Chris Walker

Mr. Walker commercializes products and services for start-up companies in the ag 2.0 sector. Chris is typically involved in company ownership, the raise of initial funding and tactical management of passion projects. Currently working on his fifth start-up, Chris performs the role of tactical operator during early stages. With a deep passion for sustainable business models and a BA in Agriculture Economics from the University of Arizona, Chris has performed varied roles through out his 21 year career: owner, principal, boots-on-the-ground, consultant and employee. Chris is the General Manager USA with Heliospectra AB, an industry-disrupting, Swedish plant sciences company. Focusing on Controlled Environment Agriculture, Chris and his team will further the drive to replace inefficient, archaic lighting sources found in most commercial horticultural grow operations.

At Heliospectra, Chris has driven sector critical data in the US back to HQ in Sweden, by managing the build-out of sales, partnerships, joint ventures, hiring, marketing, logistics and beta-testing – resulting in country and sector appropriate products and most importantly, opening new revenue opportunities for the company. To further promote products and services in the Controlled Environments Agriculture sector, Chris created the Alternative Fiber Group and Seed To Sale Investments. Products like veneer from the banana herb and algae based fertilizers / fungicides are further commercialized, replacing toxic or inefficient products in well-established sectors.

In 2009, Chris was recruited as an initial hire at PetroAlgae Inc., due to his experience with the biofuel and petroleum industry, where he successfully managed a $300mil+ USD contract via Chevron – his primary account. Previous experience includes building a biodiesel refinery where he raised 12mil USD (Arizona Biofuels), leading the construction of the largest biodiesel storage facility in NA (CalJet), managing a large fuel transport fleet & successfully lobbying the AZ government for deeper ethanol mandates (PinalJet), developing commercial real estate (VantagePoint) and brokering commercial real estate (Pacific Union, SF / Long Realty, AZ).

At 42 years of age, Chris has traveled the world and taken residency in various countries (Mexico, Sweden). He prefers a bike to a car, spends his time exploring new communities, camping, hiking and is a regular practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga. Chris was raised in a Texas “oil family,” he lives in San Francisco and has called Tucson, AZ home for half of his life.