Team

All employees have a stake in the success of our Company and are passionately enthusiastic about our technology and the wider economic and environmental benefits it will bring to the agricultural sector and our consumers.

Management Team

Philipp Saumweber, Founder and CEO

Philipp began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and later became project manager for an eco-friendly property development project in Costa Rica, anchored by a Four Seasons hotel. Most recently, Philipp was an investment professional at King Street Capital, a hedge fund.

Philipp is also a director of Saumweber Holdings, a privately held investment holding company with significant agricultural investments, a partner at Agriterra Capital Advisory LLP, and is an advisory board member of the University College London Australia.

He received a B.A. degree in economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

 

David Carew, Chief Strategy Officer

David is responsible for Sundrop Farms’ business development activities and oversees the company’s expansion internationally along with strategic partners and capital providers.

David has over 25 years of experience across international project development, project and principal finance, debt and equity capital raisings in infrastructure and private equity funds management. He started his career in infrastructure projects and eventually headed the infrastructure finance groups at both Bank of America and Nomura International. In 2004 he co-founded, and built a business in climate change which invested some USD 350 million in green businesses globally.

David graduated with a first from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1987.

 

Reinier Wolterbeek, Chief Technology Officer

Reinier started his career at Seawater Greenhouse in Oman in project management. Later he joined Innogrow, the initiators and company behind the innovative Closed Greenhouse system. Most recently he was a researcher at the Innovations in Energy Systems division of Ecofys, focusing on innovative greenhouse systems and designs.

Reinier joined Sundrop Farms in 2009 to project manage the commercialization of the Sundrop technologies at its pilot greenhouse in Australia.

He received an M.Sc. in International Land & Water Management at Wageningen University, Netherlands.

 

Ihab Elmassry, Senior Vice President, Engineering

Ihab oversees the technical design, engineering and implementation of Sundrop Farms’ global rollout.

Ihab is a specialist in complex energy & water systems and energy efficiency. He has 25 years industry experience designing and implementing Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy, Renewable Energy, Power & Water Generation and rain enhancement projects for private, industrial and utility uses across the GCC, Africa, and Asia. Ihab also worked as a consultant for large organizations such as IFC, UNDP/GEF, USAID, and DANIDA and was most recently a Senior Vice President at Sindicatum Carbon Capital and a director for the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy.

He holds a B. SC & M. SC in electrical engineering from Ain Shams and Cairo Universities and an environmental engineering degree from the American University, Egypt.

 

David Pratt, Senior Vice President, Horticulture & Growing

David is responsible for all greenhouse horticulture operations at Sundrop Farms.

David is a horticultural grower from Southern Ontario, Canada. He started his career with Sun Master Produce, a large hydroponic vegetable producer in North America, where he eventually became the head grower. After years of growing a variety of vegetables, including peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, David is now responsible for tomato and pepper production at Sundrop Farms in Australia.

David is a graduate of the Greenhouse Technician Program at Niagara College, Canada. David recently won a the prestigious Premier’s award in Canada for outstanding young achiever in his field.

 

William Francis, Senior Vice President, General Manager Australia

William is responsible for our Australian market strategy, finance, development and some aspects of operations.

William brings 7 years of high-calibre project and business execution experience to our operations. Before joining, William was the International Business Development Manager at Coffey Pty. Prior to that he was the Business Development Manager at Michel Pty Ltd, where he was responsible for the development, assessment and implementation of strategic, marketing, operational, financial objectives and projects. William began his career at KPMG in various project officer roles.

William has a BA (Hons) in International Business from Bristol University of Southern England, and is also currently a candidate for an MSc in Energy and Resource Management at UCL’s Australian Campus.

 

Lin Jiaqiao, Vice President, Business Development

Lin has over five years’ experience in climate change and energy investments. His expertise includes carbon sequestration from agro-pastoral ecosystems, especially the application of market mechanisms to obtain environmental offsets for accreditation.

Most recently he was an associate at Sindicatum Sustainable Resources, where he was involved in building/industrial energy efficiency, biofuels (biomass, biodiesel and biogas), clean coal, green lighting, water technologies, MSW/sludge treatment, and water investments.

Other than his Master’s degree in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of Manchester, Lin has a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Agricultural Ecology from the China Academy of Sciences.

 

Lam Yuk, Vice President, Project Development

Lam is responsible for technical, environmental and business aspect of Sundrop Farms expansions projects.

Lam spent her 17 year professional career in the environmental and power sector, as a researcher, consultant, facility operator and project developer, with a focus on large desalination plants, renewable energy projects, waste to energy generation, and waste water treatments facilities across Asia. Lam has worked as either a consultant or project manager for Allied Environmental Consultants Limited, ENSR Environmental Inc, Camp Dresser McKee Inc and the Asian Development Bank. Most recently, she was a senior associate at Sindicatum Sustainable Resources.

Lam has a BSc in Environmental Science and Chemistry, and a Masters in Environmental Science from the University of New Jersey.

 

Jelle Alsemgeest, Vice President, Agricultural Engineering

Jelle is responsible for on-the-ground management of the Sundrop Farms technology and interface with greenhouse production at local projects. He is currently based at the Sundrop Farms’ partner facility in Qatar.

Jelle has an MSc in Biology and Plant Sciences from Wageningen University the Netherlands. Specializing in Greenhouse horticulture, he studied the modelling and cultivation of roses, bell pepper and tomatoes. Most recently he worked in China on the design and construction of advanced greenhouse projects for vegetable crops and also a as a cultivation/greenhouse manager for a plant breeding and propagation nursery in Shanghai.

 

 

Advisory Board

Sundrop Farms is advised by a board of international advisers, active in the fields of agriculture, food processing, horticulture and solar power.

David Travers, Chairman

Mr Travers is the Chief Executive responsible for the leadership and general management of UCL in Australia. He joined UCL in 2010 after more than four years in London as the Deputy Agent General (Government of South Australia).

He spent more than a decade with the State Government. He was Chief of Staff to the Hon Graham Ingerson MP, Liberal Deputy Premier and Minister for Industry and Trade (1998) and later was Chief of Staff to the Hon Dr Jane Lomax Smith, Labor Minister for Higher Education and Tourism (2002). During his public service career he held senior executive roles in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the Department of Education and Children’s Services, the Department of Further Education and Employment and the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment.

Mr Travers has worked extensively in Europe, the US and Russia, leading government investment, export and migration initiatives. He oversaw major education and skilled migration campaigns in the UK and Ireland and trade and investment initiatives from the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and Greece. He managed the State Government’s European relationships with a variety of companies, including International Power, Acciona, Ultra Electronics, BTG, Babcock International and the Bank of England. Between 2006-2010 he forged the development of specialist agricultural projects in Russia, including beef and wine, and negotiated the first Bolashak Scholarship contracts (Kazakhstan) awarded to Australian universities.

Mr Travers began his career as a cadet journalist at the Fairfax Media group, advancing to editor-in-chief of its South Australian agricultural division in 1996. He is an alumnus of Harvard University, Flinders University and is a former Young South Australian of the Year. He was a Young Australian of the Year finalist and was featured by News Limited as one of Australia’s top 40 future leaders.

 

Gerald K. Adams

Mr. Adams is a professional company director and owner/MD of a consulting company specialising in strategy and business development.  In addition to his role on the Advisory Board of Sundrop Farms, his current directorships include:Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd., as Chairman;  Berger Paints India Ltd;  Bolix SA, a building materials company in Poland, as Chairman of the Supervisory Board; andthe Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, South Australia.  He has previously held directorships at two Australian start-up companies: Axiom Energy Ltd. (bio diesel) and ZORK P/L (wine packaging).

His previous executive roles include:Managing Director of Orica Consumer Products (Australia and New Zealand); President and CEO of Box USA (USA); Chief Executive of Amcor Fibre Packaging (Australia); Vice President and Director, Business Development, of Kraft Foods, (Asia-Pacific); and consultant, the Boston Consulting Group (USA).

He was educated at theHarvard Business School where he earned an MBA with distinction (1979); and the University of Washington (Seattle, Washington) where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa (1975).

He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

 

Paget Hargreaves

Mr. Hargreaves has over two decades experience in the property, media and mining sectors across the UK, Asia and Australia. An appointed team member of AEI, through his Hong Kong based company Sinoprocur Ltd, he has raised capital for mining investments in the Asia Pacific region, and specialises in new-townships supporting the natural resources sector (e.g. modular construction) and has financed hospitals, aged care facilities, hotels and student accommodation real estate. He has founded on-going successful businesses based out of China serving the natural resource sectors.

Paget is on the Advisory Board of a media company, based in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which he co-founded. Paget has led bidding consortia, negotiated with city authorities, and financed, media operations in cities across the UK, Australia and China. Paget led a Sydney based property and media company (owned at the time by Australia’s wealthiest individual, Kerry Packer) from an initial A$ 1.5 million investment through to an eventual trade sale in excess of A$ 300 million five years later. He has also considerable mergers and acquisitions experience and has advised some of the world’s leading financiers (UBS, SG Warburg, etc.) on outdoor media right and valuations across cities, airports, railways and tollroads.

Paget currently works in an advisory role to Queensland Airports Ltd, across their regional airport property portfolio including the implementation of development strategies, projects and land use plans (including solar-power facilities, hotel accommodation, new airport hangars for global blue-chip clients such as BAe Systems, etc.).

 

Dirk Wray

Mr. Wray the founder and CEO of Virtus Holding Ltd, appointed by AEI. He is an experienced financier of entrepreneurial companies in the US and internationally. Mr Wray is Chairman & CEO of Sovereign Capital Finance (formerly Guggenheim Sovereign, LLC) specializing in economic development solutions via trade based credit enhancement, Shari’ah based, project finance and corporate finance structures. Recent work is predominantly focused on food and energy security initiatives.
Mr Wray also serves as Executive Director of Virtus Holding Ltd. Virtus develops businesses that focused predominantly on trade, agriculture, oil and gas and green energy industries. Mr Wray was co-founder and served as Chairman and CEO of AdForce, Inc. [NASDAQ:ADFC] an Internet advertising delivery and media company that, prior to its IPO in May 1999, which was strongly supported by prominent investors America On-Line, Attractor, Hummer Winblad, 21st Century Internet Capital, Metromail and KIPCO. Mr Wray is or has also served as co-founder, President and CFO of Covenant Care Inc.; a US based long term health care company and Casa Reha GmbH, a German long term health care company, that were both established in 1995. Covenant Care/Casa Reha was institutionally backed by Goldman Sachs & Co, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan Chase (formerly Chase Capital) and Imperial Bank. Mr Wray helped lead the initial company’s growth to 6,000 patients and 6,000 employees in two countries.

Mr Wray was also the co-founder and Vice Chairman of Inchcape Retrans A.S., a Turkish company specializing in the distribution of fast moving non-durable consumer goods for Procter & Gamble and Kraft, that was successfully sold to Inchcape plc. Mr Wray has served as a Finance Director and part owner of several hotel limited partnerships in the United States and has commercial interests in several real estate development projects in emerging markets.

Mr Wray’s expertise is in successfully orchestrating and leading the launch of new and unproven commercial ventures. These skills include: capital formation (both domestic and international), executive recruitment, banking, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, corporate strategy, organizational leadership and organizational cultural development and management. This expertise has been gained through his dealings in over 30 countries and positions in corporate finance with Salomon Brothers Inc, Director of Finance for Marriott Corporation and Director of Finance and Development for The Residence Inn Company (now a subsidiary of Marriott Corporation). Mr Wray’s real estate experience includes, but is not limited to, the financing and or developing of over seventy hotels worldwide, as well as, financing real estate projects in developing countries.

Mr Wray has significant international trade, offset, barter and counter trade experience starting from a former position with Valmont Industries and his prior consulting assignments. Mr Wray’s expertise includes structuring commercial offset programs and creating banking entities. Mr Wray’s companies actively conduct physical trading and distribution in Asia and Africa.

Mr Wray holds a Bachelor degree in Marketing from Michigan State University, a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and a Master of International Management from The American Graduate School of International Management. Mr Wray is married with two children, and is based in the west coast of the USA.