Dr. Fangjia Lu ZeaVaxx Co-Founder / Chief Operation Officer Dr. Fangjia Lu is the co-founder and Chief Operation Officer of ZeaVaxx LLC. ZeaVaxx is a Purdue University based Ag startup that is working on improving current animal vaccines based on a plant-derived nanoparticle adjuvant platform. Adjuvants are the essential materials included in many vaccine formulations…

Tom Field University of Nebraska – Lincoln Director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program and holder of the Engler Chair in Entrepreneurship Tom Field serves the people of Nebraska as the Director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program and holder of the Engler Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. An enthusiastic…

Spencer Maughan Finistere’s Agtech Venture Fund Co-Founder Spencer Maughan is a co-founder of Finistere’s Agtech Venture Fund and heads the Silicon Valley office based in Palo Alto, California. Previously Spencer has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at KPCB working alongside members of the Green Growth Fund on AgTech opportunities and as an investor at Venrock, a Venture…

Brett Brohl The Syndicate Fund Founder and Managing Partner Founder, Investor, and Mentor Brett Brohl is driven by making a difference in the world through helping entrepreneurs succeed. Brett, based in Minneapolis, MN, is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Syndicate Fund, an early stage venture capital fund investing in retail, marketing, food &…

Joel Harris GlobalVetLINK Director of Product Joel is the former Vice President of Ames, IA based Harrisvaccines which was acquired by Merck Animal Health in November of 2015. Currently he is the Director of Product for GlobalVetLINK, a animal health data repository company. He is also the Co-director of the Ag Startup Engine where he…

Brian R. Jones Mr. Jones has been involved in several capacities in the agribusiness industry. Mr. Jones began his career in agribusiness with Desert Security Farms in California working as a farm manager. As a farm manager he was responsible for coordinating production activities for 3,500 acres of alfalfa, wheat and sudan grass. Later, Mr….

Jude Conway, CEO, Ag Ventures Alliance Ag Ventures Alliance Chief Executive Officer Jude Conway, CEO, Ag Ventures Alliance. AG Ventures Alliance is an organization headquartered in Mason City, IA that among other things, manages an evergreen fund focused on seed and start-up investments in agricultural innovation. AG Ventures Alliance currently has twenty-one companies from across…

Zach Ellis The Ohio State University Director of New Ventures Zach Ellis is Director of New Ventures at The Ohio State University. There, he is responsible for creating and cultivating spin out companies based on OSU technology. His portfolio responsibilities span all of life sciences, to include food and agriculture. Previously, Zach was on the…

Rob Trice Better Food Ventures and The Mixing Bowl Founder Rob Trice is the Founder of Better Food Ventures and The Mixing Bowl. Based in Silicon Valley, he is leveraging his experience in mobile, internet and telecom venture capital to pursue the application of information technology to food and agriculture challenges. Better Food Ventures makes…

Colin Hurd Smart Ag Founder and Chief Executive Officer Colin gradcolinuated from Iowa State University with a degree in Agriculture Business. After founding a company in 2013 called Agriculture Concepts he developed a revolutionary planting product called TrackTill® and shortly after added an additional product called CADEN Edge. After successfully growing sales to over $1.5…

Steven Brockshus Terva Chief Executive Officer – grew up on 5th generation family dairy farm in NW Iowa – took year off college serving as National FFA Vice President, meeting with students, farmers and ag leaders across the country – graduated from ISU in May 2017 (ag ed & entrepreneurship) – passionate about people, agriculture,…