Saint Louis University School of Law

Washington University in St. Louis

Global Food, Agriculture and Beverage Leader at FTI Consulting

Columbia, Missouri

Global leader of food, agriculture and beverage for FTI.  Providing performance improvement, restructuring, economic consulting and reputational management (amongst other services) for the World's leading agribusiness, food, food retail and beverage firms.  We provide the expertise and intimacy of a botique industry advisor with the scale and competence of a top global consulting firm.  We are Experts with Impact.

FTI Consulting

Global Food, Agriculture and Beverage Leader

Farm Foundation Round Table is the  think tank formed by President Eisenhower to ensure and independent voice for agriculture and food security advising the federal government, particularly the Secretary and White House.  It is comprised of 120 appointed farmers, thought leaders, industry executives and key holders (present and former) of governmental roles in agriculture.  I bring a deep understanding of technology, consumer science  and performance improvement  to the think tank.

Farm Foundation

Round Table Fellow

One of the executive roles taken under Farm to Fork.  Helped Centaur Analytics create its North American strategy and managed initial business development.  Centaur Analytics is an agritech company focused exclusively on post-harvest condition monitoring.  Their ensors work in the most extreme conditions whether when sprayed with corrosive phosphine or when placed in MTs of grain in a bulk storage hold of an ocean going vessel. Real-time data on the widest array of sensible vectors.    Visit us at Centaur.ag or check out some of the links and documents attached.

Centaur Analytics, Inc.

Advisor-Vice President

One of the senior executive roles taken under Farm to Fork.  Was on CEO's senior leadership team with a focus on helping Luxoft transform to higher value thought leadership services.  Brought in based on my ability to create new industry verticals organically for IBM and Accenture.  Particular focus was on creating first major consumer facing industry sector (agriculture and food) and the model for replicating into other adjacent sectors.

Luxoft

Advisor- Vice President

Farm to Fork nonprofit sabbatical 1 year role with Cargill partner focused on bringing smallholder farmers to scale.  Cheetah Development is a non-profit making for-profit investments via private equity, venture capital and debt financing in emerging markets. Cheetah makes smallholder farmers investable leveraging proprietary techniques of Meta Finance, Micro Venture Capital and Shared Risk Organization. And we fill in missing value chains with equity investments in scalable and repeatable ("franchise like') opportunities. I led the private equity side of Cheetah and its fundraising efforts both in the US and in  Africa.Role was to lead strategy and corporate development for Cheetah as it moved from 6 years of research and development and extensive piloting to scale with the goal of bringing 100 million smallholder farmers in Africa out of poverty directly and being the model that transforms the lives of over 1 billion smallholders globally moving them from poverty to prosperity. Are you ready to Run With the Cheetahs?

Cheetah Development

Nonprofit Sabbatical Advisor-Senior Vice President and Senior Fund Manager

Formerly known as Strategic and coming from Accenture spinout, Farm to Fork Advisory Services provides top global advisory practices deep expertise in every major subsector of the food value chain from inputs and insurance to retail and QSRs.  We are the advisors to several of the global top 10 advisors in each major area of professional services and many of us work as think tank members and senior policy advisors.    We are not a team of ex-agriculture or food executives.  We come from the very professional services we represent (investment banking, private equity, sovereign funds, valuation, IT, management consulting, strategy, turnaround management, digital transformation marketing, public relations, litigation support, supply chain, operational excellence etc.).  We represent both the private sector and public sector and our members have worked in over 100 countries across all Continents save Antartica.  While we focus on advising advisors, we frequently are asked to assist agribusinesses, governments and food CPG and retail operations.  .  Personally, I led the 5 largest professional service practices around agriculture globally:  IBM, Accenture, KPMG, Lehman, and Rothschild.  And I'm a noted speaker and author on subjects ranging from the Food Safety Modernization Act to Consumer Trends in Protein to Food 2040 (the document China and Japan use as the basis of their agricultural policy).  I have over 100 citations and articles across over a dozen distinctly different subsectors and have advised over 30 countries on their food, water and agritech policies.  Farm To Fork Advisory Services also provides interim C Suite management for outlier industries engaged in agriculture such as nonprofits and agtech.  Personally, I have served as a senior leader for Luxoft (NYSE LXFT), Centaur (PE funded post-harvest agritech), and Cheetah (non-profit tied to Cargill focused on "smallholders at scale"

Farm to Fork Advisory Services

Senior Managing Director

Manage Accenture's Global Agriculture and Food Production leadership position with emphasis on bringing mathematics to agriculture and food production decision making to ensure food security, farmer income and food safety.   Responsible for determining offering strategy and led big data and analytics, growth and emerging market strategy and producer services offerings personally. Heavy emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, public private partnerships and strategic alliances.Built and maintained Accenture's eminence globally in agribusiness and global food security. Gave over 30 major addresses including speaking at Commodity Classic, USDA Agricultural Outlook, G20 and the first agricultural summit in China after the People's Congress. Frequently cited in farm and traditional media including London Times, Washington Post, Farm Journal and Agri-Pulse. Helped author major publications regarding Africa, Latin America and global food security.

Accenture

Senior Executive and Global Agriculture and Food Production Leader

Lead IBM's Global Agriculture and Food Process including our relationship with Global Harvest Initiative (John Deere, DuPoint, Monsanto and ADM). Initiated 300 million farmer challenge and responsible for Smarter Planet Point of View.  IBM's global agriculture practice spans over 80 countries.  Built IBM's market leadership in agriculture and global food security including being invited by the Prime Minister of Israel to speak regarding Israeli agricultural and water technology as well as launching Food2040 with the USDA, US Grains Council and State department in both North America and Asia.  Heavy focus on mergers and acquisitions, growth strategy and post merger integration.  Represented multiple private equity firms enterring into agriculture as an asset class.  As Global Voice of the Consumer Leader, I served as the head of consumerology (or the science of understanding consumer sentiment and behevior) to create engagement and loyalty in a wide variety of settings from loyalty programs, consumer experiences, multi-channel transformations and marketing revitalizations.

Global Agriculture and Food Leader amd Global Voice of the Consumer Lead

Leading "Voice of Consumer" efforts for IBM clients in verticals ranging from CPG, Food and Beverage, Retail, Entertainment and Healthcare. Primary focus was to be an innovative thought leader integrating consumer experience and IBM's marketing analytics platform for Platinum account CMOs and CEOs.  Focused on building IBM's Omni-channel strategy. Personal focus was heavily tied to growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions and post-merger integration.

Voice of the Consumer Leader

Global Harvest Initiative is the voice of business for the issue of global food security and agricultural policy which will help ensure we meet the nutrition, food and fiber needs of over 9 billion people by 2040.  Comprised of one senior executive from each member firm.

Global Harvest Initiative

Board Member

The U.S. Grains Council develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, grain sorghum and related products. The Council believes exports are vital to global economic development and to U.S. agriculture's profitability.Founded in 1960, the Council is a private, non-profit corporation with nine international offices and programs in more than 50 countries. Its unique membership includes producer organizations and agribusinesses with a common interest in developing export markets. Membership funds trigger matching market development funds from the U.S. government and support from cooperating groups in foreign countries to produce an annual development program valued at more than $25 million.The Council tailors its programs to meet individual countries'​ cultures and needs. Our technical programs teach livestock and poultry producers how to use feed grains effectively and manage their operations efficiently. Our trade servicing efforts educate potential and current customers about the U.S. marketing system, including financing, government programs, U.S. feed grains quality and prices. Our trade policy initiatives identify foreign barriers to U.S. feed grains exports.

U.S. Grains Council

Delegate

Tied to Lehman Brothers until bankruptcy of Lehman, Strategic was their external advisory group tied to agriculture and food transactions with client like Tesco, Walmart, ABF, 3i, Tyson and Nestle.  Firm was called Food, Agriculture and Beverage Advisors (FAB) when working with both KPMG and Lehman who were partners in middle market transactions.  Additionally, led internal PE initiatives, deal structure, and performance especially in our acquiring divested assets of key food mergers.  Structured deals as well as improved the operations of acquisitions.   Key member of the M&A teams (for external clients)  in food and agricultural transactions from target selection, due diligence, deal structure and PMI. Performance improvement  focus was on revitalizing and growing clients’ businesses with deep analytic understanding of consumer and retailer trends and re-establishing the connection and relevance of retailers to a changing consumer.   Heavy emphasis on improving emerging market penetration, marketing and operations in the areas of  agriculture, food and food retailing thru analytics driven strategy and acquisitions.  Qualified pipeline exceeded $1 billion and total deal value exceeded $6 billion.

Lehman Brothers

Managing Director

Directed consumer markets for leading global investment banking firm tied to middle market transactions. Heavily involved in global health and wellness, consumer packaged goods and food and agribusiness sectors. Led food and agriculture which became the primary focus of the bank during my tenure.   Formed FAB Advisors as a result of this focus which became rebranded as Strategic as we moved greater emphasis from KPMG to its bulge bracket partner Lehman Brothers. Chief investment and strategy advisor for key UK PE firm tied to agriculture and food processing on two multi-hundred million initiatives.

KPMG Corporate Finance

Director Consumer Markets

Truman was a Rothschild affiliate tied turnarounds, private equity, and  investment banking in the entire farm to fork value chain.  Go FARther (Food, Ag, Retail) was our brand’s tagline. My group focused equally on private equity and mergers and acquisitions.  Managed entire deal process as well as the operational changes of the portfolio companies.   Our value added proposition was tied to   developing growth in international markets thru brand extensions, new marketing efforts and identifying new means of reaching and engaging customers in new global markets for both private equity buyers as well as for leading multinational companies. We were the first major entity to talk to clients about converting their business models for Food2040 (population, middle class shifts in Asia).  Core M&A role was in turnarounds in the food, agriculture and food retailing sector.   Created over $75 million in individual consulting billings/year and over $250 million of net increase in annual group sales.  Created highest client satisfaction rates in the global network of companies.   Turned around over 30 brands each worth over $15 billion collectively  One of the leading consultants for over 20 of the largest M&A and brand extensions in the sector.

Richard Kottmeyer