Verdant Partners LLC is pleased to announce that Chris Harbourt has joined its team as an Advisor effective immediately. This addition will enable Verdant to leverage Harbourt’s experience and knowledge base in digital agriculture, an area that continues to demonstrate tremendous opportunities for M&A. With the intent to remain the preeminent transaction advisory group for agribusiness, this is yet another example of how Verdant differentiates itself from other professional firms.
Harbourt is a world-class scientist and engineer with an eye on innovation and growth, bringing over 25 years of agricultural experience to the Verdant team. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Biological Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech and his Master’s and PhD in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is currently the CEO of AirScout, a thermal aerial imagery and crop scouting start-up based in Illinois and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor teaching agricultural classes in the Department of Crop Sciences and entrepreneurship with the College of Engineering. Previously, Harbourt was involved with multiple ag technology companies, most notably as Cofounder and founding CEO of Agrible. Under his leadership, Agrible successfully raised multiple rounds of financing prior to its acquisition by Nutrien in July 2018 for $63 million, making it one of the true success stories in agtech.
In his role with Verdant, Harbourt will assist in the development and execution of new client engagements, including strategy consulting and both buy-side and sell-side mandates in the ever-changing digital ag space.
“Chris brings a wealth of practical knowledge, first-hand experience, and profound awareness of technological applications across the digital agriculture spectrum,” says Garrett Stoerger, a partner at Verdant. “Furthermore, Chris is a serial-entrepreneur, having started, built, managed, and successfully exited multiple business ventures spanning the past 20-years. This unique combination of skills and mindset will bring tremendous value to our clients enabling Chris to connect instantly with other like-minded innovators in the digital-ag space that are revolutionizing the industry. We are excited for what the future holds.”
“Being part of the Verdant team allows me to leverage agricultural industry experiences building and running agtech companies,” says Harbourt. “Like the rest of the Verdant team, I’ve operated companies just like the ones I hope to develop relationships with which brings a powerful perspective not often offered by other transaction advisors.”
