Primary BioAg Innovations and Global BioAg Linkages Welcome BioAg Industry Veteran Pam Marrone as Chair of the Board of Directors

Primary BioAg Innovations (PBI) and Global BioAg Linkages (GBAL) today announced that successful serial BioAg entrepreneur Dr. Pam Marrone will become chair of the board of directors and partner in both companies. Dr. Marrone will mentor the innovation stream at PBI as well as be the Managing Director for Merger, Acquisition & Fund Raising vertical of GBAL, to support small and medium size BioAg business.

Dr. Marrone started and led three BioAg companies during the past thirty years. Dr. Marrone recently retired as CEO at Marrone Bio Innovations, which she founded in 2006. From 2015 to 2019, Marrone Bio had a compounded annual growth rate of 32% and grew gross margins from 5% to 54.9%. In 2019, Marrone Bio delivered record revenues of $29.4 million – a 38 percent increase -- and record annual gross margins of 54.9%.

PBI and GBAL were both started in 2019 by another BioAg industry veteran, Roger Tripathi. PBI provides a unique platform for sincere BioAg innovators to commercialize integrated sustainable soil-to-shelf plant health solutions for farmers, globally. 

Hundreds of millions of dollars are going into research and development of biological products for agriculture, however many of these innovative companies need a dependable channel to market. After investing on R&D, it can be challenging and difficult for a small company with one or few products to access the market and gain market adoption, “cross the chasm” to mainstream customers and successfully scale. The founder of PBI set up a unique platform to provide commercialization partnership opportunities to outstanding innovators. PBI links innovators with distribution partners around the globe and helps provide the needed customer education on how best to use biologicals in integrated programs.

GBAL’s mission is to be the true agribusiness partner, business match maker and accelerator, linking BioAg companies to ensure the successful development of biological products across the globe. GBAL acts as a part-time, committed addition to a team, fully supporting business management, corporate development, licensing, joint ventures, acquisitions, strategic alliances and fund raising. GBAL also organizes the BioAg World Congress to bring together the BioAg industry to take an in-depth look at industry developments, roles of the food chain to influence biosolution adoption, soil health and water management, challenges and opportunities on regulation, go-to market, science-backed innovations, investment in BioAg, and insight into growth areas such as precision AgTech. The first BioAg World Congress was held in Delhi, India last year. This year, the Congress to be held in Sacramento, CA, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely be pushed into 2021.

“Post Marrone Bio Innovations, I wanted to continue to have an impact in moving agriculture to become more sustainable and bio-intensive. When Roger contacted me about the opportunities with his new companies, I quickly could see how the two of us teaming up would have complementary and synergistic skills and experience to realize a joint vision to pursue our passion in the BioAg industry,” said Dr. Marrone.

When I heard that BioAg icon Pam Marrone was retiring from her position at Marrone Bio, I could immediately realize, that with her evergreen passion and drive, Pam still had a lot to give the industry and to our farmers. We knew that the two of us would be a powerful team to help move biological innovations to the global market and at the same time bring business solutions to the

BioAg industry,” said Roger Tripathi.

About Founder and CEO Roger Tripathi: Passionate and persistent global business leader with broad based multinational-multicultural background, Mr. Tripathi worked and lived in most continents, enjoys change management challenges in taking the businesses to the next level, and doesn’t believe in ‘good enough.’ Mr. Tripathi is a proactive manager, natural leader, team builder and tactical business planner with the ability to manage multiple projects with a ‘win-win’ outcome for all involved. He is recognized for securing, building, and keeping long lasting business relationships externally and internally with proven ability to face challenges head on and execute flawlessly. Mr. Tripathi started his career in the seed industry, then worked for Bayer Crop Science and held senior executive positions with the two leading biostimulant companies before founding PBI and GBAL.

About Chair of the Board Dr. Pam Marrone: Pam is a passionate and energetic serial entrepreneur who is a thought leader in the BioAg industry, successfully bringing multiple sciencebased products to market and scaling two BioAg companies from founding to a consistent high growth revenue stage. She is skilled at raising money from angels, VCs, public markets and debt. She also is experienced at M&A, turnarounds, technology licensing and acquisition, and building intellectual property portfolios. She gives back to the community by serving on not-for-profit boards such as Cornell University and the Association for Women in Science. She is dedicated to mentoring and advising entrepreneurs, especially women founders. She speaks regularly on entrepreneurship and sustainable ag, agtech and ag biologicals, organizational culture, and corporate ethics. Since 1990, Pam founded and led three BioAg companies in Davis, California (Entotech, AgraQuest and Marrone Bio Innovations). Pam started her career at Monsanto Company searching for microbes to develop natural products for pest management.