Explore how vertical farming leaders can stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry by aligning innovation with smart commercial strategy. This conference examines the market forces, operational models, and technology shifts shaping the next phase of controlled-environment agriculture. Attendees will gain practical insights into improving margins, managing energy and labor costs, diversifying revenue streams, and building resilient supply chains. The discussion will also cover investment priorities, competitive positioning, and scalable growth strategies that support long-term profitability. Designed for growers, investors, and agribusiness decision-makers, this session offers a forward-looking view of how to turn industry disruption into strategic advantage and sustainable financial performance.

Moderator: Ryan Douglas, Tisha Livingston, Hitoshi Kawashima

Vertical farming: How to stay ahead in a fast-changing industry

Ryan Douglas advises owners, executives, and capital partners across CEA on what separates high-performing operations from expensive ones.
He brings 30 years of commercial horticulture experience, including 15 years in ornamentals, 10 years in cannabis, and most recently as general manager of one of the largest vegetable greenhouses in the northeastern US. That operating experience shapes the practical advice he delivers today.
Ryan is the author of From Seed to Success, The First Five Decisions, and Presence Is a Strategy. He has published more than 100 articles and hosts Under Glass, a weekly video series exploring the operational realities most greenhouse businesses never talk about.
Ryan has presented at major industry conferences and the United Nations on greenhouse production, operational excellence, and sustainable food systems.

Founder

Eric Highfield, founder of High Yield Horticulture, has been captivated by hydroponic systems for 25 years. His passion for soilless cultivation grew during his B.S. in molecular biology and deepened in graduate school, where he managed an aquaponics research greenhouse and defended his thesis on hydroponic-aquaculture production. He later earned his master's from the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center and built a greenhouse management program at Santa Fe Community College.
His drive to advance local, sustainable food production led him to automation. Highfield's research led him to mobile gulley systems, the missing link for economically viable cut baby leaf salad production. He developed automated baby leaf facilities as Chief Agricultural Officer at Pure Green Farms and Fresh Local Produce of Ohio, then led Customer Support and Business Development at Green Automation.
Most recently, Eric designed and now oversees Canada's first fully automated greenhouse for ready-to-eat cut baby leaf lettuce at Haven Greens in King City, Ontario, where as the Chief Agricultural Officer he leads cultivation, production, maintenance and FSQA, producing 12,000 pounds of lettuce daily.
Highfield is an industry leader in automated baby leaf cultivation, guiding projects from concept to execution with a passion for sustainable, economically viable agriculture.

Chief Agricultural Officer

Secretary of Agriculture

Willem Jan Hoogduin is a Sales Consultant at Certhon, where he’s specialized in helping customers develop future-proof horticultural projects. By integrating greenhouse construction with climate, irrigation, lighting, energy, propagation, and automation into one intelligent growing environment. Every system works together, so your crop can perform at its best.
As energy and water become increasingly critical resources, we look beyond the greenhouse itself. Certhon is exploring existing products that connect horticulture with other industries, including data centers. By combining shared infrastructure, renewable energy, waste heat, water management, and advanced climate control, we see opportunities to turn resource competition into collaboration.

Sales Consultant

Bob Gunn, MBA in Sustainable Business, is an entrepreneur and energy economist with expertise in financial engineering and efficiency project development. Trusted by cultivators, equipment providers, and utilities alike, he has advised 500+ clients and driven hundreds of millions in efficient equipment adoption.

Shelby has worked at ams OSRAM in the lighting industry for almost 20 years, and is based out of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sr. Product Marketing Manager at ams OSRAM – Horticulture

Jenn Frymark is the Chief Greenhouse Officer at Gotham Greens, a pioneer in controlled environment agriculture and one of North America's leading hydroponic fresh produce companies. Since joining the company in 2009, she has helped grow Gotham Greens from a single rooftop greenhouse in Brooklyn into a national network of greenhouse facilities spanning more than 1.8 million square feet across nine U.S. states. As Chief Greenhouse Officer, Jenn leads the company's greenhouse strategy, engineering, R&D, and growing operations, helping drive the design and optimization of new facilities while overseeing crop production and growing teams across the network. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Plant Biology from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in Plant Sciences from the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) at the University of Arizona.

Chief Greenhouse Officer

Jonathan Grode serves as the U.S. Practice Director and Managing Partner for Green and Spiegel. Jonathan has worked continuously in the U.S. business immigration law field since 1999 and has amassed considerable experience obtaining nonimmigrant and immigrant visas for new company start-ups, professional workers, artists and entertainers, athletes, physicians, and scientific researchers. In addition, Jonathan has significant experience dealing with Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security enforcement actions.

U.S. Practice Director and Managing Partner

David Einstandig is currently the Senior Vice President / General Counsel at Mastronardi Produce. With extensive legal experience across multiple sectors, Einstandig brings a wealth of experience, fresh perspectives, and expertise that will help the organization advocate for the future of indoor agriculture.

General Counsel

Currently a Sr. Principal and Director of Economic Development / Site Selection at Timmons Group, a Nationwide Site Selection, Consulting Engineering and Technology firm. A recognized expert in site selection, infrastructure and site preparedness, he routinely presents to local, state and regional organizations and various conferences on what it takes to be “Prospect Ready”.

Senior Principal and Director of Economic Development

Michael Roth serves as the Director Innovation at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. He currently leads the Pennsylvania Agriculture Innovation Grant Program, a first-in-the-nation state fund. He also connects the PA agriculture sector to vital sectors like energy, technology, manufacturing, life sciences, and national security.

Director of Innovation

Chris Higgins is the President and Co-Founder of Hort Americas, LLC (HortAmericas.com) a wholesale supply company servicing all aspects of the commercial horticultural industries. Over the past years Hort Americas has made a special effort to 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 the owner of UrbanAgNews.com (online education content provider), was a founding partner of the International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture in Panama.

President and Co-Founder

Abby Prior is the Chief Commercial Officer at Cox Farms. She is responsible for accelerating business growth by strengthening retailer relationships and helping grocery shoppers understand the benefits of greenhouse-grown produce.
Prior to taking her current position in 2025, Abby spent the last decade working with Cox Farms' brand, BrightFarms, including three years as its Chief Commercial Officer, where she led the integration of the sales, marketing and R&D functions.
Abby built her career in brand management and sales at leading food manufacturers, Unilever and Bimbo Bakeries USA. She holds a bachelor's degree from Penn State University and a master's in business administration from the Temple Fox School of Business.
A recognized leader in the indoor agriculture industry, Abby often speaks at industry conferences and has served on produce boards. Based outside of Philadelphia, she enjoys attending her kids' sporting events and spending time in the Pennsylvania mountains and on the Chesapeake Bay.

Derek Smith is Executive Director of Resource Innovation Institute (RII), which develops strategies and tools to scale CEA as a solution to global food and resource challenges.  
Derek recently led RII’s partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to advance the US Dept. of Energy-funded CEA Market Accelerator, which developed resources to improve the resource efficiency of greenhouse siting, construction, and operation.  
Derek is currently working with Virginia, North Dakota, and other states preparing public-private financing models to dramatically lower CapEx and OpEx for CEA operators, including through colocation with data centers.

Executive Director

Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the USA

Operations, Research and Innovation Manager with 13 years of experience developing, implementing and scaling technologies, products and services to make operations and supply chains more efficient and resilient while maintaining high quality standards. Skilled in partnering with cross-functional stakeholders and Executive Leadership to align strategic vision with operational capability.

Director of Growing Operations

My Name is Octavio Perez Rodriguez, currently I work for Nature Fresh farms in Delta Ohio, we have 45 acres of LED organic strawberries and 45 acres of HPS tomatoes. I have been working in this industry for almost 20 years, the last 12 year in USA and before I worked in Queretaro, Mexico in the Agropark. I have been working with lit crops for almost  12 years mainly with HPS,  and amost five years doing in house research about LED (top and interlighting),  but in 2023 we did our first LED crop with strawberries.

Andrew Howell is a Partner at Ascendant Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on food, agriculture, and renewable fuels. Andrew brings over a decade of hands-on experience across controlled environment agriculture, having co-founded Pure Green Farms, a hydroponic leafy greens operation in Indiana. Prior to Ascendant, he spent nearly ten years in private equity at Ceres Partners, where he led technology and operating investments across the CEA sector. He has also served as an investor and board member for in a wide variety of food & agriculture companies. Andrew combines operational experience with deal-making expertise, helping agribusiness founders and owners navigate growth, capital raises, and M&A. He holds a B.A. in Business Management from Jacksonville University and an MBA from Rollins College.

Partner

Dr. Qinglu Ying is an Assistant Extension Professor at the University of Kentucky, where she leads research, extension, and teaching programs in controlled environment agriculture (CEA). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in Canada, and has over ten years of experience in CEA. Her research focuses on optimizing controlled environment plant production systems to improve resource efficiency and crop performance. She is committed to supporting growers through applied research, practical outreach programs, and workforce development in the CEA sector.

Assistant Professor

Founder Serdar Mizrakci grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, where year-round access to ultra-fresh, hyper-local produce was the norm. His years of cooking with his mother and grandmother taught him to value good food and quality ingredients. After moving to the United States for business school, Serdar was struck by the lack of access to tasty, local, and fresh produce, particularly greens. He was astonished by the week-long trek most spinach made from California to the east coast, during which the greens lose half of their nutrient content. Never one to pass up a challenge, Serdar combined his aptitude for engineering and entrepreneurship and his appetite for really, really good food to found Element Farms. Serdar earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Sabanci University in Istanbul and an MBA from Cornell University. Prior to founding Element Farms, Serdar founded an industrial robotics startup that improved industrial packaging processes.

Founder and CEO

Dana Worth is the Senior Vice President of Plenty. He previously held the position of VP of Sales at Impossible Foods. There, he led the debut of the company’s first product, the Impossible Burger, and helped build its sales and commercial teams from scratch. Worth's accomplishments include inking deals with major international food brands, such as Starbucks and Burger King, helping to propel the Impossible Burger into a global cultural phenomenon.

Victoria Moura is a sustainability and business professional with a Master’s in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a bachelor’s from NYU Stern in Business Administration, focused on Computing and Data Science.
She has consulted with C40 Cities, Primestor Development, Plantation Quail, Companies for Net Zero, and Columbia University. Victoria brings expertise in sustainability strategy, stakeholder engagement, emissions reporting, and sustainable business development.
As President of Columbia’s Sustainability Management Student Association (SUMASA), she led key initiatives promoting sustainability across the university and beyond. She is fluent in English and Portuguese and proficient in Spanish.

Climate-Smart Agriculture Ecosystem Strategist

Specialized in climate and data-driven growing, helping growers create optimal greenhouse conditions

Peter Ravensbergen (1967) is a Horticulture Sector Expert at Wageningen Social & Economic Research, an institute within Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in the Netherlands. He leads the Horticulture sector team. His focus is on the socioeconomic aspects of horticultural value chains, quality-driven logistics, and resilient food systems for smart cities. His expertise lies in translating knowledge questions from governments, institutions, and private companies around the world into research proposals, with the goal of strengthening the social and economic development of a sector or private companies.
As the son of a third-generation Dutch flower grower, Peter’s driving force is to make knowledge applicable: to bridge the gap between R&D and practice. His career has been marked by positions within government organizations, consulting firms, and the (semi-)private sector in the horticulture industry.
Peter has extensive national and international experience and a broad network spanning the U.S., Mexico, India, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans.
His areas of expertise include project design, project and program management, supply chain management, strategy development, and matchmaking.

Expertise leader Horticulture

Jim DiMenna is the President of Red Sun Farms, one of the largest vertically integrated high-tech greenhouse vegetable growers with ownership of each stage of the process; seed selection, to plant growth, to harvesting, packaging and distribution. Red Sun Farms has over 800 acres throughout Mexico, USA and Canada.

President

My name is Marc Salvany, and I am the Chief Executive Officer and co-owner of Gavita International B.V. Through our flagship brand, Agrolux, we offer future-ready solutions, build strong partnerships, and deliver reliable services to professional growers worldwide. I lead the company’s global growth and transformation, with a strong focus on product innovation, operational excellence, and scalable supply chain and service networks. Before becoming an independent company through a management buy-out in 2025, Gavita was part of Hawthorne’s Professional Horticulture Lighting business, a division of the publicly listed Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. In 2026, we launched the LYRA platform, powered by AgroluxOS and HortiMesh, bringing lighting, data, and control together in one future-ready ecosystem.

Gretchen Schimelpfenig is the executive director of the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium and a senior engineer at Energy Resources Integration (ERI). Gretchen earned a M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University in 2014 and a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Wyoming in 2012. She is a licensed Civil Professional Engineer in California and Vermont. At ERI, Gretchen helps greenhouse growers and indoor farmers identify and implement efficiency strategies through cost-effective energy management. Gretchen is the former Technical Director of Resource Innovation Institute (RII) and author of RII’s Lighting, HVAC, and Facility Design & Construction Best Practices Guides for CEA in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Senior Energy Engineer

Rob is a (re)insurance veteran with catastrophe risk expertise. Founder & director of ClearBlue Insurance (fronting group). MD at Pine Brook (co-ran FIG). Director/Sr VP at Arch Capital. Founding advisor for Aeolus, the OG collateralized catastrophe u/w.

Senior Advisor

Data-driven growing expert with a passion for autonomous greenhouses and smarter decision-making.

<a href="https://www.udel.edu/academics/colleges/canr/departments/plant-and-soil-sciences/faculty-staff/qingwu-meng/" target="_blank">Dr. Qingwu (William) Meng</a> is an Assistant Professor of Controlled-Environment Horticulture at the University of Delaware, where he leads the <a href="https://www.indooraglab.com/" target="_blank">Delaware Indoor Ag Lab (DIAL)</a>. His research integrates plant physiology with technology to improve the efficiency, productivity, and sustainability of greenhouse and indoor crop production through optimized lighting, environmental control, and root-zone management. Supported by sponsors such as the USDA, NASA, and FFAR, his work focuses on translating scientific discoveries into practical solutions for commercial controlled-environment agriculture (CEA). In addition to his research, he teaches courses in hydroponics, controlled-environment crop physiology and technology, and space crop production, with a strong emphasis on preparing the next generation of CEA professionals. Through research, teaching, and industry collaboration, his goal is to help accelerate the growth of a resilient and innovative CEA sector in North America.

Assistant Professor of Controlled-Environment Horticulture

With over 30 years’ experience developing and leading successful companies, Paul has built a career on his belief in sustainable agriculture. As the founder of Backyard Farms, he brought locally grown, greenhouse tomatoes to the East Coast market. Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from Cornell University.

With over 30 years of professional experience, Bryan has served rural Virginia localities as a County Administrator and held other local government leadership positions. He also led Virginia's Region 2000 Partnership-Economic Development Council, which served the Lynchburg metropolitan region. He holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, a postgraduate Certificate in Litigation from the National Center for Paralegal Training, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Hampden-Sydney College. He is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation Board of Directors, Chair of the Council for Rural Virginia, member of the Virginia Rural Leadership Institute Advisory Committee, and member of the James Solomon Russell - Saint Paul's College Museum and Archives Advisory Board.

Economic and Community Development | Local Government Specialist

Director of Hydroponic Systems Mexico.
Specialist in greenhouse installations: hydroponics, pest control, water disinfection, engineering, and manufacturing. Projects developed throughout North America, as well as Hawaii, Malaysia, etc. Permanent connection with Europe through offices and a sales network.
Extensive experience in the design, manufacturing, and export of greenhouses and equipment for drainage collection and crop protection for fruits and vegetables.

Director

Hitoshi Kawashima is Senior Vice President of Engineering at Oishii, the indoor vertical smart farming company known for growing pesticide-free, non-GMO, Japanese varietal strawberries. A Yale grad, he joined Oishii as aStrategy & Analytics Manager after a consulting career at ZS. At Oishii, Hitoshi rose through strategy, R&D, and product roles before taking the helm of engineering in 2024. He now leads the standardization of Oishii's production systems globally, including at Amatelas Farm, the company's large vertical strawberry facility in New Jersey.

SVP of Engineering

With a passion for Controlled Environment Agriculture and a deep understanding of business principles, Amos Bassi has made significant contributions to the CEA industry through his agronomy and strategic management expertise. Bassi is an accomplished agronomist with solid business acumen and an Executive MBA in Economics.

Senior Plant Specialist

Dr. Chieri Kubota is a distinguished professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of The Ohio State University. She also serves as the Director of Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, which include 30 academic members and 12 consortium industry members working collaboratively to advance controlled environment agriculture. Dr. Kubota received Ph.D. in Horticultural Engineering and M.S. in Horticultural Science from Chiba University, Japan. Dr. Kubota is a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS).  In research, her focus is on science-based technology development for CEA crop such as lighting technologies, water and nutrient management, and introducing new crops for CEA. Dr. Kubota is very active in training professionals through online courses, hands-on training, and consultations.

Distinguished Professor & Director OHCEAC

Experienced executive with a demonstrated history of building and managing successful teams. Strong sales professional, skilled in Negotiation, Budgeting, Strategic Business Planning, Coaching, and Employee Development.

Vice President, North America

One of the driving forces behind the global adoption of energy-efficient and knowledge-driven greenhouse practices. With a background in horticultural consultancy and over a decade at climate screen specialist Ludvig Svensson (a Plant Empowerment Implementation Partner), Ton combines deep technical understanding with a practical, grower-focused approach.

Tom serves as Executive Director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Alliance, after serving almost 30 years as President and CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association. In 2021, Tom helped launch the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), a new association formed by the combination of United Fresh and the Produce Marketing Association. He served as Co-CEO of IFPA through March 2022, before forming his own consulting business The Stenzel Group LLC and beginning work on behalf of the CEA Alliance.

Henry Gordon-Smith is a globally recognized expert in climate-smart agriculture and a pioneer in the vertical and urban farming movement. With 10+ years of experience, he supports clients across the full project lifecycle—from early-stage concept and feasibility to strategy, design direction, and delivery support.

My name is Bernard van Loon I currently work as business developer for Delphy Digital with a focus on North America. With past experience as a data scientist and an Msc in Plant Science focused on statistical crop modelling from Wageningen University, my aim is to combine theoretical and practical solutions to help growers take the next step in Data Driven Growing. Light is the key aspect for yield, and understanding how a crop reacts to light during different stages and scenarios is key for yield prediction and crop management. One part of Data Driven Growing with Delphy's QMS solutions is alloiwing a grower a deeper insight into how their lighting (indoor and outdoor) interacts with their crop throughout the growing season.

Mariska Dreschler has more than 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship, business strategy, business development and event management. As Director of Horticulture, GreenTech Global at the RAI Amsterdam, she supports the global food- and flower production industry by organizing trade fairs for these communities to connect, both face-2-face and digital. The GreenTech portfolio consists of GreenTech Amsterdam as the worldwide leading trade show on horticulture technologies and GreenTech Americas for the Latin America region in Mexico, Querétaro. In 2026 GreenTech North America will be launched, in the Philadelphia, US with focus on the region of the US and Canada.

Director Horticulture - GreenTech Global

Manager of Innovation, Sales, and Technology for Van der Ende Group’s Filtration Division, Schulte plays a vital role in helping growers around the world to produce their controlled environment horticulture crops according to the Plant Empowerment principles.

Manager of Innovation, Sales & Technology

Born and raised near the city of Mechelen, in Belgium’s main greenhouse vegetable‑growing area. As the son of a tomato and lettuce grower he literally grew up between the plants in a greenhouse. That’s where his passion for plants and greenhouse growing originates.
 
Specialized in hydroponic growing of leafy vegetables and herbs in open field, greenhouses or closed environments, and plant propagation. Currently consulting and supporting projects all over the world in different climate zones (like Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and North America).

Managing Partner

Plant Empowerment consultant Paul van Gils has had an exceptionally busy yet rewarding year collaborating with fellow consultant Remy Maat to produce Plant Empowerment’s dynamic white paper, The Influence of Coatings on Irrigation, and its accompanying podcast on light and irrigation.

International Consultant

Based in Chicago, Tomas Geurts is General Manager North America at Source.ag, working in controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) to help growers turn data into better decisions and improved scalability. He oversees teams and operations in Canada, the US, and Mexico.He is passionate about tech-driven innovation, biology, and healthy nutrition, and contributing to global progress and prosperity.

General Manager

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Moderator: Ryan Douglas