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Brian Bourquard
Food & Agribusiness Strategy at EY
Professional Background
Brian Bourquard is an accomplished professional with a robust background in agribusiness and corporate strategy. Currently, he is an integral member of EY's Global Agribusiness and Corporate Strategy teams, where he oversees teams dedicated to modeling infrastructure and investment decisions. Brian's expertise lies in developing comprehensive transformation plans and executing innovative projects tailored to the uniquely dynamic landscape of food and agriculture.
With his deep understanding of the trends and challenges impacting the food and agricultural sectors, Brian excels at delivering both qualitative and quantitative analyses. His work supports decision-makers in identifying options that align with their business goals while navigating the complexities of today’s agribusiness environment.
Prior to joining EY, Brian honed his skills and knowledge at Purdue University's Center for Food and Agricultural Business. There, he earned a PhD in Agricultural Economics and worked with firms to research and address the strategic and operational challenges they face in the highly competitive food and agricultural industries. His contributions were significant, as he developed and taught executive education programs focused on strategy in the agribusiness sector. Additionally, he taught strategy in a dual degree MS-MBA program, enriching the educational experiences of graduate students pursuing careers in this important field.
Before embarking on his academic journey, Brian gained valuable insights in the consulting realm, working for a boutique consulting firm. He specialized in building quantitative and qualitative investment and asset valuation models, showcasing his capability in analytical thinking and strategic planning. His dedication to understanding market trends and the nuances of investment positions him as a valuable asset in any business context.
Education and Achievements
Brian's educational journey reflects his commitment to excellence and specialization in agribusiness and economics. He earned a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, where he also later completed his Doctor of Philosophy in the same field. His academic achievements are complemented by his Master of Science in Management with Distinction from Grenoble Ecole de Management in France, showcasing his global perspective and proficiency in management strategies.
Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a focus on International Business from Seattle University. This blend of education in economic theory and practical business administration equips him with a solid foundation to tackle the multifaceted challenges within the agribusiness sector.
Brian’s career is distinguished by his leadership roles in prestigious organizations, notably as the Vice President of Strategy and Finance at Verdant Robotics. In this capacity, he has been instrumental in driving strategic initiatives while fostering innovation in agricultural technology. At EY-Parthenon, he successfully navigated through various roles, eventually becoming a Senior Director and showcasing his prowess in business strategy and development.
His earlier roles included valuable experiences as a Research Assistant and PhD student at Purdue University, and a Research Associate at Westwater Research. These positions provided him with a solid grounding in research methodologies and strategic insights critical to the field of agricultural economics.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Brian Bourquard has made significant contributions to the agribusiness landscape. His work at EY has focused on marrying rigorous analysis with practical strategies to help clients navigate the complexities of investments and operational improvements within food and agriculture. With a talent for leading teams, his collaborative approach enables efficient execution of innovative solutions and transformation projects that drive measurable outcomes.
As a thought leader in the agriculture space, he has facilitated executive education programs that empower industry leaders to adopt best practices and strategic frameworks for success. His teaching experience in both the executive education realm and the dual degree MS-MBA program underscores his dedication to fostering knowledge sharing and skill development among future leaders in the agribusiness sector.
Brian's extensive background combined with his impressive academic credentials positions him as a key influencer in the agribusiness and corporate strategy domains. He continues to be an advocate for innovation and effective strategy formulation in addressing the evolving challenges of the agricultural economy.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.