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© 2026 Horticulture Innovators
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We started the ‘Horticulture Innovators’ podcast series to highlight the societal, economic, and research impact of horticulture and spread awareness about the amazing opportunities that exist to further the mission of sustainability, wellness, and food security. Please share these stories and join our humble efforts so that we can engage and prepare the next generation of horticulture professionals to sustain these amazing industries and keep our farmers economically competitive.
12 Episodes
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Ockert Greyvenstein joined Ball Horticultural Company, in 2014 as plant breeder with PanAmerican Seed. A transplant from South Africa, he came to the US for graduate school, first earning his master's at Cornell, followed by a Ph.D. in plant breeding from Texas A&M University in 2013. Currently, he is the Regional Breeding Director based in Elburn, IL, overseeing breeding operations in Illinois and Costa Rica with projects ranging from Angelonia to Zebra-striped tomatoes. During his time ...
Brad Abrameit is a 1994 and 1996 graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. and M.S. in Horticulture. He is the President at Magnolia Gardens Nursery. Brad leads all functions of the container(165 acres) and tissue culture division (20 acres), both strategically and tactically. He is charged with stabilizing, professionalizing, and preparing the business for growth. He is an executive leader bringing 27+ years of experience in the horticulture industry to the forefront, driving strategi...
Jim Antwerp is a 1990 graduate of Texas A& M University with a B.S. in Horticulture with a study emphasis in horticulture of Wholesale Nursery Management and Production and a study emphasis outside horticulture in Business. Having a horticulture career that began with home gardening in youth, working later as nursery labor and subsequently rising in Nursery Management, he has served as Vice President at Flower wood Nursery Inc and currently at Greenleaf Nursery which are two large woody o...
Prof. Arun Sharma received his Ph.D. in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India, in 1987 after carrying out work on the regulation of nitrate assimilation by phytochrome in the laboratory of Prof. Sudhir Sopory. He performed post-doctoral work with Dr. G. Kumar at the School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, in 1998 and at Wayne State University, Detroit, from 1989 to 1991, in the area of DNA-protein interaction. He did post-doctoral work with Prof. Sudhi...
Dr. Haven Baker co-founded Pairwise and served as Chief Business Officer from 2017 to 2024. Under his leadership, Pairwise secured $ 110 M+ of funding, completed multiple crop development deals, and launched the first CRISPR product in North America. Haven is the former Senior Vice President / General Manager of Simplot Plant Sciences, where he led the team that launched the innovative, non-browning Innate® potato. He holds a PhD in chemistry from Northeastern University, an MBA from Harvard ...
Anna Caroline Ball is Chairman and CEO of the 119-year-old Ball Horticultural Company, which specializes in all aspects of horticulture, including breeding, biotechnology, production, and marketing of hybrid flower seeds and other floriculture crops. Privately-held and now in its fourth generation of family management, Ball Horticultural Company has 4,000 employees and operates in over 20 countries worldwide. Anna received her B.A. degree from the University of Colorado and her M.B.A. from N...
Lisa Whittlesey is an employee of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and received her bachelor and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University in horticulture with an emphasis in education/curriculum development. Lisa serves as the program director for the JMG’s International Junior Master Gardener program which currently operates in all 50 states and has expanded internationally through collaborative partnerships with the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, JMG Korea, ...
Dr. Steve George is a Professor and Extension Horticulturist, and Landscape Horticulture Specialist since 1988 for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and is headquartered at the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center in north Dallas. Dr. George created the Earth-Kind® Environmental Landscape Management System and serves as the National Coordinator of the Earth-Kind® Rose Program.
Kait Thornton, 4th generation apple and pear grower from Tonasket, Washington. Along with college classes, fruit sales, and work on the farm, Kait spends her time educating her over 450,000 followers across social media on farming and what it’s like to be a farmer!
A graduate of Southwest Texas State University with a B.S. in Industrial Arts (1982), Troy Swift began his professional career in composite canoe and kayak manufacturing and repair, as well as aluminum and steel welding, instruction, and guiding. He later joined CFAN, a manufacturer of composite jet engine parts for GE engines, where he served from 1990 to 2016, ultimately holding the position of Manufacturing Manager. During this time, he achieved 6 Sigma Supplier Blackbelt (statistics and p...
Stephan von Rundstedt is the co-founder of RoBo®Tec PTC GmbH and brings over 25 years of experience across the production and services industries. His expertise lies in business strategy and the development of innovative deep-tech solutions to sustainably transform agricultural production. With RoBo®Cut, a robot for fully autonomous in-vitro plant propagation, he and his wife and business partner, Friederike von Rundstedt, have taken steps to address our most pressing global challenges in en...
Ph.D. student Mason Marshall and undergraduate student Trishia Nguyen discuss what influenced their decision to pursue Horticulture as well as what they wish to accomplish in the future in the field of horticulture. Mason Marshall is a PhD student in the department of horticulture. He is from Odessa, Texas and ventured to Texas A&M in 2017 for his bachelor's degree in horticulture. Currently in his third year, Mason's research aims to characterize the phenotypic variation in Ratibida col...
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