An interview with Carol Pullen & Sara Monteiro
Meet Sara Monteiro and Carol Pullen, two inspirational women with senior roles at Oro Agri. They share their stories of how they entered this industry and provide some useful guidance to help others along the way!
Carol Pullen
Sara Monteiro
Sara Monteiro: I am an agronomic engineer and have a PHD in biochemical sciences related to plant disease defense mechanisms. I started looking at the science of agriculture and during this scientific process, I discovered a molecule from a plant to defend other plants from being attacked by diseases. This led to a switch in my life.
At first, I was a university researcher and lecturer. When I discovered this molecule that was targeting some of the main diseases of crops, my life changed. Because of this molecule, I applied for an entrepreneurship program to develop the idea and the products in the agricultural market. Even when I was still at university, I founded a startup with two of my former PHD supervisors. We applied for this entrepreneurship program and won funding by a group of investors in Portugal. We first built a pilot plant to develop the project for the first stages of R&D, and small-scale production required to show efficacy of the products.
I was a technical scientific officer of the company as well as a board member. So, as you can see, I started my university life in agriculture because this is what I studied and did my pHD on. In the end I discovered something for agriculture and used this to start my own company to sell commercialized bio products, including biopesticides extracted from plants.
A couple of years ago I met Carol and she told me she wanted to install a new production plant in Europe, and we found this place here in Palmela and it was time for me to move and embrace this new challenge. So, I came and started working for ORO AGRI, which as you know, produces plant protection products in agriculture.
Carol Pullen: No. I used to work in my family’s business where we made detergents from orange oil. We started selling to the co-ops in South Africa and this was the first time I was exposed to not only the orange oil business, but also to agriculture.
I travelled to all the smallest of regions with my small VW Golf which had no air-conditioning. I was young and had a blast! Eventually the mining industry started buying from the agricultural co-ops and before you know it, we found ourselves immersed in the mining business doing dust-control and dewatering of coal. I went to the Colliery training Center in South Africa on a management quick-course and believe I was the first female to graduate and get my coal preparation license. In those days there were no ladies room showers and I always had to use the underground captain’s quarters as there were no woman underground and also no facilities for ladies. Years later, we sold the business and I remembered some stories from my agricultural co-op days and asked my dad to look into them. We sent a sample to the local university to test and found we were equally as good as insecticide as fungicide which was unusual. We patented the product and the rest is history.
After many years in mining, I moved to the Pulp and Paper industry with a company called Nalco Chemical. I remained there for about 7 years before moving on to a company called HACH – A Danaher company specializing in industrial water automation and optimization. Many years later I re-joined the family business in USA as I became an avid wine afficionado and wanted to start the grape business for our products, primarily to visit more of the farms and be close to the vineyards really. This was a raving success and soon after I was transferred to start the EU business which had been struggling for the previous 10 years. I arrived and started focusing on vineyards as the only employee plus a part time accountant/lawyer and the previous EU manager became a consultant.
Today we have a team of more than 40 people and we have grown the business at an average of 30% a year for the past 10 years. I had no agricultural background which I believe might have been to my benefit. I rely heavily on the experience of the people around me and I’ve surrounded myself with people who know a LOT more than I do – but have guided them with big dreams and optimism of what ORO AGRI could be if we do it right. In the end, I hope to retain that feeling as we grow into a large organization. I am a firm believer in team work and this job did not come with an instruction manual so I rely on teams within my organization to facilitate the direction and decisions we make.
Sara Monteiro: Ever since I was a young girl, I have always wanted to do something that helped the environment. It was not clear for me when I was younger what exactly I wanted to do. In university, I understood that chemical pesticides lead to degradation of the environment and the contamination of water. Both of these consequences are becoming a big problem in the environment for society and people. When I started my research, I always focused on trying to discover something that could address this issue and decrease the harm done to the environment. A molecule or something that could increase efficacy of products but was not harmful to the environment. I like plants and I think that they have everything that humans and animals need to save the world. I have always thought that we should explore plants to give us molecules so that we can use these to protect the environment and our health. This is why my research was focused on defense mechanisms of plants in order to discover something produced by one plant that can be used to protect other plants. I am not a dreamer. I believe in science, but I do believe that the science should help not only the people but also to protect the environment and everything that surrounds us. We cannot continue to conduct things as we are today. I think that if each one of us can develop or at least think about something that can improve or add something to protect the environment, we should do it.
Carol Pullen: I was studying viticulture and oenology through UC Davis extension program and wanted to spend more time in the vineyards, which had become a passion. Obviously visiting with the winemakers and the wine tasting rooms was a distinct bonus.
Sara Monteiro: I think the main guidance I can give to anyone is to believe in what you are doing. Don’t be afraid to risk and make difficult decisions because sometimes you need to do it. I think the worst situation a person can be in is to not decide. When you don’t decide, you never know what you can achieve.
Carol Pullen: My biggest weakness is also my biggest strength. I dream big and don’t take no for an answer – unless that is the answer I wanted. I am relentless in finding way to achieve goals and dreams. In order to achieve greatness, I believe you have to dream big and do whatever you can to make your dreams a reality. If your team buys into the dream, then it makes the dream more realistic and each and everyone will do what they can to fulfil not only my dream, but our dream.
Carol Pullen: I started in sales in California supplying local vineyards with orange oil based products and eventually larned enough to work on all crops. After the vineyards took off as a raging success I was transferred to Europe to start working with vineyards in Europe as it had become one of our best markets. When I started we had to assemble a group of people in various fields. My goal was to be one of the leading groups in Oro Agri from a scientific viewpoint. We hired the first registration staff for Oro Agri and when the Biological Assessment Dossier (BAD) preparation became an issue, we hired a salesman who could also do the BAD preparation. Our EU lawyer also did the accounting in the beginning. We assembled a world class team with everyone multi-tasking in order for us to grow our business. Today the team members can specialize more in their chosen field and I am merely a conductor making sure all the pieces fit together. (I was a professional musician for 4 years living my rock and roll dreams, so herewith my best analogy. I see it like the horn section practicing together, the strings practicing together and then my job is to assemble the entire team to make sure we are all working on the same concerto. No sense in one team working on Bach when the other team is working on Chopin. Sometimes to speed things up this does happen however, as we will have the one team lead in the Chopin piece and the other team lead in the Bach piece, but eventually everyone will do both together. I might add a percussionist or timpani team which seems crazy to those working on Chopin and Mozart, but when we start working on Copland’s “Fanfare for the common man” it finally makes sense. I guess this is where my favourite quote comes in “Those who dance are thought crazy by those who do not hear the music.” Sometimes the process and decisions don’t make sense to those looking at it from the outside - but it is actually all part of a master plan to accomplish dreams set forth by myself and the team, and when the music finally comes in – all sections of the orchestra are perfectly aligned.
Sara Monteiro: Well, I think the leadership today is not a question of gender anymore. I know a lot of women in top positions not only in the industry but at universities, everywhere. This is my opinion. But usually, women need to prove themselves a little bit more than men. But again, if you believe in what you are doing, if you are not afraid to risk and make decisions, then I think it doesn’t matter If you are a man or a woman.
Carol Pullen: I do not believe in advancing someone because of their gender to be honest. I believe this does more harm than good. I think hard work should pay off eventually irrespective of the gender or industry. 30 years ago I worked in mining with no mining experience and no females in the industry and yet found a way to make it work. Getting my Coal Preparation License did help with my credibility as many thought sending a woman to the mines was a gimmick to increase sales. When I finished in the top 5 in class the word soon spread and doing a lot of the work and installations myself I was accepted as someone who had something interesting to share and not just there because I was female. Today I believe woman have had a lot less prejudice barriers to deal with though I am sure they still exist. These days anyone can be anything they want to.
Sara Monteiro: For sure. If not, I would not be in the position I am in today. I think that at ORO AGRI we have women in key positions. So, I think that for ORO AGRI gender is not as important as the quality of the work. Not even just this, but the commitment of the people to the job they are performing. There is no such a thing as gender inequality here at ORO AGRI.
Carol Pullen: I don’t believe we even evaluate whether someone is male or female. If they’re a good fit for the position, then perfect. We have less females applying for agricultural positions and I believe it is because woman expect there to be possible barriers but hard work always gets rewarded irrespective of race, religion, gender in all industries.