This past year has been an exciting and busy one for Grow Further. And there’s more excitement to come as we gear up to announce our latest grants in support of smallholder agriculture innovation.
As we extend our reach in Africa and prepare for programs in India, Grow Further has grown, becoming stronger as we accelerate our donor-members’ work toward building a more food-secure future.
Over the past year, Grow Further has expanded its core team by adding five new team members. In this article, we thought we would provide an overview of who has recently joined us and how they will contribute to our important and evolving mission.
The new team members
First, our board has expanded by one member over the last year with David Levine.
David has held senior roles at ConAgra Foods, Smithfield Foods, and Continental Grain. He brings management experience and contributes to our expertise in livestock, an area where we plan to make grants in the future. Aside from his duties on our board, David is also an independent consultant, advising a wide array of agricultural companies.
Grow Further is also pleased to welcome our organization’s first-ever intern.
Keaton Hughes joins us from the University of Georgia where he’s pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in finance. He plans to continue on with graduate studies in business analytics. As our first intern, Keaton will play an instrumental role in developing our relationship with potential new donors and partners while helping Grow Further identify new opportunities for funding our charitable work.
Meanwhile, Grow Further has secured the services of a long-term contractor to help us in the field.
Joseph Opoku Gakpo, based in Ghana, is conducting site visits to help with our due diligence investigations, advising us and our grantees on how best to design and approach smallholder agricultural research. He’s also handy with a camera, shooting and editing videos from the field. Our founder and CEO, Peter Kelly, says he’s pleased that Joseph boasts these two talents. “[It’s] great to have one person with skills in both of these areas which is more efficient than sending separate people to do these things,” Peter said.
“I see myself as a catalyst who creates a mechanism for others to discover and take advantage of opportunities.”
New staff for future missions
In recent months, Grow Further has added new staff, as well.
Venkatramana Pegadaraju joined our team recently as our new vice president for development, taking over those duties from Jennifer Dine, who now wears the singular hat of chief of staff.
Venkat is a graduate of Kansas State University where he holds a Ph.D. in biology. He also has an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He’s skilled and experienced in both business and the life sciences, in particular agricultural biotechnology. We’ve brought Venkat on board not only to help us keep on top of our increasingly busy workload, but also to help Grow Further forge a new path ahead in India.
Last but not least, Jody Santoro has joined Grow Further to enhance our marketing and communications.
Originally from Connecticut, Jody went to college in New Hampshire and spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. She brings with her 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, and graphic design, including a stint at the Aga Khan Foundation.
Jody says she was drawn to Grow Further due to the important nature of our work. “I started work in the private sector, where I learned so many good business skills,” she said. “But I found I could only do ‘business’ for so long before I craved a greater purpose. So, I sought out positions that either helped people or the planet. Grow Further does both.”
Our leader weighs in
Through all these new team additions and staff expansions, our founder, Peter Kelly, has remained a stabilizing force holding it all together. But Peter doesn’t wish to be the proverbial heart of Grow Further—and don’t call him a “thought leader” either.
“I’m not interested in finding and promoting a particular model of agriculture or making the organization about me,” Peter explained. “Rather, I see myself as a catalyst who creates a mechanism for others to discover and take advantage of opportunities.”
No matter our backgrounds or the skill sets that we bring to Grow Further, we’re all united by a common goal: supporting R&D that promises to change the lives of smallholder farmers, thereby improving food security everywhere. We’re especially proud of our work funding and advancing research projects that would go unnoticed and unsupported in our absence.
Peter and the rest of us here at Grow Further invite you all to join us in this unique and worthwhile endeavor.
“Anyone whose giving is motivated by social impact and is willing to consider projects that are far away and longer-term should have agricultural research on their radar screen because it has a history of high impact in a variety of areas, from nutrition to environment,” Peter said. “And much as we’d like to create a sector of agricultural research charities to choose among, we’re basically still the only game in town for now.”
— Grow Further
Photo credit: Grow Further CEO Peter Kelly (foreground) inspecting diseased crops in Tanzania. True Vision Productions.
