Ep 351 - Gerard John Deriada and Kareen Grace Lacorte - The Hustle Behind Agri Exim

EPISODE INTRODUCTION

In this episode of Hustleshare, we sit down with Gerard John Deriada and Kareen Grace Lacorte of Agri Exim Global Philippines to talk about how they helped grow an organic agriculture company from a small 10-person team in Davao to over 1,000 employees across the country. Kareen shares how she stumbled into HR and built a career on empathy, grit, and a willingness to figure things out on her own, while Gerard looks back on the scrappy early days of wearing multiple hats and helping build systems from scratch. They get real about the challenges of hiring and retention, scaling with purpose, and staying aligned with a bigger mission. We also dive into how PLDT Enterprise helped power their digital transformation and kept them connected through the toughest moments of the pandemic. If you’re in the thick of building something meaningful, this episode is full of hard-earned lessons you’ll want to hear.

Episode Timeline: 
[00:03:37] - What’s your hustle: Agri Exim Global Philippines
[00:06:04] - Origin stories: Kareen’s HR journey
[00:07:51] - Learning grit and emotional resilience in HR
[00:14:00] - Gerard’s backstory and early career
[00:17:13] - Why they chose to stay with Agri Exim
[00:25:20] - Early struggles and setting up systems
[00:28:59] - Hiring challenges and digital recruitment
[00:32:28] - Navigating through the pandemic
[00:37:38] - Hard lessons scaling to 1,000 heads
[00:41:00] - Meeting ambitious goals: sustainability, ESG, farmer empowerment
[00:46:48] - How to apply or partner with Agri Exim

QUOTES
“The farmers themselves—we really want to uplift their living as well. And that is really what I think would be the strength of Agri Exim, because it’s not just improving the company, but also improving your whole supply chain. So for me, the next step would be to really empower our partner farmers and suppliers.” – Gerard John Deriada

CONNECT WITH GERARD & KAREEN:
Official Website: https://agrieximorganic.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agriexim/posts/?feedView=all
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agrieximorganic

This episode is brought to you by OneCFO, PLDT Enterprise (MSME Fiberbiz & 5G SIM Only)
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