Dave Gebhardt is the General Manager at EarthDaily Agro. Before joining EarthDaily Analytics, Dave spent more than 25 years in the agriculture industry in various plant genetics, agronomy, and technology leadership roles with companies such as Coors Brewing Company, DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred, Land O’Lakes/WinField United, and Geosys. Dave earned his Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from Iowa State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

John is the Global Partner Lead for Agriculture at Amazon Web Services where he leads strategy and engagement with leading agriculture startups, technology and consulting companies. John spent 23 years at John Deere in senior leadership roles including Manager New Tractor Programs, Director of Corporate Strategy and Director of Technology where he led Precision Ag R&D, the acquisition of Blue River Technology and the startup of John Deere Labs. Prior to AWS John served as Chief Operating Officer at Sukup Manufacturing and Senior Vice President of Agriculture at DTN. John serves as an advisor for several technology startups focused on the application of AI, data science, robotics, and autonomous solutions.

John has been involved in production agriculture throughout his life. Growing up in northeast Iowa, he spent his youth working in a family business serving farmers. He graduated from Iowa State University, with a BS in Industrial Technology and later with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. Today, John and his family remain actively involved in a family farming operation and also manage prairie habitat, food plots and timber to support their passions for whitetail deer and pheasant hunting.

Sona Raziabeegum is a Senior Director of Precision Technology Strategy at CNH Industrial. She is a seasoned strategist passionate about solving agriculture’s most challenging problems using technology. She is focused on amplifying farmers’ profitability and sustainability by harnessing AI, cloud, IoT, and data analytics. She holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the College of Engineering Trivandrum, India.

Henry Gordon-Smith is a sustainability strategist focused on urban agriculture, water issues, and emerging technologies. Henry earned his BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, coursework in Food Security and Urban Agriculture from Ryerson University in Toronto, and an MSc in Sustainability Management from Columbia University. In 2014, Henry responded to a global need for technology-agnostic guidance on urban agriculture by launching the advisory firm Agritecture Consulting which has now consulted on over 200 urban agriculture projects in over 40 countries.

Michele is a Business Development Manager at John Deere ISG. In this position, Michele leads investment activities for targeted opportunities aligned to strategy. She leads market scanning activities and fosters and maintains relationships with early-stage tech startup companies and technologies relevant to ag and construction industries. Michele leads the John Deere Startup Collaborator.

Michele joined Deere in 2011 as Sr. Engineer responsible for EGR cooler development for iT4 and FT4 engines, as well as 6.8L air system development. In June 2013, she was appointed CI Engineering Manager for S350 T4 Engines, responsible for leadership of warranty issue resolution. In December of 2014, she accepted the position of Backhoe Program Manager, which she held until she accepted the role of SQE Manager for the C&F Division in April 2017. Following a role as crawler production supervisor, Michele’s most recent role was Assembly Business Unit Manager at Engine Works. Prior to John Deere, Michele worked as a team leader in product engineering at Behr, including new product development and advanced engineering in Stuttgart, Germany. Michele started her career in engineering for Cummins, Inc. She holds a BS degree in Engineering from the University of Dayton, a Master of Engineering Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the University of WisconsinMadison. She has co-authored three technical papers and holds one international patent. Michele is fluent in German.

Michael has been active in the Digital transformation of Agriculture since 1994, as it continues to evolve from Precision technologies to Decision based systems with a careers experience of implementing electronics for automation from planting through harvest. As Vice President of Strategic Business Development – Agriculture for Topcon his responsibilities combine strategic relationships, product development and business strategy to drive growth. His personal experience includes utilizing technologies of measurement; optical, sonic, and positioning toward improving in field efficiency and is a co-inventor on patents for Auto Steering, Sensors and User Interface. In support of developing a stronger industry, Michael currently serves on the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), Ag sector board, co-chairs the councils for Ag Innovation & Future of Food and serves on the Regulatory council. He received bi-partisan endorsement in being appointed to serve a 2nd term on the federal taskforce for the Connectivity & Technology needs of Precision Agriculture in the USA under the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). He is a founding board member of Ag Data Coalition not for profit corporation and has served as moderator of Germany’s VDI conference on Connected Off Highway vehicles 2018-2021. Michael is frequently a guest speaker at conferences and podcasts on Precision Agriculture or related subjects.

As a native of California, he has familiarity with vegetable crop production and irrigation of the Western US. Michael holds a BS from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; MBA from Golden Gate University, graduate of the California Ag Leadership Program (Class 33) and has also been recognized as a member of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. He and his wife Kara have a daughter and enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, and beef cattle ranching in their spare time.

Aaron co-founded CropTrak in 2009 and continues to manage day-to-day operations using over 30 years of software and program management experience in connecting and optimizing dramatically shifting ecosystems.

Today CropTrak is a global enterprise software company that helps Food and Agriculture clients digitally operationalize and analyze their crop supply chains to manage risks better, improve operations, and provide verifiable metrics for Compliance, Certifications, and ESG for more than 73 identity-preserved and specialty crops in 70 countries worldwide in 15 languages.

Gabe Sibley, PhD, Founder and CEO of Verdant Robotics, led the company to deliver agriculture’s first multi-action autonomous system capable of millimeter-accurate spraying and high-fidelity digital farm modeling.

Gabe’s more than 20 years of experience in geo-spatial computation and AI includes serving as principal investigator for NASA, NSF, DARPA and the Department of Defense to create ethical applications of autonomous technology. Gabe was co-founder and CEO of autonomous delivery company Zippy.ai, acquired by GM, and Chief Science Officer for autonomous taxi company Zoox, acquired by Amazon.

Frequently cited for his extensive research, Gabe’s work has focused on the synthesis of perception, learning, planning, and control to endow robots with long-term autonomous capability.

Gabe earned his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California working with the NASAJet Propulsion Lab. He completed his post-doctoral research at Oxford University and was on the faculty at George Washington University. He is currently on the faculty at Colorado State University at Boulder.

Omar Gomez is the Washington lead at Hectre, the award-winning fruit tech start-up delivering data visibility via computer vision AI early fruit sizing solutions, and digital orchard management apps.

Working closely with fruit industry executives, private equity firms and family-owned fruit businesses, and backed by a degree in Political Economics, Omar represents the new generation of fruit tech leaders assisting industry to adopt technologies that optimize labor and yield, whilst minimizing wastage.

A childhood spent surrounded by the vast fruit farms of the Yakima Valley led to experience in all facets of fruit production and post harvest processes, providing an extensive understanding of the complexities of agriculture.

Having recently welcomed daughter Avery into the world, Omar has added another credential to his resume – that of exhausted and awe-struck first time father!

Hectre were recently named double award winners in the global AgTech Breakthrough Awards and will offer a Series A round later this year.

Nitin is a tech enthusiast with 17 years of experience in digital strategy and innovation as well as execution and management of strategic initiatives for clients across ag tech, finance, supply chain, and healthcare. Using his in-depth expertise in human-centered design and product innovation, he has helped organizations navigate their path from a sticky note all the way through development. He shares a passion for emerging technologies and trends and is relentless in his pursuit to align business outcomes to technology solutions for his stakeholders.