zero to close to 55% in that same time. She led teams that broke new ground on regulatory approvals to build a line of award winning, patented products that are growing quickly across the globe and acquired a Finnish company in 2019.

Dr. Marrone previously started and led AgraQuest, leaving in 2006 to start Marrone Bio. In 2012, AgraQuest was acquired by Bayer for almost $500 million. Under her leadership, the company discovered and commercialized products in 38 countries (the first of its kind in Europe and Brazil). In 2000, she formed a trade group (BPIA.org, now with more than 150 members) to streamline the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration process and bring quality and credibility to the biopesticide category.

Dr. Marrone is an industry thought leader, appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and many local media outlets and industry trade publications. She is in high demand as a public speaker, doing many keynote speeches, podcasts and videos for the industry and entrepreneurial venues. She has received numerous awards including Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.’s Growing Green Award, EcoFarm’s Sustie Award, California Governor’s Economic & Environmental Leadership Award, American Chemical Society Innovation Award and Sacramento Business Journal Most Admired CEO. She received her PhD from North Carolina State University. She served four years as an alumni-elected trustee of Cornell University, her undergraduate alma mater.