AgStart's team is dedicated to supporting the growth of innovation in Ag|Food|Health in our region.
Management team
Miranda Ackerman
Program Director AgStart welcomes Miranda Ackerman as the new Program Director where she will be responsible for supporting AgStart’s clients and sponsors as well as the implementation of several new programs and communications to support local and regional AgriFoodTech endeavors.
With a proven track record of award recognized product innovations in CPG products and functional food ingredients, Miranda will leverage her deep expertise in product marketing and innovation to support AgStart’s entrepreneur community as she also brings a deep understanding of many of the aspects of business development and sales and marketing across multiple sales channels and has conquered many of the challenges of developing new product lines. Miranda is a graduate of Cornell University with BS in Agribusiness Management and Marketing and has been a passionate advocate for the food and agriculture community throughout her career. In her pursuit of new and innovative food products and ingredients, she has a developed working knowledge and networks across many agricultural commodities, including tree fruits, tree nuts, berries, olives, rice, hemp, soy, pea, alternative grains, plant proteins and fibers among others. We believe that her diverse working experience across many food types and ingredients will be another benefit to the AgStart community and success of our programs including our monthly Learn From A Local Networking events and our AgriFoodTech Entrepreneur Resource (AFTER) mentoring support program. |
Sudhee Lakshmana
Lab Manager Sudhee Lakshama serves as AgStart's Lab Manager, working directly with our client companies to support their work and overseeing the lab. Sudhee brings a background of work in academic labs and his own start-up. Sudhee's background includes a stint at UC Davis as a postdoc in 2009, working on nano-photonics. In that period, he discovered his entrepreneurial DNA and co-founded Sonanutech Inc with Prof. Ian Kennedy, raising over $1.3 million in grant and $100,000 in industrial support for the rapid bacteriophage test. Since 2019, he has been working as an instructor and program director at Carrington College. He brings with him a passion for science, technology and instrumentation, along with the experience of building and managing a biotech lab. He has served as a principle investigator and as a reviewer for National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation grants. He is the recipient of the prestigious Alexander-von-Humboldt fellowship. Sudhee holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from India.
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board of directors
John Selep
Chair
Chair
John Selep serves as President of the AgTech Innovation Alliance, the 501(c)3 non-profit behind AgStart. As a business consultant, investor, and technology executive, John has worked with dozens of startup companies launching new technologies in the Agriculture, Food tech, and other technology domains. John is a frequent mentor at AgStart Office Hours and AgStart founder education workshops. John is also a Board Director for the Sacramento Angels, a regional investor organization, and is a Principal Advisor through LARTA to numerous startup entrepreneurs associated with USDA SBIR awards.
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Trish Kelley
Director |
Ken Hiatt
Director |
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Trish Kelly is Managing Director at Valley Vision, leading portfolios in food and agriculture, workforce development and broadband. She has helped elevate the profile of the region’s food and ag economy, from promoting ag tech entrepreneurship and innovation to addressing critical workforce skills gaps and food insecurity and advancing Farm to Fork. She also helps lead Valley Vision’s efforts to develop the Capital Region’s economic prosperity strategy, in collaboration with partner regional leadership organizations.
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Ken Hiatt is the City Manager and Director for the City of Woodland and lead “evangelist” for The Food Front – a public-private initiative to promote and grow Woodland’s thriving food and agriculture economy. He oversees all development projects for the city including the 350-acre Woodland Research and Technology Park. Prior to working for Woodland, he was with the City of Davis where he served for over 20 years in various economic development and planning capacities. Ken is a founding board member of Ag Tech Innovation Alliance that operates AgStart – California’s longest establish AgTech incubator.
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Pam Marrone
Director
Director
Pamela G. Marrone, PhD spent her 30+ year career focused on leading the way to a more sustainable agriculture through discovery and commercialization of biological products for pest management and plant health. She is currently Executive Chair of Primary BioAg Innovations and Global BioAg Linkages, founded to help agtech/bioag innovators scale and succeed in market adoption. She started Davis-based Marrone Bio Innovations in 2006 and was recently named “Most Admired CEO, Distinguished Career Award” by the Sacramento Business Journal. On August 2, 2013, MBI listed its stock as MBII on NASDAQ. On August 2nd 2020, she retired as CEO and continues to serve on the Board and as an advisor. Before Marrone Bio, she started and led the bioprotection company AgraQuest, Inc.