The CubicFarms edge: Born out of a Dutch heritage of world-class greenhouse growing
CubicFarms’ technology was developed by
Jack Benne (right),
founder of Bevo Farms, one of North America’s largest plant
propagation businesses, and his son Leo (left).
Few people on earth have grown more plants from seed
than Jack, born and trained in the Netherlands.
Bevo’s decades of world-class growing experience have
culminated in the next generation of growing technology
with the CubicFarm.
Board of Directors
Daniel Burns, Chairman
Daniel is the first certified director in British Columbia (ICD.D) and one of the first in Canada. He is a member of the Law Society of BC and the Certified Professional Accountants of Ontario. He holds MBAs from University of Toronto and St Gallen, Switzerland. He is well versed in public markets, having created a capital pool company on the TSX Venture Exchange.
John de Jonge
In 1995, John purchased Artex Barn Solutions and grew it into a global provider of cattle handling equipment, ventilation and cow cooling. He has deep expertise in establishing and scaling up multiple manufacturing facilities in China and North America. As Chief Design & Installation Officer at CubicFarms, John is responsible for leading the engineering and installation team.
Dave Dinesen
Dave is an expert in global operations management and corporate client acquisition. He leads growth at CubicFarms since inception, raising over $18MM in capital. He is the former CEO of BackCheck, where he advanced the company from a small business to an industry-leading company operating on three continents with over 500 employees.
John Hoekstra
John currently is Controller of Bevo Agro Inc. He joined Bevo in 2004, shortly after Bevo went public. Prior to joining Bevo, he worked as a Supply Chain Manager at Air Liquide Canada, and at Unitor Ships Service as Branch Manager. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA) and holds a Business Administration degree from Redeemer University.
Leo Benne
Leo currently serves as Chief Growing Officer at Zenabis Global Inc. He gained advanced knowledge of modern horticultural methods at Rijks Middelbare Tuinbouwschool in Holland, and has been instrumental in the development of the CubicFarms technology. Formerly the head of Bevo, Leo grew Bevo to become the leading plant propagator in North America.
Michael McCarthy
Michael is the Principal at McCarthy Pacific Group, consulting and advising on strategic business development, enhancing business-to-business marketing and enabling a culture of high performance. He has extensive leadership experience in the technology sector with companies such as Telus, IBM and Silicon Graphics, where he aggressively grew the business while developing future leaders.
Chris Ericson
Chris currently serves as Nu Skin’s VP of Business Development where he drives long-term value for Nu Skin through strategic business relationships. Prior to this position, he led Nu Skin’s global internal audit team as VP of Internal Audit and served as the Director of Internal Controls.
Jeff Booth
Jeff has more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, responsible for growing innovative online marketplace BuildDirect.com to over $120 million in annual revenues. He is a recognized thought leader on entrepreneurship, technology and e-commerce, featured in major publications such as Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, Goldman Sachs named him among its 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. He is a Founding Partner of OtioLabs, Co-Founder of addyinvest.com and NocNoc, and serves on the boards of Terramera, SPUD.ca, LlamaZOO, Synthiam and the Richmond Hospital Foundation.
Executive Team
At the intersection of experience in engineering, cultivation, manufacturing and global entrepreneurship, our management team has been assembled to drive growth at an international level.
Dave Dinesen
Chief Executive Officer
A seasoned CEO, Dave Dinesen founded his first venture, BackCheck, in 1997 and took it from a start-up to the largest background screening company in Canada and a leader in the UK. With over 500 employees in three countries, BackCheck served over 15,000 corporate customers and screened millions of people in Canada and the UK. A successful sale and merger with a larger US competitor, Sterling Infosystems, was completed in 2012. The merged business became Sterling BackCheck and Dave joined the New York executive committee and led the global business units for Canada, the UK, and Philippines. SterlingBackCheck was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2015 and Dave left the organization and founded WideOcean Strategies Ltd., a boutique venture capital and consulting firm. In late 2015, Dave was tapped to lead the CubicFarm Systems team as CEO and bring this revolutionary technology to market globally. CubicFarms is quickly becoming a global leader in the controlled-environment-agricultural vertical farming space. Dave also serves on several for profit and non-profit boards.
Rodrigo Santana
President, COO & Interim CFO
Rodrigo is a senior executive with over 20 years of international managerial experience within global best-in-class technical services providers, focused on financial and operational management, strategic growth planning and execution, engineering, project management and operational efficiency. Previously, he held several leadership roles in growth-oriented companies, such as Dow Agrosciences, SGS and Commercial Testing & Engineering, with operations in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. He co-founded and operated the cultivation of hydroponic lettuce at the beginning of his professional career. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Sacré-Davey Engineering, where he doubled the size of the company through strategic business and corporate development as well as geographical expansion across North America. He coordinated the implementation of business systems and processes to support the company’s growth objectives. Rodrigo has a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Engineering from the Federal University of Lavras, Brazil, and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management from Chicago, US.
Jo-Ann Ostermann
Vice President
Jo-Ann is one of the few people in North America to have opened and operated a vertical farming operation on a commercial scale. As General Manager for Urban Barns Foods Inc., she led the team that opened the 16,000-square-foot facility in Mirabel, Quebec. Her responsibilities included all aspects of farming operations, including ensuring compliance and achieving certification with CanadaGAP food safety. She also conducted cultivar research which led to the expansion of lettuce offerings and development of the microgreen product line. Prior to Urban Barns Foods, Jo-Ann was the Manager of Business and Technology at The City of Calgary, Roads Business Unit and VP Administration and Corporate Services at Robyn’s Transportation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing with distinction and an MBA from the University of Calgary. At CubicFarms, Jo-Ann is responsible for overseeing global installations.