Cassie is a creative connector integrating people, science, and legal solutions to drive business growth. She is a scientist and an attorney with extensive experience in intellectual property, regulatory, licensing, collaborations, and business strategy related to agricultural technologies.

Prior to joining MVS as a partner, Cassie was Chief IP & Regulatory Officer for Genus PLC., a U.K. based genetics company utilizing gene editing technology, and was a board observer for Caribou Biosciences. Cassie was also at Pioneer DuPont (now Corteva) for 14 years, where she served in research, legal and management roles including IP Counsel, Sr. Regulatory Counsel, and Director.

With her direct scientific, IP, regulatory, and business leadership experience, Cassie advises clients in product lifecycle management from discovery through post-product launch for regulated products.

Her areas of focus include intellectual property, regulatory law, licensing, enabling collaborations, and working closely on behalf of clients with regulatory agencies such as the USDA, FDA, and EPA.

Cassie holds a B.S. in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University, and an M.S. with an emphasis in Biomathematics from North Carolina State University. She obtained her law degree from Drake University, and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Over his extensive career, Brent has founded and led companies in AgTech, autonomous vehicles and professional services, always with a focus on using artificial intelligence to drive significant change. He often speaks about the impact of AI on agriculture and the future of work. Before being COO at Verdant Robotics, Brent was the CEO of Stout Industrial Technology, where he led the global expansion of the company and its strategic partnership with CNH Industrial. Brent acts as an Advisor for multiple startups and is a passionate advocate for bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and Salinas Valley for the benefit of agriculture.

Sebastian Ortiz-Chamorro is a software development entrepreneur, industry leader, and academic. After earning his software engineering degree at the Catholic University of Asunción, Paraguay in 2000, his career jumped to the international stage. Living in the U.S. from 2002 to 2005, he worked for a Minnesota-based company building a health-insurance personalization engine.

Since then, he continued providing software development services for U.S. clients, mainly in Minnesota and California. He formed a network of top local talent in Paraguay and acquired Softdreams S.R.L., a small software company, in 2013. Softdreams got to employ more than 100 professionals providing high-performance agile software development services, mainly for U.S. companies using the “Software Natura” brand. This company was acquired by MentorMate in 2023.

In academia, he uses his international industry experience to help develop advanced human resources in Paraguay. He is a part-time researcher and professor of Database Systems at the Catholic University of Asuncion. He authored academic papers on human-computer interaction, is a co-author of Paraguay’s national accreditation standards for all software undergraduate academic degrees and was the President of a software accreditation committee at the Catholic University of Asunción in 2016.

Sebastian was the President of Cisoft (Paraguay’s chamber of software companies, comprised of 60+ members) and was appointed by Paraguay’s government to be a member of the National Digital Strategy Council.

Ben Voss is the Director of Sales for North America and Australia with Raven Industries.  An Agricultural & Bioresource Engineering graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, Ben has worked in several long-term roles in agribusiness, private equity and technology.  Born and raised on a farm near Spiritwood, Saskatchewan, he has farmed part-time since 2011.  However, throughout his career he has travelled to over 35 countries over various periods of his life through his professional endeavours.   During his tenure at Raven, he has been a collaborative leader in many of the commercial activities, including the Autonomy technology developments. 

As a recognized business leader, Ben works as an executive, board member, farmer, agriculture engineer, technology expert and community volunteer.  He has dedicated a significant portion of his life to philanthropy and community volunteering, specifically as a board member with STARS, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the University of Saskatchewan Alumni.  Currently, Ben works both in the United States and Canada and lives with his family in Sioux Falls, SD and Spiritwood, Saskatchewan.   

Heather oversees the content offerings across brands, leading a team of talented contributors to produce best-in-class content. She is focused on driving strategic, innovative, multi-format content across multiple channels to grow audience engagement and amplify the value that MMW provides to our audiences. She holds an M.S. in International Marketing Management from Boston University and a B.S. in Magazine Journalism from Ohio University, and has more than 20 years of experience in journalism, content marketing and business leadership roles.

Clare helps people to present themselves, their businesses, and their ideas. She learned how to engage and entertain an audience during her 25-year career as a broadcast journalist, working in TV and radio news across
the BBC and other UK broadcast outlets.

Clare has also worked in private business, undertaking Fortune 500 executive interviews, hosting business events and roundtable discussions dealing with a variety of subjects and industries. Based in the UK, she now runs her own business, using the skills she developed in her journalism career to facilitate and emcee business events and train people in media and presentation skills.

Clare has hosted events for many different organisations including Mitel, KPMG, PwC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Accenture, on subjects as diverse as sustainability, global supply chains, higher education, menopause in the workplace, CX, FinTech, CRM, HR, Data and Security.

Doug Applegate started farming and taking night classes at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs at age 16.  He earned an associate degree in Farm Management and has taken many additional studies including programming and electronics.  He and his wife love farming, working together and serving in their church.  Doug has always enjoyed building things for the farm and passed this passion onto their two sons. 

Praxidyn, their manufacturing company, was started with their sons to create automation for the farm.  Mechatronics is their specialty, and they do the mechanical and electronic engineering along with all the software from the embedded control, app, and cloud service software.  Mixmate is their first product and is an automated blending and recordkeeping system primarily used to blend crop protection products.  Farming and engineering are Doug’s two career choices, and he has the privilege of doing both with his family.   

Doug has also been involved with AgGateway since 2012.  AgGateway is a global, non-profit organization with the mission to develop the resources and relationships that drive digital connectivity in global agriculture and related industries.  He works with many individuals and companies who contribute their time in standardizing data communications so that farm equipment and office data systems can all work together for the traceability of crop inputs and farm production. 

All of these endeavors have led to greater operating efficiency for their farm and for others around the world.