Centaur Analytics Welcomes Renowned Global Ag Tech and Agribusiness Strategy Leader, Richard Kottmeyer

VENTURA, Calif., October 18, 2017 (Newswire.com) - ​We at Centaur Analytics are pleased to announce that Richard Kottmeyer has joined our team as Vice President. Richard will be managing our North America market and advising on sales, marketing, strategy and capital markets.

Prior to joining Centaur, Richard had led the five largest agriculture-related professional service practices: Accenture, IBM, KPMG, Lehman, Luxoft, and Rothschild, with expertise spanning technology, strategy consulting, turnarounds, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and capital markets, and analytics. Richard is a celebrated strategist and futurist, helping companies understand Food2040 opportunities and challenges across the globe.

Richard also serves on multiple industry think tanks such as Farm Foundation, and writes for various U.S. farm publishers. He has also served as a G8 delegate, World Bank keynote speaker, and Presidential Advisor on global food security, the future of food, technology's role in meeting the Food2040 challenge, and exports. Richard was part of the original U.S.-China agriculture and trade delegation led by Secretary Hank Paulson and then Vice President of China, Xi Jinping. He also co-launched Food2040 with the USDA - the seminal document on the opportunities presented by the growing population and wealth for food and agriculture that is fundamental to Chinese and Japanese food security policies. Richard has over 100 citations and keynote speeches addressing over a dozen distinct sectors in the agriculture and food industry, and has won multiple agricultural Innovator of the Year awards in sectors ranging from poultry to food ingredients to agricultural and food marketing.

Well-known in the Ag Tech space, Richard has written many of the original farmer services strategies for the largest global precision farming divisions within the top agribusiness and equipment firms. He has also served as a consultant and board member at over a dozen successful early stage Ag Tech ventures, as well as an advisor for multiple governments on Ag Tech and Clean Tech, including the United Kingdom, USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and multiple multinationals such as the United Nations, InterAmerican Bank, African Union, and the World Bank.

Outside of the agricultural space, Richard had led a key military and Homeland Security laboratory tied to revamping intelligence, analytics, and sensors.

"We couldn't be happier to have such a world class talent in the future of agriculture and food join our staff, especially one who has such a long history of helping governments and industry leaders find quality Ag Tech," says Avi Reichental, Executive Chairman of Centaur Analytics. "Few people have as much trust in the industry to spot the best in class technologies for farm to fork industries".

"Before getting to know Centaur, I've never been tempted to leave my position representing multiple clients to work for a single Ag Tech player," says Richard, "I was looking for a technology that really could be the first unicorn in the space. Centaur cleverly focuses on post-harvest condition monitoring, which is a huge addressable market, and by partnering with the top universities, it ensures that it produces the best analytics in each crop it serves through sensors, software, and analytic solutions. I was blown away when I learned that Centaur won the prestigious TechCrunch competition over technologies related to automated vehicles, medical devices, and power management. No other Ag Tech company has ever been awarded so many technology industry accolades."

Centaur is the first full-stack IoT provider of solutions that enhances the quality and safety of stored agricultural products. Our proprietary wireless sensors and cognitive predictive and prescriptive cloud analytics enable precision fumigation and real-time monitoring of stored product condition. Our mission is to dramatically reduce the estimated $1 trillion worth of wasted crops annually from farm to shelf. For more information, visit www.centaur.ag.

Media Contact:
​Kate Dennis
603-866-0167
​[email protected]

Source: Centaur Analytics