About Us

Who We Are

Solera is an independent, American owned company, which provides reliable and effective plant protection products for the agricultural industry.

Our Operating Team

Pat Menagh | President and CEO

Pat is no stranger to agriculture, raised in California’s Central Valley, Pat grew up working on the family farm where he gained a great appreciation for the hard work and skill it takes to be a farmer.  Since earning his degree in Crop Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Pat has spent the last 28 years in agriculture working in both the supply and retail segments of the industry.  The experience gained working in various sales, management and later executive positions throughout his career have been vital in preparing him for his current role at Solera.  Pat and his family feel truly blessed to have built a career working in agriculture and look forward to many more as he leads Solera into the future.

Vaso Stojic | Business Development Manager | Read Bio

Vaso’s road to Solera-SD as a Managing Member has taken many turns. His career as an engineer allowed him to work in a variety of industries such as steel, paper, automotive, and chemicals. He began working in the plant protection industry in 1991 and held various positions in contract manufacturing, marketing, M&A and legal with prominent T&O and agricultural chemicals companies. Vaso launched Solera-SD in 2005 and continues to be involved in the day-to-day operations.

Rufus Bastian | Customer Service Manager | Read Bio

With over 48 years in the agrichemicals industry, Rufus brings a well-rounded wealth of knowledge to Solera – Source Dynamics (Solera-SD). He began his career at DuPont, where he spent 28 years spanning the globe from the United States to Europe and Asia. During that time, Rufus managed Sales in California and Hawaii, served as a Product Manager in DuPont’s home offices, lived in Geneva Switzerland where he held the position of Regional Manager Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Iberia. After spending four years in Europe Rufus and his family moved to Singapore where he held dual roles; one as the Senior Vice President DuPont Far East responsible for Southeast Asia and the other as Regional Manager Agrichemicals, Asia Pacific. Rufus retired from DuPont in 1993 however, he never left the Agrichemicals business. He continued to work and consulted for the Gowan Company of Yuma, AZ, Biagro Western and Gaylord Chemical Company. In 2005 Rufus, along with three other Managing Members, started Solera-SD where he continues today as a Senior Managing Member.

Tracy Silvas | Customer Service

Tracy, our senior customer service representative started her career in Bookkeeping/Accounting in Southern California in the mid 1990’s. She made the move to Yuma, Arizona in 2006 where she was first introduced to the Agricultural Industry at Gowan Company/GCIS. Tracy spent 3 years as an International Sales Team Support Representative for GCIS as well as an assistant in accounting with the Gowan Company. Tracy’s career then brought her to Desert Depot where she spent 3 years as their Logistics Coordinator and proved to be a huge asset to their customer service department. As she continued to thrive in her career in the Agricultural Industry, Tracy then joined the Solera-SD team in 2012. Tracy’s well rounded knowledge and experience in customer service, accounting and logistics, along with her extreme dedication to Solera-SD, has proven to be one of the many reasons why we stand out from our competition.

Nicole Cooper | Customer Service

Nicole, our newest customer service representative on the Solera-SD team, has spent over 10 years in various customer service rolls throughout her career. During 2010-2012 she started her career in Sales as well as Managing a retail Photography store around the Dallas, Texas area. In 2012, life then brought her back to Yuma, Arizona where she pursued another industry within the Medical Supply/Insurance field. While in Arizona for the next 6 years she continued to excel in Customer Service/Sales as well as assisting our community and surrounding areas with their Medical equipment and insurance billing needs. While living in a prominent farm-based town and because of her desire to expand her knowledge, she decided to pursue a career in the Agricultural Chemical industry thus bringing her to Solera-SD family January of 2018. As part of the Solera-SD team, Nicole continues to thrive in the business, provide excellent customer service and goes above and beyond for our clients.

Erik Brandt | Supply Chain and New Product Development Lead | Read Bio

With 20 years under his belt in the agrichem business, Erik currently serves as the head of Solera-SD’s Supply Chain Operations and is a Managing Member. An Arizona native, Erik began his career at Gowan Milling, LLC as the Manager of the Quality Control and Quality Assurance program. He also achieved the industry standard ISO 9002 certification. Erik soon moved to Gowan Co. as the Manager of Formulation and Packaging in the U.S., and then to Supply Chain Management in the US and globally. After leaving Gowan, Erik honed his entrepreneurial skills when he purchased a local tree care business in Yuma, AZ. While managing his business, Erik joined Solera -SD.  Erik’s understanding of and extensive background in Supply Chain Operations allows Solera-SD to provide excellence in product and customer service.

Li Li | Supplier Relations Comnsultant

Li Li, resides in China.  She started her agrochemical career in 1996 as sales manager in Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical Co., Ltd. responsible for Pakistan, Korea and Janpan.  After 10 years with Yangnong she started her own company, Yangzhou National Chemical Westzhong Co., Ltd.  In 2013 Li Li joined Solera as a consultant for supply sourcing.  She oversees Solera’s Chinese suppliers including quality control, supply contract negotiations, coordinating meetings and translations.  She is a vital part of the Solera team and essential to Solera’s relationships with its Chinese suppliers.

Mana Hoskins | Supply Chain

Mana works in Supply Chain for Solera Source Dynamics. She began working in the Ag Industry in 2006 with Gowan Company where she started at the front desk and quickly moved on to Regulatory Archives, Development Samples and spent 7 years in Customer Service and Distribution. Mana managed customer orders and inventories in North America for Distribution and over the span included Pacific Northwest, California/Arizona, Northeast, Southeast and Canada as well as U.S. Turf and Ornamentals. Mana joined the Solera Source Dynamics team in 2016 as the Import Specialist and in 2019 handles Purchasing for our Supply Chain Department.

Rebecca Treas | Supply Chain

Rebecca Treas started with Solera in January 2019 as a Supply Chain Specialist handling Imports. Having lived all over the United States and in Europe for a short time Rebecca and her husband landed in Yuma, AZ in 2014 where she began her career in the crop protection industry starting out in customer service with Gowan Company. She quickly identified a need to have a separate logistics department to handle freight for all departments. She was instrumental in creating this new department and integrating a new 3rd Party Logistics Company to reduce shipment costs. Rebecca went on to take over all Import from South American and Canada for US Productions including inter warehouse transfers of finished goods. When Rebecca is not on her computer she can be found near a pool with her two sons Dylan and Logan who are both competitive swimmers.

Bob Hawk | Federal Registrations Lead | Read Bio

Bob brings wealth of knowledge and experience to his position as Registration Manager & Managing Member of Solera-SD. Bob began his work with pesticides over 46 years ago. Bob is an organic chemist who started his career in the U.S. Public Health Service and in that capacity worked for CDC, FDA and EPA. He moved to industry and has done U.S. and international regulatory work for FMC, ICI (now Syngenta) and Gowan before joining Solera-SD.

Rebecca Hargadine | State Registrations Lead

Rebecca has over 25 years experience in the agrichemical industry in various safety and regulatory areas from product development through usage.  She worked as a Safety and Health Manager for agricultural chemical formulating and packaging company and as Safety Director for a vegetable farming and cooling company.  These experiences provided a valuable perspective when Rebecca began working in Product Registration and labelling  for a multinational agrichemical corporation and later as a consultant before joining Solera.

Brenda Brandt | Controller

Brenda is the Solera-SD Controller with over 28 years in the Ag Industry.  After earning her Accounting degree from St. Cloud State University, she moved to Arizona to escape the harsh Minnesota winters.  Brenda worked at Gowan Company for over 21 years, moving up from Entry-level Accountant to International Accountant to North American Controller.  Along the way, she earned an MBA from Webster University and her CPA license.  Brenda joined the Solera-SD team as Controller in 2013 and is the primary contact for financial, human resources, and IT matters.

Judy Wicks | Accounting

Judy joined Solera-Source Dynamics in August 2018 as Accounts Payable working directly with Brenda Brandt and the rest of our team.  Judy has over 21 years in the Ag industry (AMVAC & Gowan), as well as 15+ years in one of Yuma, Arizona’s oldest school districts – Crane Elementary.  Judy brings experience in many areas including: accounting, personnel, warehousing, customer service, supply chain, regulatory proofreading, payroll, sales analysis and customer rebates.  Judy also volunteers for Ancestry’s World Archives Project keying in data.

Terry Stojic | Admin

Terry, who grew up in rural Ohio, is the daughter of a Case IH fertilizer applicator distributor. She was an active member of 4-H and tractor pulling while growing up. Terry has been married to Vaso, one of Solera’s founding members, for 26 years and they have three children and two grandchildren. She has been with Solera since the beginning and performs Admin and AR duties.

What We Deliver

Our plant protection products are delivered with responsive service and knowledgeable support. Our agricultural chemical industry experts deliver the following:

  • Development
  • Registration
  • Active Ingredient Sourcing
  • Synthesis
  • Formulation
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Sales & Marketing

How We Work

Together with our parent company, Source Dynamics, we’ve built one of the most vertically integrated supply chains to bring the highest quality, cost effective plant protection products to our customers. The company is owned by nearly a dozen stake holders at various levels of the supply chain and is completely controlled by seasoned American ag industry veterans. We are grounded in the domestic ag industry, acutely aware of the local market needs and immediately responsive to our customers’ requests. We support the traditional distribution system and are determined to help maintain the global competitiveness of the American farmer.

Account Manager Team

Robert "Bob’ Higby | National Account Consultant| Read Bio

Bob consults on National Accounts as well as California, Arizona and the Midwest.   Bob was raised on a family farm in Bakersfield, CA. He attended California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo where he earned degrees in Business Administration and Crop Science. For the past 44 years, Bob has been employed in the Supplier, Distributor and Retail sectors of the Agricultural Industry. He has held numerous sales and management positions. Bob served as President of Integrated Agribusiness Professionals (IAP) from 2000 until his retirement at the end of 2015. Bob has been married to his lovely wife Sandee for soon to be 46 years. They have 2 married children, Jennifer and Rob, and 4 grandchildren; Nola, Kade, Nash and Reyn. The entire clan lives in the Fresno, California area.

Josh Bastian | Northeast | Read Bio

A relative newcomer to the ag industry, Josh comes to us from Bend Research pharmaceutical process and development, where he contributed to the facilities; daily operations. Solera’s need for an account manager in the Pacific Northwest brought Josh to the Solera team and he has now moved to Northeast to fill Solera’s need there.  Josh loves to work with good people and has found his calling in the ag industry. He is married with two children.

Scott Hansel | Pacific Northwest

Scott is a UC Davis graduate and has worked for over twenty-five years in Northern California.  He started out as a Pest Control Advisor for the PureGro company prior to moving on to Sales and Account Management positions for Rhone Poulenc, Aventis and Bayer Crop Science.  Most recently Scott was the California Operations Manager for RiceCo LLC.  Scott and his wife Stephanie live in Yuba City, CA where they have raised their three children.  At Solera Scott is responsible for managing new opportunities in Rice as well as total portfolio sales throughout northern  California as well as the Pacific Northwest.

Larry Worn | Southeast Consultant | Read Bio

Larry Worn has over 46 years of experience in the Agricultural Chemical business. He started his career with Tuco, a division of The Upjohn Co. Larry survived several mergers including Nor-Am, Agrevo, and Aventis. Larry has worked in the south east all of his career and worked with many crops  including cotton, corn, soybeans, peanuts, vegetables, citrus, and turf. He brings a wealth of knowledge from herbicides to soil fumigants. Larry resides in Moultrie, Georgia with his wife Kathy. Kathy is a farm girl herself and her family farms around 4,000 acres of land. Larry says the best people in the world work in this industry and he plans on several more years of time before calling it quits.

John Pate | Mid-Atlantic Consultant| Read Bio

John recently retired as the Business Unit Vice President, Eastern Specialty, Helena Chemical Co. John was responsible for the management of Helena’s agricultural business for the East Coast and Specialty Business across the U.S. We are extremely fortunate to have John’s expertise and  experience here at Solera.

Vaso Stojic | Southwest | Read Bio

Vaso has account management responsibilities for the Southwest as well as his managing member responsibilities.  Vaso’s road to Solera-SD as a Managing Member has taken many turns. His career as an engineer allowed him to work in a variety of industries such as steel, paper, automotive, and chemicals. He began working in the plant protection industry in 1991 and held various positions in contract manufacturing, marketing, M&A and legal with prominent T&O and agricultural chemicals companies. Vaso launched Solera-SD in 2005 and continues to be involved in the day-to-day operations.

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