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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters nonprofit
supports
WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
By Katy Yoder | Correspondent
Julie Escobar and her husband,
Gordon Robertson, are living their
idyllic life. Their log home in Sisters
Country is surrounded by juniper and
ponderosa trees. Bounding through a
plethora of sagebrush or nestling deep
into a doggy bed, their snuggly, pre-
cocious pup, Lola, is always ready for
the next excursion. Their home looks
out on a vast horizon with Black Butte
and the Three Sisters welcoming them
each morning. Their days are filled
with working corporate jobs from
their home office and adventures in
the High Desert.
Professionally, Escobar has
achieved a level of success that allows
her to live anywhere she chooses. The
couple wanted a home settled com-
fortably in nature with access to out-
door recreation and in close proximity
to people who share their affinity for
outdoor sports and exploring nature.
They chose a small-town existence
as a counterbalance to careers that
usually take them around the globe.
There are not enough hours in the
day for Escobar. She9s Senior Vice
President of Renewable Resources,
a private equity group, and is co-
founder/president of Global Women
Fresh (GWF), a nonprofit she co-
founded two years ago. The private
equity group specializes and invests
in water and water rights in the agri-
cultural sector. Focusing on commer-
cial relationships, the group invests in
Latin American agriculture projects
like avocados and citrus crops.
<My role is to step in and develop
commercial relationship with retail-
ers around the world. I9ve been in
the international side of the ag busi-
ness for the past 20 years. Half of
my career was in Latin America and
Europe working with growers, con-
sumers, and retailers,= said Escobar
from her home office.
For the past 10 years, Escobar9s
career has focused in the Asian Pacific
Rim. She received her
MBA at UCLA and the
University of Singapore,
which led her to spend a
large amount of time in
the Asian Pacific Rim.
For almost two years,
she lived in Singapore.
Traveling the world
and working with
PHOTO PROVIDED
Global Women Fresh, based out of Sisters, hosted a conference that invited international particip
growers, packers, shippers, and retail-
ers, she saw an opportunity and need
for women to have a stronger posi-
tion in the agriculture industry. That9s
when the idea for GWF began to take
shape.
Even today, in her corporate role,
she9s often the only woman in the
room. She and other women in her
industry wanted to create a global
network.
<We wanted to unite people from
Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the
U.S. in one platform,= she told The
Nugget. <Our initiative was embraced
by corporate entities and governments
around the world. They thought it
was the perfect time to sponsor gen-
der equality. We hosted an event and
the attendance (both
male and female) was
beyond our expecta-
Global Women Fresh has worked
tions. Support like that
with United Nations International
inspired us to take our
ideas to the next level.=
Trade Centre — here at the
Through her time
SHE TRADES exposition in Kenya.
in the field and the
boardroom, Escobar identified some
of the missing pieces for women who
were trying to grow their businesses,
increase productivity, and compete
successfully.
<We saw the need to bring more
women into corporate life, provide
them with opportunities to grow, and
move up the corporate ladder,= she
said.
The original mission of GWF
was to empower, inspire, and con-
nect women around the world. But
they soon realized they were leaving
too many women out. <After receiv-
ing feedback that our efforts weren9t
addressing 50 percent of the world9s
workforce, who were female farmers
in the fields, we saw their point and
expanded our efforts into five pil-
lars for our organization. The pillars
are: food waste; sustainability; social
impact; technology; and innovation.
The five pillars evoked conversation
and a question: How could we bring
women within the entire supply chain,
from the farm level to the executive
For more than 40 years,
The Nugget Newspaper
has been
TELLING THE STORIES OF
THE SISTERS COMMUNITY.
Through boom and bust,
good times and hard times.