Silo’s CEO, Amy Gates’ Conversation With Blue Book Services About Her Produce Industry Journey, Part 1

December 26, 2025 

Amy Gates, CEO of Silo Technologies, recently sat down with Blue Book Services to discuss her background, her career in the produce industry, and her path to leading Silo. 

Q: Fill us in on your background, education, and Cal Poly. 

I earned my agribusiness degree summa cum laude from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, with a concentration in marketing. Cal Poly's agribusiness program is rooted in its "learn by doing" philosophy, combining applied economics with coursework in marketing, finance, supply chain, and management. This mix of hands-on, real-world learning and business fundamentals deeply shaped my approach to leadership, problem solving, and innovation—and instilled a lifelong curiosity about how systems can transform agriculture. 

Q: What were your initial career goals? 

My love for agriculture really took hold during a summer internship at Apio Fresh in the Santa Maria area. I worked on the DOS-based Famous Version 5, entering sales orders for the sales team and processing shipping confirmations. It showed me just how important technology was—even then—in keeping produce operations accurate, efficient, and moving at the speed this industry demands. I was hooked. 

From that point forward, my goal was to blend my appreciation for agriculture with technology, finding ways systems and data could make life easier for the people growing, packing, and moving fresh food. That early exposure set me on a path to bridge those two worlds and help produce businesses thrive through smarter, more connected operations. 

Q: Describe your earliest responsibilities in the produce industry. 

At Famous Software, I worked with ERP systems from 1999 to 2004, implementing tools that helped produce companies manage inventory, sales, and logistics. My territory included California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—regions with some of the most diverse and dynamic segments of the produce supply chain. 

I worked closely with terminal markets, distributors, and grower-packer-shipper operations, each with very different workflows, pressures, and technology needs. The exposure gave me a panoramic understanding of how produce truly moves, from the field to the wholesale floor, and how critical accurate real-time data is across every step.

It also taught me to listen first: to understand a company's pain points, constraints, and goals before recommending a system solution. This mindset has stayed with me throughout my career and remains core to how I lead and support teams today. 

Q: How did you segue from Famous Software to Frontera Produce? 

Frontera Produce was one of my favorite customers during my years at Famous Software. Through several projects and conversations, they saw how my knowledge of systems, operations, and process improvement—and my ability to streamline workflows and reduce costs through technology—could be valuable inside the business. 

After recognizing the impact my experience could bring, Frontera approached me about joining the team. It felt like a natural next step: an opportunity to take everything I had learned helping companies from the outside and apply it directly within a produce operation. So I moved to Texas to begin the next chapter of my career. 

Stepping into operations at Frontera gave me firsthand insight into how technology, process, and people intersect in a real-world environment. It proved to be one of the best "on-the-ground" education experiences I could have asked for. 

Q: You started in operations at Frontera and worked your way up to president. What were your top achievements there? 

My time at Frontera was one of the most rewarding chapters of my career. I joined the company in 2004 to help modernize operations and quickly found myself working across every corner of the business. Over the years, I had the privilege of helping transform Frontera from a regional grower-shipper into a more scalable, efficient, and strategically focused organization. 

In operations, I led the automation of our inventory and P&L tracking by implementing new ERP systems, established KPIs that lowered warehouse costs by more than $500,000, and built the administrative infrastructure needed to support five regional offices. 

As executive vice president, I helped drive the company from roughly $125 million in sales to more than $500 million, while strengthening safety compliance, expanding corporate functions, and improving forecasting and financial visibility across the organization. 

As vice president/partner, I was entrusted to lead major strategic initiatives, including launching Crescent Fruit & Vegetable—growing it to more than $200 million in revenue in its first five years—and serving as the company's chief strategist through a significant acquisition-related lawsuit. I also created incentive programs that improved performance and alignment across sales and operations. 

Later, as president/partner, I oversaw Frontera's first rebrand in 25 years, reshaped our core competencies and product offerings, and strengthened direct relationships with more than 25 growers across multiple regions. We streamlined operations, reduced overhead, modernized our information systems, improved profitability, and repositioned the company for long-term growth. 

Across all roles, I'm most proud of how we strengthened Frontera's culture—building teams that were agile, accountable, and deeply committed to our growers and customers. It was a privilege to help lead the organization through such significant evolution. 

Q: You joined Greenyard USA/Seald Sweet in 2021. What led to the change? 

After nearly two decades at Frontera, I realized I had reached a natural plateau—the organization was in a great place, and it felt like the right moment for me to pursue a new challenge. I wanted to broaden my skill set beyond a North American footprint and learn from a company operating on a truly global scale. 

Greenyard's international reach, deep grower network across multiple continents, and commitment to sustainability and innovation were incredibly appealing. Joining Greenyard allowed me to collaborate with teams around the world, navigate cross-border supply chains, and see firsthand how consumer demand, regulatory frameworks, and supply chain data intersect globally. It was the kind of experience that pushed me to grow as a leader and expanded my understanding of what the future of fresh produce could look like on an international stage. 

Q: You worked on the Greenyard Sustainability Roadmap, what were the top goals of the project? 

When I joined Greenyard USA/Seald Sweet in 2021, I quickly became involved in the company's global Sustainability Roadmap—a strategic framework to embed sustainability into every part of the business. At Greenyard, this work is structured around three core pillars: (1) building sustainable food supply chains, (2) improving our environmental footprint, and (3) teaming up with customers to deliver healthier and more sustainable food solutions. 

Concretely, the major objectives included: 

• 100-percent recyclable packaging by 2025, a key goal for all consumer-facing packaging 

• Halving CO₂ emissions by 2025 and establishing a net-zero target by 2050 

• Reducing food waste by 25 percent by 2025 

• Responsible sourcing of 100 percent of our grower base in high- and medium-risk origins, by 2025 

• Lowering our water footprint and improving resource efficiency, especially within field, transport, and packing operations 

For me personally, success meant aligning these broad goals with our U.S. business operations. I worked to translate global targets into practical initiatives internally—for example, collaborating with grower/packer partners on sustainable packaging trials, optimizing logistics to reduce waste and emissions in transit, and improving traceability so we could monitor progress across the chain. 

In short, our aim was to make sustainability integral, not peripheral—to embed it in everything from procurement and planting decisions, through packaging design and distribution, to the final shelf life of our produce—delivering measurable results that strengthened both the planet and the bottom line. 

Q: During your time on various industry committees, councils, and initiatives, what resonated most? 

What resonated most with me throughout my service on committees and councils is just how collaborative and mission-driven this industry truly is. The produce business has been my life's work, and my volunteer leadership has always been about giving back to an industry I care deeply about. 

Across my roles with the Center for Produce Safety, the IFPA Food Safety Council, the PMA Board of Directors, and the Produce Traceability Initiative Joint Leadership Council, I gravitated naturally toward areas where I believe the industry is still underserved: food safety, traceability, and technology. These are foundational pillars that protect consumers, streamline operations, and modernize the supply chain—yet they often lag behind in innovation and adoption. 

What stood out to me in these groups was the shared accountability and willingness to collaborate. You see growers, shippers, distributors, retailers, scientists, and technologists all sit down together with one goal: to make our food system safer, more transparent, and more resilient. No one was there to push a singular agenda; they were there because they cared about doing the right thing for the industry and for the millions of people who rely on us every day. 

Those experiences reinforced my belief that meaningful progress happens when diverse perspectives work toward a common purpose. They also fueled my passion to keep pushing the industry forward—to champion the systems, standards, and technology that elevate food safety and traceability across the entire supply chain. 

Editor's Note: For the second part of Amy's in-depth, illuminating interview, come back next week!