A NETWORK
TO SUPPORT INNOVATION
OFFERING A ROBUST STRATEGIC PATHWAY TO SCALE AND IMPACT
To ensure FoodShot finalists have the guidance, advice, resources, and
support beyond funding, our
team and mission-aligned partners will provide capabilities and
expertise to help finalists advance ideas
within a broader strategic ecosystem.
TEAM
VICTOR E. FRIEDBERG
CHAIRMAN & FOUNDER
Since co-founding S2G Ventures in 2014, Victor has emerged as one of
the top thought-leaders and VCs in food and agriculture in the USA.
Leading investments in Beyond Meat, Ripple, Maple Hill Creamery,
FishPeople, Lavva, Ataraxis and Apeel Science, among others. In 2016
Victor was named by Forbes as one of the Top 25 consumer investors and
influencers. He is Executive Chairman of Lavva, Tiny Organics and
Advisory to Cambridge Crops and SLM Partners.
SARA ECKHOUSE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
As Senior Advisor to Secretary Tom Vilsack at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Sara focused on local and regional food systems, organic
agriculture, and healthy food access. Sara launched and managed
programs to support sustainable agriculture, and she has firsthand
knowledge of the opportunities and challenges of combining
sustainability with profitability in food value chains.
RAJIV SINGH
CO-CHAIRMAN
Rajiv is a strategic advisor, and investor, serving corporations,
funds, entrepreneurs and professionals with a focus on innovation,
value creation and corporate finance. He served as CEO for Rabobank
North America Wholesale Banking where he directed the bank's corporate
and institutional client activities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. He
also led the launch of Foodbytes, MIT Food Prize, and Terra.
WILL SCHMITT
ASIA-PACIFIC LEAD
Will is a globally-recognized innovation expert and advisor. In
addition to his FoodShot role, he currently runs Open2Innovate, a
boutique innovation strategy firm based in Canberra, Australia.
Beginning in 2010, Will was a co-founder of global accelerator program
LAUNCH while at USAID and has been the architect of major innovation
programs for the World Bank and the Australian Aid Program.
BARBARA STINSON
BOARD MEMBER AND SENIOR ADVISOR
Barbara is a Senior Executive in global food security, specializing in collaborative platforms,
strategic planning, and partnerships and multi-stakeholder forums. She is Director of Development
for the Alliance for Collective Action, having previously served as President of the World Food
Prize Foundation and as a Founding and Senior Partner of Meridian Institute. She is on the
Supervisory Board of Solidaridad Network.
ADVISORY BOARD
ANN TUTWILER
CGIAR AND THE MERIDIAN INSTITUTE
BERNHARD VAN LENGERICH
FOOD SYSTEM STRATEGIES
DAVID BARBER
ALMANAC INSIGHTS
JUSTIN SIEGEL
UC DAVIS INNOVATION INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND HEALTH
MICHAEL POLLAN
AUTHOR, TEACHER
SONNY RAMASWAMY
NORTHWEST COMMISION ON COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
ESTHER NGUMBI
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
JO HANDELSMAN
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MAX ELDER
INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE
SIEGLINDE SNAPP
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
WAYNE HONEYCUTT
SOIL HEALTH INSTITUTE
JO HANDELSMAN, PH.D.
INNOVATING SOIL 3.0 ADVISOR
Dr. Jo Handelsman is the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for
Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a
Vilas Research Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Professor. In her previous role, she was appointed by former
President Barack Obama as the Associate Director for Science at
the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where
she served for three years until January 2017. She received her
Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Molecular
Biology and has since authored over 100 papers, 30 editorials
and 5 books. She is responsible for groundbreaking studies in
microbial communication and work in the field of metagenomics.
Notably, she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in
Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President
Obama in 2011, and in 2012, Nature named her one of "ten people
who mattered this year" for her research on gender bias in
science.
WAYNE HONEYCUTT, PH.D.
INNOVATING SOIL 3.0 ADVISOR
Dr. Wayne Honeycutt is President and CEO of the Soil Health
Institute, where he leads the Institute's programs to safeguard
and enhance the vitality and productivity of soils. He
previously served for 5 years as the Deputy Chief for Science
and Technology with USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
in Washington, DC; and for 10 years as a Research Leader and 14
years as a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA-Agricultural
Research Service New England Plant, Soil, and Water Laboratory.
Wayne's commitment to agriculture is rooted in his experiences
with raising tobacco, corn, and other crops on his family's
120-acre farm in Kentucky. He holds a Bachelor's degree in
Forestry and Master's degree in Soil Science from the University
of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in Soil Genesis from Colorado State
University.
ESTHER NGUMBI, PH.D.
INNOVATING SOIL 3.0 ADVISOR
Dr. Esther Ngumbi is a distinguished Post-doctoral researcher
with the Entomology Department and African American Studies
Department at The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
She is a native of Kwale County, Kenya. Esther is very
passionate about issues of agriculture, food security,
innovations surrounding soil, education, hunger, gender and
sustainability. She is a thought leader and has authored over 70
opinion pieces on these issues in outlets ranging from
Scientific American to Time Magazine, CNN, NPR, Reuters,
AllAfrica, World Policy Blog, The Conversation and Los Angeles
Times. She is a senior fellow with The World Policy Institute, a
Food Security Fellow and an Alumni Council member with Aspen
Institute New Voices. She is a Commitment Mentor for Agriculture
and an Alumni Ambassador with the Clinton Global University
Initiative. She is the recipient of many national and
International awards including 2018 Society of Experimental
Biology Presidents Medal and the first to be awarded 2017
Emerging Sustainability Leader Award. She serves as a board
member for the Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund,
Development in Gardening and Paths Education. She is a member of
the Entomological Society of America Science Policy Committee.
She was a finalist for President Clinton's Global Hunger
Leadership Award and was named by One World Action as one of the
100 Powerful Women Who Change the World.
MICHAEL POLLAN
ADVISORY BOARD
Michael Pollan is a writer, teacher and activist. His most
recent book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of
Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction,
Depression and Transcendence, was published in 2018. He is the
author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In
Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of
Desire, all of which were New York Times Bestsellers. The
Omnivore's Dilemma was named one of the ten best books of the
year by both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Pollan
teaches writing in the English department at Harvard and at UC
Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where he has been the
John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism since 2003.
Several of his books have been adapted for television: a series
based on Cooked (2015) is streaming on Netflix and both The
Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food premiered on PBS. In
2010 Time Magazine named Pollan one of the 100 most influential
people in the world. Pollan lives in Berkeley with his wife, the
painter Judith Belzer.
SIEGLINDE SNAPP, PH.D.
INNOVATING SOIL 3.0 ADVISOR
Dr. Sieg Snapp is a Professor of Soils and Cropping Systems
Ecology, and associate director of the Center for Global Change
and Earth Observations at Michigan State University. Dr. Snapp
has had enormous impacts on soil management with her innovative
research, extension and teaching programs. She laid the
groundwork for a "Greener Revolution" in Malawi, which she
continues to support collaborating with scholars, educators and
mentoring students around Africa. She documented principles of
nutrient efficient traits and soil organic matter management for
the re-design of fertilizer use, including a double legume
system that has proved widely adoptable by farmers, and markedly
climate resilient. Central to Dr. Snapp's record is a deep
commitment to developing action learning educational and
extension material, integrated with adaptive research. She has
125 journal articles, edited two books and 25 book chapters as
well as dozens of extension materials that document soil health
and nutrient management in forms accessible to scholars and
educators in developing countries, and in the USA, working
closely with Extension.
DAVID BARBER
ADVISORY BOARD
David founded Almanac Insights, which extends the values of
regenerative agriculture and the role of hospitality in the food
system into venture capital. He also co-founded Blue
Hill—a working farm, restaurant, and consulting company
supporting agriculture that positively contributes to the
world's food system. David is a founding partner of the Stone
Barns Center for Food and Agriculture which celebrates and
advances community and ecologically based food production,
demonstrating alternative ways to farm and eat. David is an
advisor to S2G Ventures and Acre Investments. He serves on the
Board of
BlueCart Corp,
Stone Barns Center, MAD,
Caramoor Center
for the Arts, and the
Collegiate School
in New York City.
MAX ELDER
PRECISION PROTEIN ADVISOR
Max Elder is a Research Director in the Food Futures Lab at the
Institute for the Future, the world's leading futures thinking
organization. Max has led work around the world with food
companies like Barilla, Hershey's, and Campbell's; major
foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and
innovative technology companies like Google and Intel. He has
written for, and been quoted in The New York Times, The Guardian,
NPR, Quartz, Fast Company, and many others. Max has published in
dozens of peer-reviewed journals and books; his research is taught
at universities across the US, including Harvard Law and Oxford
University; and he speaks around the world on topics related to
food systems and ethics. Max is also the youngest fellow at the
Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, an international think tank in
Oxford, England, pioneering ethical perspectives on animals.
ANN TUTWILER
ADVISORY BOARD
Currently, Ms. Tutwiler chairs boards of the Water, Land and
Ecosystem Research Program of the CGIAR, the Access to Seeds
Foundation, and Bioversity USA. She is also a Senior Fellow with
the Meridian Institute and a Senior Advisor with SystemIQ.
Previously, she was Director General of Bioversity International,
a $30M agricultural research for development organization with
over 300 staff based in 16 countries. In that capacity, she was
elected to serve on the System Management Board of the CGIAR. She
was Deputy Director General, Knowledge for the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, where she led
FAO's work in agriculture, natural resource management, forestry
and fisheries, as well as knowledge sharing, knowledge management,
and capacity development. She was Coordinator, Global Food
Security, Office of the Secretary at USDA where she led and
coordinated USDA's participation in the President's Feed the
Future initiative. She founded a think tank on agricultural trade
policy; built the agricultural development portfolio for the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and headed government
relations for a global agribusiness company. She holds a Masters
in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University and Bachelor of Arts from Davidson College. She
holds certificates in agribusiness management from INSEAD and
Purdue University.
SONNY RAMASWAMY
ADVISORY BOARD
Sonny Ramaswamy is president of
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities,
which accredits institutions of higher education by applying
evidence-informed standards and processes to support continuous
improvements and promote student achievement and success. Sonny
served for six years as President Barack Obama's appointee as the
Director of the
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
in Washington, DC. He provided leadership and strategic direction
in the formulation of broad, national policies needed to develop
and execute cutting edge science and its application to promote
profitability of the food and agricultural systems while
protecting the environment and creating economic opportunities.
Previously, Ramaswamy held a number of academic positions,
including: dean of Oregon State's College of Agricultural
Sciences; director of Purdue's Agricultural Research Programs;
university distinguished professor and head of Kansas State's
Entomology Department; and professor of entomology at Mississippi
State. He has published over 150 journal articles, book chapters,
and a book, and has a patent. Sonny is the recipient of a number
of awards and honors, including Fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the Entomological
Society of America, Food Systems Leadership Award for
Extraordinary Impacts on Food Systems, Agriculture Future of
America's Leader in Agriculture Award, and Hutchinson Medal from
the Chicago Botanic Garden. Ramaswamy received his Bachelor of
Science in agriculture and Master of Science in entomology from
the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India. His
doctorate is in entomology from Rutgers University.
JUSTIN SIEGEL
ADVISORY BOARD
Dr. Siegel is an Associate Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry &
Molecular Medicine, at UC Davis in the Genome Center. He received
his B.S. in Biochemistry from UC Davis in 2005 and his Ph.D. in
Biomolecular Structure and Design from the University of
Washington in 2011, after which he returned to UC Davis to begin
his research lab. His scientific focus in the design and discovery
of enzymes of interest to modern society. Through strong
industrial and cross-disciplinary collaborations Dr. Siegel has
engineered enzymes for a wide range of applications, from treating
human diseases such as Celiac Disease to the development catalysts
for the productions of fuels and chemicals. In recent years Dr.
Siegel has begun to explore in greater depth the application of
enzymes within the food systems to promote health and
sustainability. Dr. Siegel has been the recipient of numerous
awards including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. Beyond
academic Science Dr. Siegel is deeply engaged with the translation
of research. He is the founder of four companies (with more on the
way), is the Director of Business Development for the Rosetta
Commons, and is the Faculty Director of the Innovation Institute
for Food and Health (IIFH) at UC Davis. As the Faculty Director of
the IIFH he has led the efforts getting the institute off the
ground to build a platform to accelerate the innovation cycle and
facilitates deployment of products or processes that enable safe,
sustainable, and secure nutrition for all.
BERNHARD VAN LENGERICH
ADVISORY BOARD
Bernhard began his career with Baker and Pastry Chef
apprenticeships in Germany. He completed his PhD in
Food/Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.
His work experience includes Unilever Germany (Food Technologist),
RJR Nabisco (Research Director) and the Buehler Group in
Switzerland (Vice President R&D Food). In 1994 Bernhard joined
General Mills, Inc. in Minneapolis and was Chief Scientific
Officer and Vice President for Technology Strategy. Bernhard
authored/co-author over 150 patents, established a Game Changer
program and created a 'Technology Venturing' initiative, enabling
faster and high impact innovations. Bernhard is Honorarium
Professor at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany and
Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago. Bernhard
has been an invited participant in round table discussions under
the Obama Administration at the White House Office for Science and
Technology Policy on global protein security. Bernhard retired
from General Mills in 2015 and founded 'Seeding the Future
Foundation', a 501 (c) 3 organization focusing on post-harvest
loss reduction in Sub Saharan Afrika. He also founded 'Food System
Strategies LLC', a strategic advisory firm supporting primarily
start-ups along the food system value chain. In 2016 he served at
Beyond Meat as acting CTO and Head of R&D and joined Beyond
Meat's Board in 2018. Bernhard serves as a Board member of the
German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) and several other
organizations in the US and Europe.
HOWARD SHAPIRO
ADVISORY BOARD
Howard Shapiro has been involved with sustainable agricultural and
agroforestry systems, plant breeding, molecular biology and genetics
for over 45 years. He has worked with indigenous communities, NGO's,
governmental agencies and the private sector around the world.
Shapiro is a Senior Fellow at UC Davis, College of Agriculture and
Environmental Sciences. In 2007 Howard was made a Distinguished
Fellow of the World Agroforestry Centre and authored the IAASTD
chapter on Biotechnology and Biodiversity. He was co-chair of the
1st and 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry and served as Chairperson
of the External Advisory Board of the Agriculture Sustainability
Institute at UC Davis. In 2009 he was named recipient of The Award
of Distinction from The College of Agriculture and Environmental
Sciences, UC Davis. He led the global effort sequencing, assembling
and annotating the Theobroma cacao genome, and initiated the Arachis
genome.
Shapiro founded the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) and
the African Plant Breeding Academy (AfPBA) in 2011 to sequence, assemble
and annotate 101 key food cultivars, which are the backbone of African
nutrition. In October of 2017 he launched with collaborators the Foldit
Aflatoxin Puzzle with 460,000 gamers to redesign and improve enzymes to
degrade the aflatoxin.
