Local Bounti is changing the way leafy greens are grown and delivered, from our farm to your kitchen. We’re helping families enjoy local, long-lasting, fresh, delicious and sustainable produce all year long. Welcome to the Farm of the Future™.
CO-FOUNDER AND SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGY
Craig Hurlbert has served as our Senior Vice President of Strategy since June 2023 and as a member of our Board since November 2021. He previously served as our Co-Chief Executive Officer from November 2021 to June 2023. Mr. Hurlbert co-founded our predecessor company in August 2018. Mr. Hurlbert also co-founded BrightMark Partners, LLC, a growth equity and management firm providing capital and resources to venture, growth phase and middle-market businesses, and served as a Managing Partner from January 2014 to March 2021. Previously, Mr. Hurlbert served in various leadership roles at TAS Energy, a leading provider of high efficiency and modular cooling and energy systems for the data center, commercial, industrial, and power generation markets, including President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board. Mr. Hurlbert also held leadership roles at General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and North American Energy Services. Mr. Hurlbert is currently the Chairman of the Board at Clearas Water Recovery, a company utilizing patented, sustainable, and proprietary technology to solve high nutrient wastewater challenges in the municipal and industrial water markets. Mr. Hurlbert earned his B.S. in Finance from San Diego State University and his M.B.A. from California State University-Long Beach.
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Travis Joyner has served as our Chief Technology Officer since June 2023 and has served as a member of Board since November 2021. He previously served as our Co-Chief Executive Officer from November 2021 to June 2023. Mr. Joyner co-founded our predecessor company in August 2018. Mr. Joyner also co-founded BrightMark Partners, LLC, a growth equity and management firm providing capital and resources to venture, growth phase and middle-market businesses, and served as a Managing Partner from January 2014 to March 2021. At BrightMark Partners, LLC, Mr. Joyner was an active director for many portfolio companies, driving with growth plan execution, building core business infrastructure, and leading many successful debt and equity transactions. His areas of expertise include quantitative analysis, corporate strategy, technology development, market analysis, organizational design structure, market strategy, branding, and capital campaigns. Mr. Joyner earned a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, where his graduate focus was market research and statistics, a Certificate of Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from the University of Montana, and his B.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, graduating with distinction.
CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER
With two decades of international financial, business development and technology experience, Dave has spent his life career founding, growing and scaling technology businesses that create social value.
He previously served as the CFO of Sensei Ag, a market changing AgTech venture, founded by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and physician and scientist Dr. David Agus. Dave was also Head of Business Development and Chief Financial Officer of Crop One Holdings, Inc., a vertical farming company. As CFO, he created a $50MM joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering to construct one of the world’s largest vertical farms. He also secured $134MM in the first Take-and-Pay contracts in the vertical farming industry and co-founded Conception Nurseries, a technology licensee to expand Crop One into new verticals.
In his early career, Dave founded and grew Ed-Tech and Fin-Tech companies in Zambia, working in C-suite roles. He earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
An entrepreneurial executive, Kathleen brings a 30 year record of driving profitable growth in public and privately held companies from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, within the biotech, retail, telecommunications, real estate and healthcare markets.
Most recently, Kathleen served as CFO and CBO of Amyris, Inc., a publicly traded biotech and commercial stage manufacturing company with global operations. She closely partnered with the CEO to expand product offerings in B2B and consumer markets. Kathleen raised over $1B in debt and equity financing while simultaneously reducing debt and attracting institutional investors. As CBO, Kathleen led the strategic market entry into the pharmaceutical industry. During her tenure Amyris’ market cap grew from $300M to $5B.
Prior to Amyris, Kathleen provided strategic and financial consulting services through Lenox Group, Inc., the company she founded in 1996. Clients included Fortune 500 companies such as Albertsons, CVS, Gap, Kaiser Permanente and Softbank, as well as smaller clients preparing for IPOs. She was typically engaged for critical roles on multi-year assignments including M&A transactions, debt and equity financings, IPOs and spin-offs.
Kathleen earned a Bachelor of Business Administration – Accounting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
PRESIDENT
Brian Cook has served as Local Bounti’s President since April 2022. Previously, Mr. Cook served as Chief Executive Officer of Pete’s/Hollandia Produce, a leading produce company specializing in hydroponic greenhouse-grown lettuce and cress, from November 2017 to March 2022, when Local Bounti acquired Pete’s/Hollandia Produce.
Mr. Cook also served as Vice President of Sales of Hollandia Produce from February 2016 to November 2017. Prior to joining Hollandia Produce, Mr. Cook served in various sales roles at several produce and retail advertising companies.
Mr. Cook currently serves as a Member of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council Board and the Ventura College Agriculture Advisory Board.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Anna Fabrega has served as our Chief Executive Officer since June 2023. She previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Freshly, LLC, a direct-to-consumer fresh prepared food subscription service, from October 2021 to November 2022. Ms. Fabrega initially joined Freshly as Chief Commercialization Officer in January 2021. Prior to joining Freshly, from October 2011 to January 2021, Ms. Fabrega served in successively more senior leadership roles with Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), a multinational technology company, including Managing Director of Amazon Go and Amazon Kitchen, Director of Amazon Go Category Leader, General Manager of Amazon Sports, and Senior Manager, Marketing and Third-Party Marketplace – Sporting Goods. Ms. Fabrega previously held brand-strategy, product, and operational roles with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), a technology company; Stripes, a convenience store chain; and McMaster-Carr, a supply company. Ms. Fabrega has served as a board member of American Public Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: APEI) since May 2022, where she serves as a member of the Audit Committee. Ms. Fabrega earned a B.A. in International Business from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
Laz Martinez joined Local Bounti as Chief People Officer, on August 1, 2023. Laz brings over 25 years of experience in leading human capital in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors in fashion, grocery and consumer packaged goods organizations, both in the U.S. and internationally. He has wide-ranging experience in multi-nationals and start-ups as well. Most recently, Laz worked at Nestle for twelve years at both Nespresso and Freshly. Prior to this experience, his career spanned several assignments at Safeway, LVMH and more.
In his role, he is focused on Local Bounti’s employee experience, employee development through career opportunities and learning, nurturing a cohesive culture, building capabilities in our organization, evolving the organizational design to meet the needs of our growth, along with ensuring the best-in-class HR services delivery model.
Laz holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco in Organizational Behavior and Leadership. He and his family are based in Las Vegas, Nevada where his remote home office is based.
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Joining the organization in July, 2023, Bimal comes from Amazon, where over the past four years he led the worldwide Capacity, Expansion and Engineering teams for Amazon Logistics, building one of the largest final mile networks in the world. Throughout his career, Bimal has accumulated over 30 years of progressive experience in operational leadership at several global, blue-chip companies including Amazon Fulfillment, Whirlpool, Ford Motor Company and UPS. Bimal has a proven track record and deep experience across operations, process engineering and logistics that contributes to how Local Bounti is redefining agriculture. His oversight includes Operations, Grow, Food Safety, Supply Chain, Logistics and Innovation.
Bimal resides in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two teenage children. His hobbies include skiing, hiking, water sports and watching football as a family on Sundays.