Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. announced that Randy Shultz, Ph.D. has been promoted to the role of chief technology officer. Shultz joined Arcadia in 2019 as head of research and development and has played a vital role in the development of cutting-edge breeding technologies, deployed in close partnership with the hemp grower community. In this new, elevated position, he will oversee the execution of Arcadia’s strategic, multi-year plan to become a market leader in high-value hemp innovations, as well as continue to advance next-generation products through the company’s GoodWheat pipeline.
Since launching its hemp operations in February of 2019, Arcadia has been rapid-prototyping novel non-GM hemp varieties that target quality and performance characteristics highly desired by growers to overcome their greatest challenges , working directly with them in field deployment and monitoring to accelerate their speed to success. This new and proprietary discovery process, ArcaTech, combines Arcadia’s modern breeding science and genomics technology with real-time market intelligence from the field. Elite growers who enroll in the company’s GoodHemp Innovation Partners program, located in six major hubs including Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, Northern California, the Desert Southwest and the Mountain West, will provide an invaluable feedback loop to guide Arcadia’s development strategies.
“We’re fortunate to have a seasoned and innovative R&D strategist like Randy at the helm as we enact and expedite our plans for the budding multi-billion-dollar hemp industry,” says Matthew Plavan, Arcadia’s president and CEO. “Randy has played an integral role in the development and rollout of ArcaTech, a proprietary crop-agnostic discovery platform that will help us meet growers’ demand for quality and compliant seeds and unlock the full potential of this plant in the industrial and food ingredient markets.”
Shultz has 20 years of experience in plant science and agricultural biotechnology. Before joining Arcadia, he served as director of R&D and senior director of R&D strategy at Inari Agriculture. As the global crop lead, Shultz played an instrumental role building and scaling Inari’s R&D platform and developing a foundational intellectual property estate. Previously, Shultz led numerous scientific production teams at Monsanto (now Bayer Crop Science), including their Genome Editing Platform team.
“Since joining Arcadia last year, it has been rewarding to apply my experience in plant breeding and genomics to the improvement of a previously uncharted crop like hemp,” says Shultz. “It’s an honor to accept this new role building out a disruptive technology platform for Arcadia that holds such promise for growers, businesses and consumers alike.”
Shultz received his PhD in functional genomics from North Carolina State University and his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has authored over a dozen patents and publications.
