Jim Ott

James R. Ott has worked in nearly every position in the food production and processing system over the course of his 30+year career in Agriculture. He grew up on a fourth generation family farm in Nebraska and received a degree in Agronomy and Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska. Jim has lived and worked in various capacities inside and outside of the U.S. and has held many functional positions in Agribusiness ranging from field level farm sales, product research & development to international executive management for Syngenta, a multi-billion dollar Swiss Agriculture and Biotechnology corporation.

After years of improving the production and business models of agricultural and vegetable crops, Mr. Ott has chosen to draw on his plant science and business experience to develop a model for genetic trait, production optimization and business sophistication for the cannabis plant. He believes the cannabis plant holds far more compelling medical, nutritional and industrial benefits to society than any other crop currently being grown in America.

Mr. Ott has extensive experience in the seed, pest management, biotechnology, plant science, animal and human nutrition, plant and animal genetics, food processing and farm real estate development industries. He has consistently utilized his experience and innovative approaches in sales, marketing, product development, market and business development, to expand into new markets and commercialize and launch new products and reorganize businesses. Following 10 years with Syngenta, he started Precision Foods, a nutrition analysis company that was sold to Monsanto. He has studied industrial production systems at Harvard University with Dr. Ray Goldberg and has successfully utilized his entrepreneurial, empowering and high expectation leadership approach to start and run business units and divisions ranging from $1M to $200M in revenue.

Mr. Ott’s mission is to advance the development, delivery and utilization of crops for the enhancement of human health. He has forwarded this mission with his vision, passion and broad horizontal & vertical experience in the food and agricultural system by providing food and agricultural companies with financing, management and marketing expertise and support. The broad vision that drives Mr. Ott, is to grow and deliver medical & health products for consumers by developing improved genetic traits and the most efficient production systems.

James R. Ott currently serves on the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Hemp Advisory Committee and is the Vice Chair of the National Cannabis Industry Institute’s Cultivation Committee. He also has frequent speaking engagements at industry conferences and events on the topics of genetic development, plant & production science, standardization of industry practices and business development.