MBI appoints new senior vice president of commercial operations

Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (MBI) announced that it has appointed industry veteran Hector Absi, Jr. as senior vice president of commercial operations. Absi replaces Chris Hildreth, who recently retired from the company.

"Hector’s experience building a strong sales organization and penetrating key specialty crop markets will be invaluable to MBI as we grow our business,” said MBI CEO Pam Marrone. “We are pleased to welcome such a successful sales executive as Hector to the MBI team.”

As a member of CEO Marrone’s leadership team, Absi will be responsible for global sales, marketing and business development. Previously, he served as vice president of global sales and general manager of European Business for Suterra, a leading provider of biorational products for agricultural crop protection and commercial pest control. During his seven-year tenure at Suterra, he was responsible for restructuring and leading the company’s global and U.S. sales organizations, where he had a significant impact on U.S. revenues, negotiated global distribution agreements and managed partner relationships. Prior to this, Absi served in various sales executive roles over 11 years at Monsanto, including manager of the western region, a $63 million sales division.

Absi holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Valparaiso University and a Masters of Business Administration from Washington University.