{"id":2466,"date":"2020-04-16T21:53:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T17:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2020-07-28T20:35:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T16:35:43","slug":"agri-tech-startup-expands-its-senior-leadership-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/agri-tech-startup-expands-its-senior-leadership-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Agri-tech Startup expands its senior leadership team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pureharvest.ae\/\">Pure Harvest Smart Farms<\/a> today announced the addition of three new senior executives to its leadership team. These latest appointments enabled agri business bolsters Pure Harvest\u2019s capabilities as it expands its operations in the region.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new\nappointments come just one week after Pure Harvest successfully raised $20.6\nmillion as part of its Series A financing round, together with a multi-stage investment commitment valued at over USD $100\nmillion by Wafra International Investment Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWorld-class talent and executive leadership are\nessential elements to enable our future growth and to secure Pure Harvest\u2019s\nplace as the pioneer of the fast-emerging Middle East\u2019s Agtech ecosystem.&nbsp; We have a winning solution \u2013 we now need to\nscale it\u2026 and the right people doing the right things rightly is the only thing\nstanding between us and building an enduring regional champion.&nbsp; I\u2019m thrilled with the additions of Johan\nPersson, Thomas Prins, and Thomas Larssen to Pure Harvest at this critical\njuncture.&nbsp; I look forward to working with\neach of them to achieve our shared mission to offer affordable local, year-round,\nsustainably-grown fresh fruits &amp; vegetables that Taste Like They Should<sup>TM<\/sup>.&nbsp; We will continue to invest in people who have\na proven track record of success to augment our capabilities,\u201d said Sky Kurtz,\nCo-Founder and CEO of Pure Harvest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas Larssen is the President of Aurora Larssen\nProjects (ALPS), a renowned greenhouse engineering &amp; crop specialist consultancy\nfirm, based in Ontario, Canada.&nbsp; Thomas\njoins Pure Harvest as an Independent Technical Director.&nbsp; He will serve on the Board of Directors and\nwill support Pure Harvest in its strategy, technology roadmap, evaluation and\nselection of key partnerships, and to secure and then efficiently deploy\ncapital.&nbsp; Larssen has set the industry\nstandard in development of high-tech, automated, environmentally controlled\ncultivation facilities for over 30 years.&nbsp;\nHe has been involved in over 1,000 successful controlled-environment\nagriculture projects around the world and is considered to be among the strongest\ntechnical minds in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johan Persson joins as Chief Operating Officer and will\nlead the company\u2019s operations, including strategic sourcing, post-production,\nlogistics, business optimization, and all functions within the operations\u2019\nprimary activities value chain.&nbsp; He will help\nto drive the business\u2019 long-term strategy and work across all functions to improve\nthe company\u2019s scalability and ensure operational excellence. Persson has a\nunique professional acumen, with leadership roles in manufacturing, food\nproduction, and technology-enabled mobility solutions.&nbsp; Johan previously held VP-level leadership\nroles at Careem \u2013 the region\u2019s most successful startup.&nbsp; Prior to Careem, Johan worked at Al Ghurair\nFoods as both Supply Chain Manager &amp; Continuous Improvement Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas Prins joins Pure Harvest as Senior Grower.\nPrins brings more than 17 years of agronomical experience leading large-scale Dutch\ngreenhouse operations, and is committed to continuous improvement and innovation\nto advance the controlled-environment agriculture industry.&nbsp; Prins will support Head Grower Jan Prins to\noversee Pure Harvest\u2019s expansions in the region, including to train &amp;\nmanage growers, to streamline production operations, and to champion quality\ncontrol &amp; assurance across the entire production process.&nbsp; Most recently, Prins served as a Grower for\nCombiVliet, a major global player in the production of premium quality tomatoes\nbased in Holland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pure Harvest\u2019s mission to make it possible to sustainably grow safe, delicious, and affordable fresh local produce <em>anywhere<\/em> is aligned with the UAE\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/foodsecurity.gov.ae\/en\/our-stratergic-directions\">National Strategy for Food Security<\/a> towards innovation-driven and technology-enabled food production. Pure Harvest is tackling the region\u2019s food security challenges by leveraging technology to overcome the extreme arid climate. This has enabled year-round production of premium quality fresh fruits &amp; vegetables while at the same time contributing to water conversation, economic diversification and sustainability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new appointments come just one week after Pure Harvest successfully raised $20.6 million as part of its Series A financing round, together with a multi-stage investment commitment valued at over USD $100 million by Wafra International Investment Company. These latest appointments enabled agribusiness bolsters Pure Harvest\u2019s capabilities as it expands its operations in the region.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1199,1201,444,1200],"contributor":[],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startups","tag-agri_tech","tag-expansion","tag-investment","tag-pure_harvest_smart_farms"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Johan-Persson-Headshot-e1587059530884.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Rabab","author_link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/author\/rabab\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}