MedStart Event Featuring Invasive Species Corporation Co-Founder Dr. Pam Marrone
Join MedStart, in partnership with Sacramento State and the Carlsen Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, for a presentation from Dr. Pam Marrone, a pioneering biotechnology entrepreneur who has spent more than 30 years turning scientific innovations into commercial products.
Dr. Marrone has founded or co-founded four biotechnology companies, including AgraQuest and Marrone Bio Innovations. She led Marrone Bio Innovations through its 2013 IPO on NASDAQ and has successfully built companies that were acquired by larger organizations.
Her entrepreneurial journey offers valuable lessons for anyone developing and commercializing new technologies, particularly in industries where scientific validation, regulatory approval, fundraising, and market adoption present significant challenges.
Food and Beverage will be provided.
Date: January 27, 2027
Time: 6 pm - 8 pm
Location: Sacramento State Alumni Center, 6000 Jed Smith Dr, Sacramento, CA 95819
Cost: Free
Register: TBD
About Dr. Pam Marrone
Dr. Marrone spent her 30+ year career focused on discovering and developing biological products for pest management and plant health, having started and led three previous bioag companies (Entotech, AgraQuest and Marrone Bio Innovations (now called Profarm Group), all of which were sold to larger companies.
She is one of only 32 women to have founded a company and taken it public (MBII:NASDAQ). With co-founder Jim Boyd, the former President/CFO of Marrone Bio, Pam launched the Invasive Species Corporation, to bring effective, environmentally friendly biological solutions to control destructive invasive species, in water, forestry and agriculture.
She is Chair of the Board of Elicit Plant and advises several other agtech/agbio startups. Among her many awards, in 2023 she received the Rosalind Franklin Award from the Biotechnology Industry Organization and in 2022 she was the first woman to receive the American Chemical Society “Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success.” She is a Fellow of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), and in 2024 she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
She is a 2025 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, with over 400 patents (>80 US). She has a B.S. in entomology with Honors and Distinction from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in entomology from North Carolina State University.
