MEET THE TEAM
Matt Rohlik
Managing Director of Farm Data & Strategic Partnerships
Experienced farmer and rancher, 15 years precision agriculture expert specializing in equipment (John Deere for 10 years and remote sensing with Mavrx and Taranis Inc)
Michael R. Shuppenhauer PhD
Advisor, Principal Grant Investigator
Since 2006 lead biogas efforts for European technology leaders in the US. He holds a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering fromthe TU Hamburg and a Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He was a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.
Tom Dye
Chief Technology Officer
C-level executive and founder of multiple tech startups. Experienced entrepreneur responsible for millions in equity-raised capital, IPO exits, and acquisitions by publicly traded companies. Inventor of 55 patents.
Sam Lauffenburger
Director of Engineering
Software engineer and lead technology developer with a decade of experience creating solutions for complex industries such as energy, lending, and real estate.
Chris Fedor
Senior Geospatial Engineer
Geospacial engineer and analyst with over 10 years of experience in advanced remote sensing, as well as ecological and economic modeling.
Alex Whitley
Managing Director
Eight years as a leader in precision agriculture with a focus on product architecture and building international sales teams. Most recently as Global Director of Marketing for Taranis Inc, specializing in remote sensing and analytics.
Jess Schenckman
Data Analyst
Graduating from Colorado College with a degree in Mathematics. Researched knot theory which has applications in cyber security and quantum computing.
John McEntire
Director of Communications
Professional communicator with experience in luxury goods, documentary film, commercial real estate investment fund, and editorial management for cultural and political magazines.
Bonnie Bronson
UI / UX Designer
Over 10 years of experience building user-centric products for companies like Ancestry, Jane, Deere Valley, and SimpleNexus.
Nathan Slaton PhD
Advisor
Assistant Director now Agriculture Experiment Station for the University of Arkansas, leading two labs specializing in agricultural analyses, testing services, and fertilizer recommendations.
Merle Anders PhD
Advisor
Consultant for Unilever, sustainability, and Ducks Unlimited, water resources, Former Rice Systems Agronomist for the University of Arkansas Rice Research and Extension Center, and international soil scientist.
Jay McEntire
CEO, CoFounder
Experienced Fintech CEO, former bank holding company CFO and investment banker. Managing Director of Glennoe Farms, LLC. Successful exit as CEO of ProTrader Group to Instinet for $150M.
Ben Brown PhD
Chief Machine Learning Architect, CoFounder
Machine Learning Expert and Head of Molecular Ecosystems Dynamics at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, Chair of Environmental Bioinformatics at University of Birmingham, and Senior Scientific Advisor for Preminon, LLC.
Mark Isbell
Founding Board Member, 4th Gen Rice Farmer
Rice Farmer with Isbell Farms and Instructor of Professional Tech Writing at University of Arkansas Little Rock. Board Member of Sustainability Committee USA Rice Federation. Board Member of Field to Market.
OUR STORY
At Arva Intelligence, we are farmers first. Our challenges are the same as yours, especially when dealing with data. We had collected data for years, but had little success turning that data into something actionable — USB drives, file folders, and binders were piling up, and our devices were full of farm apps. We decided to do something about it and took the challenge head on.
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After three years of an on-going research collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, and the University of Arkansas, we founded Arva Intelligence in 2018. Now, we're bringing farmers, suppliers, and manufacturers the same technology we use to streamline decision making for agronomics, economics, and sustainability.
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As a deep technology B-Corportation, Arva Intelligence is deeply committed to protect the economic profitability of farmers and the environmental health of farmland. We continue to create, innovate, and deploy cutting-edge machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to enhance our ability to scale profitable and sustainable agriculture.