AeroFarms Welcomes Molly Montgomery, Acting CEO + Executive Chairperson

AeroFarms is pleased to announce Molly Montgomery will be joining AeroFarms as Acting CEO and Executive Chairperson of the AeroFarms Board of Directors. Molly is a veteran of the food and agricultural industry and has a deep passion for better-for-you food, agriculture, and sustainability. She is an experienced CEO and Board Director for both publicly and privately held companies.

Molly is a visionary leader with a passion for leading teams and innovating new products in the food & agriculture, technology, and sustainability sectors. She has a proven track record in creating value through business model transformation, driving organic growth, and increasing profitability through innovation and operational efficiencies. She also has extensive experience in M&A, strategic partnerships, and licensing agreements.

Molly currently serves as Venture Partner with Grosvenor Food & AgTech (GFA), an international, diversified family fund based in London and operated on behalf of its owners, the Duke of Westminster and his family. GFA prioritizes long-term financial investments that drive positive social and environmental impact. As a business unit of Grosvenor, GFA invests in food and agricultural companies that rethink how food is grown, produced, distributed, and consumed with the goal of creating a more sustainable global food supply chain to combat the ever-increasing challenges of climate change, food insecurity, and lack of nutrition.

Molly also serves as a Board Director for several companies across the agricultural supply chain, including Wilbur-Ellis, The Wine Group, Custom Made Meals, and Benson Hill. She has deep experience as both a private and public company CEO within the agricultural industry. Most recently, she was CEO of Custom Made Meals, a private-equity owned company that produces protein-centric, fresh entrees and appetizers to club and retail stores.

From 2009 – 2019, she served as an operating executive and then CEO & President of Landec Corporation. As a publicly traded company in the health & wellness space, Landec was comprised of two independent operating businesses: Lifecore Biomedical and Curation Foods. Curation Foods was a packaged, fresh produce company that contracted with growers throughout the US and Mexico to grow a wide range of specialty vegetables and then prepared fresh, packaged vegetables and salad kits for club and retail stores, as well as foodservice operators. Curation Food was acquired by Taylor Farms in 2021.

In 2011, Curation Foods (at that time named Apio) became the sole strategic investor in Windset Farms, one of the largest hydroponic greenhouse growers in North America. The capital was used to break ground and build their operation in Santa Maria, California – which now grows tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers under ~168 acres of glass. Molly served on the Windset Farms Board of Directors from 2018 to 2019.

Prior to Landec, Molly held executive positions at Ashland, Bausch & Lomb, and two software startups, both of which were acquired.

Molly holds Bachelor of Engineering Science (BES) and Master of Engineering (MEng) degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville and an MBA from Harvard University. She currently lives in Mill Valley, CA with her husband and has three sons ages 21, 24 and 25.