Over the past years Hort Americas has had a special focus on horticultural lighting, hydroponics substrate and nutrient management making them one of the leading resources for greenhouse and vertically farmed vegetable growers. He is also owner of UrbanAgNews.com (online education content provider) and was a founding partner of the Foundation for the Development of Controlled Environment Agriculture and the International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture in Panama. With over 20 years of industry experience, Chris is dedicated to the commercial horticulture industry and is inspired by the current opportunities for continued innovation in the field of controlled environment agriculture. Chris is a leader in providing technical assistance to businesses, including commercial greenhouse operations, state-of-the-art hydroponic vegetable facilities, vertical farms, and tissue culture laboratories. In his role at Hort Americas he works with seed companies, manufacturers of horticultural supplies and equipment, growers and universities regarding the development of projects, new products and ultimately the creation of brands. Chris’ role includes everything from sales and marketing to technical support and general management/owner responsibilities.

After studying the global food industry and engaging in multinational projects of global organisations, she joined a private research/consulting institute in Tokyo as a researcher specialising in the technology advancement for global food production systems. She has been conducting international field research on the Vertical Farming / Controlled Environment Agriculture industry since 2008, and has published numerous research papers. She has been a research project manager for a national project on artificial intelligence- a phenotyping- based smart plant factory system for environmental control and breeding. Since 2015, she has joined the Japan Plant Factory Association. She is also the chief executive officer of E*Green Lab Inc.

She covers the international fresh fruit and vegetable sectors and published numerous articles and reports on various topics including vertical farming, the Dutch glasshouse sector, and sustainability. Indoor farming is one of her key focus areas. She is covering the complete supply chain from grower to consumer and has engaged with various stakeholders along the supply chain. Cindy has been a keynote speaker at several international fresh produce events such as Greentech, Fruit Logistica, PMA, the Urban Greenhouse Challenge, Future of Food. Her research and analyses are key deliverables for Rabobank customers and prospects, both in the corporate and rural domains.

As Managing Director, Sanjeev is active in developing investments and managing portfolio companies as well as serving on many portfolio company boards. His portfolio work ranges from genetics, crop protection, soil health, digital/IOT, crop insurance, merchandising, indoor agriculture, novel flavour and ingredients, new protein development, unique processors and brands that will feed the changing consumer. He is passionate about the role of innovation, entrepreneurship, markets and system investing as a theory of change. Sanjeev has worked in the intersection of sustainability, technology and health in many regions, including Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. He has invested over $500 mm in venture and growth stage firms throughout his career. Sanjeev began investing as a co-founder of the life sciences practice of the IFC, the $99 billion private investment arm of the World Bank. His previous investment roles include CLSA Capital Partners, Global Environment Fund, World Bank Group’s IFC and JPMorgan. Sanjeev is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He is also Communications Manager at The FarmTech Society, the Co-Founder of The Soya Project, and does freelance consulting work across the industry. In his work he has dealt extensively with industry standardisation, sustainability certification, vertical farming education and vertical farming policy. His expertise is in building networks and associations that maximise value for their members, and for the industry as a whole. Mark’s primary interest is in taking a systemic overview of how vertical farming can be integrated with other systems, to deliver on its promises of regenerative food production and resilient societies.

Hemant is a social entrepreneur with a vision to make a positive impact in transforming communities at the grass-root level. VeggiTech is pioneering new ideas and innovating ways to deliver sustainable farming addressing the 3 key challenges of Temperature, Water and Soil. Their farm in Zubair, Sharjah welcomes all who would like to get close to understanding how our food grows. Hemant is an active member of the Advisory Board for the Association for Vertical Farming. Hemant has also had an illustrious career in Information Technology spanning over 3 decades with Tata Consultancy Services and Emirates Group where he evolved from a Software Engineer to Chief Information Officer and now bringing Technology like Internet of things, Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to create Digital Farms of the future"

Today, YesHealth Group is one of the world’s largest vertical farming companies by production volume. Jesper Hansen is Chief Commercial Officer of YesHealth Group. Jesper received his M.A. in Chinese Studies from the University of Copenhagen, University of California, and Zhejiang University. He has extensive experience with development of vertical farming projects and has implemented several large scale vertical farms in Asia and Europe.