Chicago Forum 2019

In his role as news editor of Agri Investor, Binyamin has written about LP investments into agricultural real assets, the appetite and reasons behind investor interest in emerging markets in this space, and how fund structures are evolving to take advantage of the varied opportunities ag presents.

Tom Amis has worked exclusively in the renewable energy and sustainability space for the past 15 years. He has assisted clients in the development, structuring, financing, acquisition and disposition of renewable energy and sustainability projects in sectors as diverse as wind, solar, biomass, biogas, storage, distributed generation, distributed agriculture and energy efficiency. Since 2017, he has acted as senior principal of Equilibrium Capital’s Controlled Environment Foods Fund, an institutional investment fund investing in controlled environment agricultural facilities.

In addition to his role at Equilibrium Capital, he currently chairs the Advisory Board of Sol Systems, LLC, a leading financial intermediary in
the solar space and is a member of the Advisory Boards of Spark Fund LLC, a provider of innovative financing solutions for efficiency retrofits for commercial and industrial buildings, and New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation. He serves as a trustee of the Maryland/DC chapter of The Nature Conservancy, where he has been active in the organization of the nation’s first stormwater credit trading program and additionally serves on the Council of the Sustainable Food Program of Yale University. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University, his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, his J.D from Columbia University and his M.B.A. from INSEAD.

Atish is part of the product development team, and is chartered with Agriculture Capital’s continued development of fund strategies in the sustainable agriculture sector.

Prior to joining Agriculture Capital, Atish was a founding partner at Omnivore Capital, an agriculture investment firm focused on South Asia. Earlier in his career, Atish worked in technology venture capital, Battery Ventures (US) and Nexus Venture Partners (India). In addition to his investing experience, Atish also has startup operations experience as one of the earliest employees at Vonage, helping build the company to a successful IPO.

Atish attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his undergraduate studies and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Barry L. Bogseth is head of MetLife Investment Management's agricultural strategies group. He was named to this position in January 2014. In this role, he is responsible for management of the company's agricultural loan portfolio with oversight of loan approvals, pricing, underwriting, new business development and portfolio strategy.
Previously, Bogseth served as a regional director overseeing the origination and administration of a regional loan portfolio. He was named to this position in 2005. Bogseth joined MetLife in 1988 and has served in various capacities within MetLife including originating and servicing both agribusiness and traditional farm and ranch real estate loans, as a territory field representative in the both the Midwest and East-Central regions of the U.S.

Bogseth graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural economics and an MBA from the University of Nebraska.

Greg Bohlen co-founded Union Grove Venture Partners in 2014. Prior to that, he joined Morgan Creek in 2011 to extend Morgan Creek’s venture exposure. Greg’s experience and relationships in the venture capital and investment banking communities have been developed over the past 30 years, and he has invested in over 50 venture-backed companies, including names as diverse as Sourcefire (FIRE) and Neurogesx (NGSX). Prior to Wasatch, Greg was the Chief Financial Officer and an investment professional at The Aurora Funds in North Carolina. His previous work experience also includes a significant tenure in investment banking, most recently with UBS AG as the Director for the Private Equity Coverage Group from 2001 to 2003 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Greg is also a published author and currently lives on an orchard in Chapel Hill that he and his family built over the past decade. Greg received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics and his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Illinois.

Bohlen led three rounds of financing at Beyond Meat and served on the board for 6 years including taking Beyond Meat Public, making the first investment at a pre money of 20 million.

Justin is the President, Chief Investment Officer & Co-founder of Clear Frontier Ag Management. He brings decades of expertise, at a global scale, in both sustainable farming and institutional investment management. At Clear Frontier Ag Management, Justin leads the business in the acquisition and transition of farmland to certified organic with 25M+ dollars of land acquisitions in the first year of business. Justin also served as President, COO and deal team member at Canterra Capital, Canada’s second largest ESG-focused agriculture fund and CPPIB’s agriculture investment platform. Justin managed 100+ farmers and oversaw acquisition of 57,000+ acres, while expanding Canterra’s portfolio. Justin also managed an active farming operation of an 135,000+ acre portfolio in Ukraine. As COO of Morgan Stanley’s Ukrainian Portfolio, Justin managed a 7,500-acre portfolio. As COO of SeedRock, Justin oversaw farmland development projects across countries, as well as advised on the development of Africa Atlantic’s 10,000-acre irrigated farmland project in Ghana. Justin is a founding investor of Agfunder.com and currently serves as Chairman and Senior Strategist. Justin is a 5thgeneration farmer from Iowa, where his family settled in 1880. Justin holds a Bachelor’s in Agronomy from Iowa State University and an MBA from Craig School of Business at California State University. He has actively farmed in four continents and has extensive experience in agricultural acquisitions and portfolio management.

Chris leverages more than 30 years of experience to provide the financing needed for agribusinesses to thrive in underserved markets. This experience includes building investment portfolios across the capital structure from scratch at Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Societe Generale, as well as developing a commodity repo business at Merrill Lynch. His career in underwriting commodities and agriculture investments began at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. following formal credit training at Manufacturers Hanover.

Covering small and medium-sized businesses in markets where capital availability is scarce, Chris’s team makes it possible for ardent entrepreneurs to achieve their mission. The result of this partnering and dynamic engagement is a satisfying relationship where AMERRA and the companies that trust us mutually benefit. Chris’s drive to achieve a win/win with portfolio companies is one reason for AMERRA’s reputation as one of the most ethical and effective debt investors in the industry.

Chris joined AMERRA in 2018 and is responsible for debt investments outside of Brazil, currently spanning the U.S. down to Argentina. He holds an MBA from New York University with majors in Finance and Accounting and was named a Leonard Stern Scholar based on academic achievement. Chris received a BA from Cornell University in Psychology and Economics. Chris speaks fluent Spanish and rusty Portuguese.

David is the Founder and Managing Partner of Tiverton. He founded the firm in 2013 and has over 20 years and $65 billion worth of transaction experience.

Prior to founding Tiverton, David spent 10 years at Morgan Stanley where he was most recently a Director for Morgan Stanley Real Estate.

David previously worked for McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs & Co. and was the Chief Strategic Officer for International Farming Corp. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and serves on its Advisory Board.

Mr. Chattleton, his wife and daughter reside in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Dick was one of the very early principals of FIA, joining the firm in 1989. He advocated the investment merits of timber to the institutional investment world for the next decade and was instrumental in timber becoming an accepted asset class. Dick has been a member of the firm’s Executive and Investment Committees and currently sits on FIA’s Board of Directors.

He spends much of his time speaking with institutions around the globe about timberland. Dick has more than 30 years in the investment management business, starting as a Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager with two large regional banks.

Dick has a B.S. in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Sean Doyle joined Salveo Capital in 2018. Prior to joining, Sean supported another cannabis venture capital fund providing due diligence, portfolio optimization, and cannabis industry analysis with a focus on agtech, tech, health & wellness, financial services, technology media, compliance and laboratory technology.

Before entering the cannabis space, Mr. Doyle spent 3 years at Vestas, the largest wind turbine company in the world, where he worked in energy financial modeling, tax credit maximization, project development, contract negotiations, and sales. Mr. Doyle was elected to support the establishment of an office in Boston where the team evaluated future markets for sourcing energy and developed sales approaches for margin optimization. During this time, Vestas secured $2 billion EUR of wind turbine sales and achieved a 4.6x increase in market capitalization.

Prior to joining Vestas, Mr. Doyle co-founded an IoT startup and received the Best Use of Hearst Grant Award from the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program, the 2nd ranked entrepreneurship program among public universities.

Mr. Doyle received his BS in Entrepreneurship and Business Administration from the University of Arizona. He received an MBA in Finance, Analytic Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mr. Doyle was actively engaged in Chicago Booth’s Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, and Private Equity clubs.

Cameron Dunn is a Managing Partner of Tillridge, where he concentrates on the firm’s efforts in sourcing investments, transaction analysis, and execution as well as the monitoring of portfolio companies.

Prior to Tillridge, Cameron was a Principal at NGP Energy Capital Management (“NGP”) where he led NGP’s agribusiness investment platform. Cameron joined NGP in 2008, where he sourced, structured, executed, and monitored investments in addition to serving on over 15 Boards across the energy and agribusiness sectors. Before joining NGP, Cameron was an Analyst with UBS Investment Bank, where he focused on financing and merger & acquisition transactions.

Cameron received a B.B.A. and an M.P.A. in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Before starting LandFund Partners, Mr. Farris served as an economist at the Center for Economics Research at the Research Triangle Institute, as well as a senior economics consultant with both the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. From 2006 to 2007, Mr. Farris served as Secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Mr. Farris received a full-tuition fellowship to study economics and finance at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he was awarded a Master’s Degree. Mr. Farris currently serves on the boards of Kentucky Employers’ Mutual Insurance (KEMI), Green Brick Partners (NASDAQ: GRBK), and Kentucky Technology Inc. Mr. Farris also acts as Senior Investment Advisor to the Centre College Endowment.Mr. Farris recently served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) from 2016-2019.

Sarah Gal is a Vice President within Callan's Real Assets Consulting Group. She has deep experience working with large public pension fund clients, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, and defined contribution clients. Her role includes the evaluation of investment managers and their respective real estate products for plan sponsor clients. This due diligence process involves meeting and evaluating investment strategies, investment processes, track records and organizational structures. She has underwritten strategies across the four real estate quadrants, and has additional expertise in daily priced real estate strategies, real estate debt, and US farmland.

Prior to joining Callan, Sarah was a Senior Real Estate Investment Consultant with Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting's Real Estate research group. She currently co-chairs The National Council for Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries ("NCREIF") Daily Priced Index Committee which works towards the advancement and understanding of daily priced private real estate.

Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Mr. Gammill is the Managing Partner of Proterra Investment Partners and serves as a member of its Management Committee. In addition, Mr. Gammill co-heads the firm’s Food investment strategy and leads its Credit investment strategy.

Prior to Proterra, Mr. Gammill worked for Black River Asset Management, a division of Cargill, where he served as a Senior Managing Director for its food sector-focused private equity funds. Prior to joining Black River, Mr. Gammill was a Principal and Partner with DynaFund Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Los Angeles with $250 million under management. During his tenure with DynaFund, Mr. Gammill led 12 financings and served as a board member or board observer for three portfolio companies. Previously, Mr. Gammill served as Director of Business Development for Sabre as well as a consultant with Accenture in Minneapolis.

Mr. Gammill holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Mr. Getz has over 12 years of experience in the farming and agriculture industry. Mr. Getz studied at Indiana State University on a baseball scholarship. Early in his career, he pursued an opportunity with the world’s largest plastic pipe company which sparked his vision for entrepreneurship and innovation. He founded his own drainage supply company at age 24. Mr. Getz has always been a change-maker in the industry and does not proceed with the status quo in providing a single narrowly focused business. To better serve the farmland industry and provide more holistic solutions, he added a vast line of drainage products and services to cover all landowners needs. Mr. Getz specializes in services, materials, and equipment for farm drainage needs across the Midwest. His experience helps him stay in touch and relate to DIGS customers, contractors, industry insiders, and agriculture overall. Mr. Getz' background has provided him with experience and knowledge in HDPE drainage tile manufacturing, project installation, RTK GPS systems, engineering drainage designs, topographic survey, and much more. He has developed strong relationships with local farmers, landowners, farm managers, governmental agencies, contractors, material and equipment manufacturers, trade associations, and other industry leaders. He works closely with investors and senior executive teams to identify and implement value creation strategies for land improvement. Mr. Getz uses his experience and knowledge to provide lasting solutions for every client's agriculture property. He has routinely saved millions of dollars for organizations by strengthening efficiencies and process qualities in short periods of time. He is a recognized thought leader in the industry and is also an active member of Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Land Improvement Contractors, Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers, and the Illinois Association of Drainage Districts.

John Goodreds is an MD with AGR Partners, which makes non-controlling structured equity investments in leading agricultural value-chain companies, primarily in the US. John has been part of the AGR leadership team and investment committee since inception in 2012. He brings over thirty years of investment, portfolio management and governance experience in private capital transactions for middle-market companies, and has focused on investing in the food and agribusiness sector since 2010.

John has served on numerous agribusiness company boards and presently serves on the boards of Treehouse California Almonds (an AGR portfolio company), ScanTech Sciences, Inc. (a private food safety company), and CalPlant LLC (a private manufacturer of rice straw-based medium density fiberboard).

Before to joining AGR, John was an MD on Nuveen’s Real Asset team, where he helped found Nuveen’s agribusiness investment platform in 2010. From 2005 to 2010, he was a member of TIAA’s (the parent company of Nuveen) Alternative Investments team, focused on mid-market private equity buyout funds and co-investments. From 1996 to 2005, John was part of TIAA’s Corporate Private Debt Placements team. Before joining TIAA in 1996, Mr. Goodreds sourced and structured bank loans for middle-market borrowers at National Westminster Bank. He holds a B.A. in economics from Colgate University and an M.B.A. in finance from Columbia Business School.

Alec Gorynski is a community development investor/funder, technical expert, and leader with over a decade of experience across private, nonprofit, and government sectors. Currently he serves as the Vice President of Community Development and Corporate Philanthropy for First National Bank, and the President of the First National Community Development Corporation. Here Alec leads First National’s strategy to invest in the long term economic success of its footprint by investing in housing, economic, education, and workforce solutions. In addition to his professional experience Alec serves as co-founder and board chair of Spark – a community development intermediary, and holds board and sub-committee positions with Omaha 100, the Nebraska Arts Council, the Omaha Community Foundation, Lending Link, and InCommon Community Development. Alec holds a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a Bachelor of Science from Peru State College.

Bernardo Guillamon is the manager of the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Office of Outreach and Partnerships. From 2007 until July 2008, he oversaw the operational program in the Integration and Trade Sector (INT), developing and managing its portfolio of loans and technical assistance grants to expand trade and promote regional integration among all borrowing member countries. During 2006 and 2007, Guillamon was the principal private sector specialist in the private sector coordination office. Between 2001 and 2006, Guillamon led the private sector evaluation area of the IDB’s independent office of evaluation and oversight (OVE). Before joining OVE, he was in charge of microfinance, microenterprise and small enterprise development projects for the Andean region, and co-authored the bank’s Microenterprise Development Strategy. He introduced the pioneering equity investment of the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund in microfinance institutions. Prior to joining the IDB, he worked in agribusiness with small, large and multinational companies. Guillamon graduated as an agricultural engineer from Uruguay’s Universidad de la República and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in California and completed graduate courses in business valuation, e-commerce, international trade, and project finance at New York University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Robert Hagler leads investor relations for New Forests’ US strategies and clients. Bob has more 30 years of experience in all aspects of forestry and timberland investments. Prior to joining New Forests, Bob was Principal of ForestEdge, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor and timberland investment consultancy serving family offices and direct timberland investors. Over the past 20 years, he has held a range of senior positions including Head of Timberland Investment Strategy and International Portfolio Manager for both US and international timberland investments. Prior to that, Bob established and led Wood Resources International, an international forestry and forest product consulting practice that conducted research and projects in more than 70 countries around the world. Bob holds a bachelor’s degree in Forest Resource Management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Penn State University.

Amy is a Director on the BMO Wealth Management private equity team. She manages relationships with a select number of clients and works out of the BMO’s Chicago office. Previously Amy spent ten years as a private markets institutional investment consultant and researcher focused on fund due diligence at Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting. At Aon, Amy advised endowments, foundations, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds on private markets portfolio construction and global fund selection. Aon Hewitt advises on more than $4.7T in institutional capital.

Prior to joining Aon Hewitt, Amy was a private equity analyst at McKinsey & Company, providing limited partner and private equity firm clients with in-depth private equity research and analysis. In addition, she served as a Summer Associate at Coller Capital, specializing in secondary transaction analysis and deal sourcing. Amy completed an internship with Campbell Lutyens focused on fund marketing and institutional investor relationship management.

Amy received her B.S. degree from Cornell University and has an M.B.A. degree in finance from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

Joshua Humphreys is President and Senior Fellow of Croatan Institute and Co-Founder and Senior Strategist of the Organic Agriculture Revitalization Strategy (OARS).

A leading authority on sustainable, responsible, and impact investing, and an outspoken advocate for resilient rural development, Dr. Humphreys has taught at Harvard, Princeton, and NYU, and held numerous appointments as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris, an Aspen Environment Forum Scholar, associate fellow of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Archive Center, visiting research associate at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Study, and fellow at Tellus Institute. For two decades, Dr. Humphreys has advised numerous investors, businesses, nonprofits, foundations, community groups, policymakers and multilateral organizations on sustainability and finance. His insights on trends in endowment management, impact investing, and financing regional food systems and regenerative, organic agriculture have been widely published and regularly cited in the press. He serves on the Farm-to-Table Working Group of the Just Foods Collaborative and the advisory boards of Dwight Hall’s SRI Fund at Yale and the Coalition for Responsible Investment at Harvard.

An avid organic gardener, Dr. Humphreys lives on an old farmstead near the village of Saxapahaw, North Carolina.

Eric Jackson, Founder & Chairman of Pipeline Foods, LLC, is a developer of sustainable supply chains in agriculture. Pipeline Foods is a partnership between professional management and institutional capital with a mandate to address underdeveloped value chains, particularly Organic and Non-GMO grains, oilseeds, food and feed ingredients. Headquartered in Minneapolis with regional offices in Winnipeg and Buenos Aires, Pipeline currently owns/operates through 12 facilities dedicated to handling, cleaning, grading and processing a wide variety of grains, pulses and oilseeds for the organic and non-GMO markets in North America, Asia and Europe. Eric is a native of Urbana, IL where he received his B.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Illinois.

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 2009 she was appointed by President Barack Obama as a White House Fellow and was Crain’s Chicago Business Magazine ’40 under 40’ rising leader.

Previously, Kellee worked with commodity banks in Latin America on risk management and income diversification strategies. Kellee is an Aspen Institute Catto Environmental Fellow and has also served on the board of Net Impact, a membership organization of more than 12,000 MBA professionals committed to sustainability through corporate responsibility. Kellee received her MBA and MA in International Development from American University in Washington, D.C., and completed a BA in Spanish from the University of Kentucky.

Chris Janiec is an America's Editor with Agri Investor and previously wrote about non-bank finance for Private Debt Investor. A graduate of the NYU Center for Global Affairs, Janiec is also a member of the Carnegie New Leaders and the National Committee on Untied States – China Relations.

Mr. Kirchhoff is a Managing Director and Head of Private Equity for Summit Agricultural Group. In this capacity, he is primarily focused on overall investment execution and management related to various funds and portfolio investments in both the United States and Brazil. He currently serves on the board of FS Agrisolutions, a Brazilian biofuels and energy production company and previously served on the board of Iowa Premium, LLC, an Iowa-based beef processing company. In 2019, he was appointed by Governor Reynolds to the IPERS Investment Board, which is responsible for investment and oversight of Iowa state pension assets. Prior to joining Summit in 2012, he was an investment analyst with Aviva Investors North America. He grew up in Southwest Iowa and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance from Iowa State University, where he is a member of the College of Business Finance and Executive MBA Advisory Councils. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Iowa.

Aaron Knewtson joined Compeer Financial in 2004 and has provided both public and private financing. Aaron also represents Compeer’s leadership role in developing junior capital funds licensed under the USDA’s Rural Business Investment Program. Aaron’s background includes working with agricultural and financial derivatives including time spent on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade.

Aaron received a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University and an M.B.A. from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Stavros Koutsantonis joined Conservation Resources in 2017 to lead the implementation of the firm’s agriculture-focused investment program as Managing Director. He joined Conservation Resources from Brookfield Asset Management where he was a director, portfolio manager and head of the Natural Resources and Opportunistic Strategies team investing in agriculture and other real assets, directly managing or advising on over $5 billion of investments globally. Prior to that he was a senior research analyst at Millennium Partners focusing on agriculture and other real assets and a portfolio manager and research analyst in real assets at Fidelity Management and Research Company. Mr. Koutsantonis has a BA in economics from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of both the CFA Institute and CFA Society Boston. He is also a past board member of the Chicago Association of Business Economists.

Dan Kowalski is an economist and Vice President of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange research division. Dan leads a team of industry analysts that produces research for the agricultural and infrastructure industries that CoBank serves. Dan also provides commentary on how the U.S. and global economies affect rural America.

Prior to joining CoBank in 2011, Mr. Kowalski worked as a consultant, providing advisory services to the food and agribusiness industries. Mr. Kowalski holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from The Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. David LeZaks leads the Regenerative Food Systems initiative at Delta Institute, a Chicago based non-profit, where he manages a portfolio of projects that focuses on building a more regenerative economy. He designs disruptive infrastructure that will unlock substantial capital flows into the regenerative agriculture sector. David holds a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources and an M.S. in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and a B.S. in Environmental Science from the Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. In 2019, David was a fellow in the RSF Social Finance Integrated Capital Institute.

Eric London is a Partner with Tress Capital, LLC, where he is involved in deal qualification, conducting due diligence, transaction execution, portfolio monitoring, and portfolio management.

Eric brings over 18 years of private equity and investment banking experience to Tress Capital, LLC. Previously, he was a Senior Director with lnvesco/WL Ross & Co. and a member of the Operating Committee. During his private markets career, he has invested over $2.6 billion in 70 transactions across private equity, private credit, special situations, and real assets for Credit Suisse's Customized Fund Investment Group and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is also a published co-author on healthcare royalties.

He began his career in 1998 at HSBC where he worked in the Office of the COO and in Debt Capital Markets. Eric earned his B.A. from Yeshiva University and his M.B.A. from Boston University, where he was a recipient of the Dean's Achievement Scholarship.

Dr. Marrone is currently CEO/Founder of Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI), a company she started in 2006 to discover and develop bio-based products for pest management and plant health. On August 2, 2013, MBI listed its stock as MBII on NASDAQ. The company's award-winning products are used in fruit, nut, vegetable and row crop markets. MBI is also marketing Zequanox for invasive zebra and quagga mussels. MBI has several more products in the pipeline, including a biofumigant and three bioherbicides. In January 2019, she was awarded the "Sustie" award by the Ecological Farming Association for her decades-long leadership in sustainable agriculture. In October 2014, Dr. Marrone was awarded Agrow's "Best Manager with Strategic Vision" for her career-long leadership in biopesticides. Dr. Marrone received the NRDC's Growing Green Award in "Business Leader" category, to recognize new pioneers in sustainable farming and food. The company received the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award and a California Department of Pesticide Regulation IPM Innovator award. Dr. Marrone founded AgraQuest in 1995 and served as its CEO, Chairman and President until March 2006. AgraQuest commercialized biopesticide products that became the biological standards for their categories. Before AgraQuest, she was founding president and business unit head for Entotech, Inc. in Davis (CA), a biopesticide subsidiary of Denmark-based Novo Nordisk. At Monsanto, she led the Insect Biology group, which was seeking alternative ways to control insect pests. She is an alumni-elected trustee of Cornell University, Treasurer of the Association for Women in Science, Board member of the Foundation for Food and Ag Research and is past-Treasurer of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. She is Founding Chair of the Bio Products Industry Alliance (BPIA), a trade association of more than 100 biopesticide and related companies. She is on the UC Davis Ag and Environmental Sciences Dean's Advisory Council and served for many years on the Cornell University College of Ag and Life Sciences Dean's Advisory Council. She holds several hundred patents and is in high demand to deliver keynote addresses on the future and potential of biologicals for pest management, innovation and entrepreneurship. She was elected by her peers as a Fellow of AAAS (American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science). 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.

Jim McBride is Head of Timberland Distribution and Relationship Management at BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG). He is responsible for the development and distribution of Company timberland funds. Prior to TIG, he was with Columbia Management Group, marketing institutional products to large public pension funds. Other past experiences include directing marketing and sales for the Hancock Agricultural Investment Group, marketing positions at CIGNA Corporation, and portfolio management at Bankers Trust Company. He has been in the investment industry for 35 years, with 21 of those years dedicated to investments in natural resources. Jim received a B.A. from Tufts University and a MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, with concentrations in finance and marketing.

Mr. Morris is Chief Financial Officer and founding team member of LandFund Partners. Mr. Morris received his Bachelor of Science degree in Financial Economics from Centre College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude. At Centre, Mr. Morris was a three time All-American, NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Champion and Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year. After pursuing a professional golf career, Mr. Morris was a Senior Associate at Commonwealth Economics, a regional economic and financial consultancy. He serves as Board Chairman for the Phoenix Club of Nashville, a youth-focused nonprofit, and was recognized as one of Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30. Mr. Morris has attained the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation.

David Muth is the Managing Partner for Alternative Equity Advisors, the capital deployment affiliate for Peoples Company. David is an entrepreneur building businesses that focus on agriculture data service technologies, creating economic opportunities from sustainability and soil health focused management, and creating innovative land acquisition strategies that deliver improved investment returns.

David is trained as a mechanical engineer receiving his PhD from Iowa State University. He spent the first several years of his career building technologies in advanced biofuels in partnership with the US Department of Energy. In 2013 he co-founded AgSolver, Inc in Ames, IA, an agricultural data service start-up. David created and deployed a precision agriculture concept called Precision Business Planning that integrated vast data resources to deliver economically focused management strategies at the sub acre scale. Precision Business Planning strategies create a platform for simultaneously improving operating income, investor returns, and environmental performance outcomes. David is advising on multiple national scale efforts within USDA, commodity organizations, and large agribusinesses to deploy these strategies to economically improve conservation and soil health outcomes while providing net income benefits for land owners and operators.

David led the acquisition of AgSolver, Inc in 2017 by EFC Systems, Inc. an ag retail focused software and technology company. He continues to support the integration of AgSolver technology into EFC as the VP of Agronomic Planning and Sustainability. David maintains a daily presence in production agriculture through his farming operation that works with his family farming business where he grew up in North Central Iowa.

David is currently focused on building Alternative Equity Advisors as a premier land investment firm creating maximum financial returns for investment partners. His experience in agriculture technology data services coupled with actively managing farming interests provide unique perspective that deliver investment arbitrage opportunities for Alternative Equity Advisors' clients. Alternative Equity Advisors delivers direct ownership, separate account investing for their clients. David is leading Alternative Equity Advisors to develop industry leading, technology driven analyses of land assets to build management strategies that deliver improved financial performance for investors and operators.

David J. Nicola is the Founder of Blackdirt Farms, a leading regenerative agriculture operations and production business with a focus on grassfed beef production in the Eastern U.S. Blackdirt Farms partners with investors to purchase undervalued and underutilized farmland assets in the Eastern U.S. and operates those assets to produce a high quality and quantity of grassfed and pasture-based beef for the U.S. market. The U.S. grassfed sector provides a compelling opportunity for Blackdirt given highly fragmented production, current supply constraints, and high growth in demand.

David has 17 years of investment experience in farmland, private equity, portfolio management, and credit trading. Prior to founding Blackdirt, David served as a Portfolio Manager at BlueMountain Capital Management, a Director of Investments at a CT-based family office focused on food and agriculture, and an Investment Banking Analyst at Citigroup. David holds an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences.

Eric O'Brien is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fall Line Capital, a private equity firm focused on farmland and agricultural technology investments. Eric brings over 20 years of professional investment, financial services and operating experience to the firm. At Fall Line, he is responsible for both the farmland and agtech investment programs, as well as overall firm operations and investor relations. Fall Line Capital currently manages two funds with over
$325M of assets under management. The firm owns farmland in multiple regions across the United States and manages a portfolio of technology investments with synergistic ties to its farm management strategy. Eric currently represents Fall Line on the board of directors of Greenlight Biosciences and Pluto Al, and is a board observer at Benson Hill Biosystems and Mercaris. He previously served on the board of Granular until its 2017 acquisition by DuPont/Pioneer (now Corteva).

Prior to starting Fall Line in 2011, Eric spent 12 years at Lightspeed Venture Partners, a top tier Silicon Valley venture capital firm with over $3 billion of assets under management. At Lightspeed, he was a Managing Director responsible for early and growth stage investments in technology and services companies in the U.S. and China. His past investments include Aquantia (NYSE: AQ), Slice (acquired by Rakuten), Lucky Pai (acquired by Lotte), and Evolv On-Demand (acquired by Cornerstone).

Before Lightspeed, Eric served on the investing team at lnterWest Partners, a technology and healthcare venture capital firm, and at Morgan Stanley in their mergers and acquisitions department. Eric holds an AB degree in Economics magna cum laude from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Eric currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International School of the Peninsula in Palo Alto, CA.

Considered one of a handful of experts in the emerging plant-based protein world, Danny O’Malley founded Before the Butcher in September of 2017. As it’s Presiplant and Founder, his responsibilities include the image and development of this plant-based “meat” company, as well as sales and marketing. Prior to that, he was an integral part of sales growth for three years at Beyond Meat including the launch of the world’s first plant-based burger, the Beyond Burger.

Rounding out his 25+ year career in the food industry, Mr. O’Malley has held various executive positions at International companies like Sysco Corporation and CJ Foods in addition to Nationally recognized restaurant chain BJ’s Restaurants.

Chris Peacock has been working in the water sector for 20-years helping organizations make better data driven decisions. He is the founder and CEO of AQUAOSO Technologies, a software-as-a-service company that helps the agricultural economy research land and water assets, while understanding the impacts of water risk as business risk. Prior to AQUAOSO, Chris spent six years helping water utilities manage their water data, seven years building consulting engineering firms in the water sector, and three years building water markets. Chris is the author of an award winning book and a regular speaker on the topics of water analytics, smart water systems, and water risk.

Ms. Radden is a noteworthy innovator and passionate proponent of the integration of agriculture and technology. She is the founder and CEO of Honor Harvest (HH) LLC, a sustainable technology and agriculture consultancy. HH’s mission is the potent result of her 20+ years in investing, real estate, technology and agriculture which informs her unique perspective on the needs and opportunities that combine agriculture, technology and climate remediation. Many can benefit from the use of Industrial Hemp fiber applications sequester carbon, resist mold and pests, and replace products with less sustainable attributes. Its seeds offer nutrient dense food opportunities. Both can favor the balance sheet and the environment.

Radden’s achievements are wide ranging. They include a competitive $6.8 million award from the US Veteran’s Administration to build the first hydroponic jobs-creation program with healing housing and local food production and distribution.

She drove the only Sustainable Investment Initiative that brought together over 200 leaders from financial institutions, environmental groups, government, and the real estate and building industry to collaborate and develop standards for more sustainable and impact-driven products.

A former Appointed Chairperson for the US Department of Commerce’s Executive Council on International Business for the State of Illinois she increased foreign trade for state businesses 56% during her 5-year term. She has held several other executive positions incorporating global and local operations with P&L responsibility for over $1.3 billion.

Samples of her collaborations include: NEXUS; the United Nations on food and life enhancements in Africa; the preeminent Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands on hydroponics, the Vineland Research and Innovation Center Ontario Canada on plant genetics; the University of Connecticut – College of Agriculture, on trends in food, and early course development for Industrial Hemp farming.

Radden holds an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and a BS from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is a mentor for the Kellogg Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge with multiple finalists. She has presented and written on integrating agriculture in urban and peri urban environments. Her articles have appeared in the Cornerstone Capital Journal of Sustainable Finance and Banking, Institutional Real Estate Investor (IREI) on the value proposition of commercial rooftop farming, and appeared on Independent Lens discussing the crisis in limited nutritional value foods in inner city communities.

Anna joined Vestaron as President & CEO and as Board member in April 2018, bringing more than a decade of experience across multiple venture-backed ag-tech companies. Before that, Anna founded and led as CEO the company NexSteppe to develop and commercialize optimized crops for the biobased economy. Previously, Anna led Commercial and Business Development at Ceres, an agricultural biotechnology company and developer of dedicated energy crops. Anna started her professional career at McKinsey & Co., holds a master’s degree in genetics from the University of Michigan, received her J.D. from Yale Law School, and attended leadership programs at Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management. She currently sits on the board of directors for the Biotech Industry Organization and was the 2016 recipient of the Rosalind Franklin award for female leadership in industrial biotechnology.

Greg Richards is responsible for general management and overseeing all acquisitions and ongoing operations or Arable Capital Partners. Mr. Richards is also a co-founder and a managing director at HarvestWest Investments, a fund put together to invest in farmland in the Pacific Northwest. HarvestWest was fully invested as of February 2016 and is now managing over 13,000 acres of farmland in WA, OR and ID that is leased out to local farmers. He was responsible for fund raising for this venture, general management, sourcing and evaluating land, performing financial analysis, and structuring transactions to acquire farmland properties along with the ongoing leases. Prior to HarvestWest, Mr. Richards was the CEO and owner of Rung Industries, a manufacturer of equipment used in sand and gravel pits and quarries throughout WA, ID, OR, AK, MT and western Canada. He acquired Rung in a leveraged buyout in 2001. Mr. Richards sold Rung Industries in December 2010 to a strategic buyer. He previously held positions in business development in the technology industry, as an analyst in Lehman Brothers’ investment banking group and as a CPA at Deloitte & Touche. Mr. Richards has a BA in Business Administration, with Accounting and Finance Concentrations from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Greg and his wife Alison live in Bellevue, WA with their 3 children

For more than three years, Chad Rosen has led the growth of Victory Hemp as founder and CEO and worked as an advocate industry-wide within the U.S. hemp grain supply chain and market. He has initiated product development, manufacturing and products to market to date. Prior to founding Victory Hemp, Chad was VP of Vetrazzo recycled glass surfaces, an eventual division of Polycor North America. He is the recent past president of the Kentucky Hemp Industries Association (KYHIA) and an active member of the Organic Association of Kentucky (OAK). He received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Marquette University and completed additional business course work at the University of New Mexico’s Anderson College of Business as well as the University of New Castle (Australia).

Mr. Sabich is a Managing Director and a founding member of Cimbria Capital. He is based in Houston, Texas and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Prior to joining Cimbria Capital, Mr. Sabich was the Director of Sustainability and Statesmanship at Rasmussen Public Affairs. In this position he developed and implemented global market expansion and sustainability strategies for clients in the agriculture, water, and engineered product sectors. Mr. Sabich worked closely with senior executives and consultant teams across the United States and Europe on corporate strategy, global issues management, and risk assessment. He is an active thought-leader on questions of water investment, water stewardship, and hydro-diplomacy.

During his career, Mr. Sabich has worked on sustainability issues in developed and emerging markets throughout North America, Europe, North Africa, South America, and Oceania. He is a founding member of Acaté Amazon Conservation, an internationally recognized non-profit known for its innovative conservation programs with the Matsés tribe in the Peruvian Amazon.

Mr. Sabich serves on the Board of Directors at AMI Global. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Connecticut in French with a specialization in post-colonial relations. He also holds an M.A. in Francophone studies from Middlebury College, and a B.A. in European History and French from Bates College.

Mr. Ivan Saval is responsible for providing capital markets and financial advisory services to the agribusiness and food related industries at National Securities Corporation, a full service investment bank. He was formerly a Managing Director with the investment banking division of INTL FCStone Financial, Inc. where he covered the agribusiness sectors for domestic and cross border opportunities. Previous to INTL FCStone, he was a generalist involved in leveraged finance and financial sponsor roles with UBS, BNP Paribas, CIBC World Markets and JP Morgan. Mr. Saval holds a B.A. in International Business, Economics and Spanish from Ball State University, and an MBA in Corporate Finance from the Kelley School of Business, of Indiana University, Class of 2000.

Mark Schindel has over 30 years of experience building and managing entrepreneurial businesses in a wide variety of industries. At Iroquois Valley, Mark has responsibility for financial systems and reporting, budgeting and forecasting, reviewing new deal opportunities, and monitoring the investment portfolio.

Mark received his BS from the University of Illinois and his MBA from Northwestern’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He spent most of his career in the private equity business, and as a financial consultant and private investor.

Jim Schultz is the founder of Open Prairie and is responsible for the management of four private equity funds with investments in innovative technologies spanning agriculture, medical devices, and information systems. Funds invested by Open Prairie have resulted in two successful IPO's and created over 4,000 jobs across 22 portfolio investments. His current fund strategy is focused on agri-business investments in rural America under a USDA licensed rural business investment program (RBIP).

Jim is a fifth-generation Illinoisan, agribusiness entrepreneur, and private equity executive. Like his ancestors, Jim has continued his family legacy in agribusiness throughout the America's with investments in ag-tech companies, ag-input companies, rural businesses and farmland. He has owned three proprietary soybean seed companies and three ag-chemical companies along with farmland in the Midwest and Brazil, representing over 17,000 acres. In his hometown of Effingham, Illinois, Jim developed and created in a bean field an office park, Network Centre, that has created over 1,500 professional jobs for college graduates seeking to remain in the east-central Illinois area. He gained extensive leadership experience with growth-stage capital expansion over the years by investing in rural America. Jim has served as the financial expert on mergers and acquisitions for clients in rural America in software development, banking, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and entertainment.

From 2015-2017, Jim served in newly-elected State of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's cabinet as the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity where he oversaw the following departments: business development, job training, energy, film, and tourism. In conjunction with this role, he co-founded Intersect Illinois with Governor Rauner and served as Chairman/CEO, creating the State's first private economic development corporation to represent the Illinois in job creation and business development. He traveled on behalf of Governor Rauner leading Trade Missions to Japan, China, Canada, Germany and France.

Jim is a recognized leader throughout the State of Illinois. He has served as Chairman of the Board for Prime Banc Corporation - a multi-branch rural banking group serving southern and central Illinois - which grew organically from $40 million in assets to over $600 million in assets...all in rural communities in Illinois. He also has served as Chairman of the Board for the following organizations: Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Illinois Community Foundation, The Cross Foundation, and Effingham County Community Foundation. Jim also served on the Advisory Board for the Chicago Federal Reserve.

Jim earned his MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Northwestern University, a Juris Doctor Degree in Corporate Finance from DePaul University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University (cum laude). Jim was born in Teutopolis, Illinois - adjacent to the building which housed his great-great-grandfathers trading post which supplied wagons heading west on the Old National Trail. Jim currently lives in Effingham, Illinois, where he and his wife Laura raised their three sons.

Mr. Shambaugh has over 10 years of experience and is an acknowledged specialist in the farming and agriculture industry. He holds a degree in Business Management from Purdue University. Prior to co-founding DIGS Associates, Mr. Shambaugh founded a drainage water management company. He specializes in surface water management, sub-surface drainage systems, earthmoving, RTK based topographic mapping, computer-aided tile design, and a myriad of other services. Mr. Shambaugh is also proud to be an operator/partner on their 6th generation family farm. They raise conventional corn, soybeans, wheat, and alfalfa. In addition, his family farm has an organic side that also produces organic corn, soybeans, and wheat. He applies the valuable lessons he has learned from the farm to provide clients with the most effectual advice by guiding them with expert knowledge accrued through years of industry experience. He works closely with investors to identify and implement long term strategies for land improvement. Mr. Shambaugh is currently a member of the Land Improvement Contractors Association of Illinois, the Illinois Association of Drainage Districts, the Illinois Farm Bureau, Vice Chairman of the Agricultural Watershed Institute, and Chair of the Macon, Piatt, and Dewitt University of Illinois Extension Council.

Jamie Shen is the Chief Investment Officer of PGIM Agricultural Investments. In this role, she leads the equity team in managing the portfolio of agricultural properties. Jamie is located in San Francisco.

Prior to joining Prudential in 2017, Jamie was an Executive Vice President and Practice Leader of Alternative Investments Consulting with Callan Associates where she had overall responsibility for Real Assets Consulting services. While Jamie’s particular focus was on agriculture and real estate, she oversaw research and implementation of real estate, timber, infrastructure and agricultural asset classes and chaired Callan’s Alternative Investment Committee.

Prior to Callan, Jamie was a Principal with The McMahan Group, a San Francisco based-management consulting firm specializing in real estate enterprises. Jamie has worked in the real estate consulting groups of both Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Ray is Vice President of Strategy and Investment of AgLaunch Initiatives which is a platform for helping farmers and those that serve them engage in the next generation of agricultural opportunities through building a network of farmer-owned data, funding sources, and incubation capabilities for agtech and related innovations within a proactively inclusive operating environment.

He comes to AgLaunch with over 30 years of experience in finance and asset management in both the agriculture and forestry sectors. Having professional experiences in many of the premier agricultural areas of the US, his successes on the transaction side of his career lead to increasing leadership opportunities. Prior to joining AgLaunch, Ray was responsible for leading the agricultural lending platform for PGIM Real Estate Finance encompassing a diversified portfolio of mortgage loans in excess of $4.0 Billion. He leverages this experience to help strategically position farmers, startup companies, and capital providers to develop sustainable business models.

Ray joined AgLaunch in 2019 where he is responsible for strategic development and investments. He is passionate about developing an ecosystem that builds opportunities in rural America by providing technology, capital and opportunity, where the farmer is the main beneficiary.

Ray graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a degree in Agricultural Business and an MBA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He lives in Franklin, TN with his wife of 30 years and happens to be near both his children and two grandchildren.

Howard is a Managing Partner at Lighthouse Finance responsible for the Global Capital Markets team. Lighthouse is a boutique investment and advisory firm focused on financing the entire value chain of the seafood industry particularly in aquaculture. The firm has financed over EUR 750m in transactions. Prior to Lighthouse, Howard was Global Head of Debtwire Research managing a 40-member analyst team across four regional offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. His team was responsible for publishing real-time distressed debt research for a global audience of hedge funds, institutional investors,and distressed-focused advisory firms. Howard also spent a stint as a M&A advisor to insurance companies advising on industry roll-up strategies.

Perry 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%. Perry 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, Perry practiced law in Chicago specializing in securities and corporate law. 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. Perry graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School with a J.D. and obtained a B.S. in accounting from Marquette University.

Shonda Warner is the founder and managing director of Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners which has invested in farming and agri-business since 2006. Chess Ag has both managed and developed more than 50,000 acres of agricultural land across the U.S. Warner has more than 40 years experience farming and managing agricultural products, financial assets and hedge funds around the world.

Warner is a member of the board of directors of ACDI-VOCA and Agribusiness Systems International (ASI), one of the largest non-profit development organizations implementing food, agriculture, innovative agriculture financing and food security projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development, The Gates Foundation, and other donors in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Warner also serves as an advisor to AGree, a collaboration funded by leading foundations to forge policy consensus and tackle the critical challenges of the global food and agriculture system. In 1998 Warner was a founding member of the Indian Environmental Trust, originally established to protect the fragile ecosystem that underpins the environs of Mumbai.

Out of concern for the need to strengthen rural communities, Warner created the non-profit, the PORCH Society, dedicated to the preservation of rural cultural heritage. Warner is a fellow at the Linnaean Society of London, the world’s oldest active biological society founded in 1788. Warner was born and raised on her parents’ family farm in Nebraska and earned her grain grading license at the age of 15 while helping to operate the family grain elevator.

Prior to Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners , Warner was based in London as the managing partner of the fund of hedge funds Chess Capital Partners from 2002 through 2006. From 1998 through 2002, she was co-managing director and partner of Montier Partners, also an UK-based fund of funds. From 1989 through 2002, Warner was an executive director at Goldman Sachs where she was a member of the London and Tokyo equity derivatives and the global proprietary trading desks. Ten years ago, Warner helped found MENA Capital, one of the first hedge funds focused on the Middle East and North Africa and serves on it. She began her career in 1985 as a grain trader at Cargill. She graduated from the University of Texas in Austin where she studied zoology and physical anthropology.

Craig Wichner founded Farmland LP in 2009 and is responsible for day-to-day management, business strategy and all investment activity. Craig is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of experience building companies, such as Depotech, which developed and currently produces an FDA-approved treatment for metastatic brain cancer (sold to Skyepharma), and Kindmark, which developed and sold automated employee charitable contribution programs for Fortune 500 Companies (sold to Kintera, now Blackbaud). Craig has been involved in investment real estate for over 25 years. Craig has a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, with a minor in Economics, from the University of California, San Diego.

Miljan Ždrale is a Head of EBRD’s Agribusiness for Central and South East Europe as part of Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness Group in the Banking division.
Since 2002 when he joined EBRD, Miljan participated/led, in Agribusiness only, more than 40 transactions in the amount exceeding EUR 1.5bln. He is responsible for EBRD projects in agribusiness, food retail and FMCG in CSEE, jointly managing active sector portfolio in CSEE region in excess of EUR 2bln, with annual new investment of EUR 150-200m in private sector projects in CSEE. Miljan is the key contact for many large international (Bunge, Coca Cola Hellenic, AholdDelhaize Group, Lidl etc.) and regional companies from the CSEE. He has been a Non-Executive Director at the Supervisory Boards of: i) Carlsberg’s operations in Belarus; ii) Agri Europe Cyprus with agribusiness operations in Balkans; iii) Moji Brendovi/My Brands (Imlek, Bambi and Knjaz Milos), the leading FMCG group in Balkans in dairy, confectionary and beverage segment, majority owned by private equity fund Mid Europa Partners (confectionary and beverage were bought by Coca Cola and KMV/Pepsi co in 2019) and iv) Voli, the leading local retail chain in Montenegro. He is also appointed Board member at Axereal, one of the leading French co-operative with operations in France, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Romania. Miljan holds BSc/MSc in Finance, attended Executive Education for Private Equity at Saad Business School and Agribusiness Seminar at Harvard Business School. He speaks Serbian/ Croatian, English and Russian.