Jess Newman
Jess Newman is the Senior Director of Agriculture & Sustainability at McCain Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products and appetizers. Her team of agronomists and field representatives are responsible for all the vegetable crops purchased directly from farmers. They also implement McCain’s 2025 sustainability goals related to agriculture: 100% of farmers implementing regenerative practices, 25% reduction in farming CO2 emissions intensity, 15% improvement in irrigation water use efficiency in water-stressed regions, and the launch of three Farms of the Future.
Jess works remotely from her home state of Michigan and travels frequently to support her team (when covid allows).
Jess is passionate about sustainability in agricultural supply chains. Her philosophy is to meet farmers where they are and help them move along the sustainability spectrum – while creating profitability too! Talking to farmers is what energizes her. Shas worked at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Ecologic Institute, New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Booz & Company, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and Anheuser-Busch. She holds a B.A. from Harvard, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management (with Sustainability Certificate). She loves baking bread, sci-fi/fantasy, and cats.
Kyle Welborn
Kyle is a co-founder and General Partner at Cultivation Capital where he focuses on making AgriFood Tech investments through the Yield Lab North America. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Yield Lab Latin America. He is the board chair at NanoGuard Technologies, and a board member at Eiwa Ag and Ascribe Bioscience. He is also a board observer representing the Yield Lab’s investments in Notch Ordering and Hydrosat. Prior portfolio board service includes Label Insight which was sold to NielsenIQ in 2021. He is also a contributor to CropLife.com where he writes about investments in AgTech startups.
Nick Betts
Ajit Singh
Ajit is currently a partner in a VC firm focused on early stage technology and Life Science investments. He's had an illustrious career being a board member for several medical and healthcare companies, a 20-year tenure at Siemens Healthcare including 10 years in global CEO roles, followed by his role as the CEO for a diagnostics startup which has now been acquired by Roche
Andrew Lentz
Andrew Lentz, the former Policy Director for the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), is joining the Environmental Defense Fund as a Director of Federal Affairs for agriculture policy. He will lead EDF’s engagement with policymakers at the federal level to advance climate-smart agriculture and shape proposals in the upcoming Farm Bill.
“While I am sad to be leaving such a terrific team at ESMC, I am so excited to be joining EDF in their efforts to support farmers’ transition to a climate-smart future,” he said. “Agriculture is uniquely positioned to offer immediate nature-based climate solutions and I look forward to working with policymakers to put farmers and ranchers at the center of our nation’s climate-change mitigation strategy.”
In his new role with EDF, Andrew will work closely with the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA), which brings together environmental and agricultural stakeholders to jointly advocate for climate-smart agriculture legislation, and which EDF serves as co-chair. Andrew also worked with FACA during his time at ESMC, which is a general member of the alliance.
In his immediate previous role, Andrew led ESMC’s engagement with federal and state policymakers to educate them on environmental markets for agriculture and develop policy that reduces barriers to entry for farmers and ranchers in order to scale market adoption. He also co-led ESMC’s Working Group on Inclusion & Racial Justice to identify and remove obstacles to equality, equity, inclusion, and racial justice for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in agriculture. “While environmental markets are an important tool in the agriculture sector’s toolbox, it was important for us to make sure we were not developing yet another system of oppression for BIPOC farmers. I am looking forward to continuing to advocate for a broad portfolio of strategies that move the sector towards its climate and equity goals,” Lentz said.
Prior to his service with ESMC, Andrew held various positions in the public and private sectors, including for USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service where he worked to build agricultural markets in post-conflict regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. He also previously held positions with Deloitte’s Policy & Government Relations team and in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin
Amy Ponte
