As Vice President of Marketing for AquaSpy, Kathleen is helping farmers embrace technology to make their farms more profitable. Kathleen has over two decades of sales and marketing experience in SaaS and managed services for emerging technologies including IoT, CyberSecurity, Privacy, and AI.
Robin Raskin is the Founder of The Virtual Events Group, a community that explores how we will meet in a tech-first future. A long-time journalist, author, publisher, event producer, and advocate for integrating technology into lifestyle, Raskin was one of the early editors of PC Magazine, and one of the first women in technology publishing. Later she founded FamilyPC, and helped create Yahoo!Tech as well as other tech-forward publications. She’s the author of 6 books on technology and appeared regularly on CBS and other networks.
In 2008 she founded Living in Digital Times (LIDT), the producers of a number of conferences and expos at conferences and events worldwide. The company’s trademark events include: The Last Gadget Standing, Digital Health Summit, FashionWare, Fitness Tech Summit, Kids@Play Summit, High Tech Retailing, Wearable Tech Summit and others. The Consumer Technology Association acquired the company in January 2020. Raskin continues to consult for them and other technology clients focusing on metaverse and digital event strategies. She writes a weekly column about the intersection of technology and the economy for Techonomy.
Raskin plays an active role in high-tech policy issues. She has served on the National Academy of Sciences committee to explore Internet Safety, is a Trustee of the CTA Foundation, and is a director of the Global Industry Council founded under UNESCO. She won a lifetime achievement award from the CTA in 2020.
Brendan Bachman is the Sr. Agronomy Technology Manager for GROWMARK serving members across the GROWMARK cooperative system. Currently he leads GROWMARK Agronomy Technology, myFS, and MiField brands focusing on technology strategy and implementation. Before joining GROWMARK in June 2016, Brendan served within the FS System as a Precision Agriculture Specialist and Crop Specialist in west-central, Illinois for 10 years. As a CCA and 4R Nutrient Management Specialist, Brendan strives to provide value added technology and agronomic information to FS members and farmers across the cooperative system.
Aaron Magenheim is an entrepreneur who grew up in California Agriculture and has become a global industry leader facilitating Agriculture and food system modernization. As CEO and co-founder, his companies Growers Insight and AgTech Insight specialize in operational and business strategy and implementation through business process mapping by aligning business, processes, data, people, and technology. As a realistic boots-on-the-ground expert, Aaron leads diverse teams advising growers, food companies, Co-ops, Corporates, Governments, investors, and startups on building successful ecosystems leveraging best processes, practices, and technology throughout the Agri-Food supply chain.
Julian Candanosa is the Engineering and Technologies Director at NatureSweet. He has 30 years of experience in various branches of industry, including paper, food, electronics, and appliances. He has led teams in manufacturing and maintenance and has implemented various work systems: Lean, TPM, SMED, High Efficiency Work Teams, etc. Candanosa has also led packing operations and new product development at NatureSweet. Today, he is in charge of all new greenhouses installation and new packaging technologies for NatureSweet.
Mike is the Head of Agriculture Data Exchange (ADX) at TELUS Agriculture, one of the world’s largest, pure play agriculture technology teams focused on creating better food outcomes by connecting and digitizing our food ecosystem from seed growers to grocers. As head of ADX, Mike leads the team responsible for providing a better exchange of information across the full value chain by linking systems together in new ways, which will drive trust, efficiency, and innovation across the industry. Prior to joining TELUS Agriculture, Mike was a founding member of AgIntegrated, the global leader in providing neutral data integration services to enable software vendors and enterprises for over 10 years.
Mike holds an MBA from Saint Francis University and a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Penn State University.
Kris Covey is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program at Skidmore College where he studies terrestrial ecosystems and their role in climate and life. An Applied Ecologist, and a Biogeochemist, Kris works to integrate his research into solutions for managing human-dominated landscapes for multiple values.
After designing the global study that provided the first robust estimate of number of trees on earth (3.04 trillion), Kris turned his focus to large-scale, soil-carbon mapping using a novel combination of existing technologies. Prior to joining the faculty at Skidmore College, Dr. Covey was the lead scientist at the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative and a Lecturer in Forest Dynamics at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. There, he co-founded the Western Research Fellowship at the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative and the Quick Carbon research program, served as a member of the School’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Committee, and as a member of Yale University’s Carbon Offset Task Force. As a contributor to the Global Carbon Project’s Methane Working Group, he authors the vegetation section of the Global Methane Budget. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for The Adirondack Nature Conservancy and the New York State Wood Products Development Council.
In 2020, Kris co-founded The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) along with Bruno Basso. Together with private, industry, academic, and foundation partners they are building a distributed national-scale soil inventory system to inform soil management and markets. Through a novel combination of app-based automated sampling design, and distributed soil sampling tools allowing anyone to collect near-surface soil samples, TSIP is building regional scale models capable of linking individual producer practices to measurable outcomes.
Bailey Stockdale is the founder & CEO of Leaf: food & agriculture’s data infrastructure company. Bailey has worked with food and agriculture technology since 2014 as a software developer, entrepreneur, and EIR at SP Ventures’ AgTech fund. Bailey is passionate about empowering developers that are solving farming, health, and sustainability challenges through food and agriculture technology. With Leaf, he contributes to broadening industry access and building the tools that food and agriculture technology needs to scale. Leaf provides farm data infrastructure similar to Plaid in finance, Twilio in communications, or Stipe in payments.
Ben Sloan is Senior Vice President of Product for EFC Systems. He is responsible for the design, development, and deployment of FieldAlytics. Prior to his role at EFC, Ben led the development of first of its kind tools at AgSolver connecting farm profitability with environmental performance. Ben holds Masters and Bachelor’s Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University.
Rob leads Ernst & Young’s (EY) agribusiness sector globally and focuses on strategy, innovation, and M&A in the agribusiness and food sectors. As EY’s global leader, he works directly with client executives to optimize their approach in global markets and serves as lead partner on accounts ranging from seed/chem, agri-retail, grain processing, and meat processing.
Rob’s experience ranges from growth strategy to operating model design to digital innovation across the agri, food, and beverage value chain. He works with client executives in the design and implementation of the appropriate operating model for their business, including strategy/portfolio management, marketing/merchandising, digital agriculture, operational areas, and back-office efficiency.
