Women Taking the Lead in Ag Innovation at ADAMA
By Michelle Blair, Strategic Marketing Communications Manager, ADAMA (October 17, 2023)
Women have worked hard in agriculture for centuries, providing critical support across many operations, often behind the scenes. We know that the world of agriculture continues to change, with more and more women becoming involved and leading the changes that enable farmers to continue to feed the world. And at ADAMA US, women bring a rich array of ideas and innovation to life.
Two of the four pillars that drive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at ADAMA, a leading global crop protection company, are “Empowering People” and “Impacting Community”. These pillars guide and encourage our people to fully contribute and grow in their roles while making a difference in the broader agricultural industry. With these guiding principles, the women on this team quickly set things in motion to expand the use of an existing active ingredient to other crops, once this unmet need was identified.
The new product, which is pending federal registration, was developed to protect soybeans and cotton from chewing insects and is the first to be led by an all-woman team at ADAMA US. The U.S. team includes Diane Reynolds, strategic crop marketing leader who identified the need, Inbar Greenspoon, development leader who identified the relevant product, and the federal regulatory manager, Trish O’Reilly, who worked with federal and state agencies for timely registration. Additional U.S.-based team members included Jagruti Beafore, NPI project manager, and Michelle Blair, strategic marketing communications manager, who are handling the launch. With support from their female global counterparts in product management and development, these ADAMA women are working to bring this product to market.
Inbar Greenspoon shared, “The process around the product strategy and development came together organically. There was a natural flow that allowed the core team to come together, focus on what was important, and quickly set things in motion. Upon reflecting on the process one night, I realized that the team was all-female-led. It was the first time during my 14 years in the company that this has happened. I’m looking forward to more occurrences like this in the future.”
The team worked together to understand the potential opportunities and hurdles that existed and put actions into place to get this solution into the hands of researchers and influencers for field trials. With guidance from Michal Eshed, global regulatory manager, the U.S. federal regulatory manager was able to take quick action and adjust the technical registration to include both crop and non-crops, helping to streamline the approval timing. Leveraging input from other markets and from Funda Erdogmus, global product strategy manager, as well as technical positioning and trial support from Mariela Faure Mlynski, global product development manager, allowed the team to finalize investments and secure approval to move the project forward.
As we enter the home stretch leading to the launch, the U.S.-based NPI project manager diligently keeps the broader team on task while the strategic marketing communications manager and design lead create the sales enablement tools to be used in the pending launch.
“While we are thrilled about this product launch for the U.S., we are also extremely proud of the work that was done by this entire team. We hope that other women see our example and are excited to be in the agricultural industry,” said Diane Reynolds.
ADAMA believes that diversity and inclusion promote our business success by listening to diverse cultures, ideas, and opinions from our workforce. As part of Syngenta Group, we hold true to the group policy of embracing diversity and inclusion and unlocking our collaboration and innovation potential to shape the future of agriculture to build a more equitable and sustainable world for all. We look forward to more product innovations brought forth by the women of ADAMA US.
ABOUT MICHELLE BLAIR
Michelle Blair has been with ADAMA for over two years, leading the Strategic Marketing Communications team. She’s been able to leverage her account and project management experience, along with creative production and copywriting skills honed on the marketing agency side where she spent most of her career. Working on the “client-side” has allowed her to focus her passion for all things branding and marketing within the agriculture industry.
