Team

  • Ertharin has spent her entire career working across the public and private sectors to solve the crisis of malnutrition. Ertharin served as United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director. During her tenure, WFP operated in 80 countries, with a budget averaging over five billion dollars per year and a staff of 14,000. Ertharin served as US Ambassador for Food and Agriculture representing all US Global food and policy initiatives with the United Nations Rome based Food and Agriculture organizations. Cousin previously served as Deputy Executive Director of America’s Second Harvest now Feeding America. Her private sector leadership included serving as an Albertsons Senior Vice President. Ertharin regularly researches, writes and teaches about food and agriculture related issues.

  • Julie is a successful venture investor with 10+ years of experience across the private capital markets, specializing in the food, agribusiness, and controlled environment agriculture sectors. Her journey to FSF Ventures was shaped by her pivotal role as Director at Grow Forward, an evergreen fund dedicated to catalyzing early-stage sustainable food and technology enterprises. At Grow Forward, Julie played a transformative role in the fund's evolution, spearheading strategic initiatives that led to its transition into an evergreen model. Under her leadership, Grow Forward achieved remarkable success, strategically conceiving, funding, and nurturing innovative startups poised to disrupt the food and technology landscape. Julie's keen insights and hands-on approach were instrumental in guiding portfolio companies through critical growth phases, resulting in several successful exits that generated a combined return of 7x MOIC

  • Rajiv Singh brings over 25 years of experience in private equity and corporate finance, having led businesses ranging from a financial institution with a large continental footprint to a 12-person biotech start-up, deploying billions of dollars of capital across numerous transactions. His recent focus has been on directing capital to accelerate transformations towards a more sustainable planet and healthier lives. Rajiv has served as Chief Executive Officer of Rabobank North America, where he spearheaded a new strategy to refocus the institution on fostering a better food system and led the establishment of direct investments across Private Equity, Venture Capital, and hybrid capital through Rabo Global Client Solutions, managing a client asset portfolio exceeding $34 billion. Additionally, as Managing Director at COFRA Sustainable Food and Agriculture Investments, he founded and directed the food and agriculture investment division for one of Europe's largest and most impact-oriented family holding companies.

    • Executive Director, Stanford Global Projects Center

    • Thought leader in institutional investing

  • Roberto Velarde is a seasoned private equity investor with over 25 years of global private equity investment experience in a broad range of industries in Latin America, US, Europe and Asia. Roberto has proven experience building and managing private markets investment platforms as a senior leader in institutional, family office and impact investment firms. He has held senior management positions in several firms, including Klis Capital, Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, Franklin Templeton, Grupo Inder, North America Capital, J.P. Morgan Partners, and AIG Global Investment Group.

    Roberto holds an MBA degree from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and a BA in Economics from Northwestern University.

FSF Ventures Advisory Board

    • Founding and Managing partner, Prairie Capital

    • Formerly, Principal at ColBridge Capital Management hedge fund and President at Grant Capital Partners

    • Founder KNOWN investment advisory services

    • 30 plus years investing experience

    • Extensive managerial background in family and entrepreneurial businesses

    • Founder and Managing Partner of Sustainable Finance Partnerships

    • Investment executive with over 40 years of business and investment experience.

Led by a seasoned food system expert, working alongside highly experienced private equity food investors and nutrition industry experts, we bring a strong track record in financial returns and social impact.