John T. Heaston is known as “The Guy @ Aquamart,” part of the Nebraska Water Balance Alliance. With a background in applied anthropology, Heaston focuses on environmental, economic, and agricultural issues as they relate to river basin development and watershed management.

He is currently working on numerous projects related to efficient water use on the farm, including multi-scale conservation planning and evaluation, performance-based irrigation conservation for watershed recovery, value-added eco-marketing as a conservation strategy, and the promotion of local leadership development in conservation practice in Nebraska.

Heaston, who also serves as an independent consultant doing business as Heaston Consulting, LLC, is a 1993 graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln anthropology department.  He attended the University of Kentucky and studied applied anthropology.  He is a native of Elm Creek, Nebraska.

The Nebraska Water Balance Alliance (NEWBA) is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to supporting the comprehensive and sustainable management of Nebraska’s water resources for its citizens, now and in the future.  In support of that vision, NEWBA is working with ‘on the ground’ tools to target effective water conservation and management in agriculture across Nebraska with its Aquamart Program.

Sakuma did his undergraduate work in mechanical engineering, and started his career in car design in Brazil. While working in Japan he continued his education with a focus on agriculture engineering, in particular to develop better solutions to determine soil fertility. Following graduation from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2008, Sakuma returned to Brazil to work for equipment manufacturer Máquinas Agrícolas Jacto S/A on innovative solutions for soil and crop fertilization. In 2016 he became a Project Leader at Brazil’s Center of Innovation in Agribusiness (CIAg), where people are working on new solutions for tropical farming.

The last investiment of the Jacto Group is the CIAg (Center of Innovation in Agribusiness). CIAg is supported by Jacto shareholders and Jacto Foundation.

CIAg’s mission is to offer collaborative and integrated solutions for tropical agribusiness, supporting the creation of value and innovation.

Dan is co-founder and CEO of Abundant Robotics, who are driving major leaps in productivity with robots in agriculture.  After growing up in Louisiana and Texas, Dan was drawn to Silicon Valley where he discovered a love of creating and launching new products, starting as an Intel product manager.  Dan soon gravitated to startups and has helped launch and grow successful companies in a variety of domains including semiconductors, enterprise software, mobile hardware, and robotics.  Abundant is the third robotics company Dan has helped launch.  He’s still on a mission to help build the next great technology company.

Dan played varsity football and earned a bachelor’s degree concentrating in Computer Science from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.  Dan is passionate about sports and an advocate for youth athletics.

Abundant Robotics is on a mission to deliver robotic solutions for the hardest jobs in agriculture.  We are currently developing our first product, a robotic apple harvester.

Allan is a third generation agriculturist from California, working in the crop inputs and services business for over 30 years. He began working for the J.R. Simplot Company in 2002, managing the California region of Simplot Grower Solutions. In 2012, he became the Director of Technology, leading and directing Simplot SmartFarm®, Simplot’s precision agriculture platform. Simplot has provided precision services for over 20 years, harnessing data-driven technologies to help growers maximize farm productivity.

The J. R. Simplot Company, a privately held agribusiness firm headquartered in Boise, Idaho, has an integrated portfolio that includes phosphate mining, fertilizer manufacturing, farming, ranching and cattle production, food processing, food brands, and other enterprises related to agriculture. Simplot’s major operations are located in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, and China, with products marketed in more than 40 countries worldwide. The company supports 4R Nutrient Stewardship – using the right source of fertilizer at the right rate at the right time and in the right place. This is a cornerstone to Simplot’s mission of Bringing Earth’s Resources to Life. For more information, visit www.simplot.com.

In over 15 years of his career, Matej Štefančič has been involved in IT solutions related to environment and food safety. He is CEO and co-founder of Efos, producer of Trapview automated pest monitoring and forecasting platform. Matej strongly believes that properly applied information technology can significantly improve decision making and consequently enable more sustainable high-quality food production.

Trapview is flagship platform of a Slovenian company Efos specialized in environment and food safety IT solutions. Trapview is the most diverse (30+ different insect species) and widespread (40+ countries) automated pest monitoring and forecasting platform in the world. It is suitable for different crop protection strategies and used across various industries. A unique combination of automatically collected pest related data, artificial intelligence image processing and predictive analytics allows clients to plan and optimize field activities in order to maximize high-quality yields with minimal costs.

Ranveer Chandra is leading an Incubation on IoT Applications at Microsoft Research. His research has shipped as part of multiple Microsoft products, including VirtualWiFi & low power Wi-Fi in Windows since 2009, Energy Profiler in Visual Studio, and the Wireless Controller Protocol for XBOX One.  Ranveer is leading the FarmBeats, battery research, and TV white space projects at Microsoft Research. He has published over 90 research papers, and filed over 100 patents, of which more than 80 have been granted by the USPTO. A winner of many prestigious technology and research awards, including, the MIT Technology Review’s Top Innovators Under 35, Ranveer holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur, India and a PhD from Cornell University.

Microsoft Corporation, founded in 1975, is the leading platform and productivity company, supporting a range of software products, services and devices, focused on empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Tom has 55 years working in tree fruit growing, storing, packing and shipping apples, pears and cherries. He has 20 years as production consultant and quality assurance manager and 17 years working for Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission in plant material evaluation and as a resource between the academic community and the tree fruit industry. Tom has had many experiences in examining new technologies and the interface of the production systems of tree fruit from around the world.

North American Plants is a tissue culture based propagation company established in 1995. It is a part of a group nursery companies based in Barcelona, Spain. Agromillora has 12 operating entities around the world most with a tissue culture propagation component. Agromillora supports super high density plantings of apples, pears, cherries, pistachios, olives, almonds, stone fruits, and hazlenuts plus several berries including blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  Agromillora as a group sells 75 million plants annually. North American plants sells about 15 million plants per year. Tissue culture allows shorter propagation cycles with multiple start times to initiate propagation. Multiple generations of many crops are possible every year. Planting crops with leaves spring summer and fall increases the flexibility of establishing new plantings.

Jocelyn Boudreau is the CEO of Hortau irrigation management systems. He has spoken about precision ag at a number of regional and global events, including the Rural Opportunity Investment Conference at the White House in 2015. Boudreau holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Masters degree in soil physics from Laval University (Québec, Canada). He co-founded Hortau in 2002 in Québec, and currently works out of the company’s U.S. headquarters in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Founded in 2002, Hortau is a leader in precision irrigation management systems for commercial agriculture. Hortau’s patented irrigation management, automation and weather monitoring solutions help growers manage crop stress in real time using soil tension, ensuring optimal production while reducing water use, energy consumption and environmental impact.

With U.S. operations based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Hortau has offices, representatives and technicians throughout North America, including a Canada headquarters in Lévis, Québec. Learn more at www.hortau.com.

John Stone is Senior Vice President, Intelligent Solutions Group, a position he has held since November 2016. In this role, he is responsible for managing the growth and profitability of the company’s Intelligent Solutions Group and lead efforts to deliver innovative technologies that enhance the performance of John Deere equipment and allow customers to improve their operational performance and better manage costs.

Stone joined Deere & Company in 2002 as a project manager and held leadership positions in Waterloo, Iowa, and Mannheim, Germany. In January 2007, he assumed responsibility for the acquisition and integration of the Ningbo Benye Tractor and Automobile Company in China. Most recently, he was Global Director, Utility Tractor Product Line, during a period of rapid growth of that business. In June 2015, he was appointed Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Business Development.

Prior to joining Deere, Stone worked for General Electric as a Six Sigma Black Belt and before that was an officer in the U.S. Army.

Stone has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the United States Military Academy and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) is a world leader in providing advanced products and services and is committed to the success of customers whose work is linked to the land — those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the world’s dramatically increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure. Since 1837, John Deere has delivered innovative products of superior quality built on a tradition of integrity. For more information, visit John Deere at its worldwide website at www.JohnDeere.com.

Vincent Restucci serves as the Director of Procurement & Business Technology for R. D. Offutt Company (RDOC). His responsibilities include oversight and stewardship of the purchasing function for farming operations inputs including crop protection products, plant nutrients, non-potato seed sourcing, and energy products. Additionally, he is working on a team to evaluate the next generation of tools to increase farm efficiency, measure farming practices, and document stewardship.

Prior to joining RDOC, Restucci worked for over ten years at the J.R. Simplot Company’s AgriBusiness group where his responsibilities included business development, national accounts, and grower targeted marketing. During his tenure he championed and served as the Managing Director for the USADS LLC joint venture, which creates and deploys data systems to track farm inputs, crop production costs, crop contracts, and land applied wastewater applications.

Restucci holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management. He received his agronomy training from Purdue University through the American Society of Agronomy. Mr. Restucci served in the US Army for over eight years, both active and reserve, as a Chief Warrant officer. He was a helicopter pilot flying medical evacuation aircraft.

Founded and led by a Minnesota native, R.D. Offutt Company celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2014. Just as it did when it started in 1964, R.D. Offutt Company continues to seek out innovative, better ways to produce potatoes while maintaining its commitment to the communities in which it resides and the land on which the company was built. Over the past half-century, the North Dakota –headquartered producer (with potato production in eight states) has integrated virtually every aspect of production from field to fork. It operates its own stand-alone retail system, an irrigation management division, a crop storage system, a branded equipment dealership, and potato processing position through strategic partnerships.