Joseph Montgomery the CEO of Agro Innova Co. which produces Suavva, a brand of cacao-pulp smoothies joins Enterprise Radio.
Listen to interview with host Eric Dye & guest Joseph Montgomery discuss the following:
- Tell us about the beginnings of Suavva, what is your inspiration for the brand?
- What health benefits does Suavva provide to make it different from other beverages out there?
- Your tagline is “Energizing Happiness”; who is your typical consumer?
- What do you expect the future to hold for your company and your brand?
- Where is Suavva based and are there any business advantages to your location?
Duration: 7:24
Born of an Ecuadorian mother and American father, Joe Montgomery was raised and educated in Ecuador, Massachusetts, Peru, and Spain and is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Upon graduation from Tulane University in New Orleans with a BA in Economics (cum laude) and an MBA in Finance, he was offered a position in Ecuador’s largest bank and was a key architect of its modernization and internationalization, establishing subsidiaries in U.S., U.K., Ecuador, Panama, and Colombia. By his early 30s, he had been promoted to CFO of the bank and by age 40 was appointed to the Board of the Central Bank of Ecuador, dealing directly with the leadership of the country.
In the late 1990s, he helped establish agricultural tropical fruit and tree plantations. In the case of cacao, these plantations were among the largest in the country (1,000+ acres), and managed under modern business practices in line with best international standards to achieve yields 4 to 5 times those of smaller operations. In the early 2000s, he founded and developed a business to develop the previously unexploited pulp of the cocoa fruit. Today, he is CEO of Agro Innova Co; its international subsidiary extracts this ingredient, which is sold in the U.S. to third party manufacturers and used to produce its own Suavva line of smoothies, available in stores and online.
Joe Montgomery, has been involved in sustainability/green programs for over two decades. He has held leading roles in several non-profit conservation groups, including Chairman of Fundación Natura Guayaquil (Natura Foundation) and Board Member of Fondo Ambiental Nacional FAN (The National Environmental Fund). The main efforts of these non-profit organizations are protecting the mega diversity of plant and animal species through education, conservation, and reforesting. Through Fundación Natura, FAN, and a number of private initiatives, he has contributed to the reforestation of millions of trees in Ecuador.
Mr. Montgomery has taught Money and Banking at the Catholic University and at the ESPOL Business School of Guayaquil, Ecuador.
He is married, has five children, and is soon to be a grandfather.
Web Site: www.suavva.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/suavva
Twitter: @suavva
[box_blue]Note: If you would like to listen to a podcast right away you can hear a sample by clicking on the “play” button on our podcasts page. If you would like to play our EPN – Entrepreneur Podcast Network programming later or take it on the road, you will first need to subscribe to and download our podcast programming using the subscription software on your computer, such as itunes. Then you will have to transfer the podcast file to your portable media device. We recommend the following subscription software for the best user experience:
- iTunes – available for windows and mac
- Juice – available for windows (2000 or XP), mac (OS 10.3 or higher) and linux/gnu[/box_blue]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:24 — 6.8MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | TuneIn | RSS | More