The founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri where he served as Emeritus President and Director for 10 years. Roger is currently Executive Director at World Food Center at University of California, Davis and …

David Perry is President, CEO, and Director of Indigo. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and built three innovative companies in the last 20 years, leading the last two through successful IPOs and to multi-billion dollar market capitalization …

Matt is an accomplished executive with a strong background in the rapid growth and early commercialization phases of technology companies. Prior to co-founding Benson Hill Biosystems, he was the President of the Agricultural Biotechnology Division and …

Kevin has over 20 years experience in the grain and livestock industry. He is the publisher of The Van Trump Report, a daily agricultural newsletter that contains some of the best and most comprehensive agricultural information in the world from some o …

Paul is a co-founder and the Chief Science Officer of Agrible, where he leads product design and development. He has over 17 years of experience working with big data and agriculture. He believes that software for growers, agricultural production, and …

Alex Lorestani is the CEO of Geltor, a leading startup in the field of synthetic biology, primarily for the purpose of producing animal free gelatin products for the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products industries.  He received his B.S. in Biolog …

Dr. Charles Mutua Mulli was born to David Kaleli and Rhoda Mukina on 7th January 1949 in Kangundo. The first born in a family of eight; was born at a time and in a family that wallowed in poverty. Mulli grew up in lack, want and hardship as each day pr …

Dr. DiNicola has over 20 years of experience in the agri-food industry and a decade of experience in sustainability and agriculture development. Through DiNicola LLC, she consults for established and emerging companies and public institutions across th …

Allison Kopf is the founder and CEO of Agrilyst, the virtual agronomist powering the horticulture industry. Agrilyst won the highly coveted Disrupt Cup at TechCrunch’s Disrupt event in San Francisco. Kopf was named the 2016 Changemaker of the Year by t …

Mr. Rogers is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Bonumose LLC, an early-stage developer and manufacturer of affordable, healthy, delicious sugars such as tagatose, allulose and mannose. Mr. Rogers has more than 25 years of business experienc …

Louis is a serial-entrepreneur with a successful track. His last venture, Neuralitic, raised $20 million before being acquired by Guavus in 2013. Louis has a unique experience in VC backed technology start-ups and an extensive international experience …

Andy Daniels is a 35-year commodity trading veteran and the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Daniels Trading/Global Asset Advisors. After graduating in 1981 with a BSM in Business Management from Tulane University’s A.B. Freemen School of Busines …

Carter Williams has spent his entire career working on innovation. First as a young engineer at McDonnell Douglas, next in his leadership roles at Boeing managing R&D and starting Boeing Ventures, and later as a successful entrepreneur and venture …

Dr. Stark is President of Holganix LLC where he leads the company’s efforts to expand its business into agriculture. Previously, he was a Senior Associate with the Context Network, a strategy and business management firm that helps companies along the …

Business Executive, Serial Entrepreneur, Inventor, Investor and Visionary with demonstrated success in operations, manufacturing, processing, production, distribution, R&D, venture capital, private equity, M&A, commercialization, patents, trade …

Todd is a recognized expert in functional genomics, bioinformatics, and plant systems biology, and is focused on accelerating discovery and development by more accurately predicting plant performance. He has built capabilities and toolsets that manipul …

Craig joined iSelect Fund as Vice President in charge of ventures in March 2016. Prior to joining iSelect, Craig worked as Vice President of Marcone from January 2013 until August 2015. Prior to joining Marcone Craig was a principal at Clayton Capital …

Renée Vassilos is a Dutch-American Agricultural Economist with over fifteen years of agriculture industry experience. Her expertise ranges from strategic market analysis and product development to sales, marketing and distribution strategy. She has wor …

Founded in 2013, iUNU (“you knew”) is an industrial computer vision company headquartered in Seattle, with offices in San Francisco and San Diego. Our product is an AI named LUNA that leverages computer vision to allow farmers to better manage crop gro …

Grainchain introduces blockchain technology to an untapped multi-trillion-dollar global industry, agriculture. This innovation provides instant payment to suppliers and farmers, and immediate access of commodities to buyers. It attacks fraud and corrup …

Co-founder and CEO at Sugarlogix, where the best-kept secret in human breast milk is recreated by yeast. Strong technical background in chemical and biomolecular engineering with PhD from University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to Mercaris, Kellee spent five years at the start-up company Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the first electronic trading platform and registry for spot, futures and options on carbon, sulfur, clean energy and other environmental derivatives. In …

20+ years of business-driven technology leadership in financial and global commodity trading markets.

Ben joined Blue River in 2012 and has helped bring the See & Spray machines to life by linking grower needs to R&D in the lab. He has led strategy, commercialization, and pursues partnership opportunities and now manages the commercialization o …

Colin has founded two Ag companies since graduating from Iowa State University with a degree in Agriculture and Business in 2013. In his first company called Agriculture Concepts he developed a revolutionary planting product called TrackTill®. After su …

Dr. Pamela Marrone, CEO and founder of Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI), started the company in 2006 to discover and develop effective and environmentally responsible, biologically-based products for pest management and plant health. In August 2013, she l …

Mr. Ernie Sanders has been Vice President of Product Development at Pivot Bio, Inc. since February 2018. Mr. Sanders most recently served as the Global Launch and Product Expansions for Seed Applied Solutions Leader at the Monsanto Company. In 2017, Mr …

Larry Feinberg, PhD., is an entrepreneurial industrial biotechnologist and the CEO and co-founder of KnipBio. Larry completed his doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts where he focused on biogeochemistry, physiology and genetics of hypert …

David is a seasoned business leader and strategist, who has dedicated his career to advancing healthy innovations, services, and products into the market place. Prior to joining Nativis full time in 2012, he consulted to early- and growth-stage compani …

Rabidly curious and impact driven, Victoria thinks big and acts boldly to create the change she wishes to see in the world. Victoria is currently pursuing a world class MBA at Chicago Booth and working full time at ALSAC/St. Jude, the fundraising and a …

Rebar’s thesis: Conventional farmland resists conversion to organic because of yield loss – nature has a 4 billion year head start creating healthy soil providing plants with an all natural environment to maximize yield. Catalyzing the microbiome with …

How, mechanistically, did caste phenotypes originate from solitary ancestors? I address this question in wasps by studying solitary, communal and caste-possessing vespids. I am also interested how hormone functions change in lineages of caste-flexible …

Sarah Bellos, CEO and Founder, previously owned and operated a textile dye house offering garment and piece dyeing for independent fashion designers. A graduate of the Cornell University Agriculture School (2004), she has 10 years of leadership experie …

Vice President of Sustainability, Nestle

Executive Director, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research

Associate, iSelect Fund

Mac joined Blue River in 2015 to help start our lettuce thinning business. He continues to lead the vegetable and cotton market development. Mac earned a BS from Cal Poly-SLO and an MBA from Texas A&M. He has worked for almost 20 years in various leade …

Director of Operations, The Yield Lab Institute