Our board of directors, volunteer advisory board, special consultants, and management team are all veterans of the agricultural industry, and it is upon the shoulders of these giants that HyperLocal Network builds our empire.
Dr. Shane Burgess – Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona
We have partnered with Dr. Shane Burgess and his team at the University of Arizona to bring a unique perspective to our business plan. Dr. Shane C. Burgess, MRCVS, FLS has worked around the world as a practicing veterinarian and scientist. His areas of research expertise include cancer biology, virology, proteomics, immunology, bioinformatics, and computational biology. He has 188 refereed publications, trained 38 graduate students and has received nearly $55M in competitive funding since 1997.
A “first-generation student,” Dr. Shane Burgess graduated in 1989 as a veterinarian with distinction from Massey University, New Zealand. He has worked in and managed veterinary clinical practices in Australia and the UK, including horses, farm animals, pets, wild and zoo animals, and emergency medicine and surgery. He did his radiology residency at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, where he concurrently co-founded Perth’s first emergency veterinary clinic. He has managed aquaculture facilities in Scotland. His PhD in virology, immunology and cancer biology from Bristol University medical school was done between 1995 and 1998, while working full time outside of academia.
Dr. Burgess is currently Vice President for Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension, Charles-Sander Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Director of the Arizona Experiment Station at the University of Arizona. The division has a total budget of $135M with over 3,900 students and more than 1,700 employees.
Dr. Burgess has been a board member of the Mississippi Biotechnology Association, served as a Mississippi Universities’ Industrial Outreach Committee member, and was president of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, 2009-2010. He has served USDA NRSP8: National Animal Genome Research Program as a Bioinformatics Committee member, was one of the two US (and the non-federal) inaugural co-chairs for the Working Group on Animal Biotechnology within the US-EC Task Force on Biotechnology, a National Executive Committee member for the Food Systems Leadership Institute, a University and Industry Consortium (UIC) Executive Committee member and was on the UIC Project Steering Team for its assessment project to define graduate numbers/quality/skills supply vs. demand in agricultural and biotech industries (a collaboration with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities).
He currently serves on the Agri-Business and Water Council of Arizona Executive Committee, the Board of Directors for Arizona Farm Bureau, the Governor’s Agricultural Best Management Practices Committee for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the BIO5 Institute Deans’ Advisory Board, Tech Launch Arizona’s Internal Advisory Board, Arizona STEM Diploma Project Advisory, Flinn Foundation’s Arizona Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee, Reid Park Zoological Society Board of Directors, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Board of Trustees, Pima County Agricultural Science Advisory Commission, Farm Foundation Round Table Steering Committee, and is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Dr. Burgess also serves on a number of university-level planning and strategy committees
Eduardo Alexander – Partner at Percival Ventures
Technology investor who exited California for beautiful Puerto Rico, seeking greater freedom, the beautiful Caribbean island atmosphere, and the incredibly kind people of the Puerto Rican island.
Previously was a Managing Partner at Mission Ventures, a $500M Venture Capital Fund focused on opportunities across Southern California. Ted served on the Board of Zyray Wireless (Sold to BRCM, $100M), Networks in Motion (Sold to TSYS, $170M), MaxLinear (IPO, $1.5 BN), Verimatrix (Sold to Inside Secure, $180M), ID Analytics (sold to LLK, $200M). He has been involved with the founders of these companies assisting them from early idea to ultimate exit.
Ted currently serves on the Board of Enevate (www.Enevate.com) a next generation, fast charge battery company working with the leading automotive companies in the world.
Ted was also a Platoon Commander with SEAL Team One and we thank him for service!
Murray Hallam – International Aquaponics Design Course
Murray Hallam is probably the best-known face in the worldwide Aquaponics movement. He discovered Aquaponics in 2006, and immediately put his fiberglass and boat-building skills to work to build and sell Aquaponics systems and equipment through Practical Aquaponics in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was immediately apparent to Murray that people needed ready-made kits as well as DIY solutions.
He is perhaps best known around the world, for his outstanding Aquaponics full-length video series: Aquaponics Made Easy, Aquaponics Secrets, and DIY Aquaponics. Murray has a strong presence on YouTube with more than four million views of his fifty-plus clips about Aquaponics. His entertaining and educational short videos can be found on YouTube by searching for “Murray Hallam Aquaponics”.
Murray is by nature an experimenter and innovator and has perfected many new and innovative methodologies for domestic and more particularly commercial farm Aquaponic systems.
His gold standard Aquaponics kits are distributed throughout Australia in their hundreds and have also been exported to New Zealand, Hong Kong, the United States, Singapore, Bahamas, and Kenya. Feedback from Murray’s large client base has provided valuable development data for his knowledge base about Aquaponics
Murray Hallam has conducted several training classes in Aquaponics over the last 6 years, in both 1 x Day Courses, and 4 x Day Master Classes. Courses have been held in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Additionally, Murray has conducted and lectured in Aquaponics Seminars in Oceanside California, Pescadero California, Denver Colorado, Orlando Florida, Puerto Rico, Bangalore India, and Morocco West Africa.
Murray is an experienced teacher and lecturer who has also taught for a number of years at Ipswich and Bundamba TAFE colleges. Murray holds Australian Government TEA40110 Certification IV in Training & Assessment.