I lead all innovation and growth strategy, and oversee growth operations (scale operations) for new verticals. In this, I'm overseeing a major initiative to transform our company into an omni-channel business, covering 70% of the farming population in Kenya. Through this work, some key wins have included: - Rural Retail: Leading growth of our innovative "rural retail" business over 120 locations. On track to 3X this business over the next year. - Digital Products: Overseeing 1 Senior Technical Product Manager, and two Product Managers creating smallholder farmer relevant digital products across sales, training, and lending categories. - Digital Innovations: Scaling of our proprietary mobile app and hardware for 3,000+ remote / rural field staff.- Products: Brought 8+ new products to market, including new lending products for small scale farmers - increasing market penetration by ~50%- Farm-to-Export: Leading farm-to-export business incubation, with our first exports of Macadamia nuts in 2021. - Carbon-capture / Reforestation: Launching a new vertical on track to plant 70 million trees over the next 5 years.

I led a diverse innovation department with product portfolios that spanning across agriculture, forestry, health, livestock, solar, market access, and new verticals. During this time, I led a revamp of our entire innovation process, leading to a new innovation investment strategy that reduced R&D spend by 40% while simultaneously launching major new product segments. These included; "lifestyle" and home improvement product segments, and health insurance products to over 500k small scale farmers.

I led the agricultural products portfolio - focused on agricultural product UX and UAT, aiming to find the most impactful products, practices, and services for smallholder farmers in East Africa. During this role, I lead 5 new agricultural products to market, and brought 4 new agricultural practices into the business at scale. Additionally, I led innovation-process improvement initiatives that reduced time-to-market for agricultural products by 70%+.

I led on initiatives linking agricultural research to market opportunities while also establishing a commercial soil analytical laboratory.

As a PhD. Researcher, I focused on securing four large international grants for agricultural development and food security research, and conducted research on soil carbon sequestration, climate smart agriculture, and food security. During this time I also provided technical support for several USAID funded initiatives throughout Tanzania.Throughout this time, I managed a comprehensive research program across three remote / rural locations in Tanzania. Results from this research lead to a 45%+ water savings for irrigated rice systems across Tanzania.

Served as a key technical consultant on multiple projects focused on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA).1) Established the African CSA Alliance "practical guidebook" for implementing CSA across Sub-Saharan Africa.• Developed framework for implementing CSA in Sub-Saharan Africa countries• Created key extension guidelines for CSA practices• Established key constraints and socioeconomic niches to guide CSA implementation2) Worked on a team conducting a systematic review of CSA for developing countries. The aim of this work established the definitive baseline for evaluating CSA practices and provided key knowledge gaps for operationalizing CSA globally.

I lead an international research program focused on agricultural fertilizer-use efficiency. This research lead to identification of 6 phosphorus update and use-efficient wheat cultivars, and identification of the chemical mechanisms they deployed to increase phosphorus uptake. Additionally, I worked with approximately 1K+ students through a highly rated introductory soil science couse.