UWRF Innovator in Residence

Description

Michael Thompson, founder and CEO of KairosAg, will speak on “Global Impact through Innovation,” on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 2 p.m. via WebEx as the 2020 Innovator in Residence at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

The Innovator in Residence is part of an innovation program at UWRF’s College of Business and Economics. Students learn to solve problems creatively and develop business models from their ideas in innovation classes and also compete in the campus Innovation Challenge. UWRF students have taken first place in the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament three times in the past six years and have gone on to start businesses that impact some of the biggest global issues, including homelessness and water security.

Thompson is passionate about eliminating poverty and hunger and is professionally engaged in consulting and agriculture business development. Prior to KairosAg, Thompson served as vice president of partner development with Benson Hill, Inc., where he was responsible for improving crop performance through adoption of Benson Hill’s proprietary computational and systems biology platform, CropOS™. Prior positions include director of global sales and market development for Illumina’s agriculture business; manager of DNA Technologies Division of BioDiagnostics, Inc.; multiple leadership positions in research and technology development at Monsanto; and, a post-doctoral research associate position at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Thompson holds bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology from the University of Minnesota.

For more information, email the College of Business and Economics at cbe@uwrf.edu or call 715-425-3335.