César Parada Named General Director, Valent de Mexico

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Valent U.S.A., a Sumitomo Chemical Company, welcomes César Parada as general director of its subsidiary Valent de Mexico, effective July 12, 2021. Parada will be based at Valent de Mexico (VdM) headquarters in Guadalajara and report directly to Valent U.S.A. Executive Vice President and COO Matt Plitt.

VdM offers a broad portfolio of agricultural products and technologies to help growers protect their crops from weeds, diseases and damaging insects. As general director, Parada will oversee all VdM operations, ensuring compliance with laws and regulations and achievement of financial goals and growth strategies. He also will identify and assess new business opportunities, working closely with Jesus Tapia who was named VdM’s Commercial Director in January.

Parada brings a long history in Mexican agriculture with experience in business and financial management. Most recently, he served as general director/CFO at Agristar, where he revitalized employee and company performance and used his M&A expertise to integrate operations and spark collaboration. Before that, Parada spent more than 18 years with Agri-Estrella, formerly Cuproquim de Mexico, a division of Helena Chemical, as executive vice president and CFO.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting, master’s in business management and doctorate in management with a concentration in M&A from the Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua (U.A.CH.), Mexico. Parada is a professor of finance in the MBA program at U.A.CH. He will continue to serve U.A.CH. as an adjunct instructor in accounting and management, a role he has held since 1995.

“César is a great fit for Valent,” said Plitt. “His strong financial background and demonstrated leadership will be an asset to the compliance culture we’ve built throughout the company. And his passion for teaching at his alma mater — nurturing future generations — aligns with our sustainability goals and the U.N. Sustainability Development Goal, ‘Quality Education.’”

About Valent de Mexico

Valent de Mexico is a subsidiary of Valent U.S.A., a Sumitomo Chemical Company. With more than 20 years in the market, Valent de Mexico was the first company within the Mexican crop protection industry to incorporate conventional and biorational proprietary products into its own portfolio. Valent de Mexico is well recognized for working closely with end users and distribution, offering integrated solutions as specialized products with strong field support for Crop Protection and Crop Production needs by growers in Mexico. VdM is headquartered in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and have Sales and Technical service personnel nationwide. The company website is www.valent.mx.

About Valent U.S.A.

Valent U.S.A., headquartered in San Ramon, California, develops and markets products in the United States, Canada and Mexico that advance sustainable agriculture, protect crops, enhance crop yields, improve food quality, beautify the environment and safeguard public health. Valent products include a well-known line of quality herbicide, insecticide, fungicide and plant growth regulator products for agricultural, seed protection and professional use. Valent is a leader in marketing and sales of both traditional chemical products and biorational products developed by its affiliate, Valent BioSciences LLC.

About Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sumitomo Chemical is one of Japan’s leading chemical companies. It offers a diverse range of products globally in the fields of petrochemicals, energy and functional materials, IT-related chemicals and materials, health and crop science products, and pharmaceuticals. The company’s consolidated sales revenue for fiscal year 2019 was JPY 2.2 trillion and number of employees is about 34,000 as of March 31, 2020. For additional information, visit the company’s website at https://www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english/.