- Push-out Score determined
- After 13 years in the position
- Accolades, praise and thanks for Marrone
- Search for a successor
- Marrone said 120 words
(exechange) — Davis, California, December 2, 2019 — Pam Marrone, chief executive of Marrone Bio, leaves. As announced by Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, December 2, 2019, Pamela G. (Pam) Marrone leaves her post as chief executive officer at the chemicals company after 13 years in the role.
Among the 3,000 largest publicly held companies incorporated in the U.S. based on market capitalization, the average tenure of the CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 7.5 years, according to data compiled by exechange. On an accumulated basis, around 28% of the CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months left their posts after more than 10 years.
Marrone Bio will undertake a search for a successor.
Marrone will continue as CEO during the search process, and she and Board Chairman Bob Woods will shepherd the transition process until the new CEO is retained.
“Move toward profitability”
A reason for Pam Marrone’s departure from the CEO post was not explicitly provided. Board Chairman Bob Woods said: “The search for a new CEO is under way, and we are committed to recruiting an outstanding executive to lead the company as it expands its global reach and revenue potential, enhances gross margins and controls costs to move toward profitability.”
Precise information regarding Pam Marrone’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retire”
Marrone Bio said: “[C]ompany founder Dr. Pamela Marrone will retire from her position as chief executive officer.”
Marrone Bio further said: “Dr. Pamela Marrone has announced her intention to retire from her position as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and an employee of the Company.”
Share price decline
The announcement follows a decline in Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc.’s share price of 94% since January 2014.
Chaired by Bob Woods
Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. is chaired by Bob Woods.
Woods has more than fifty years of experience in agribusiness and agriculture products. Since 2012, he has served as Chairman and CEO of Targeted Growth Inc., a biotechnology firm with leading edge gene technologies that significantly improve yield in agronomic crops.
In the position of CEO since 2006
Pam Marrone became CEO of the Company in 2006.
Marrone will continue to serve on the company’s board of directors as a non-executive member.
Following her retirement, she also will serve as a consultant to Marrone Bio to advocate for the company and its mission, and to provide transition services and other support.
Pamela G. Marrone, Ph.D. is the Company’s founder and has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s board of directors since the Company’s inception in 2006, as well as serving as the Company’s President from inception through January 2015 and from September 2015 to August 2017.
Prior to founding the Company, in 1995 Marrone founded AgraQuest, Inc. (acquired by Bayer), where she served as chief executive officer until May 2004 and as President or Chairman from such time until March 2006, and where she led teams that discovered and commercialized several bio-based pest management products.
She served as founding president and business unit head for Entotech, Inc., a biopesticide subsidiary of Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S (acquired by Abbott Laboratories), from 1990 to 1995, and held various positions at the Monsanto Company from 1983 until 1990, where she led the Insect Biology Group, which was involved in pioneering projects in transgenic crops, natural products and microbial pesticides.
Marrone is an author of over a dozen invited publications, an inventor on more than 300 patents and is in demand as a speaker and has served on the boards and advisory councils of numerous professional and academic organizations.
In 2016, Marrone was elected to the Cornell University Board of Trustees.
In February 2019, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions in biopesticides by BioAg World.
In January 2019, she was awarded the “Sustie” award by the Ecological Farming Association for her decades-long leadership in sustainable agriculture.
In 2013, Marrone was named the Sacramento region’s “Executive of the Year” by the Sacramento Business Journal and “Cleantech Innovator of the Year” by the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance and Best Manager with Strategic Vision by Agrow in 2014.
Marrone earned a B.S. in Entomology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Entomology from North Carolina State University.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to Marrone Bio and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 49.2019 ($).