Dec 8, 2020

Cultiva adds board member and new hires

Cultiva LLC (cultiva.com), a provider of proprietary, food-grade biofilms used in agricultural markets, announces the appointment of Christina Coen, vice president and general manager of Nalco Water, an Ecolab company; to the company’s Board of Directors.

In addition, Molly Mathews has been appointed Technical Sales Representative for Northern California and Southern Oregon, and Jacquilyne Gandara has joined the company as a formulation chemist.

Board Member Christina Coen joined Ecolab in June 2020 as vice president, Sales and Business Development. She took on the role of vice president and general manager in October 2020. Christina joined Ecolab from FMC Corporation with extensive experience leading cross-functional teams to drive business growth and development. She brings a professional agricultural background in sales, marketing, licensing/M&A, business development and R&D, from her time at FMC and many years at Dow AgroSciences prior to FMC.

“Christina brings great energy and innovative thinking to our board,” said Cultiva CEO Luis Hernandez. “Her proven success in business planning, implementation and growth strategies will add depth and dimension to help us understand market opportunities and scale the company. Christina provides a big-picture background to support the launch of new technologies and innovations within the Cultiva brand.”

In her role as North American head of sales at FMC, Coen managed a large, cross-functional team, which grew the portfolio to over $1B. She also conceptualized and structured unified operations during the company’s acquisition of DuPont’s agriculture spin-off.

“I’m thrilled to join the Cultiva board,” said Coen. “Right now, advances in agricultural technology and chemistry are helping secure our food supply. Cultiva is thinking big and growing fast. I’m looking forward to being a part of that innovation in the future.”

Coen holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwood University – DeVos Graduate School, and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University.

Molly Mathews joins Cultiva as Technical Sales Representative for northern California and Southern Oregon. Mathews has held prior roles as Agriculture Standards Inspector with Yolo County, California, and most recently the Yuba County Department of Agriculture in Sacramento.

While there, she was responsible for enforcing regulations involving pesticide use, crop inspection, pest detection and other federal, state and county requirements. In her new role, Mathews will be responsible for growing sales in the region while building awareness of the Cultiva brand and relationships within the agriculture sector. Mathews holds a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Chico, with emphasis in business, management and marketing.

Jacquilyne Gandara joins Cultiva as Formulation Chemist. Gandara was most recently at MGK Inc., in a similar role, and has previous experience as a chemist with St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab. Her responsibilities include developing and improving crop protection formulations for Cultiva. Gandara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Cagayan State University, Philippines.

“Adding the expertise of Molly and Jacquilyne to the Cultiva team affirms our focus on growth and innovation,” said Hernandez. “Molly’s experience prepares her well for this new role and, Jacquilyne’s background in large ag-related companies will help us strengthen our product pipeline by leveraging our proprietary SureSeal technology. They’ll be valuable contributors to growing the Cultiva brand as a premiere provider of pre-harvest crop protection technologies.”

Cultiva has developed a proprietary technology called SureSeal designed to supplement the cuticle of the plant. By enhancing the plant’s membrane stability, the company’s products reduce crop losses associated with environmental extremes that have become more prevalent with climate change. C

ultiva’s vision is to stay at the forefront of plant cuticle care by continuing to explore the capabilities of this technology and develop new applications that provide agronomic value to growers worldwide.