Indigo Agriculture, a company leveraging nature and technology to unlock economic and environmental progress for farmers, announces the appointment of noted technology leader Dean Banks to its board of directors. As a member of the board, Banks will support the company as it continues to mature and scale its suite of agriculture sustainability solutions.
"Indigo's progress this year alone–successfully producing the world's first crop of registry-issued ag carbon credits at scale, expanding our industry-leading biological seed treatments with the discovery of a novel biofungicide, and the ongoing development of second-generation digital merchandising solutions–shows the impact possible when breakthrough science and technology focus directly toward solving our biggest challenges," said Indigo CEO Ron Hovsepian. "As we continue to deliver on our ambitions to help grow the future of sustainable agriculture, Dean's expertise steering innovative applications of technology across a wide range of industries will accelerate Indigo's progress and maximize the value we deliver to our farmers, partners and the planet."
An entrepreneur, technologist, innovator and business leader, Banks's strategic vision has helped diverse early-stage and established companies deliver on their long-term strategies.
Banks most recently served as president and CEO at Tyson Foods, where he was responsible for charting the long-term vision for the company including steering integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and development of alternative proteins throughout its operations. During his four-year tenure with the company, he also served on the board and executive leadership team. He joined Tyson from the high-tech incubator X at Alphabet, the company formerly known as Google, where he served on the leadership team and led moonshot projects across multiple industries including sustainable food (as co-founder of Tidal) and robotics (as co-founder of Intrinsic).
"Dean's extensive experience developing and operationalizing cutting-edge technologies to deliver high-impact for people and businesses will be incredibly valuable for Indigo's next stage of growth and development," said Robert Berendes, chairman of Indigo Ag board of directors.
"Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to apply leading-edge technologies across complex industries to help businesses adapt, innovate, and grow. With Indigo, I look forward to bringing these skills and experience to help our most essential profession–farming–succeed in the face of unmatched disruptions," said Banks. "I was immediately drawn to Indigo's forward-thinking, science-driven, and farmer-first approach to developing market-based solutions that help shape the future for the better. I'm excited to help scale the company's impact as a global leader working at the most critical frontier in innovation: sustainability solutions."
