FarmTech Society annual board elections and formation of a two tiered body for expanded and inclusive engagement as international sectoral representation of all CEA stakeholders
FarmTech Society successfully concluded its Annual General Meeting on March 9th, 2023 with the 5th election confirming existing board members for new terms and electing new board members. The assembly also voted in favour for the formation of a new “creative” board open to all members. This creative board is open to all members, offering improved engagement on strategic topics, and allowing wider networking opportunities. It also addresses the need for broader member participation within the organisation. Taken together, these decisions strengthen the only international pre-competitive voice and representation of all stakeholder interests that are mission critical for our sector.
Elected to the Executive Board, FarmTech Society welcomes
Tisha Livingston, confirmed as a Vice-Chair is the CEO of Infinite Acres, a technology company with a green thumb, where she leads a team of indoor agriculture professionals, committed to changing the way the world eats by building a better way to grow. Before being named Infinite Acres’ CEO in June 2019, Tisha co-founded and served as president of 80 Acres Farms. Her strong track record of growing revenues, reducing costs, and enhancing capital efficiencies led the Company to its current successes as a market leader in positive unit economics in vertical farming production.
Thera Rohling, confirmed as the Treasurer, is the Program Director for Sustainable Urban Delta. She has worked for PRIVA Group, built partnerships in Asia for sustainable food production for more than 10 years, then Thera joined CEO Meiny Prins in Priva’s Sustainable Urban Delta Foundation to deploy a more cross-sectoral role in the development of public private partnerships on the development for bridging the gap in rural and urban agriculture communities.
Ron Mitchell, elected as a new board member, is Director for Controlled Environment Agriculture at Clayco. Prior to joining Clayco, Ron worked as Master Aeroponic/ Hydroponic Grower with OnePointOne, an indoor, vertical aeroponic farm in Santa Clara, CA. Ron was also the Co-Founder and Head Grower at Local Greens from 2012 to 2018. As a Professional Consultant, Ron worked with growers in West Africa, Las Vegas, S.F. Bay Area, and Hawaii. He focused on CEA business, including equipment design and installation, seed bank development and germination, atmospheric management, water quality and fertilisation, product R&D, pest management, personnel training, organic growing, sanitation, CDFA and CCOF regulations.
André van Wageningen, elected as a new board member, is Senior Manager Public Affairs at GRODAN. André has over 20 years of international business experience, including strategic marketing, sustainability and public affairs. Andre worked in both entrepreneurial and corporate environments. Andrée is curious by nature with a drive to create external perspective and insights to organisations and turn opportunities into business value. He is purpose-led, making a difference for people, planet and profit.
Brian Sullivan, elected as a new board member, is President and Owner of Great American Expo, a professional organisation with years of experience in event and conference production. Well known to the CEA sector is Indoor Ag-Con, focused on indoor | vertical farming & controlled environment agriculture for the past 10 years. Since 1994, the company has produced hundreds of events ranging from 100 to 100,000 attendees.
Appointed to the newly formed Creative Board
confirmed in the new term; Michael Hanan works as North American Sales Manager at Fluence Bioengineering. Driven by a passion to help people live healthier and happier lives and to improve the sustainability of our food and agriculture systems, Michael has been working on the front lines of urban agriculture as Co-Founder of Ten Acre Organics and as CEO of Agua Dulce Farm.
confirmed in the new term, Ian Kanski is Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Agriculture and Sustainability. He is an entrepreneur with a career dedicated to technologies that enable positive social and environmental impact. Over the course of fifteen years in new product and service development in fast-moving industry sectors across Agriculture, Education, Energy and Software, Ian built a portfolio of business and humanitarian projects spanning Europe, West Africa, Central America and the South Pacific.
confirmed in the new term; Nico Domurath is currently working as Research Assistant in Agriculture / Horticulture at Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKT engaging in the development of CEA competency within the Fraunhofer Group. He was plant scientist at INFARM in Berlin and is the Co-Founder of the Horticulture Consultancy INTEGAR.
appointed as new board member, Peter Rietveld is Business Development Director at Eurogroep and a frequent attendee of industry leading events worldwide. Over the past five years, Peter has developed greatly within Eurogroep and become a member of the board. He has vast experience in Business Development within the Agtech industry, logistics and the solar industry.
appointed as a new board member, Brian Gandy is a Horticulturist at Valoya. It is his goal to facilitate advances in Horticulture and Agriculture through Sustainable Business practices and implementing appropriate technologies on an industrial scale. Brian holds a Bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from the University of Georgia. He has since received certificates in Sustainability Leadership and Permaculture Design while working in applied Horticulture applications, with a specialisation in lighting. He now sits as the VP of North America for Valoya Inc after starting as the Technical Sales Director in early 2021.
appointed as a new board member, Mariska Dreschler is Director Horticulture at RAI Amsterdam. She has a 25 year background in entrepreneurship, business strategy, business development and event management. As Director Horticulture, she supports the global food and flower production industry by organising trade fairs for these communities to connect, both face-2-face and digital. The GreenTech portfolio consists of GreenTech Amsterdam as the worldwide leading trade show on horticulture technologies and GreenTech Americas as the regional trade show in Mexico.
appointed as a new board member, Charlotte Langerak-Visser is CSO of the Vison Group. She is focusing on strategy both internally and externally. She is inspired by asking herself daily what needs to be done to thrive, long term and short term. Which people, which ideas, which processes, which products, which solutions will make us thrive? Viscon has been a family company since 1967 and has been growing in turnover, markets, products and regions over decades now.
appointed as a new board member, Mark Horler is Chairman at UK Urban AgriTech. Mark is an experienced industry association leader. He founded, managed, built up and worked with national and international associations in the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and wider AgriTech space. Mark is a systemic thinker passionate about the complex integration of the technological, social and environmental towards lasting resilience & sustainability.
appointed as a new board member, After six years of service as President Obama’s appointee as the Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in Washington, DC, as of July 1, 2018 Sonny Ramaswamy assumed the presidency of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.Prior to his position in theUS federal government, he worked for 30 years at several Land-Grant Universities, rising through the ranks from assistant professor to professor to distinguished professor and head of the department to associate dean to dean.
FTS hopes that this newsletter will inspire and inform you. Reach out directly to the board with your ideas, if you would like to find out more about the formation of the new creative board, and signing up for the knowledge network meetings. FTS is confident that through collaboration and pre-competitive actions, the sector gains maturity and will be able to scale into the sustainable solution provider in agriculture.
Feel free to contact Tom Zoellner at secretary_general@farmtechsociety.org
