Rick Rice

Rick Rice

Director, Application Technology, AMVAC Chemical Company

Rick Rice is the Director, Application Technology for AMVAC Chemical Corporation. He’s responsible for SmartBox® commercial operations and he directs the SIMPAS development team. SIMPAS, the Smart, Integrated, Multi-product, Prescriptive Application System will make it easy for farmers to practice 4R’s stewardship with at-planting crop protection chemicals. By utilizing prescriptions to precisely apply fungicides, insecticides, micronutrients and nematicides, only to geo-specific areas of need; SIMPAS will enable maximum agronomic performance with minimum environmental exposure.

Rick gained extensive experience in the seed, chemical, and traits business with Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land, AgrEvo, and Elanco, and in the area of spatial yield data analysis while working as technology director for AgVeritas during a joint assignment with Plant Health Care, plc and XS, Inc.

Rick will provide an update on development progress and ultimate commercialization plans for SIMPAS application equipment and technology.

Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, American Vanguard Corporation (AMVAC) is a diversified specialty and agricultural products company that develops and markets products for crop protection and management, turf and ornamentals management and public and animal health. COUNTER®, AZTEC® and Thimet® insecticides, and IMPACT® and SCEPTER® herbicides are just a few of the well-known products from AMVAC.

AMVAC manufactures and sells SmartBox® closed handling equipment for the application of granular soil insecticide products. SIMPAS represents a major evolution in the advancement of easy, accurate, at-plant, in-furrow prescriptive application of multiple products in a single pass that will revolutionize precision agriculture and the way crop protection products are applied. To learn more, please visit amvac-chemical.com

Sarai Kemp

Sarai Kemp

VP Business Development, Trendlines Agtech

Sarai Kemp is responsible for directing the business and financial development, and fund-raising strategies and activities, for early-stage companies developing technologies and products in Agtech and Foodtech.

Sarai brings more than 12 years’ experience in agricultural, consumer goods, and high-tech industries, including in international companies such as Afimilk and Keter Plastic. She has worked intensively with companies in East Asia.

Sarai received an MBA from Haifa University.

Trendlines Agtech is part of The Trendlines Group (www.trendlines.com).

The Trendlines Group establishes, develops, and invests in technology-based medical and agricultural companies in accordance with our mission “to improve the human condition” by discovering, investing in, incubating, and providing extensive support to its portfolio companies.

When we invest in a new early-stage company, we provide intensive support, including R&D, business development, market and commercialization strategy, investment strategy, finance planning, legal consultancy, human resource recruitments, and marketing communications. In addition, during their first two or three years, our portfolio companies are located in our offices and receive extensive overhead support.

Roric Paulman

Roric Paulman

Nebraska farmer and Chair, Nebraska Water Balance Alliance

Since he first began farming, Paulman has had a passion for developing practices that set benchmarks for excellence and continuous improvement in all phases of his operation. He is active on state, regional, and national boards for many of the crops he grows, but in particular is focused on helping to promote farmer understanding of best practices in water use efficiency. He provides leadership of the Nebraska Water Balance Alliance, an organization that catalyzes best practices among Nebraska farmers by emphasizing practical, locally focused watershed management practices.

Established and harvested first crop in 1985, Paulman Farms is a dba joint venture with Deb & Roric Paulman. The  8,500-acre rain-fed and irrigated farming operation produces a wide range of crops, including yellow and white corn, yellow popcorn, soybeans, dry edible beans, hard red winter wheat, yellow field peas, grain sorghum, confection/ oil sunflowers, chia, sugar beets, and potatoes. It is located in southwest Nebraska, with land that extends into Lincoln, Keith and Perkins counties.

Danny Royer

Danny Royer

Vice President of Technology​, Bowles Farming Company, Inc.

Danny has ​a degree in Agriculture Systems Management from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He has spent most of his career playing management roles in large Farming and Farm Service Operations. In February of 2016 Danny started his role as the Vice President of Technology and Bowles Farming Company in Los Banos. Danny is responsible for researching new and emerging technologies for the farm and developing integration strategies for scaling proven solutions.

Bowles Farming Company is a family owned and operated farming operation located near Los Banos in the Central Valley of California. We produce primarily annual crops with a focus on Tomatoes, Extra Long Staple Cotton, Watermelons, Cantaloupe, Corn Nuts, Carrots, Alfalfa and other specialty crops.

At Bowles, we value our employees and their families and understand their importance to our farm and its success. We focus on the health of our soil and are good stewards for all our resources. Conservation and preservation are of the utmost importance. As the 6th generation of family to farm in California we believe our success is a testament to the value we place on true sustainability and we have confidence that our future generations will continue this tradition.

David Eddy

David Eddy

Editor, American Fruit Grower & Western Fruit Grower magazines

David Eddy is Editor, American Fruit Grower and Western Fruit Grower magazines. He is a Contributing Editor to American Vegetable Grower magazine, also published by Meister Media Worldwide, and the website, www.GrowingProduce.com. A native Minnesotan who grew up on the East Coast, Dave is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and resides in Modesto, CA.

Aidan Connolly

Aidan Connolly

Chief Innovation Officer & Vice President, Corporate Accounts, Alltech

Aidan Connolly has been with Alltech for more than 25 years, initially in Ireland and afterward in France, Brazil and the United States. From 2002 to 2008, he held the position of vice president of Europe for Alltech.

Having moved from Washington, D.C., Connolly is now based at Alltech’s corporate headquarters near Lexington, Kentucky, USA, as Alltech’s chief innovation officer and vice president of corporate accounts. Connolly is responsible for the commercialization of Alltech’s global research, in addition to corporate account strategy within the company. His expertise is in branding, agriculture and international marketing.

Connolly is an adjunct professor of marketing at University College Dublin and China Agricultural University. He is an executive board member of the International Feed Industry Federation, the National Chicken Council and the National Turkey Federation. He is also a former board member of the European Union Association of Specialty Feed Ingredients and their Mixtures and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. Connolly is responsible for the highly anticipated Alltech Global Feed Survey, which is released annually. He also led the implementation of The Pearse Lyons Accelerator, a late-stage, agri-tech accelerator run by Alltech and Dogpatch Labs, which received 184 applications from more than 30 countries.

He received a bachelor’s degree in commerce from University College Dublin and a master’s degree in international marketing from the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin.

Founded in 1980 by Irish biochemist and entrepreneur Dr. Pearse Lyons, Alltech is a leading global biotechnology company whose mission is to improve the health and performance of people, animals and plants through natural nutrition and scientific innovation. We pursue this mission guided by what we call the ACE principle, our promise that in doing business we have a positive impact on the Animal, the Consumer and the Environment.

Headquartered in Kentucky, Alltech trades in 129 countries worldwide and has more than 4,700 employees, with 77 production facilities strategically positioned across the globe and three bioscience centers, dedicated to research and education, two located in the USA and one in Ireland.

Alltech is the only privately held and family-owned business among the top ten animal health companies in the world. This is a source of competitive advantage, allowing them to stay focused on customer needs, innovation and long-term objectives.

Alan L. Boyce

Alan L. Boyce

Chairman and Co-Founder, Materra, LLC

Bob is a former Intel Automation Design Engineer revolutionizing how semiconductor manufacturing is performed in “lights out” manufacturing.  Bob was also influential in the creation and production of television shows such as BattleBots and RobotWars through his production company, BotBash.  Later, Bob created 4FX Design working with the USFIRST competition to create technology for the largest STEM education robot competitions in the world.  Recently, Bob has been working with the farming community to develop automation.

Harvest CROO Robotics is a highly collaborative enterprise that was founded by strawberry grower, Gary Wishnatzki, and robotic engineer, Robert Pitzer.  It has brought together growers, investors, and suppliers to achieve their initial goal of development of an autonomous robotic strawberry picker.  Nearly $1 billion is spent annually, in the U.S. to harvest strawberries. That is the initial target market. The company is currently completing their Alpha unit. Harvest CROO’s business model is Robotics as a Service (RaaS) and their financial model is founded on saving growers money. Harvest CROO Robotics expects to be a leader in agricultural robotics.

Materra was formed in 2011 by Alan Boyce, Ejnar Knudsen and Brent Grizzle with several key goals for the company. They wanted to identify special situations and mispriced agricultural assets, and acquire and operate land, farming businesses, water rights and leases. They focused on converting farmland to its highest and best use while implementing sustainable farming practices to conserve natural resources. They sought to expand operations through both acquisitions and organic growth with a long-term outlook to build a sizeable and sustainable operating company. The company focuses on assets that yield attractive returns and use debt financing conservatively, and owns real assets that appreciate over time as protection against inflation.

Bob Pitzer

Bob Pitzer

Co-Founder and CTO, Harvest CROO Robotics, LLC.

Bob is a former Intel Automation Design Engineer revolutionizing how semiconductor manufacturing is performed in “lights out” manufacturing.  Bob was also influential in the creation and production of television shows such as BattleBots and RobotWars through his production company, BotBash.  Later, Bob created 4FX Design working with the USFIRST competition to create technology for the largest STEM education robot competitions in the world.  Recently, Bob has been working with the farming community to develop automation.

Harvest CROO Robotics is a highly collaborative enterprise that was founded by strawberry grower, Gary Wishnatzki, and robotic engineer, Robert Pitzer.  It has brought together growers, investors, and suppliers to achieve their initial goal of development of an autonomous robotic strawberry picker.   Nearly $1 billion is spent annually, in the U.S. to harvest strawberries.  That is the initial target market.  The company is currently completing their Alpha unit.  Harvest CROO’s business model is Robotics as a Service (RaaS) and their financial model is founded on saving growers money.  Harvest CROO Robotics expects to be a leader in agricultural robotics.

Tony Koselka

Tony Koselka

Co-Founder, Vision Robotics Corporation

Tony Koselka, a co-founder of Vision Robotics Corporation is an award-winning design engineer. He earned two degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT and is a professional engineer. He successfully co-founded and sold his first start-up, CyberGear. He has designed or managed the design of all the mechanical systems including those on the VR Lettuce Thinner and grapevine pruner.

Vision Robotics was formed in 1999 with the goal of developing autonomous robotic solutions based on machine vision. Coupling mature vision algorithms with the output of additional sensors provides a robust base and cost effective approach to robotics. The company entered the agricultural market in 2004. It released its VR Lettuce Thinner in 2012 that collectively have thinned well over 100,000 acres. The company has recently completed weeders based on the thinner technology. The technology enables robots to intelligently and accurately perform myriad tasks including thinning plants and pruning grapevines. Vision Robotics’ experience and creativity make it an excellent partner for companies looking for assistance in developing robots.

Israel Alguindigue

Israel Alguindigue

Senior Vice President, Industrial Analytics, Uptake

Israel Alguindigue is Senior VP, Industrial Analytics, at Uptake where he focuses on implementing analytics programs that improve asset performance, operation and safety for customers.

Israel attended the University of Tennessee where he earned a doctoral degree in engineering sciences with a focus on monitoring and diagnostics (M&D) of complex systems. He has published 100+ articles on M&D, safety, IoT and automation.

 Israel has held past roles at Emerson Electric and GE Transportation.

Uptake is the actionable insights platform, delivering products that produce outcomes to make industry more reliable, productive, safe and secure. Leveraging insights from global customers across eight verticals, including smart cities, energy, rail, agriculture, aviation and more, Uptake’s products apply cross-industry data science to produce high-value, measurable outcomes. Uptake has been recognized as a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum and was recently listed in the top 5 of CNBC’s Disruptor 50, an exclusive ranking of private companies transforming the economy.