View Professional Bio
Education:
University of California, Berkeley (P.H.D.)
Plant Cell Physiology
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (B.S.)
Plant Physiology
Work Experience:
BioCrossroads
Chief Scientific Officer
Dow AgroSciences Corp
VP of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology
Seminis Vegetable Seeds
Director of Breeding
Ronald Meeusen
Q & A
Q. What's your story?
A.
An early seminary education and a later Ph.D. from Berkeley lead to an R&D career in major food and agriculture companies; Rohm and Haas, Sandoz/Syngenta, Seminis/Monsanto and, most recently, Dow. Along the way I was fortunate to lead teams bringing new technologies to agriculture, from novel foods to some of the first genetically engineered crops. In 2005 I stumbled over the absence of venture capital in the food and agriculture space, and set out to raise a technology fund to invest in new food and agriculture startups, which has quickly become one of the premier agriculture venture funds in North America.
Q. What inspires you?
A.
The pure creativity of entrepreneurs, especially in applying technologies to solve pressing problems.
Q. Why Sandbox?
A.
The investment community has historically overlooked venture capital in food and agriculture. As a result, there are very few humans on this planet today with combined experience in both venture capital investing and agriculture. Sandbox and Cultivian represent two of these, and together form the broadest, most experienced such team on the planet. What’s not to like?
Q. Where can we find you outside of work?
A.
Flying a Cessna, shooting skeet and sporting clays, or playing with my grandkids. Occasionally I find time to replace the clay targets with live pheasants, but they are less cooperative.