Watt Global Media

Aidan Connolly

Title

President

Company

AgriTech Capital

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Presentation description:

Picking winners in poultry tech

Angel investors, venture capitalists, private equity and large traditional corporate agribusiness are all struggling to identify the startup technology companies that will be future stars transforming the poultry business. How can the industry avoid wasting investment dollars when nine out of 10 startups fail? Connolly will use experience as an adviser, seed and early investor, running Alltech’s incubator and an accelerator, working with startups in 14 countries and as CEO of a startup to give insight how to make smarter decisions in identifying the right companies to invest in, and which ones to partner with.

Experience:

Aidan Connolly is the president of AgriTech Capital, an advisory, consulting and investor that counts the British government, startups and corporate agribusinesses among its clients. In February he joined Cainthus as CEO, a startup computer vision system for recognizing and managing livestock. Previously he was with Alltech for 28 years, most recently as chief innovation officer. Connolly is an adjunct professor of marketing at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School at University College Dublin and is a visiting professor at the MBA program of the China Agricultural University. He has been an executive board member of the International Feed Industry Federation, the National Chicken Council and the National Turkey Federation. He is also a former board member of the European Union Association of Specialty Feed Ingredients and their Mixtures and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. Connolly holds an MBA in international marketing from the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin.