[PRESS RELEASE] PORTLAND, Ore. (March 6, 2025) — Useful resource Innovation Institute (RII), a not-for-profit advancing resilient agricultural techniques, introduced the addition of six new participants of its Board of Administrators. Those leaders will lend a hand pressure RII’s challenge to scale resource-efficient and round meals manufacturing techniques, improve dietary safety, and reinforce group resilience during the integration of managed atmosphere agriculture (CEA).
“The way forward for CEA is dependent upon optimizing unit economics and demonstrating the sphere’s price to society,” mentioned Derek Smith, Government Director of Useful resource Innovation Institute. “RII performs a important function in facilitating the public-private collaboration wanted for scale, comparable to our present partnership with Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory to advance america Dept. of Power funded CEA Marketplace Accelerator. The addition of this multi-perspective cohort of board leaders strengthens our skill to steer the sphere towards better productiveness, potency, and resilience.”
The six new board participants come with former Barren region Aire President Keith Coursin, IFPA Vice President of Innovation Vonnie Estes, ARCO/Murray Spouse Patrick Hidder, former KUBO Greenhouse Initiatives North American Director of Strategic Building Andrew Horowitz, International Flora and fauna Fund Senior Director Julia Kurnik, and Walmart Sr. Director Inventions Agricultural Technique Michael Yates.
- Keith Coursin, Board Chair, just lately retired from his function as President of Barren region Aire Corp., a producer of industrial and commercial dehumidification techniques utilized in managed atmosphere agriculture (CEA) and different programs. He has held more than a few management roles inside the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), a Washington, D.C.-based business affiliation for the HVACR business, and is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Previous to Barren region Aire, Coursin labored in gross sales and advertising at Nice Lakes Tools, a producer of water and wastewater instrumentation merchandise. He holds a Bachelor of Science stage in chemistry from Carroll College.
- Vonnie Estes serves as Vice President of Innovation on the World Contemporary Produce Affiliation (IFPA), the place she is helping corporations navigate, increase, and commercialize innovation in agriculture. With a keenness for generation and sustainability, she has held management roles at DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta, and more than a few startups and undertaking budget. She in the past served as Vice President of Trade Building for Caribou Biosciences, a biotechnology corporate focusing on CRISPR Cas9 genome engineering. A identified business chief and widespread speaker, Estes holds a Bachelor of Science stage in horticulture from New Mexico State College and a Grasp of Science stage in plant pathology from the College of California, Davis.
- Patrick Hidder is a spouse and shareholder of ARCO/Murray, a premier design-build basic contractor with over 40 places of work and 5,500 initiatives throughout North The us. Since becoming a member of ARCO/Murray in 2010, he has supplied operational management and performed a key function in increasing the corporate’s footprint, together with co-founding its Dallas administrative center in 2015. Hidder has effectively led groups throughout more than one industries, managing greater than 200 initiatives in heavy processing, leisure, commercial, managed environments, and waste-to-value sectors.
- Andrew Horowitz used to be previously KUBO Greenhouse Initiatives North American Director of Strategic Building, the place he hooked up business and operational groups to lend a hand North American growers maximize potency. Previous to KUBO, he labored as a mission supervisor and engineer at Little Leaf Farms and as a procedure engineering advisor at Barry-Wehmiller Design Team. With revel in in each the U.S. and Dutch CEA markets—as each an operator and a provider—Horowitz brings precious perception into the strategic relationships and inventions shaping the way forward for managed atmosphere agriculture.
- Julia Kurnik is the Senior Director, Innovation Get started-Ups on the International Flora and fauna Fund (WWF) the place she researches rising traits and equipment with the possible to pressure environmental sustainability and fiscal enlargement in meals and agriculture techniques. She has intensive revel in launching multi-stakeholder tasks, designing and piloting new trade methods, and creating insurance policies that beef up sustainable CEA practices. Previous to WWF, she led analysis and coverage tasks at Hart Analysis Friends and the Nationwide Ladies’s Trade Council. Kurnik may be an accessory professor at Rutgers Trade College, the place she designed and teaches lessons in social entrepreneurship. She holds a Bachelor of Science stage from the Massachusetts Institute of Generation, a Grasp of Trade Management in entrepreneurial control from the Wharton College on the College of Pennsylvania, and a Grasp of Public Management in sustainability from the Harvard Kennedy College of Executive.
- Michael Yates leads Innovation Agricultural Technique at Walmart, that specialize in transformative answers for recent meals divisions. With twenty years of revel in in sustainable calories and regulated atmosphere agriculture, he makes a speciality of aligning client personal tastes, clinical developments, and sustainability targets. His paintings optimizes meals provide chains for high quality, affordability, and environmental have an effect on, leveraging generation to pressure large-scale development.
Those board participants sign up for Jonathan Eisenberg (Impartial Investor), Brian Herrington (The Scotts Miracle-Gro Corporate/Hawthorne Gardening Corporate), Dr. Chieri Kubota (The Ohio CEA Heart at The Ohio State College), Shanita Penny (Forbes-Tate Companions), Kim Participant (Participant Analysis & Consulting), Michael Roth (Pennsylvania Division of Agriculture), Jan Westra (Priva), and Elizabeth Whalen (Former Board Member, US Inexperienced Construction Council).

About Useful resource Innovation Institute: We advance group resilience via integrating managed atmosphere agriculture (CEA) into the way forward for farming.
Useful resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a non-profit, public-private partnership devoted to advancing group resilience via integrating managed atmosphere agriculture (CEA) into the way forward for farming. Thru collaboration with states, utilities, business leaders, and educational mavens, RII drives useful resource potency and circularity on the food-energy-water nexus.
RII’s paintings is arranged round 3 core program spaces: Marketplace Building, which fosters collaboration to boost up CEA adoption; Training & Coaching, which equips stakeholders with perfect practices for resilient and effective operations; and Information & Analysis, which delivers insights and benchmarking equipment for optimized decision-making.
Through leveraging strategic partnerships, cutting edge equipment, and business experience, RII scales resource-efficient answers to reinforce communities and change into agriculture. Be informed extra at www.resourceinnovation.org. Observe us on LinkedIn.