Pamela Marrone
Entrepreneur and entomologist Pamela Marrone has developed and brought to market effective, environmentally responsible, nature-based products for pest management and plant health. An industry leader, she enthusiastically champions the use of biological pesticides (biopesticides) and educates the public about their benefits.
Marrone was born in 1956 in southern Connecticut. As she grew up exploring the acres of woods surrounding her childhood home, she developed a love of nature. She also found her future career path as she saw spongy moth caterpillar infestations destroy trees. “I wanted to be an entomologist since I was about 8 years old,” Marrone said. “I saw all the trees getting ruined by these caterpillars. My father used a chemical to kill them on a prized dogwood outside the kitchen window [but] it killed all the good bugs – lady beetles, lacewings, honeybees and so forth.” Marrone’s mother insisted on a more environmentally friendly solution, so her father tried Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), the first commercialized biocontrol biopesticide.
Biopesticides are derived from substances found in nature, like microorganisms and plants. They are less toxic than conventional pesticides, and they decompose quickly, which reduces their potential to pollute soil and water. Marrone recalled her father stating that Bt was good for the environment, but he wasn’t sure it worked. “That’s the whole story of my career,” Marone said. “That's my passion, finding science-based products that work and that offer farmers and other customers a value proposition compared to chemical pesticides.”
In 1978, Marrone earned her bachelor’s degree in entomology from Cornell University. While searching for the right graduate school, she frequently encountered sexism but was undeterred. “A lot of professors from different schools said they didn't want to take women because women would just have children, and that would disrupt the Ph.D.,” Marrone recalled. Fortunately, she found a supportive environment at North Carolina State University (NCSU), where she earned a doctorate in entomology in 1983. “Both at Cornell and at NC State, I had really good professors,” she said. “They were very supportive of me.”
After earning her doctorate, Marrone joined Monsanto Agricultural Co. Heading up the insect biology group, she led pioneering projects in microbial natural products and plant biotechnology. Her first project was to develop an artificial diet for corn rootworm, which became the standard for screening Bt strains and other microorganisms. Marrone went on to help develop even more novel solutions for insect control, leading to multibillion-dollar commercial products that are still on the market today.
Having left Monsanto in 1990, Marrone founded Entotech Inc., a biopesticide subsidiary for Denmark-based Novo Nordisk. “I had to be an entrepreneur because I want to solve problems and have practical applications,” Marrone said. In 1995, she founded AgraQuest Inc. and led the development of products including the Serenade® and Sonata® biofungicide lines. Serenade, the first broad-spectrum, bio-based fungicide, was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for use on a variety of crops including blueberries, cherries, grape vines, green beans, leafy vegetables, peanuts, peppers, tomatoes and walnuts. Also approved for home and garden use, Serenade won the EPA’s Green Chemistry Award and was registered in more than 35 countries and became the first organically listed biopesticide sold in Walmart stores in 2003.
In 2006, she founded Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI), which she listed on NASDAQ as MBII in 2013 and was acquired by Bioceres Crop Solutions and renamed ProFarm Group Inc. in 2022. MBI screened more than 18,000 microorganisms and 350 plant extracts and built a product portfolio including more than 400 issued and pending patents. The company’s many commercial products included fungicides Regalia®, Amplitude® and Stargus®; insecticides Grandevo® and Venerate®; nematicides (for managing roundworm populations) Majestene® and Zelto®; Haven® coconut oil extract to reduce crop water loss and sun stress; and Zequanox®, a product that controls invasive zebra mussels and quagga mussels in lakes and pipes associated with industrial and power plants, which is now exclusively with her new company the Invasive Species Corporation (ISC).
Currently, Marrone is the co-founder and executive chair of ISC and the associated nonprofit Invasive Species Research Institute, which was formed to deploy biologicals for control of invasive species in water, forestry and agriculture.
Throughout her career, Marrone has prioritized volunteerism. “Giving back is really important,” she said. “My parents gave a lot of themselves, and I do a lot of volunteer and board activities like they did.” She has been involved with many organizations, from serving as a Cornell University trustee and founding the Biological Products Industry Alliance, to co-founding the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and serving as treasurer and board member of the national AWIS for many years.
In 2022, Marrone was the first woman to receive the Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success, given by the American Chemical Society. Her many additional honors include the Ecological Farming Association Sustie (Steward of Sustainable Agriculture) Award, BIO’s Rosalind Franklin Award in 2023 and the NCSU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2021. In 2024, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the first member from the agbiotech industry.