MEET THE 2026 AGTECH CONNECT SPEAKERS

REBEL ADAMSON, EMCEE

Rebel (Sjeklocha) Adamson works with Vence, Merck Animal Health’s virtual fencing arm, where she partners with ranchers across the country to help them implement virtual fencing technology and meet the goals of their operations. Passionate about the future of the cattle industry, she enjoys preserving the rich tradition of ranching while ensuring viability for the next generation through the introduction of technology. Rebel proudly served as Miss Rodeo Nebraska 2023, and has also been involved in sharing rural stories through broadcast and media platforms. She and her husband, Cade, live and work on the Broken Box Ranch near Cody, Nebraska.

CHAD JOHNSON, GRAIN WEEVIL

Chad Johnson is the CEO and co-founder of Grain Weevil, a Nebraska-based ag-technology company developing robots that do the work no human should. Inspired by a challenge from a farmer friend, Chad and his son Ben created the Grain Weevil robot around the mission of keeping that farmer and his kids out of the grain bin. Awards include funding from the America’s Seed Fund powered by the National Science Foundation, Innovation of the year from the American Farm Bureau Foundation, the Davidson Prize for agricultural engineering design from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, the Lemelson-MIT student prize for innovation, and the Nebraska Business Development Center’s Innovation Company of the Year. Before launching Grain Weevil, Chad spent more than two decades in education and workforce development, using robotics and hands-on learning to inspire innovation. Chad would rather mentor than lead—so people can soar beyond his expectations, not be limited by them.

MARK LEWIS, TRAILHEAD CAPITAL

Mark Lewis is a Managing Partner at Trailhead Capital, an early stage venture capital firm actively investing in regenerative food and agriculture technology companies. Mark manages Trailhead's investments in HowGood, EarthSense, Ascribe Bioscience, Trace Genomics, EarthShot Labs, Omeat, Funga, Mad Capital, Eion, Progenco, Avalo, and Terrablaster. He previously managed Lewis Family Farm, a 354 acre certified organic farming operation near Hoyt, CO. Prior to his adventures in regenerative agriculture, Mark worked and invested in the renewable energy sector at GSSG Solar. He has served on the non-profit boards of Mad Agriculture, Revision, and Etown. He has a BA in Economics from the University of San Diego and an MBA from the University of Colorado. Mark lives with his wife and two young daughters in Denver.

MITCHELL HORA, CONTINUUM AG

Mitchell is a 7th generation southeast Iowa farmer and the Founder/CEO of Continuum Ag. Continuum Ag is the leading software company providing field-level Measurement, Reporting, and Verification of farmer Carbon Intensity scores.

STEVEN BROCKSHUS, BROCKSHUS LABS

Raised on a 5th-generation Iowa farm, Steven Brockshus builds & scales software businesses. While at Iowa State University, he founded VC-backed FarmlandFinder. After its 2021 exit, he joined Haber Technologies & helped lead its sale to a strategic buyer. Today, he’s COO of Shivvers Technology & Innovation Group & runs Brockshus Labs, where he’s launched 18 micro-SaaS products in 3 years — scaling 8 to revenue, shutting down 5, & refining the playbook for building tiny, cash-flowing internet businesses.

KEVIN KIMLE, AG STARTUP ENGINE

Kevin Kimle is an agtech entrepreneur and investor. He is co-founder and co-director of Ag Startup Engine, an agtech investment fund based in the Iowa State University Research Park. He also directs agricultural entrepreneurship programs at Iowa State University.

MICHAEL DIBBERN, NEBRASKA CORN GROWERS

Michael Dibbern is a farmer from Cairo, Nebraska and currently serves as President of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association. Along with his grandfather and father, he raises corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and has a small cattle breeding herd. Upon graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in Mechanized Systems Management and minor in Agronomy, Michael worked as a technical specialist for Orthman Manufacturing, a short-line agriculture equipment manufacturer in Lexington, Nebraska for 3 years before returning to the family farm. Michael is a graduate of the Nebraska LEAD program, class 38 and serves as a city councilman of his hometown. Michael has a wife of 9 years and 2 young daughters.

ZACK SMITH, STOCK CROPPER INC

Zack is a 5th generation farmer from northern Iowa and President and CEO of Stock Cropper Inc...a company focused on the development of autonomous devices to lessen the pain points of customers raising small scale livestock production to feed their families.

CRAIG RUPP, SABANTO

Craig started his career in 1988 as a hardware engineer at Motorola, designing and developing the first GSM and Iridium mobile stations and John Deere in 2002, developing the Starfire receiver and Greenstar
display.

In 2018, Craig founded Sabanto, a company that provides autonomous solutions for agriculture. He was the first to autonomously plant a farmer’s field in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and Indiana.

Raised on a farm in Iowa, he earned his BSEE at Iowa State in 1988 and MSEE from Illinois Tech in 1990. He currently has over 15 patents.

DAN KURDYS, 9 NORTH GROUP

Dan Kurdys argues that agriculture's biggest AI opportunity isn't in the field — it's in commercial operations.
At Bayer Crop Science, he led GenAI strategy and drove development of E.L.Y. (Expert Learning for You), one of agriculture's most recognized enterprise AI applications, a crop-protection Small Language Model, and AIAgriBench, an industry initiative for benchmarking trust in agricultural AI. At Pairwise, he ran business development and built the commercial case for AI-native workflows across the gene-editing pipeline.
Now, through 9 North Group, he works directly inside Agtech startups at the commercial scaling stage, helping teams deploy AI where it has the most leverage: decisions that accelerate revenue and manage burn.

CARA WELLS, EMGENISYS

Dr. Cara Wells is the Founder and CEO of EmGenisys and Viable Bio, companies using artificial intelligence and computer vision to improve embryo selection in livestock and human IVF. She earned her Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from Texas Tech University and has spent more than 14 years conducting embryo research across cattle, horses, wildlife, and human reproductive medicine.

JAKE BEAM, REINKE MFG. CO. INC.

Jake Beam serves as a Technical Sales Manager for Reinke Manufacturing, bringing over twenty years of diverse experience to the ag industry. Since joining Reinke in 2003, Jake has held vital roles across automation, technical training, and sales management. He holds both Certified Irrigation Designer (CID) and Certified Agricultural Irrigation Specialist (CAIS) credentials, reflecting his commitment to precision water management.

PETE NELSON, AGLAUNCH

Pete Nelson has been experimental farming, venture investing, and creating innovation hubs in agriculture with farmers across the US and Canada since 1997. He is currently co-founder and President of AgLaunch, a nationally recognized farmer-led innovation platform for advancing the next generation of agricultural technologies. Mr. Nelson is focused on building a robust agricultural economy that values nutrient dense crops, carbon negative farms, and equitable supply chains.

JACOB HANSEN, ALA ENGINEERING

Jacob Hansen, CEO of AGEO Autonomy and ALA Engineering, has dedicated the past seven years to building at the intersection of Agriculture, AI, and Autonomy.

DR. JOE LUCK, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Dr. Joe Luck currently serves as Interim Department Head for the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; supporting education, research and extension programs for the department. He continues to lead the Nebraska Future Ag Research & Management Systems (NFARMS) initiative dedicated to supporting future ag technology innovations.

EHASAN SOLTAN, SOILTECH WIRELESS

Ehsan Soltan is the founder and CEO of Soiltech Wireless, an agtech company building wireless sensors and data platforms that bring optimization, sustainability, and traceability to the agriculture supply chain. Founded in Idaho in 2019 together with three farmers, Soiltech set out to design grower-friendly solutions that help manage day-to-day operations and increase profitability. What started as a single in-ground wireless sensor has grown into a multi-product platform spanning IoT hardware (Beacon), farm-management software (Insights), and AI decision intelligence (GrowthLab) — durable, easy-to-use technology now serving growers, advisors, and enterprise partners across the agricultural supply chain.

NICK REINKE, TAYLOR GEOSPATIAL

Raised on a fourth-generation North Dakota family farm, Nick Reinke has spent twenty years across the food and ag sector — ag banking and crop insurance, agricultural carbon program design at Land O'Lakes Truterra, and the CEO seat at ag-tech startup HabiTerre. Today he serves as Commercialization Director at Taylor Geospatial, the St. Louis-based nonprofit advancing GeoAI for the digital public good — bridging breakthrough geospatial research and real-world deployment. He holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

DEAN DIDATO, INNOVA MEMPHIS

Dean Didato is a Partner at Innova Memphis, an early-stage venture capital firm where he has served since May 2017. In this capacity, he manages two AgTech and FarmTech innovation funds totaling $77M, both of which are fully licensed under the USDA Rural Business Investment Program. These funds utilize a farm-centric investment strategy designed to bring transformative technology directly to growers to improve their productivity, operations, and overall profitability. Beyond fund management, Mr. Didato currently serves as a director on the boards of AgriTx, Grain Weevil, Global Neighbor, HerdDogg, Insignum AgTech, and Lilac Agriculture, while providing strategic advisory services to the management teams of six additional portfolio companies.

STEVE TIPPERY, REALMFIVE

Raised on a crop and livestock farm in Northeast Nebraska, Steve Tippery has spent his career developing and commercializing technology solutions for large-scale agricultural operations. Prior to co-founding RealmFive in 2015, he held leadership roles with global equipment manufacturers including Caterpillar, CLAAS, and AGCO, leading initiatives in product development, technology integration, and market growth.

As Co-founder and CEO of RealmFive, a data and hyperautomation company headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, Steve leads the company's mission to help agribusinesses operate more efficiently at scale. Through purpose-built hardware and the SMARTSITES platform, RealmFive enables grain companies, cooperatives, agronomy retailers, and processors to expand operations without proportional increases in labor, delivering a single accountable partner for automation, data, and operational performance.

Steve holds a BS in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and an MBA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is also a graduate of the Nebraska LEAD Program (Class XXVIII).