Speaking Faculty

Ricardo Bayon, Co-Founder, EKO Asset Management
Richard Brauman, Founder & CEO, The Little Pearl
Stephen Boord, COO, Global Fresh Foods
Joshua Brown, VP, Fusion Analytics and Creator, TheReformedBroker.com
J. Scott Carr, CEO, YottaMark
Phil Christensen, Founder, Agriglobe
Neil Cohn, Co-Founder, Allotrope Partners
David Cope, President & CEO, Purfresh
Jennifer DePalma, Counsel, O'Melveny & Myers
Amol Deshpande, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Michael Dimock, President, Roots of Change
Dennis Donohue, Mayor, Salinas, President, Royal Rose
Mike Dwyer, Director of Foreign Trade, USDA Foreign Agriculture Service
Aaron Enz, Managing Partner, Watershed Capital
Marco Ferroni, President, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
John Foraker, CEO, Annie’s Homegrown
Emily French, Founder, ConsiliAgra
Geoff Gyles, President, Wolf Trax
Panda Hershey, Senior Director, Natural Resources, TIAA-CREF
Joshua Hofheimer, Counsel, Sidley Austin
Greg Holzman, CEO, Purity Organic
Joe Hudson, Founder, One Earth Capital
Anup Jagwani, Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
Mia Javier, Analyst, The Cleantech Group
AG Kawamura, Former Secretary of Food and Agriculture, State of California
Peter Kenmore, Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division, FAO
Alex Kinnier, Partner, Khosla Ventures
Ejnar Knudsen, Portfolio Manager, Passport Capital
Chris Larson, Director of Real Assets and Sustainable Agriculture, New Island Capital Management
Eric Lauritzen, Agriculture Commissioner, Monterey County
Pam Marrone, CEO, Marrone Bio Innovations
Jason Matheny, CEO, New Harvest
Paul Matteucci, General Partner, US Venture Partners
Spencer Maughan, Vice President, Venrock
Steve McCorkle, CEO, AgWaste Solutions
Robert J. Morris, Principal, AndMore Associates
David Oppedahl, Business Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Biff Ourso, Director, Global Private Markets, TIAA-CREF
Dexter Paine, Partner, Paine + Partners
Berry Polmann, Vice President, Adveq
Mike Preiner, Co-Founder, Solum
Daphne Preuss, CEO, Chromatin
Bruce Rastetter, CEO, Hawkeye Energy
Dan Rooney, Co-Founder, Soil & Topography Information
Michael Rubino, Aquaculture Program Manager, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Stuart Rudick, General Partner, Mindful Investors
Paul Sellew, CEO, Harvest Power
Peter Shannon, Partner, Firelake Capital
Bill Spencer, CEO, Hawaii Oceanic Technologies
Paul Spraycar, Analyst, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Brian Sullivan, Managing Director, The McLean Group
Charles Sweat, CEO, Earthbound Farms
David Tze, Managing Director, Aquacopia
Michael Underhill, Chief Investment Officer, Capital Innovations
Leslie van der Meulen, Vice President, Aurora Algae
Perry Vieth, President, Ceres Partners
Shonda Warner, Managing Partner, Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners
Mitchell Willis, Manager, Citrus Procurement Quality & Ag Sustainability, Tropicana
Andrew Williamson, Director, Physic Ventures
Janine Yorio, Managing Director, NewSeed Advisors
Len Zapalowski, Senior Vice President, Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies

Ricardo Bayon
Co-Founder, EKO Asset Management Partners
Mr. Bayon is a Partner and a co-founder of EKO Asset Management Partners. Previously, he helped found and served as the Managing Director of the "Ecosystem Marketplace," a web site and information/analysis service covering these emerging environmental markets. In that capacity he co-authored a number of publications on voluntary carbon markets, including "The State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2007: Picking up Steam" and "Voluntary Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work." His most recent publication on markets for biodiversity, entitled "Conservation and Biodiversity Banking: A Guide to Setting Up and Running Biodiversity Credit Trading System" has just been published by Earthscan in London. For over a decade he has specialized on issues related to finance, banking, and the environment. He has done consulting work for a number of organizations, including Insight Investments, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, Domini Social Investment, among others. His articles have appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and the International Herald Tribune. He has also written numerous publications and chapters on mitigation banking, biodiversity markets, markets for water quality, and other environmental markets. He was born in Bogota, Colombia, and is currently based in San Francisco.
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Richard Brauman
Founder & CEO, The Little Pearl
The Little Pearl a caviar retailer specializing in American caviars from sustainable fisheries and environmentally sensitive farms. The Little Pearl ensures the highest quality of caviar from start to finish- from farmers and fishermen using best management practices to the caliber of production managers and master salters. The Little Pearl's uncompromising quality delivers superb caviar that is always sustainable.
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Stephen Boord
COO, Global Fresh Foods
Steve Boord has been an advisor and Board member to Global Fresh Foods since 2007. In 2011, Steve joined Global Fresh Foods fulltime as its Chief Operating Officer. Steve has nearly 15 years of experience with growth companies. Previously, Steve was vice president of investment banking at JPMorgan’s San Francisco office, where he helped build the firm’s West Coast general industries practice and provided coverage to JPMorgan's consumer and cleantech clients. Prior to JPMorgan, Steve worked in business development at Lucasfilm with responsibility for structuring licensing deals for George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels. Prior to Lucasfilm, Steve was a financial analyst at Hambrecht & Quist, a boutique San Francisco-based technology investment bank. Steve has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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Joshua Brown
VP, Fusion Analytics and Creator, TheReformedBroker.com
Joshua Brown has been a New York City-based advisor for more than a decade, managing money for high net worth clients, charitable foundations, corporations and retirement plans. Mr. Brown currently holds a Series 7 General Securities Representative's license, Series 63 Uniform Securities Agent's license, Series 65 Registered Investment Advisor's license and a Series 24 Supervisory Principal license. He is registered in over 20 states and serves a nationwide and international clientèle. Mr. Brown is the creator and author of TheReformedBroker.com, ranked as one of the Top Ten Financial Blogs by the Wall Street Journal. He is a Forbes.com columnist, a contributor to the Christian Science Monitor and the Business Insider and is the Wall Street correspondent for The Faster Times. His market commentary is frequently quoted and featured by Dow Jones, AOL, Reuters, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Crain's NY Business and CNBC.
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J. Scott Carr
President & CEO, YottaMark
Scott Carr drives strategy and leads the world-class team that brings you HarvestMark®, the fresh food and traceability solution from YottaMark, Inc. For more than two decades, Scott has delivered content and product identification solutions to a range of business and consumer markets.  In 1996, he launched one of the first web-based businesses, with a focus on tracking images for photographers across the Internet.  Two years later, his team delivered a global solution to deter counterfeiting of the world's banknotes.  Scott has translated this expertise in product identification to the food industry to guide creation of the HarvestMark fresh food traceability platform. Scott holds more than 25 U.S. patents on digital watermarking and its applications.  He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Oregon State University and holds an Executive MBA from the Stanford/AeA program.
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Phil Christensen
President, Agriglobe
Agriglobe, Inc. was established in 1992 and has successfully served the agricultural investment community throughout California. Their clients include individuals, private and public corporations and international investment funds. Agriglobe, Inc. has developed and managed large and small farms including citrus, nut and tree fruit orchards, vineyards, kiwi plantations and many other agricultural commodities grown in California. Our experience and knowledge is diverse, gained only after many years of challenging environmental and economic conditions that confront California agriculture.
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Neil Cohn
Founding Partner, Allotrope Partners
Neil Cohn has over 20 years experience developing commodities and environmental markets.  Neil began his career as a non-ferrous metals trader for Glencore before co-founding the groundbreaking carbon desk at Natsource just after the Kyoto Protocol was inked.  As one of the earliest carbon traders Neil facilitated some of the first and largest carbon and renewable transactions and helped build Natsource into a $1.5 billion carbon fund.  After Natsource, Neil established Macquarie Bank's US Environmental Financial Products division and led a cross-division initiative focused on bio-energy feedstock. Neil was the cap & trade advisor to the Obama Presidential Transition Team and is currently on the board of IdleAir and serves as an advisor to Richard Branson's Carbon War Room and The Climate Action Registry.
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David Cope
President & CEO, Purfresh
With more than 25 years of engineering, sales, marketing and executive management experience for high-profile technology businesses, Mr. Cope adds a new dimension and perspective to building a successful company. Under Mr. Cope's leadership, the company will accelerate its focus on developing new and differentiated clean solutions that will enable customers worldwide to deliver high quality food and water products without the use of harmful chemicals. Mr. Cope joined Purfresh in 2004 as Chief Marketing Officer and was promoted to CEO in 2006. Previously, Mr. Cope was President and CEO of BizGenics and held a variety of executive positions for Extricity (acquired by Peregrine), Marimba, Illustra (acquired by Informix), and IBM. Mr. Cope holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biochemistry from San Jose State University. In addition, he participated in Harvard's Advanced Executive Management program.
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Jennifer DePalma
Counsel, O'Melveny & Myers
Jennifer DePalma is a counsel in O’Melveny & Myers’ Silicon Valley office. Jennifer provides corporate and business counseling to clients in the innovative and fast-growing life sciences, devices, biotechnology, and agriculture sectors. She advises public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity investors, on general corporate, securities, and intellectual property matters, as well as strategic and financial transactions including public and private financings, joint ventures, and strategic alliances.
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Amol Deshpande
Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Mr. Deshpande focuses on opportunities in green technology with specific emphasis on fuels, chemicals, water, waste and environmental technologies. While at KPCB Amol has been involved with the firm's first water investment and also incubated Harvest Power, a venture focused on next generation organics recycling. Prior to KPCB, Amol spent three years as a director and associate at Black River and Cargill Ventures, both investment oriented business units of the private agribusiness, Cargill, Inc. While at Cargill, he focused on Greentech investment throughout the energy, water and agricultural supply chain. Amol was directly involved with investments and initiatives in multiple Greentech verticals including solar, next generation fuels, sustainable agriculture, industrial biotech, waste/environmental sciences and carbon markets. Prior to Cargill, Amol was an entrepreneur having founded an agricultural biotechnology company focused on novel germplasm in high value vegetable crops as well as companies in the water sector and educational services sector. Amol has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and an MBA from Cornell University where he was a Park Fellow.
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Michael Dimock
President, Roots of Change
Mr. Dimock is internationally recognized as a thought leader, organizer, and advocate for transformation of food and farming systems. He has been leading Roots of Change since 2006. He began his agriculture and food career as a marketing executive in Europe for a California-based agribusiness company. In 1992, he founded Sunflower Strategies (later called Ag Innovations Network), where he began his work on community consensus building and strategic planning for healthier food and agriculture. He pioneered regional and environmental branding programs in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Humboldt counties, and Western Australia. Michael sat on the board of Community Alliance with Family Farmers and served as its chairman in 1994 and 1995. In 1996, he founded Slow Food Russian River, which is among the nation's most active and influential chapters, doing pioneering work on heirloom and heritage breed protection, grass-fed beef promotion, community support for school gardens, and local food systems development. In 2000, he became the first California Governor of Slow Food USA. In 2001, Michael graduated from the California Ag Leadership program, Class XXXI, the nation's most respected leadership development programs in the field. From 2002 to 2007, he was Chairman of Slow Food USA and a member of Slow Food International's board of directors where he worked with Carlo Petrini, Slow Food's founder, on international strategy. Michael's love for food systems grew from his experience on an 11,000-acre cattle ranch in Santa Clara County in the late 1960s and a development project with Himalayan subsistence farmers in Nepal in the late 70s. He was a political advanceman for California Governor Jerry Brown in his bid to become a US Senator in 1982. He worked in US-Soviet cultural and professional exchange programs, which lead him into television and film production. He holds a BA in History from UCLA, with an honors thesis on the origins of the CIA. He has a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.
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Dennis Donohue
Mayor, Salinas and President, Royal Rose
Dennis began his business career in Silicon Valley with Atari, then the fastest growing company in the world. He also worked in sales for Microsoft and Verbatim before returning to Salinas in the late Eighties. In agribusiness since 1988, Dennis worked for River Ranch, Fresh Express and Fresh Western before joining European Vegetable Specialties (EVS) in 1996. He became President of the company two years later. EVS, a privately held company, is the largest producer of radicchio in the world, with growing operations and customers in North and South American, Europe and the Pacific Rim. Dennis has been active in the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce for over 20 years, and was named the Chamber's Member of the Year in 2003. He has served as a member of the Board since 2004, as Marketing and Membership Director in 2005, and as Chair in 2006. He also serves on the board of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, serving as Chair in 2008.
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Mike Dwyer
Director of Trade, Biofuels and Food Security Analysis Division, Foreign Agricultural Service/USDA
Mr. Dwyer is the Director of Global Trade, Biofuels and Food Security Analysis with the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the primary international agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  In this capacity, he is responsible for conducting and coordinating FAS' analyses on a wide variety of strategic issues that affect U.S. and world agricultural markets with a focus on international agricultural trade, the emerging worldwide biofuels market, and global food security.  Mike is actively engaged in USDA's assessment of the global supply-demand situation, trade and policy analysis, USDA's long term global market strategy, and identifying emerging trade opportunities in global food and agricultural markets.  Recently, his efforts have focused on volatile global commodity prices, the food versus fuel debate, the sustainability of agricultural and biofuels systems, the impacts of trade agreements on worldwide agricultural trade, and issues related to agricultural competitiveness, sanctions reform, and global economic and financial issues and how they affect agricultural producers around the world.  Mr. Dwyer received his graduate degree in agricultural economics from The Ohio State University in 1981 with a concentration in international trade and marketing.
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Aaron Enz
Managing Partner, Watershed Capital
Mr. Enz is a Managing Partner at Watershed Capital, a specialized investment banking firm focused on clean technology and sustainable business companies and investment funds. Prior to Watershed Capital, Mr. Enz served as one of the founding partners at Wood Warren & Co., LP, a San Francisco Bay Area investment banking firm serving emerging growth and middle market companies. He brings more than 15 years of experience in corporate finance, investment banking and private capital markets, and has over six years of experience working with cleantech and sustainable business companies and funds. Specific domain areas of experience include: advanced water treatment, clean diesel trucking, energy efficiency, wind energy, biofuels, biomass energy, industrial efficiency, sustainable seafood, advanced lighting, recycling and environmental services. Mr. Enz co-founded the Sustainable Capital Forum, the first event in the U.S. focused on expansion stage and middle market cleantech and green consumer products companies and investors. Along with his partners, he organizes the Five Fund Forum, an event connecting innovative cleantech and sustainable business fund managers with institutional investors in the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Enz holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Western Washington University and an M.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Marco Ferroni
President, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Before joining the Foundation, Marco Ferroni worked at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank in Washington, D.C. As a Deputy Manager of the IDB's Sustainable Development Department, he had responsibility for regional sector policy and technical support to the Bank's country departments. As Principal Officer in the Office of Evaluation and Oversight, he directed studies that assessed the relevance, performance and results of Bank strategies and investments. As a senior advisor at the World Bank, Marco Ferroni advised on donor relations, and directed work on international public goods and their role in foreign aid and international affairs. A Swiss national, he worked earlier in his career as an economist and division chief for the government of Switzerland, focusing on development cooperation. Marco Ferroni holds a doctorate in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. As well as the USA and Europe, he has worked in Latin America, Africa and Asia. He is a frequent guest speaker on agricultural topics, food security, development finance, and trade.
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John Foraker
CEO, Annie's Homegrown
Mr. Foraker is responsible for leading the company's  growth and making sure that Annie's stays true to its values.  He is one of Annie's biggest all-time fans and has been involved with this little company since 1999. John is passionate about Annie's mission to bring great-tasting, better-for-you alternatives to homes across America.
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Emily French
Managing Director, ConsiliAgra
A 4th-generation US wheat farmer from Northern Idaho, Emily French has long been active in agriculture.  After earning a degree in Agricultural Business from Washington State University, she formally began her trading career as a physical cash trader for Cargill, working for the firm's large Grain, Oilseed Processing and Wet Milling Divisions. Following Cargill, Emily moved to Washington, DC as Manager of International Operations for the US Grains Council.  Subsequently, Emily transitioned back into the private sector, working as Vice President of the Market Intelligence Division for DC-based agricultural market and policy consulting firm World Perspectives, Inc. Emily then moved to New York as Vice President of Agricultural Commodity Derivatives for the National Australia Bank Limited, which took her to Sydney, Australia, where she directed the Bank's Australia and Asia's agricultural derivatives sales efforts. In 2007, Emily joined Macquarie Bank as a Senior Vice President in the Treasury and Commodity Group, leaving a year later to form ConsiliAgra.  As Managing Director, Emily's background is particularly suited for ConsiliAgra's core services-advice and strategy covering the world agricultural commodity markets-which are offered to hedge funds and traders, agricultural resources, commercial commodity clients, as well as large managed funds. Emily is a frequent guest on CNBC, where she is called upon to share her specific expertise in the grains and oilseeds sectors.
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Geoff Gyles
President, Wolf Trax
As one of the two founding owners of Wolf Trax, Geoff has managed the growth of the company from a small, local business 11 years ago, to a multi-million dollar company selling products around the globe. As President, Geoff is responsible for directing overall sales, human resources and financial development. Geoff has extensive agricultural sales and management experience. Prior to his involvement at Wolf Trax, Geoff directed sales activities of 100+ retail operations and sales managers in the Country Operations division of United Grain Growers, a large grain company in western Canada. Geoff spent another 15 years with Cyanamid, most as Western Regional Manager with responsibility for sales, marketing and technical support. Geoff supported the launch of several new products and frequently won the Canadian Sales Award as well as the coveted Golden Oval International Sales Award during his tenure at Cyanamid. Geoff received his BSc in Agriculture from the University of Manitoba. Married, he resides in Winnipeg.
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Panda Hershey
Senior Director, Natural Resources, TIAA-CREF
Panda Hershey is a Senior Director with TIAA-CREF and a member of the Natural Resources & Infrastructure team. Ms. Hershey is based in San Francisco and is the portfolio manager for permanent crops. She is also involved in the private equity business development activities related to permanent crops. Prior to joining TIAA-CREF in 2006, Ms. Hershey was a Portfolio Manager in the Alternative Investments Management division of CalPERS. At CalPERS, she managed investments in U.S. and international venture capital, buyout, and special situation private equity funds. She graduated from Mills College and earned a PhD in immunology and an MBA from the University of California at Davis. She is a CFA charterholder.
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Joshua Hofheimer
Counsel, Sidley Austin
Mr. Hofheimer combines executive-level business experience with a legal practice that focuses on agriculture, life sciences and information technology sectors. He focuses on strategic agreements, technology transactions, research funding and commercialization agreements, technology spin-outs, and strategies to exploit proprietary products growing out of the research programs of agri-tech and bio-tech clientele. His agriculture clients include emerging companies along with industry leaders such as Monsanto. From 2008-2010, Mr. Hofheimer was the CEO/Managing Director of Australia’s first publicly listed ag-biotech company, Hexima Limited (HXL:ASX).
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Greg Holzman
CEO, Purity Organic
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Joe Hudson
Managing Director, One Earth Capital
Joe has primarily worked as a strategic consultant in the financial, wireless, and environmental industries. His clients include Barclays, Sprint, and The Walton Foundation. He has worked with dozens of smaller companies from six different continents. In his career Joe has successfully helped companies build businesses, raise money, navigate government regulations, and become mission focused. His work has also assisted projects that restore degraded ecosystems while being economically valuable to local communities.
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Anup Jagwani
Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
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Mia Javier
Research Analyst, The Cleantech Group
As the Cleantech Group's water analyst, Ms. Javier leads CTG research coverage of water technology and investment trends. Additionally, she leads custom-research projects with clients including Veolia, GE Water and the United States EPA and fundamentally aims to assist the decision making of executives interested in the adoption of or investment in water technologies. She regularly consults on water issues to multinational corporations and governments, serves as a panelist for events covering water venture investment and innovation trends, and answers media inquiries on water topics. Mia brings over 2 years of cleantech industry experience and began her career as a data analyst working with cleantech venture investments, M&As and IPO transactions for the company's quarterly investment monitor. Mia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in statistics from the University of Michigan and is a first generation Filipino-American passionate about environmental justice issues especially as they relate to water.
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AG Kawamura
Former Secretary of Food and Agriculture, State of California
Arthur Gen  "A.G." Kawamura is the former California Secretary of Agriculture where he served from 2003 to 2010. He is a third generation fruit and vegetable grower and shipper from Orange County. He is the co-chair of Solutions From the Land, a UN Foundation funded project that is developing a sustainable roadmap for 21st century agricultural systems. He is a national steering committee member of 25x25, a coalition of farm, forest, conservation and renewable energy leaders focused on the multiple benefits and contributions that can be delivered from the agricultural and rural sectors of America. He participates as a member of the National Native Pollinators Advisory Committee. As a progressive urban farmer, A.G. has a lifetime of experience working within the shrinking rural and urban boundaries of Southern California. He has stayed actively involved in areas of education, hunger and nutrition, and recently was elected to serve as a member of the Board of Governors to the California State University Foundation.  Through his company, Orange County Produce, LLC, he is currently engaged in building an exciting urban agricultural exhibit at the Great Park of Irvine, California.
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Peter Kenmore
Deputy Director, Plant Production and Protection Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Peter Kenmore is an agricultural entomologist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN agency that spearheads international efforts to defeat hunger around the world. Dr. Kenmore is the chief of the Plant Protection Service and co-chairs the Interdepartmental Working Group on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture. He led a large international team that developed and implemented a plan for integrated pest management for rice production in Asia. Dr. Kenmore was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 1994 for his work in reducing pesticide use around the world.
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Alex Kinnier
Partner, Khosla Ventures
Mr. Kinnier is working to speed up the next industrial revolution, focusing on solar energy use, thermal and mechanical efficiency, energy conversion devices, energy storage, and biofuels. Alex is either a director or works closely with the management teams of Pellion, Reluceo, Skybox, Solum, and several science projects. Over the past 10 years, Alex has successfully created, launched, and grown a variety of technology and household products. As a group product manager at Google, Alex built the Agency display advertising team and created Google's next-generation third-party serving and targeting system. As part of this effort he was a leader of the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick. On the consumer side of Google's business, Alex earned an Executive Management Group award for leading the product response to Microsoft's IE7 browser launch, which significantly increased Google's search share. In brand management at Procter & Gamble, Alex leveraged a forgotten technology and led two award-winning marketing campaigns to build his brand to $80 million in sales. In product development at Procter & Gamble, Alex led the development and launch of three new-to-the-world Febreze products that helped the brand achieve sales of more than $400 million in 50 countries in 24 months. Growing up outside of Philadelphia, Alex earned a BS in chemical engineering with honors from Lehigh University and later an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School.
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Ejnar Knudsen
Portfolio Manager, Passport Capital
Mr. Knudsen joined Passport Capital in January 2009 and Co-manages the investment management and research process for food, agriculture and commodity investments.  Since 1998 Ejnar has been a Portfolio Manager for Craton Capital Management which is the investment manager for a private and public company investment partnership focused on the food and agriculture industries.  From 2001 to 2007 Ejnar served as Executive Vice President of Western Milling, a start up feed milling company that grew to over $800 million in sales. In addition, Ejnar served in executive roles at various companies in which Western Milling or its shareholders were owners. These positions included: Executive Vice President of Cilion, a startup ethanol company with over $200 million of equity funding; Executive Vice President of Phoenix Bio Industries, a startup ethanol company that was built and sold; and Managing Member of Cedar Valley Farms, a large dairy located in Iowa. He also served as an advisor to Limoneira, a California producer of lemons, avocados, and oranges;  AdecoAgro, an Argentina and Brazil based diversified agribusiness and farming company; and TetraVitae Bioscience, a development stage producer of bio-butanol and bio-acetone. From 1991 to 2001 Ejnar served as Vice President for Rabobank in New York managing a loan portfolio, venture capital investments and corporate advisory services in the food, agriculture and commodities sectors. Ejnar received a BS from Cornell University and is a CFA charter holder. He is a member of the Farm Foundation and serves on the Dean's Advisory Council of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
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Chris Larson
Director of Real Assets and Sustainable Agriculture, New Island Capital Management
Chris Larson is Director of Real Assets and Sustainable Agriculture at New Island Capital Management. Prior to his work at New Island, Chris worked as an independent farmland investment and conservation finance consultant. Earlier, Chris worked at Cambridge Associates, helping the firm establish its Mission-Related Investment initiative, and authored research on real assets investments for institutional clients. He served as the Executive Director of the Mattole Restoration Council, a community-led conservation non-profit in rural northwestern California. Chris completed a BS at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and an MBA at the Yale School of Management. Chris owns and operates a small farming operation in northern Marin County, California focused on organic fruit, vegetable and cider production.
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Eric Lauritzen
Agricultural Commissioner, Monterey County

Mr. Lauritzen is the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner where he has served since his appointment in 1998. Prior to coming to Monterey County, Lauritzen served as agricultural commissioner in Sonoma County, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner in San Mateo County, and Agricultural Biologist in Alameda County, he has over 25 years experience in public regulatory programs. He graduated from the University of California at Davis with a degree in Plant Science and earned his Master's degree in Public Administration from California State University, Hayward. Eric serves on the Board of Directors for Monterey County Agricultural Education.
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Pam Marrone
CEO, Marrone Bio Innovations
Dr. Marrone is currently CEO/Founder of Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI), a company she started in 2006 to discover and develop effective and environmentally responsible natural products that fill unmet needs for pest, weed and plant disease management.  MBI has two products on the market with five more waiting EPA approval. Regalia(r) Biofungicide was recently named "Best New Biofungicide" by Agrow, the leading news organization for the crop protection industry.  The company received the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in 2008 and received a California Department of Pesticide Regulation IPM Innovator award in 2009.  Dr. Marrone founded AgraQuest in 1995 and served as its CEO, Chairman and President until March 2006. At AgraQuest, she raised $50 million, commercialized seven biopesticides, and received the 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Award for small business. Before AgraQuest, she was founding president of Entotech, Inc., a biopesticide subsidiary of Denmark-based Novo Nordisk. At Monsanto, she led the Insect Biology group to find safer ways to control insect pests. She is on the Board of the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists (former President) and is Board member-Treasurer of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. She is Founder of the Biopesticide Industry Alliance, a trade association of 50 biopesticide companies. She currently serves on the CAL-DPR's Pest Management Advisory Committee, which advises the Director on ag and urban IPM. She is a member of the UC Davis Ag & Environmental Sciences Dean's Advisory Council. She has a B.S. in entomology with Honors and Distinction from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in entomology from North Carolina State University.
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Jason Matheny
Co-Founder, New Harvest
Mr. Matheny is a research associate with the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, where his work focuses on technology forecasting and risk assessment - particularly of global catastrophic risks and existential risks. He previously worked for the World Bank, the Center for Biosecurity, the Center for Global Development, and on national security projects for the US government. He is a Sommer Scholar and PhD candidate in Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University. He holds an MPH from Johns Hopkins, an MBA from Duke University, and a BA from the University of Chicago. He has published on biotechnology, neurotechnology, risk analysis demography, health economics, and bioethics. He's the co-founder of New Harvest, which supports the development of new agricultural biotechnologies. His work was called one of the "ideas of the year" by The New York Times, and has been featured in The Washington Post, Nature, The Economist, Scientific American, New Scientist, NOVA, and Wired, among others.
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Paul Matteucci
General Partner, US Venture Partners
With a passion for creating jobs and mentoring startup teams, Paul has helped a generation of entrepreneurs learn object lessons in how to execute during difficult times. In fact, he notes, the best of them learned to use the hard times as a source for innovation, and as impetus for creating cultures that are accountable, cash-efficient and focused. Prior to USVP, Paul was CEO of HearMe, taking that company public in 1998. His two decades of operating experience include eight years with Adaptec, where he was Vice President and General Manager of the SCSI host adapter division leading the business to over a quarter billion in revenues, before turning it over to team he hired and mentored. Upon leaving Adaptec, Paul served as a Resident Entrepreneur for Institutional Venture Partners in 1995 and was an advisor to Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures in the 1990s. Paul earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. in International Studies from Johns Hopkins and a B.A. from the University of the Pacific. He serves as a trustee of the World's Affairs Council and is a board member of the University of the Pacific's School of International Studies and of the Business School at Montana State University in Bozeman. He is a frequent lecturer at business schools, including Notre Dame, Montana State and U.C. Davis.
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Spencer Maughan
Vice President, Venrock
Spencer joined Venrock in 2009 and is focused on Cleantech, Agtech and Life Science investing. Prior to his MBA at Stanford, Spencer also holds PhD in Genetics and spent over a decade performing and managing genetic research around the globe. In collaboration with Aventis CropScience (acquired by Bayer), Spencer investigated new genes connecting environmental signals to plant growth. As a Marie Curie Fellow, at the Institute of Biotechnology (University of Cambridge), he described new components of stem cell division. Spencer's research has received numerous awards including honors at the UK Houses of Parliament for work that has led to the identification of a new set of compounds for treatment of malaria.
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Steve McCorkle
Founder & CEO, Agricultural Waste Solutions
Mr. McCorkle is Founder and CEO of Agricultural Waste Solutions Inc., which has patented a waste-to-energy solution for the $300 billion global agricultural waste-to-energy market. The system converts polluting wastes from large animal farms into clean renewable energy, producing clean water and biochar. McCorkle had 20 years of executive positions with Schlumberger, the world's leading oilfield services company, supplying technology, information solutions and project management that optimize reservoir performance for clients in the oil and gas industry. He also served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of InterGlobal Waste Management, a firm serving the animal producing industry. In 2006 he was elected chairman of the Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center at North Carolina State University, where the largest study of technologies to abate animal waste pollution was conducted over a five-year period. McCorkle received an M.B.A. from the University of Houston and a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University.
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Robert J. Morris
Principal, AndMore Associates LLC
Bob Morris runs AndMore Associates, LLC, an independent global business development and consulting firm focused on the nexus of agriculture, energy, and the environment, and building partnerships. Under Bob’s leadership, AndMore Associates identifies, promotes, and implements business development, growth, innovation, and profit improvement initiatives. As immediate past president of The Sulphur Institute, Bob led the successful promotion and growth of sulphur as a viable investment and commercial product in agricultural and industrial markets worldwide. The partnerships he built with the Chinese industry and government helped to stimulate growth of Chinese sulphur imports from zero to nearly ten million tons, now more than a one billion dollar market. In India, the initiatives he created and executed with the Indian government and key industry stakeholders, built the platform for commercial development of a two million ton sulphur fertilizer market, and the potential to help hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers to improve and increase their crop production. Mr. Morris currently serves on the Advisory Council, Center of Plant Nutrients Management, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida, India; Panel of Experts of TechCast LLC; the Industry Advisory Board, Master of Business and Science, Rutgers University; and on the Wilson Council, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
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David Oppedahl
Business Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
David Oppedahl is a business economist in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Oppedahl conducts research on the agricultural sector and rural development as well as conducting microeconomic research. He directs the Chicago Federal Reserve District's survey of agricultural banks on agricultural land values and credit conditions and publishes the results in AgLetter-the Chicago Fed's quarterly agricultural publication. In addition to his research, he regularly briefs the Chicago Fed's president on the agricultural economy. Before starting his career at the Chicago Fed as an associate economist in 1998, Oppedahl was a consultant in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. While at the Dallas Fed, he provided research support in the area of econometrics. Oppedahl received a B.S. in mathematics from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and an M.S. in statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also completed graduate-level course work in economics while attending Southern Methodist University.
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Justin "Biff" Ourso
CFA Director, Natural Resources, TIAA-CREF
Biff Ourso is a Director with TIAA-CREF and a member of the Natural Resources team. He is based in North Carolina and his responsibilities include leading the row crop agricultural investment origination program and the management of the row crop agriculture portfolio. Mr. Ourso supported the development of TIAA-CREF’s agricultural investment platform since its inception. In previous assignments, Mr. Ourso conducted privately-placed debt underwriting and portfolio management. Mr. Ourso holds a BA, Economics from Davidson College where he was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, an international economics honor society, and he also is a CFA charter holder.
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Dexter Paine
Partner, Paine + Partners
Mr. Paine is a Partner of Paine & Partners, LLC and member of the Investment Committee of its $1.2 billion Fund III. After graduating from Williams College in 1983 with a B.A. in Economics, Mr. Paine began his professional career at Bankers Trust Company in New York and in 1984, joined its Structured Finance Group in Los Angeles, California. In 1987, Mr. Paine left Bankers Trust to join Robertson Stephens & Company for the purpose of establishing a leveraged buyout group for the firm. Two years later he became the youngest general partner of Robertson Stephens & Company. In 1994, Mr. Paine joined Kohlberg & Company to establish and head the firm's West Coast office. In 1997, Mr. Paine co-founded Fox Paine & Company, a private investment firm to which he served as President from its inception until 2008, and member of the Executive Committee of six portfolio companies. Mr. Paine is currently a member of the Board of Directors of WireCo WorldGroup, Capital Z and some entities of the Stable-Group. Mr. Paine also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Foundation Trustee of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
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Berry Polmann
Vice President, Adveq
Berry Polmann leads Adveq’s global Real Assets initiative. In addition, he is responsible for Adveq’s client relations in the Netherlands and the UK. Prior to joining Adveq in 2007, Berry worked as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he served Switzerland based private equity funds, hedge funds, and real estate funds with audit, fund structuring, and tax related services. He was also a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ European team for pan-European asset pooling for pension funds. Berry has a master’s degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree in government politics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
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Mike Preiner
Co-Founder, Solum
Dr. Preiner is a co-founder of Solum, a company developing new technology for measuring soil nutrient levels and improving the way in which growers manage their fields.  Solum is backed by Khosla Ventures and has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation and the USDA.  Prior to founding Solum, Mike received his PhD from Stanford University, where he was a graduate fellow for both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, andhe developed new optical and electronic methods of studying molecular electronic junctions.  Mike has built a number of systems to measure things in extreme conditions, ranging from ultrahigh vacuum (electron polarization at the University of Nebraska), to ultracold temperatures (tunneling electrons at 4K at Stanford), to high magnetic fields (the spectra of single molecules at 50 Tesla at Los Alamos National Lab), and is enjoying building systems to handle the extreme conditions found in agriculture.
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Daphne Preuss
CEO, Chromatin
Dr. Preuss is the CEO and co-founder of Chromatin, Inc., an agbiotech company that is using its proprietary technology and sorghum seed products to develop biomass for renewable energy markets.  Prior to joining Chromatin in 2006, she served as a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator at the University of Chicago, where she chaired the oversight committee for the multinational project that sequenced the first plant genome. Dr. Preuss currently serves on the Food & Agriculture Governing Board of the Biotechnology Industry Board, and on the board of Illinois BIO. She earned a Ph.D. from MIT, and performed postdoctoral work at Stanford.
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Bruce Rastetter
CEO, Hawkeye Energy
Prior to founding Hawkeye Energy Holdings, Mr. Rastetter founded and served as CEO of Heartland Pork Enterprises, growing the company to the 13th largest pork producer in the United States. In 2004, Mr. Rastetter successfully guided the acquisition of Heartland Pork by Christensen Farms. The resulting company became the 4th largest pork producer in the United States. In 2003, Mr. Rastetter co-founded the company that is today Hawkeye Energy Holdings. He has served as the CEO of Hawkeye since its inception and has overseen Hawkeye's growth to become America's third largest pure-play ethanol producer. Additionally, Mr. Rastetter owns a diverse farming operation headquartered in northern Iowa called Summit Farms, a largely diversified farming operation that includes row crop and livestock production (both pork and beef). Summit Farms is also very active in conservation efforts including the development of wetland areas and upland cover and timber stand improvements. Mr. Rastetter is also a very active philanthropist, supporting many local and state efforts focused on education and entrepreneurship through the Rastetter Foundation. As well, Mr. Rastetter supports a variety of efforts that encourage thoughtful public policy benefitting America's economic system. Mr. Rastetter currently serves on the following Boards of Directors: Hawkeye Energy Holdings, American Ag & Energy Council, Growth Energy, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and the Iowa State University College of Agriculture Advisory Board.
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Dan Rooney
Co-Founder & CTO, Soil and Topography Information (STI)
Mr. Rooney is the founder of STI and the inventor of the Soil Information System. Dan guided and participated in the evolution of the technology including the vision and development of the software, sensor systems, and analytical systems. He is author to numerous patents associated with soil and topographic surveying. Prior to founding STI Mr. Rooney started a software company (EarthIT) that specializes in web-based information and analytical systems. He still sits on their board of directors.  Before becoming an entrepreneur Mr. Rooney worked for several years for Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) as an engineer developing and marketing advanced geotechnical tools. While at ARA he earned a patent on a tool for mapping chemical properties of aquifers and led the development of new sensors for hydrocarbon and other waste detection applications. Mr. Rooney has collaborated on dozens or R&D projects with the USDA, DOD, and DOE as well as numerous universities. He has a B.S. in Ecology and an M.S. in Soil Physics from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Environmental Monitoring from the University of Wisconsin.
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Michael Rubino
Aquaculture Program Manager, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Dr. Michael Rubino is the manager of the NOAA Aquaculture Program in Silver Spring, Maryland. He joined NOAA in late 2004 to lead NOAA's renewed commitment to marine aquaculture. Dr. Rubino represents the Department of Commerce on the executive committee of the U.S. Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture. Prior to joining NOAA, Dr. Rubino was the manager of New Funds Development for the World Bank's Carbon Finance Group. In the 1990s, Dr. Rubino was at the International Finance Corporation, a private sector affiliate of the World Bank, where he developed renewable energy and biodiversity investment funds. Earlier he was the CEO of Bluewaters, Inc., an aquaculture R&D company, and a partner in Palmetto Aquaculture, a shrimp farm in South Carolina. Dr. Rubino also served as vice-chairman of the State of Maryland's Aquaculture Advisory Committee. He holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan.
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Stuart Rudick
Founding Partner, Mindful Investors
Mr. Rudick has been a practitioner, leader and investor in the health and wellness community for over 30 years. He was a founding partner of Uplift Equity, a private family office that focused on investments in health and wellness. While at Uplift (2003-2006), Mr. Rudick led the firm's investments in Nutrition 21 (NXXI) and Organics to Go. He also was an active investor in the firm's media and entertainment platform comprised of Better Life Media and Video Action Entertainment. Mr. Rudick led the firm's incubator investments in The Balance Company, Connor Medsystems, Daily OM, Endovention, Mix1, Savacor, Inc., and Unistraw. Mr. Rudick was the founder and general partner of Mindful Partners, L.P., a hybrid public and private market hedge fund in 1993. While leading Mindful Partners, he successfully exited private investments in EarthLink (ELNK), Genvec (GNVC), Homegain, Market Wire, Netcentives (NCNT), Saba Software (SABA), Unicru/Guru and Vixel Corp (VIXL). Mr. Rudick's most recent liquidity events include Connor Medsystems (CONR) (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Grouper Inc. (acquired by Sony) and Savacor Inc. (acquired by St. Jude Medical). Before founding Mindful Partners, Mr. Rudick was an Associate Director at Bear Stearns Inc. from 1984 to 1993, where he originated the firm's early investment efforts into cellular communication companies. He also facilitated the funding of private environmental companies through Global Environment Fund. Before joining Bear Stearns, he was a partner with Shearson Lehman/Davis Skaggs from 1980-1984. Mr. Rudick earned a BS in Business Administration from the University of Colorado and has attended the University of Lancaster, UK and MBA course work in Finance at Golden Gate University. He has served as Director of the University of Colorado Alumni Association and was a founding Board member and Chairman of the Waterkeepers (Baykeeper) of Northern California. He has been an active supporter of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth.
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Paul Sellew
CEO, Harvest Power
Mr. Sellew is CEO of Harvest Power Canada Ltd. and of Harvest Power, Inc. Paul has been a leader in the organics industry for more than 25 years. In 1982 he founded Earthgro, Inc., which grew to be the second largest producer of compost-based lawn and garden products in North America. Paul has also been a senior executive with Synagro, Inc., helping to build it into the leading organics residuals management business in the U.S. He has also founded and led International Process Systems, Inc. (composting technology provider), Allgro, Inc. (a bio-solids compost marketing firm), Environmental Credit Corp. (carbon credit creation and trading), and Backyard Farms (hydroponic greenhouse tomato producer). Paul graduated from the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
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Peter Shannon
Partner, Firelake Capital
Mr. Shannon is focused on early stage investments in renewable energy, technologies improving use and delivery of natural resources, and other innovations on mature industries. From 2005 until joining Firelake, Peter was a Principal at Atlas Venture, where he focused on solar, grid-scale energy storage, industrial energy efficiency, solid state data storage, and related software investments. Over his time at Atlas, he served as an observer on the boards of Advanced Electron Beams, Simple Tuition, MiaSolè, Songbird, Active Endpoints, Pixtronix, and Lilliputian Systems. Peter holds an MBA with High Honors from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business and a BS, with Distinction, in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. Peter Shannon joined Firelake Capital Management as a Partner in 2010. He is focused on early stage investments in renewable energy, technologies improving use and delivery of natural resources, and other innovations applied to mature industries.
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Bill Spencer
CEO, Hawaii Oceanic Technologies
Mr. Spencer is a serial entrepreneur who has led the Hawaii Venture Capital Association since 1999.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  He is currently the CEO of Hawaii Oceanic Technology, Inc., an ocean science company building environmentally responsible next generation open ocean aquaculture systems.  As the leader of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, Bill has used his position to bring together entrepreneurs, investors and business service providers at monthly networking luncheons and other special events.  The luncheons provide forums for company leaders, finance experts and others to inform and educate entrepreneurs about venture capital.  He has involved HVCA in the legislative process and lobbied effectively for bills such as Act 221/215 which have brought almost $1.5 billion in investment capital to Hawaii entrepreneurs who were otherwise starved for venture capital due to Hawaii's distance from mainland sources of finance such as Silicon Valley. He pioneered software applications for server farm management, distributed communications, groupware computing and medical treatment management.  His current business is developing next generation, large scale open ocean aquaculture systems to solve the worlds need for more fish protein.  He was recently acknowledged as the Financial Services Champion for 2008 by the U.S. Small Business Administration for Hawaii and Region IX (California, Arizona and Nevada).
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Brian Sullivan
Managing Director, The McLean Group
Brian Sullivan, Managing Director of The McLean Group’s Silicon Valley, CA office, specializes in providing advice and planning solutions regarding alternative wealth transfer strategies to owners of closely-held businesses. He has more than 20 years’ experience implementing sophisticated wealth transfer techniques for privately-held middle market companies in a wide range of industries, including: logistics and supply chain management, food services, health sciences, and telecommunications. His areas of expertise include compliance, investment advisory services and capital formation. He also has specialized training and credentials in valuation, forensic accounting, litigation support, fraud investigation, insurance and real estate. Mr. Sullivan has authored numerous articles on business valuation and M&A and has served as a moderator, panellist and chair at several national conferences, including the NACVA Annual Conferences in 2002 and 2006 and the Financial Statement and Tax Fraud Conference in 2002.
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Charles Sweat
President & CEO, Earthbound Farms
Mr. Sweat joined Earthbound Farm in 1998 as Chief Financial Officer and soon thereafter was appointed Chief Operating Officer. Since November 2006, he has served as President of the company and in July 2009, he took on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer. During his 12 years with the company,

Sweat has been a key member of the executive team, leading strategic planning and execution in operations, finance, human resources and IT as the company has established itself as the nation's largest producer of organic produce and specialty salads, growing from $10 million in organic produce sales to more than $450 million today. Notably, Sweat led the company's response and recovery following the 2006 spinach recall, including the establishment of an unprecedented food safety program in fresh produce, which remains the most rigorous in the industry. In 2009, on behalf of the founders, owners and employees of Earthbound Farm, he led the deal that brought private equity firm HM Capital Partners into the ownership group. Before joining Earthbound Farm, Sweat worked for several national and international privately held companies focused on real estate, retail, and wholesale, holding management positions in both operations and finance. During that time, he led one of those companies through many acquisitions, with revenue increasing from $30 million to more than $300 million in 36 months. Sweat is an alumnus of the Stanford University School of Business's Senior Executive Program and currently serves on the school's Alumni Board of Directors.
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David Tze
Managing Director, Aquacopia
Mr. Tze co-founded Aquacopia in 2004. Aquacopia is the first aquaculture venture capital fund. It uniquely invests in the cleantech aquaculture value chain: from seafood farms to farming technologies to supply, service, distribution, and marketing. David sources, evaluates, and negotiates these private equity investments. He has served on the boards of these portfolio companies, including Oberon FMR, Futuna Blue, Open Blue Sea Farms, Ocean Farm Technologies, Litchfield Farms, and Snapperfarm. Prior to Aquacopia, David was Chief Technology Officer of the equipment marketplace for the oil and gas industry, NetworkOil. David received an A.B. in economics from Princeton University. He was a founding board member of The Ocean Stewards Institute.
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Michael D. Underhill
Chief Investment Officer, Capital Innovations
Mr. Underhill has pioneered several unconventional portfolio strategies that are now widely applied, including listed infrastructure, listed timber, and listed agribusiness investment strategies. In 2007, he established Capital Innovations, LLC as a research‐intensive asset management firm that focuses on innovative alternative products. Capital Innovations provide customized separate accounts for investors through private and publicly traded investments. The firm operates worldwide from their headquarters in North America and actively invests in OECD and non-OECD countries. Michael Underhill's investment strategies have been featured in The New York Times, Pensions and Investments, Institutional Investor Magazine, TheFinancial Times, Investments and Pensions Europe, The Economist, and numerous Dow Jones publications. Michael graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Economics with a curricular emphasis in statistical econometrics. In addition, he has completed post-graduate coursework from Pepperdine University, Stanford Law School and participated in the Mercosur Economic studies at the Universidad Del Salvador on cross border trade in Latin America in 1998.
Michael sits on the real assets committee for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association, and is a founding member of the Steering Committee for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. He is author of the bestselling "The Handbook of Infrastructure Investing" (Wiley 2010) and a faculty member at the CFA.
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Leslie van der Meulen
Vice President, Aurora Algae
Leslie van der Meulen is responsible for the Company’s strategic product marketing, sales and business development initiatives. Prior to joining Aurora, Leslie held a number of senior sales positions at nutraceutical companies around the world. Most recently, Leslie served as Director of Sales at Originates, a new entrant in the fish oil Omega-3 segment, establishing relationships that represent 60% of the company’s revenue. Prior to this, Leslie was Director of Sales for Source One Global Partners where he led the sales and marketing team, and successfully helped introduce unique technologies that helped revolutionize the dietary supplement landscape. As the Director Sales and Marketing at iBioCeuticals LLC, Leslie designed and implemented multiple channel based marketing strategies to increase clientele and grow sales. Leslie also held the role of Managing Director at the International Nutrition Company (INC) in the Netherlands where he increased sales by 30%. Leslie attended the University of Amsterdam.
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Perry Vieth
President, Ceres Partners
Mr. Vieth devotes his entire time towards managing the properties of Ceres Farms including financial, legal, accounting, hedging and investor relations. Formerly he served for ten years as CIO of Fixed Income & Currency at PanAgora Asset Management in Boston, where he was responsible for research, investment strategy and oversight of assets exceeding $7 billion. At PanAgora, Perry led several successful long-short hedge fund strategies and in 2007 was Pensions & Investments top-performing fixed income manager with a return of 16.1%. Mr. Vieth also served as a portfolio manager at Fleet Investment advisors, Fuji Securities and Chicago Research & Trading Group where he began his trading career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1986. From 1982 to 1986, Mr. Vieth practiced law in Chicago specializing in securities and corporate law. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School with a J.D. and obtained a B.S. in accounting from Marquette University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and member of the Boston Securities Analyst Society. Perry serves on the University of Notre Dame Law School's Advisory Council and several charitable organizations' Board of Directors.
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Mitchell Willis
Manager, Citrus Procurement Quality & Ag Sustainability, Tropicana
Mr. Willis is currently the Manager of Agricultural Sustainability and Citrus Procurement Quality within PepsiCo’s Strategic Supply Management group. Mitch serves on a number of Florida citrus industry committees, including the FL Citrus Industry Research Coordinating Council, the Citrus Harvesting Research Advisory Council and the FL Citrus Processors Association. In addition, Mitch represents PepsiCo on the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Fruit Working Group. Previously, Mitch managed juice operations at Bradenton and developed the Pure Premium Optimization group in October 1997, serving as Manager until April 2002. Prior to developing the PPO group, Mitch was the Quality Control Manager for the Tropicana North America Fort Pierce plant. Since joining the company in 1986, Mitch has held positions of increasing responsibility within the supply chain.
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Andrew Williamson
Director, Physic Ventures
Since joining Physic Ventures early in 2007, Dr. Williamson has focused on working with companies that are developing technologies, products and services to enable consumers to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Among the portfolio company investments managed by Physic Ventures, Andrew is on the boards of Chromatin, EnergyHub, Gazelle, Halosource, Impinj and Novomer. Prior to joining Physic Ventures, Andrew spent 10 years leading materials science research and development projects at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At NREL, Andrew developed computational models for predicting the opto-electronic properties of next generation photovoltaic materials.  At LLNL, Andrew was the project leader for computational nanomaterials research.  His group's research activities included nanomaterials, hydrogen storage, thermoelectric materials and battery technology. Andrew also helped LLNL develop strategies for identifying and commercializing new technologies. He represented LLNL as an Executive Management Fellow in the University of California Industry-University Cooperative Research Program to establish industrial alliance programs for new University of California research centers in nanotechnology, micro-fluidics, foods for health, and stem cell research. Andrew has published over 50 peer reviewed academic articles and 2 patents.  He holds a BA and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Janine Yorio
Managing Director, NewSeed Advisors
Janine founded NewSeed Advisors in 2009. She began her career as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, and has since worked in private equity, first at HVB Capital, the private equity arm of German bank, HypoVereinsbank, and then for private equity firm NorthStar Capital. During that time, Janine originated, analyzed, structured, and asset managed over $1.5 billion in private equity-style transactions, ranging from $10 million to over $700 million in size. She has originated over $100 million in structured debt investments, raised over $750 million in debt financing, served as the analyst for three successful initial public offerings, and managed a portfolio of $110 million in joint venture investments. Through NewSeed Advisors, Janine is committed to applying her insider's knowledge of Wall Street to an industry with integrity, one that revolves around people and which contributes to the greater good of mankind and mother earth. Janine is a graduate of Yale University.
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Len Zapalowski
Senior Vice President, Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies
Mr. Zapalowski has more than 20 years of senior management experience with some of Vancouver's most successful companies including Nexus Engineering, Creo Products, and Pivotal Software. His broad global business experience includes sales, marketing and business development in North America, Asia and Europe.
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