With an academic background in environmental design and planning from Miami University and the Pratt Institute, years of experience in community and economic development, and growing up in the family orchards, and currently living on the family farm in Columbia County, Todd brings a holistic approach to agri-business development- applying practical economic development programs to protect and preserve open space by keeping farmers in business. With HVADC's Board of Directors, Todd has developed the first regional entity to focus on farms and local food business as economic development in the Hudson Valley. Under his direction, HVADC has grown to having multi-year service contracts with eight counties’ economic development offices and raising over $15 million for programs and services to assist ag-related/ag-dependent businesses in the region. During this time, HVADC established the Farm and Food Funding Accelerator and the Incubator Without Walls to mentor over 235 client businesses and 30 technical services providers and has assisted a variety of projects in accessing over $65 million in funding, ranging from the Hudson Valley Food Hub, the FeedHV food rescue/donation system, to the Catskills Food Hub. Todd was instrumental in forming the FFGF, a 501c3 organization designed as an emerging CDFI to improve the economic conditions of low-income underserved people & residents of distressed communities, providing access to capital & technical assistance for farm & food-related, food- service businesses throughout the Northeast Foodshed (encompassing parts of the greater Hudson Valley (NY), western CT, western MA, southern VT & eastern PA). As President/CEO, Todd is leading the development of the organization providing vision, strategic direction and fostering relationships to bring business technical assistance and access to capital to New York statewide and the Northeast Region.Todd is currently an Executive Committee member of Governor Hochul's Capital District Regional Economic Development Council, Senator Gillibrand’s Agricultural Working Group, Congressman Riley’s Agricultural Advisory Board, NYS Hudson River Estuary Management Council, the Hudson Mohawk Resource Conservation and Development Council Board of Directors, the Columbia County Water District Board of Commissioners, and the Columbia County Farm Bureau Board of Directors.