“People, fundamentally, wherever you are in the world, want the same things”: In Conversation with Dr Jacqueline M. Applegate of Bayer pharmaceuticals

Dr Jacqueline M. Applegate is a member of the Executive Committee of the Crop Science Division and Head of Environmental Science Business Operations Unit at Bayer. She studied in the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Wright State University, a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from Iowa State University, and then a Master of Business Administration at Rockhurst University, Executive Fellows Program. She spoke to Kenyan journalist Wycliffe Muga on the sidelines of the Future of Farming Dialog about her life, career choices and what Bayer is up to in Africa.

Muga: My first question would be on your own life history. We want our readers to get some idea of who is talking. The way I would phrase the question is this: Even in the age of globalization it’s unusual to find an American who works for a German multinational corporation, but is based in France. So, what can you tell us about your road from the U.S to Lyon, France?

Applegate: Okay, I was born and raised in Union, Ohio. My family has basically been in that town since the founding of it in 1816. It’s in the Mid-western Ohio – a small town which had about 1,500 people when I was growing up, but today may have about 7,000 people but not much more. I grew up around agriculture. Its corn and soy bean country.  My people didn’t actually farm, but we knew a lot of people who did farm. And I was always a kid that liked the sciences.

I grew up around agriculture. Its corn and soy bean country.  My people didn’t actually farm, but we knew a lot of people who did farm.

So pretty much I had decided that I was going to be the next Jacques Cousteau. Because Jacques Cousteau played every Sunday night – his show was on just before Disney came on.

So, I wanted to be an oceanographer just like Jacques Cousteau. As a young child, that was what I wanted to do. And my specialisation was actually going to be on sharks – an idea which was set in stone when the movie “Jaws” came out, when I was a teenager. I thought, “That’s it. That’s what I am going to study.

So, I went on to study STEM, the sciences – biology and chemistry – and ended up basically going to college – still intending to be an oceanographer despite living in the landlocked Midwest. I learned to scuba dive and so on. And I began then while I was an undergraduate planning on how I could prepare my CV so that I could go to graduate school. And what basically ended up happening was I started working in an organic chemistry lab. And I was quite good at organic chemistry and was already published as an undergraduate in very substantial chemical journals.

And I can remember at one time when I was probably still a junior and working for two years in this lab, when my father said, “Do you really think you are going to be the next Jacques Cousteau?” And I answered, “Of course I am.” And then he said, “Well that is good, but I just want you to understand that your mother and I won’t be footing those bills your whole life. Because you probably won’t make the money that you need to make, to live the way you need to”.

And I thought, “Oh!”. And it got me thinking. So, I got a scholarship to get a PhD in organic chemistry. And I went on to Iowa State University, and got a PhD in organic chemistry within four years; continued to prove that I was very good in chemistry; and that got me started in the world of Bayer. And I started in Kansas City Missouri, working for Bayer, right out of getting my PhD. I went from basic research to working in process development and full-scale manufacturing. I was in Kansas City for over four years, and while I was there I also got an MBA at Rockhurst which is a Jesuit college.

And then Bayer asked me to go abroad. And so, in 1998 I moved abroad and worked in Monheim Germany – here – for over seven years. And I had numerous roles. I went from production to being a global project manager, had experiences with communications, marketing, and mergers & acquisitions.   Then I went to becoming, basically, the global head of project management in the new Crop Science business after the Aventis acquisition. And I did that job for about three and a half years.

Now I had basically said that I wanted to run an operational business. So, in my career development, I wanted to move more to general management. I am very focused on people leadership. I believe that to be successful as a company you need to effectively develop your people and lead your people. And if you get the people part of it right, the entire business part and the execution of the strategy will come.

New technologies jointly developed by Bayer will help farmers applying herbicides more efficiently.

So, then I went into environmental science. I was asked if I was interested in leaving crop protection and going into Environmental Science (ES), and that’s how I ended up in Lyon France in 2005. So, I picked up and went from Germany to France. I was there for basically two and a half years. As I mentioned, I wanted to run an operational business. And at that time in France I built an integrated consumer and professional portfolio management: I had communications, market research, and so on under me. And so, I was asked if I was interested in running an operational business.

So, I went back to the US and ran our ES consumer-based Bayer Advanced Lawn and Garden Business. And after two years I was put in charge of the entire North American ES business. And after that I was asked to come back into crop science, and to become the Senior Bayer Representative for Australia and New Zealand.

I then went to Australia and New Zealand, and I was the Bayer representative for the corporation for almost three years. And at the same time, I ran the crop protection business – plant health solutions, biologics, vegetable seeds and  our integrated seed business.

And then after that I was asked if I would be interested in sitting on the Bayer Executive Committee and running the global Environmental Science business in Lyon, France. And that is where I am today.

Muga: Quite a story indeed.

Applegate: And I must say that I have been very blessed to work throughout the world. I have seen the world. I personally like to travel, but I have also got to see it professionally. And I often say this – and believe it – “People, fundamentally, wherever you are in the world, want the same things.” They may approach these things from a different view, and a different lens, because of their experiences in life, but they really want the same things in life.

People, fundamentally, wherever you are in the world, want the same things.

They want security for their families; they want to be able to live their dreams and fulfil the dreams of their own families. They want to live in a country where they are safe. And in my job, I have really been exposed to many views of the world, so probably going back today, what I can say is that the richness of the experiences that I have had over the last 25 years is what has made me who I am as an individual; it broadened my perspective on life; and it allows me to see the strengths of the country where I am from – the US; but at the same time, it allows me to see also its weaknesses.

And I think as you travel internationally it always gives you that perspective of whatever your home is. But I always say, “I may be an American but my home is where I am living; where my heart is at that time. So, I always make the most and the best of where I am at the time. No matter where I am at in the world.

Muga: This I must ask: any regrets about not having been able to own a large boat and sailing around the world making all these fantastic documentaries like your hero Jacques Cousteau?

Applegate: It’s interesting that my passion for scuba diving has remained. So, what I have done is that in travelling and seeing the world, I have continued to scuba dive. And I have dived in some very unique places because I travelled so much. So, I have not lost that passion. And I have no regrets in that sense in my life. I made a decision. I seized the moment. And I always made the best of the situation.

I am a very positive person: I am very forward-looking. It’s easy to regret. But I always say that either fate intervened or I have made clear decisions which have allowed me to live my life, and I have had a very blessed life.

Muga: That is so true. Very blessed indeed. But now coming to your work, the thing most likely to interest my readers back in Africa is “vector control”. Malaria is still a major killer especially of children under the age of five. So, what have you been able to do in the field of vector control? Or what are you planning to do? Could you just tell us a little about that?

Applegate: Well, I feel very blessed to work for a company like Bayer. And I will tell you why. Bayer has a history of over 60 years in vector control. And in those 60 years, Bayer has continued to be an innovation leader and we have continued to apply R&D and innovation in this space, where many companies have chosen to walk away.  And it makes me very proud to work in a company that has committed for over 60 years, its expertise.

We have been able to bring products to the market. And we have been very focused in Africa with indoor residual spraying – and we have had a lot of success with that.

We will be coming to the market next year (2018) and 2019 with unique, differentiated product that will help manage resistance development. And that’s really essential because if you have resistance issues, governments and communities can spray all they want, and it’s not going to be effective against mosquitos.

So, what I would say is that – now going into this issue of the tender business – is that one thing is about the power of innovation and what you can bring to the market. But it is also about the power of how you can get the product into the market space.

So, you definitely have the public tender perspective. But one of the things we see is that governments – and this isn’t the fault of governments – they only have so much money. And if you look at the economy, sometimes they have the money and sometimes they don’t.

So, one of the things that we have also looked at is about how to do educational public self-awareness. So, you have a solid balance of public treatment of tenders but you also have people that are able to basically develop private business. And we have done some really fascinating things in the area of vector control.

For instance, we are doing a pilot programme in Dakar, Senegal. And I actually went and kicked it off. And it is working with the  “Badianou Koh” that is women, the great aunties of the communities, to basically help them develop their own private business. So, working with a distributor, we have trained these women – because they are respected within the community – to set up their own businesses. We are helping them to be business owners and to raise their socio-economic status. And at the same time, we are helping set up a private business that serves that market in need. Because often people cannot pay for everything. So, they go out every Friday or Wednesday; and they put a bit of money aside towards their house getting treated. And in time they will have collected enough to ensure that their house gets treated.

And what we have seen by expanding into this private area of business, is that we are helping fundamentally, and we are getting insights also – and this is something we are studying – into the epidemiology. Because one of the things we saw when we did the study with the community health centre was the fact that not only did they have less malaria cases but there was even more potential because other insects were being killed.

So what I would say is that Bayer looks at our vector control programme in a holistic way. It’s about innovating, educating, advocacy and partnerships in addition to our expertise to understand the markets that we serve and how we can bring different business models that fulfil the needs of that society.

Muga: And if I may say so, it seems sustainable because the nature of the model is that there is a motive for each of those women to go out and make sales.

Applegate: Well, when we spoke with the Badianou Koh women and said, “What ar