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.
AN WANG
PROGRAM AND INVESTMENT DIRECTOR
An has been working in the field of venture capital, innovation, private equity, and corporate finance. She founded ASW Venture Partners to invest in early-stage and innovative companies in food and agriculture. Previously, she evaluated and executed venture and real asset investments for Agriculture Capital and Better Food Ventures. An serves as a NEXUS ambassador and is an active member of Toniic.
ADVISORY BOARD
ANN TUTWILER
CGIAR AND THE MERIDIAN INSTITUTE
BERNHARD VAN LENGERICH
FOOD SYSTEM STRATEGIES
DAVID BARBER
ALMANAC INSIGHTS
HOWARD SHAPIRO
MARS
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.