Ben Worley (Interim CEO)
Ben’s degrees include a BA Criminal Justice / Law Enforcement and an M. Public Administration from Valdosta State University. With a rich history of drone operations in the US Airforce and Insitu, LLC.; Ben founded an agricultural analytics company AgriSource Data in 2015. He has superior knowledge of agricultural applications pertaining to IoT sensors and big data management and how “field intelligence” drives value to farmers and the agricultural value chain. His primary role will be to manage the operations of the company and assume ultimate responsibility for the performance of the business.
Pierre van Aswegen (CIO & Interim CFO)
Pierre’s degrees include an M. Architecture from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and an Exec. MBA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has successfully combined his diverse experience and education to provide corporations with the strategic and tactical skills that are critical to building corporate value. While he is a corporate finance specialist, his passion lies in developing innovative or disrupting business models that focus on delivering industry impact and sustainable business success. His primary role as CIO will be to drive M&A activities, manage JV partnership relationships and investor relations. In his secondary role as Interim CFO, he will be responsible for Finance and Administration.
Craig Cunningham (CTO)
Craig holds a B. Zoology/Animal Biology degree from Texas Tech University. He also holds certificates in Statistical Inference, Regression Models and Practical machine learning. Craig concluded a stellar 35-year career at IBM before joining ServiTech as their CTO in 2018. His passion includes developing and maintaining the technical strategy aligned with the business case: Applying technology to accelerate business strategy, communicating technology plans to the executive team, integrating a transformation imperative and applying the process to all executive-level planning. Identifying how to use technology to transform processes, products, and services. His primary role will be to manage RavahTech information, develop and maintain the technology platform(s) and to ensure seamless integration with JV Partner technologies.
Tomas Gotthold (VP Business Development)
Tomas holds a BA Double Major: Environmental Studies and Geography from the University of California – Santa Barbara. He is a farmer with significant experience in GIS, mapping and AgTech. His in-depth knowledge of the global agricultural industry and his relationships with its leaders makes him a key resource. He will be acting in a part-time capacity where his primary role will be assessing potential JV partner technologies, specifying platform functionality and managing relationships with channel partners.
Roger Wiese (VP RAVAH|OPS)
Roger is a 5th generation Australian farmer, now an experienced Technical Director with a demonstrated history of designing and developing industry specific software applications and also client-specific business management applications. He is a strong information technology professional skilled in Systems Analysis, Business Planning, Management, Innovation and Leadership. In 1988 he founded agCommander (Pty) Ltd, formerly Fairport Technologies (Fairport Farm Software) which today is the foundation of the RAVAH|TECH technology. His primary role is to manage the RAVAH|OPS platform and to lend his experience to overall technology and business development.
Herman Scholtz (Interim VP Finance)
Herman holds a B.Comm Accounting degree from the University of Stellenbosch. As a registered chartered accountant, his career of 22 years started as an auditor. He has worked for two multi-national companies in a senior managerial role after which he started his own accounting and consulting practice 11 years ago. His strengths lie in Management Accounting (developing and testing of business plans, cash flow templates and the critical KPIs), Financial Management (management accounts, audit file set up and related accounting functions including staff training), Assistance with Auditing engagements: training, managing of audits. His primary role on a part-time basis is to manage the business finance department.
Rafael Alvarez Garrido (VP RAVAH|DATA)
Rafael holds an Agricultural Engineering degree (specializing in Phytotechnology) from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He is an agronomist and has developed his professional career through the management of large citrus and fruit farms and over the last 22 years he has specialized in precision agriculture. He is an authority on the complexity of incorporating new technologies pertaining to management decision-making in agriculture. He is actively involved in more than 15 EU funded R&D&I projects focused on the integration of multiple new technologies to deliver practical agricultural solutions. Technologies include: data collection in the field through sensors, remote sensors and weather forecasts that “learn” through microclimate data, etc. He has participated in the patenting of the Plantsens (dendrometer) and the Nutrisens (nitrate and potassium sensors). His primary role is to manage technology integration and to lend his experience to overall technology development.
Pedro Towers (Special Consultant)
Pedro holds an Ag. Eng. degree with a specialization in Plant Science from the University of Buenos Aires, and a PhD in Viticulture from the University of Stellenbosch. He spent 15 years as a cattle stocker, forage seed producer and growing extensive rainfed crops (as a grower and a consultant) in Argentina’s primary agricultural region. In 1998 he signed an agreement with Argentina’s Space Agency (CONAE) to develop the use of Remote Sensing techniques for agricultural sector leading him to give up fieldwork and devote himself full time to this new endeavor. Over the last 20 years he has developed several techniques and products. Examples include: real variable-rate fertilizer dressing procedures, forest inventories (both industrial and natural), development of apps for viticulture and grazing, development of Remote sensing-based yield maps, a yield prediction technique for vines, combinations of crop models and Remote Sensing for risk assessment and yield estimation, and some “artistic” endeavors such as terroir definition for coffee and vineyards. His primary role is to oversee the development of remote sensing technologies and to lend his experience to overall business development.
