Endeavor

KARINA VON BAER Chile, Oleotop Karina Von Baer grew up in Temuco in Southern Chile, in a family where agricultural innovation was the norm. Her father is the only seed geneticist in Chile and has developed various unique wheat strains adapted to the climate and soil of southern Chile. Karina studied Agricultural Economics at the Pontifica Universidad Católica in Santiago. Upon graduation in 1997, she traveled to Germany where she met her husband, Forestry Engineer, Andreas Schick. Both returned to Chile a year later and Karina was asked to help manage a local agricultural trading company called Saprosem, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. In just two years, she turned the company around and convinced its owners to give her a minority shareholding. In 2000, with a loan from her father of US$ 40,000, she became a part-owner. Oleotop is Karina's third company and involves the largest investment to date. With Saprosem and Granotop functioning autonomously (they have a combined General Manager and management team), Karina is now 100% dedicated to growing Oleotop. She is a proven serial entrepreneur and an important role model for her region. Created in 2004, Oleotop is the first rapeseed (salmon feed) processing plant in southern Chile and a rare example of high-growth entrepreneurship outside of the capital city of Santiago. With Chile's salmon industry currently at #2 in the world — and continuing to grow at over 10% a year — the future for Oleotop is bright. It is also a rare example of high- growth entrepreneurship outside of Santiago; the plant, located in one of Chile's poorest regions, has stimulated a revival of the area's depressed agricultural sector.

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