Syngenta Celebrates Women

Women in Turf Breaking the Grass Ceiling

Kimberly Gard

Syngenta is proud to support #WomenInTurf throughout the turf industry and is grateful to have several women on its industry-leading team as well. To celebrate Women’s Golf Day on June 7th, we spoke with Stephanie Schwenke @Schwenkengolfmm, marketing manager for Turf at Syngenta, and Kimberly Gard @GardKimberly, territory manager for Syngenta to gather insight on gender inclusivity in the golf industry.

Q: How is Syngenta advocating for more diverse, inclusive workplaces in the turf industry?

Stephanie: After working for Syngenta for close to 20 years, we now have a strategic pillar for our business that focuses on diversity and inclusion across the company. Syngenta has hired new employees to focus on educating our employees around what DE&I means and how to have these

conversations. Within the industry we have helped to spearhead initiatives like the Ladies Leading Turf networking and education event at the GCSAA a women’s volunteer maintenance

crew at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Q: What are some of the challenges that women in the turf industry face?

Stephanie: When you see the faces that make up the golf industry, our faces typically are behind the scenes. We’re not in the ads or the

boardroom table or the head of the

association meetings. So the more we can all engage and step in and show the faces of who we are, we’ll be more encouraging for the next generation. And I think that’s a really important piece of what we’re trying to achieve, even back in 2015 with our #FacesOfaSuper campaign that featured Shelia Finney, former superintendent and current senior director of

member programs at the GCSAA. We are working to change the stereotypes and invite others to join us because it is fun and it is encouraging and it’s a lot of very successful, talented people that make up our business and the industry as a whole. So lots of excitement and

energy from my point of view.

Kimberly: Labor is a huge issue. I mean, you hear about it in the news with other industries as well. Like

Stephanie said, it is a profession that’s kind of like Disneyland, where all the magic happens behind the scenes. But you’re kind of supposed to not really be in the forefront. It’s hard to motivate women to become interested

in a certain profession within the golf industry, when they don’t even know that such a profession exists. So, with half of the population being women, and with a large segment of these women not being aware that these jobs exist, we’re facing a significant shortage of labor. When we talk about growing the game of golf, there’s a lot of growth that can happen with women, and it starts by opening up the conversation to bring more awareness.

Stephanie Schwenke

Q: How do the Syngenta efforts with the U.S. Women’s Open benefit turf professionals?

Kimberly: In 2020, Troy Flanagan, Director of Golf Maintenance at the

Olympic Club, asked me if I could help him recruit 30 women volunteers for the 75th U.S. Women’s Open in 2021. It was the first championship where a dedicated women’s volunteer

maintenance crew was brought in, Syngenta hosted educational and

educational lineup with amazing speakers. One of the seminars, conducted by Amy Wallace from the Syngenta Business Institute℠, was about strategies and tactics for women taking on a leadership role. It was impactful, working side by side for a full week, getting up at the crack of dawn and going until late at night. It was definitely a bonding experience. You’re just giving it your all and you’re exhausted, but you’re laughing and you’re having fun. This year we will be repeating an education component at the U.S. Women’s Open hosted at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, where we have 30 women coming in to help David Fruchte’s team maintain the

course during the Championship. We will continue this in 2023 at Pebble

Q: Why do you think women should consider working in the professional turf industry?

Stephanie: Women should consider working in the professional turf industry because of all the opportunities our industry has to offer. The rest of society sees only part of what goes into managing a golf course, but this industry has so many jobs and opportunities available. We all need to do a better job of promoting these opportunities to get new and younger generations into our industry. It could be anything from a maintenance technician to a superintendent, agronomy or horticulture, but it could also be some of the management and financial opportunities to help run the golf course. Maybe you’re a woman and you want to own a business someday – you could buy your own golf course.

Q: What is the best advice you have received?

Stephanie: I was told, “Stephanie, instead of just dealing with the stereotypes have a voice and be honest professionally.” I think that is very much what both Kimberly and I have done throughout our careers, and some of the events we just talked about today are just the surface.

Kimberly: Just having an idea and keeping it simple. Like, I’ll try to help get some women together. You just need to start and it can be a simple idea. Like Leasha Schwab, sending a tweet like, “hey, I’m gonna try and get women together at the golf show. Let me know if you are interested?”