Feb 22, 2019
(Top left) Dr. Gene Giacomelli, Lauren Baker, Djavid Amidi-Abraham, Yara Nagi, Henry Gordon-Smith, Robert Glanville.
(Bottom left) Jeffrey Landau, David Ceaser, Scott Carrus
Agritecture Consulting is growing! After nearly five years of providing global urban agriculture services, we decided to welcome aboard a strategic advisory board. After our first advisory board meeting last week, it became clear how important this committee’s role will be for the future of Agritecture. Our primary goal in having an advisory board is to increase our scalability through strategic guidance and subject matter expertise advising. We’re excited to have recruited these experts to join Agritecture on this exciting journey. Keep reading to learn more about our advisory board committee and the newest members of the Agritecture team!
Meet Our Advisory Board
Dr. Gene Giacomelli comes to us as the former Director and Professor of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center at The University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona, USA. Dr. Giacomelli has gained international reputation through his pioneering work and expertise in the area of protected crops. Growing food on other planets is one of the collaborative international projects that he is leading, which is supported by the NASA Space Grant Consortium at the University of Arizona. The focus is efficient use of water, energy and other resources for implementation of a food and life support system for Moon/Mars. The results from this project will be applied to Earth protected agriculture food production systems.
Lauren Baker, PhD, has over 20 years of experience working on food systems issues. Her experience ranges from researching agricultural biodiversity in Mexico to negotiating and developing municipal food policy and programs. Lauren has consulted on farm to fork initiatives and food systems policy development across Canada and globally.
Lauren’s expertise lies in sustainable food systems, food systems policy, food security, city-region food policy and planning. Lauren has worked with diverse clients to develop strategic plans, feasibility studies, undertake research, program planning and evaluation, and advise on policy development.
Robert Glanville advises growth businesses as they navigate the financial, operational, and technical challenges of expansion. Robert Glanville was a founding partner and led the financial services investment team of Pine Brook Road Partners, senior vice president, financial and treasury services for Arch Capital Group, Ltd., and was with Warburg Pincus. Before joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Glanville founded FA Services, an emerging markets financial services and investment boutique based in Moscow. From 1988 to 1992, Mr. Glanville worked in New York and Tokyo for Morgan Stanley.
Mr. Glanville is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his experience in private equity investing and his financial expertise, as well as his management and investment experience with consulting businesses, financial services and insurance and reinsurance companies, and other growth businesses.
The team visits Farm.One in NYC
In addition to our advisory board, Agritecture has welcomed aboard three new team members.
Verena conducts data analysis and advises on the efficiency of Agritecture’s urban agriculture models. Verena develops an internal tool, which comprises data from Agritecture’s past client projects and data on urban farms from around the world. Verena further advises on the organization of Agritecture’s data landscape, is involved in writing proposals, setting up industry surveys and developing concepts for Agritecture's service expansion.
Briana is a marketing consulting professional who works on Agritecture’s digital marketing strategy. She helps manage Agritecture’s blog, newsletter, social media platforms, and provides marketing consulting on client projects. Her goal is to use Agritecture’s platforms as a means of providing further education on urban agriculture and local food systems to our global audience.
Susie recently graduated from Imperial College London where she obtained her BSc in Biochemistry with Management. Susie joined Agritecture as a market research intern in November 2018. Here, her primary responsibility is to conduct research on the urban ag industry around the world and to keep our team up-to-date on current affairs. She also assists with business development to promote Agritecture to a wider audience and help spread the benefits of higher level sustainability practices.
Further Reading
AGRITECTURE ACCELERATES URBAN AGRICULTURE AROUND THE WORLD