Employee Spotlight: Christy Xu - Indonesia HR Lead

Meet Christy Xu, Provivi, Inc's HR Lead in Indonesia, and this month's employee spotlight. Christy joined Provivi early last year, most attracted to our mission and goal of sustainable solutions. She handles all HR operations in Asia and helps the HR team implement specific strategies while supporting routine functions. Find out more about Christy in this month's ?#EmployeeSpotlight!

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How did you first find out about Provivi?

I first found out about Provivi when I was browsing the job openings through LinkedIn, and there was an opening for an HR position. I applied but forgot about it until Miguel Nuno contacted me and scheduled an interview. I was curious since I am making a conscious effort to choose more sustainable solutions to my family’s food and meals, so I searched for Provivi on the internet. I landed on Provivi’s homepage, saw what Provivi does, and got super excited since I knew the issues with current mating disruption solutions. Mating disruption solutions are costly to produce, and that influences their pricing. Due to this issue, mating disruption solutions are not usually used for staple crops like rice, corn, or soy but for crops with higher economic values such as fruits. Provivi’s solution for staple crops enables our staple crop farmers to get a more environmentally friendly solution while improving practices for organic farming. These are things that I’m passionate about, which is why I joined Provivi.

What inspires your work at Provivi?

The first thing that inspires me is that I know I’m working to better more sustainable farming practices that could be implemented around the world. I was invited to work closely with our Field and Commercial Team before through Farmers’ Field Day in Indonesia, and I could see the impact of Provivi products directly on the farmers and the crops. It is clear that we are affecting the livelihood of one of the most vulnerable professions in Indonesia, and we are improving how they manage pests through our product. Seeing their happy faces and testimony of how our product positively impacted their farm made me realize that our work at Provivi impacts lives positively.

What does the Provivi core value of learning mean to you?

Provivi’s core values resonate a lot with me since we keep it simple and relatable to our daily lives, but learning stands out since not many companies emphasize life-long education as one of their core values. I think learning could mean many things to different people, but for me, learning is not only about attending classes or gaining specific skills. It is also about an attitude of humility and open-mindedness where we could admit that we don’t know something, and we are willing to improve our knowledge and understanding about it. In this term at Provivi, we are always learning something, whether learning more about new pests or interacting with our colleagues to work better together.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I like traveling, and although it got hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it allows me to look deeper to places I’ve been before but not thoroughly explored. I enjoyed going out the usual paths, preferring to arrange my trips around Google Maps instead of following a scheduled tour and looking for local recommendations for food. I love exploring local food scenes as they provide great insights into local customs and usually taste better. My best finding so far is the city of Surakarta, where the food is good, people are great, and there is lots of culture without many tourists.

What’s your favorite quote?

I like the one said by Yoda from Star Wars. “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” It spoke to me because sometimes we do not give our 100% because it’s just “try” instead of “yes, I’m doing this” or “no, I’m not doing this.” It serves as a reminder to me that life does not allow you an opportunity to try. It’s more a “do you want to do this or not?” instead of “do you want to try?” Additionally, it provides a clearer outlook on choice in life, especially since I’m working as an HR where we sometimes have to make decisions that are tough or unclear.