Marisa Akiona
Kapolei,HI
Summary
Dynamic leader with a proven track record at Bayer Crop Science, excelling in people management and technological innovations to enhance efficiency and seed quality. Skilled in relationship building and multitasking, and improved cross-functional collaboration. My approach fosters multicultural team agility and drives significant advancements in agronomic research and seed production. Reliable business professional with experience in streamlining business operations and reducing costs. Adept at analyzing data to identify trends and developing strategies to improve efficiency.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Nursery Operations Lead
Bayer Crop Science
Kunia
10.2018 - Current
- People leader of large motivated, multicultural team, coaching them to find improvements and identify labor needs
- Weekly collaborations with Latin South America partners to improve communication and seed return expectations
- Enabled Nursery team to go paperless through technology and computer access for all crew
- Driving One Team agility for all groups on the farm to continue to work together efficiently to produce quality seed, supporting cross team and site collaboration
- Maintained operational records, reported on key metrics, identified areas of opportunity, and developed strategies to improve them
- Site Responsible Researcher (SRR) overseeing confined field trials, ensuring site is 100% audit ready and all employees are trained
- Material Movement Specialist team member, collaborating with US global trade and shipping teams across North America, sharing best practice and improvements
- Quality and compliance traceability to ensure all seed processing and shipping meets regulatory standards.
Agronomic Research Specialist
Monsanto
Kunia
01.2017 - 10.2018
- People leaders engage in collaboration by sharing innovations and cross functional projects with partners and peers
- Developed crew at all levels with use of technology to become more efficient and have better data quality
- Created and implemented Nintex forms for daily logs to increase workflows and allow team to go paperless
- Collaboration through innovation using RFID (Radio frequency identification) for all TPD Corn processes
- Sharing experience with other sites
- Mentored Nursery Supervisors to enable them to develop Field Crew Leads and Assistants to complete scouting, note taking and leading processes
- Collaborated with Ergonomic committee to partner with BBS (Behavioral Based Safety) to create ERGOBOTS! and standardized observation collection across Monsanto Hawaii
- Site Responsible Researcher (SRR) maintained compliance and quality data.
Research Assistant II
Monsanto
10.2011 - 01.2017
- People Manager involved in developing, training, and developing ninety field crew
- Assisted with the daily planning and coordinating activities of field crew
- Ensured all QMS (Quality Management System) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) procedures followed, training and competency trainings completed
- Involved in preparation for planting, field maintenance, data collection and harvesting
- Met with breeders and other support staff for project related needs
- Participated in task-related document creation and process review for job-related activities
- Involved in interviewing training and developing temporary field crew.
Research Assistant I
Monsanto
Kunia
11.2009 - 10.2011
- Supervisor for ninety-six field crew with MSP-CC
- Shipping Supervisor for Domestic and International shipments using Ship Center
- BBS Facilitator for BBS committee
- Scheduling crews and temporary employees harvest and dryers
- Created system to electronically track harvest bins on dryer to eliminate the need for paper.
Horticulturist
City and County of Honolulu
04.2006 - 11.2009
- Supervise Nursery Workers performing maintenance on landscape and grounds of the Honolulu Civic Center
- Plans and prepares pesticide and herbicide spraying schedule
- Inspects and monitors Street tree plantings around the island of Oahu
- Prepares and instructs training material for Worker Protection Standard, Blood borne Pathogens and Haz Com
- Prepares and conducts quarterly safety meetings
- Prepared Standard Operating Procedures for downloading pictures from a digital camera to resize and save on the computer.
Agriculture Supervisor
Del Monte Fresh
07.2002 - 04.2006
- Responsible for the daily supervision of approximately ninety plantation laborers, truck drivers, harvester drivers in the Seed Production Department
- Monitored and implemented quality control measures for seeds planted to ensure plant weight is good for forcing for fruit at the right time of the year, to avoid precocious fruiting
- Performed related administrative functions, prepared weekly production reports and yearly seed production estimates based on harvested plant crop and ratoon crop fields
- Prepare planting schedules based on time of year, seed size, field elevation and seed availability.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Horticultural Science
Colorado State
Fort Collins, CO05.2000
Skills
Organization and Time Management
Capacity Planning
Safety Management
Asset Management
Operations Management
Compliance Management
Motivational attitude
Social Perceptiveness
Relationship Building
Multitasking Abilities
Accomplishments
- 2023 to present - BASIA Hawaii (Bayer Asian Society for Inclusion Alliance) Hawaii Chapter Lead
- 2022 – TPD People E3 award “Experience, Exposure, Education"
- 2021 to present – Material Movement Specialist – Global network for international shipping experts to collaborate
- 2020 – Plant Biotechnology LIFE Awards Integrity and Trust Delivering a record handoff for Soy HT4 Gold Standard Seed
- 2018 – North America Supply Chain Quality Golden Q Award Partnering For Success – Standardizing and efficiency improvements in corn drying while working as one team
- 2017 – Global Breeding Technology Recognition – Quarter Award Integrating technology with our crew leads and assistants (acquiring and training on iPhone). Enabling streamlined data collection and empowering data driven decision making at the crew level
- 2017 – Present – SRR– Site Responsible Researcher - overseeing all quality and compliance stewardship and regulatory field trials
- 2015 – Completed 30 Hour OSHA course in General Industry Safety and Health
- 2013 – Present – Active Hawaii Farm Bureau Member
- 2013 – Global Breeding Technology Recognition Successful development, testing, implementation, and rollout of the Bin Tracking Tool (BTT) for all MSP (Multi Season Program) programs, which enables barcode workflows to track plots and critical dryer data accurately and efficiently from the time of harvest through shipping.
References
References available upon request
Timeline
Nursery Operations Lead
Bayer Crop Science
10.2018 - Current
Agronomic Research Specialist
Monsanto
01.2017 - 10.2018
Research Assistant II
Monsanto
10.2011 - 01.2017
Research Assistant I
Monsanto
11.2009 - 10.2011
Horticulturist
City and County of Honolulu
04.2006 - 11.2009
Agriculture Supervisor
Del Monte Fresh
07.2002 - 04.2006
Bachelor of Science - Horticultural Science
Colorado State