Our People

Chris Goldthwait(retired) began his career with the Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in 1973. He served in several FAS jobs including Agricultural Attaché in Germany (1978-82) and Agricultural Counselor in Nigeria (1982-86). In 1991 he became USDA General Sales Manager/FAS Associate Administrator. Serving in this position until 1999, he managed all the Department's food aid, export credit, market development, commodity analysis and export subsidy programs. This was a widely varying portfolio of $5 to $10 billion annually. In 1999 he was selected as the first career FAS Foreign Service officer to become an ambassador, serving as U.S. ambassador to Chad from late 1999 until early 2004, when he left government service and founded his consulting business.

Before joining GrainPro, Dey was a senior official with the UN World Food Program ultimately leading the US operation. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor to the US Ambassador to the United Nations at the State Department, spearheading efforts to improve the lives of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Mr. Sherblom was a founder of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and served as its President. He was also President and Chairman of TSI Corporation. As founding Managing Partner of Seaflower Ventures, Mr. Sherblom helped create six biotechnology and healthcare companies and was an early investor in at least 12 more. Jim holds a BA from Yale, MBA from Harvard and Masters in Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Andover Newton Theological School.

Mr. Villers led the company’s growth from a small, two-person operation in 1996 to a global company today with sales and operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Villers also founded Computervision in 1969, an early pioneer in Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing, and Automatix in 1980.

Ms. Mitchell leads GCNF’s global mission to ensure that children around the world have nutritious, locally-sourced meals at school. Ms. Mitchell previously served in senior leadership roles at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN World Food Program and the US Department of Agriculture. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Michigan State University.

A Dutch-American agricultural economist with over fifteen years of agriculture industry experience. Her expertise ranges from strategic market analysis and product development to sales, marketing and distribution strategy. She has lived and worked abroad- three years in Amsterdam and six years in Beijing- contributing to her robust global experience, cultural competence, and network. Today, Vassilos utilizes her global cross-functional experience from working for the USDA and John Deere to support the growth of sustainability-focused agriculture businesses. She has a BS and MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and University of California, Davis.

C.D. Glin is the Vice President of the PepsiCo Foundation and PepsiCo's Global Head of Philanthropy. Glin leads the company's philanthropic arm's social and community-driven impact efforts, as well as a portfolio of global employee engagement programs designed to harness the expertise and passion of PepsiCo's more than 290,000 employees to create positive, long-term change in communities around the world.

He is responsible for the Foundation's strategic direction, and also directing internal and external engagement around The PepsiCo Foundation's three core pillars of equitable access to nutritious food, safe water, and economic opportunity. He brings to this role global philanthropic and public service expertise fine-tuned by an extensive career and life experience in emerging markets. Prior to PepsiCo, Glin served as the President and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation, a philanthropic organization established by Congress as a federal government corporation. Further, as the former Associate Director of The Rockefeller Foundation based in Nairobi, Kenya, he managed day-to-day operations for initiatives focused on global agriculture, nutrition, and climate change resilience.

Glin earned his Bachelor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, DC, a Masters-level diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the Said Business School at the University of Oxford in the UK, and completed the Leadership for Senior Executives Program at Harvard Business School.

Suma Reddy has more than 15 years of experience in AgTech and CleanTech and is a co-founder and current CEO at Future Acres, an agricultural robotics company that develops sustainable and advanced robotic tools for farms and farmers to bring innovative and transformative solutions to the industry. She leads fundraising, nurtures partnerships, and facilitates roadmap development together with a team of engineers, operators, and designers. Her background includes co-founding Farmshelf, a mission-driven company that builds smart indoor farms to make it easy to grow produce where you live, work, and eat. During this time, she was able to drive internal strategy and developed a company roadmap, establishing Farmshelf as a frontier indoor farming company. She grew the team from three to more than thirty people by developing new processes and recruiting and managing engineers, technologists, designers, and operators to build, launch, and service products. Suma holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester.

Before joining GrainPro, Dey was a senior official with the UN World Food Program ultimately leading the US operation. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor to the US Ambassador to the United Nations at the State Department, spearheading efforts to improve the lives of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Rose Ndung'u has 15 years’ experience in managing company operations, including marketing entry strategies in various sectors, of which ten have been in key managerial positions. This has been in an East and Southern Africa wide context involving partnerships with governments, private companies and non-governmental organizations. Mrs. Ndung'u is well versed in strategy design and implementation, marketing research, communication branding, competition management, dissemination of fund impact and overall management of company operations. Mrs. Ndung'u holds an MBA in Strategic Management and Human Resource Management from United States International University and a BSc in Food Science and Post-Harvest Technology from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She is a member of the Marketing Society of Kenya, Member of the Eastern Africa Fine Coffees Association, and a member of Eastern Africa Grain Council.

Patrick Plijter became President and CEO of GrainPro Global Support & Production (GSAP) in January 2020. Mr. Plijter's expertises are strategic planning, marketing/brand management, innovation management and general management. He joined GrainPro back in 2017 after having moved from the Netherlands to the Philippines. In the Netherlands, Mr. Plijter worked in the FMCG industry in several marketing and innovation roles. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Erasmus University and a Bachelor's Degree in Sales and Marketing Management from the Hogeschool Utrecht.

Hazel Valera is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the manufacturing industry. Mrs. Valera has a strong professional and operational skillset in negotiation, business planning, strategic planning, business development, and business process improvement. Joining GrainPro Philippines as Purchasing and Logistics Manager in 2007, her wide experience in manufacturing and supply chain management made her a key contributor to the increased efficiency of the department and to the company as a whole. Mrs. Valera’s knowledge in strategic analysis, import/export operations, production and warehouse optimization, provides an unparallel focus on operational excellence. Mrs. Valera graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management at New Era University.

Tess Enriquez an Agricultural Engineer by profession, has worked with GrainPro for over 10 years in various capacities. Managing territories of South East Asia, developing the markets in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. Mrs. Enriquez pioneered the ISO processes and certification for the manufacturing facility and assisted in the restructuring and created processes and procedures for the Technical and Customer Support departments. Mrs. Enriquez has headed the professional and specialty solutions (insecticides product portfolio) product line for the Philippine market, with business unit sales growth of 325% through improved management of product lines, aggressive promotions and developing organic, new market segments. Mrs. Enriquez, along with her ancestors, are farmers. Her passion and dedication to reducing chemical inputs and using more natural, organic approaches to produce healthy and chemical free vegetables brings a invaluable approach to her work at GrainPro. Mrs. Enriquez holds a Bachelors in Agricultural Engineering from the University of the Philippines Los Banos.

Praveen is a senior executive with extensive experience in corporate governance, business development, marketing, and manufacturing. He previously worked with UPM - Kymmene India Private Limited as a Country Manager and Managing Director covering India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Diego Lara as is post-harvest expert, with a high-level knowledgebase of the coffee and cocoa industry, food security, general grains, and organic fumigation. Mr. Lara areas of specialty in business strategy, project implementation, international trade, sales and finance management, social development. Mr. Lara has a Bachelor’s degree In Agricultural Sciences with an Emphasis Management from the Universidad Rafael Landivar.

As the Chief of Global Sales, Artur Miranda brings a wealth of experience from his distinguished career leading sales teams at Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and, most recently, Zambia Seed Company. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the Independent University of Lisbon and a Master's in Business Administration in International Business from EU Business School in Madrid.