Mr. Jitendra Mohan joined Willowood Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. as the Vice President in 2007 when the company was started and is currently working as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). In his current role, Mr. Mohan looks after many functions like manufacturing, R&D, quality assurance, procurement, import, export, institutional business, regulatory affairs, intellectual property, projects and retail sales. Owing to his determination and vision, the company has scaled many milestones under his leadership. He has been the driving force behind Willowood Chemicals and is greatly responsible for where the company stands today in the market.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Mr. Mohan completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Master of Science in Agrochemicals & Pest Management from the University of Delhi. He further enhanced his academic knowledge by acquiring another Masters in Chemical from Gwalior University, an MBA from Bharti Vidyapeeth and a course in Residue Chemistry from Jerusalem University, Israel. Armed with all these degrees, he began his career in crop protection chemical industry as a Management Trainee with American Cyanamid in 1994. In the year 1996, he joined Herbicide India Ltd as an Executive and went on to become the General Manger Operations & Head of the company. In 2007, when he joined Willowood Chemicals, his mandate was to transform the organization into an innovative company with focus to develop new and green chemistries every year. He possesses a deep understanding of Indian agriculture and an unparallel insight into the emerging trends of new chemistries and novel formulations. With these he focused on creating a strong Research & Development (R&D) center for the company. This facility is a state-of-the-art facility accredited to OECD Principles of Good Laboratory Practices, National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL), Government of India (ISO 17025), AAALAC International and recognized by Department of Science & Industrial Research, Government of India. This facility is the center of all action where research is done and new formulations are discovered – new manufacturing processes, new isomers, impurity synthesis etc. right from bench scale to pilot plant level.
SCALING NEW HEIGHTS
When Mr. Mohan joined Willowood Chemicals, it had a turnover of $2 million. His tireless work and unmatched efforts took the company to a turnover of $135 million in a matter of just 10 years with current turnover of USD 207 million. Under his guidance, the company also got listed as one of the fastest growing companies and among the top 20 agrochemical companies of India. Willowood also won the ‘Best Company from Emerging Region’ by Agrow Awards, London in 2018. All these milestones were possible thanks to Mr. Mohan’s unparalleled passion for the industry and his vision to bring new chemistries and crop protection chemicals in India by way of research and innovation. He has worked hard from conceptualizing these goals to making them a reality. He has been zealously working since the last 28 years to continuously bring new generation crop protection solutions for the Indian and global growers.
AN OVERALL LEADER
Mr. Mohan is a leader who believes that a position does not make a leader but it is a culmination of so many qualities and attributes. “For me leadership is defined by passion and how differently one works,” he asserts. He has always put extra emphasis on some core values that have helped him lead his team in a way that has yielded unprecedented results. Along with a strong focus on research and innovation, Mr. Mohan places extreme importance on adhering to deadlines. He is also of the belief that one should always exceed the expectations of all stakeholders so that they become lifetime partnerships. He is one of those leaders who take the team along with them and treat them as equals. He promotes a free work culture where everyone is given equal responsibilities and ownership. Everyone from the top to bottom is expected to take the onus of their part of the project.
UNCEASING SERIES OF AWARDS
Under Mr. Mohan’s research-oriented leadership approach, Willowood Chemicals has evolved into a research and innovation company which is supported by the number of patents granted to it by India Patent Office. He identified the gaps in the market and developed new solutions to deal with those problems. With his insight and industry knowledge, he gathered that the industry is leaning towards combination products instead of solo ones. Rather than creating chemicals to deal with individual problems, such as particular type of weed, insects or diseases, combination products are broad spectrum and can treat different types of pests, diseases and several weeds at the same time; Mr. Mohan decided to work on these problem areas. This led to Willowood receiving 25 patents from Indian Patent Office with more than 40 applications under examination all of these with Mr. Mohan as the lead inventor. Under his leadership, Willowood is also filing applications for global patents for these products through Patent Cooperation Treaty route. Mr. Mohan has featured in The CEO Magazine, India & South Asia, November 2021 edition under the category of Innovate. He has also written an article on Evolution of Indian Agrochemical Industry – Challenges, Opportunities and Way Forward, which has been published in AgroPages. Last year, he was named the ‘Leader with Strategic Vision (Business Transformation)’ by Agri Business Summit & Agri Awards held at Hyderabad. His work is widely recognized in the whole industry at national and international levels. He is also working as Chairman, Technical Committee of Agro Chem Federation of India and is a part of the Industry Group to discuss, deliberate and decide on various policy issues with Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the Government of India.
