Freight Farms has a new CEO.
The Boston startup that builds automated farm systems in shipping containers hired consumer brands veteran Rick Vanzura as its CEO. Previous chief executive Brad McNamara, who co-founded and ran the company since its inception in 2012 will become the president.
Prior to this role, Vanzura was the chief strategy and business development officer at Gamestop. He previously served as the CEO of Wahlburgers, the burger restaurant and bar run by Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg's family.
"The company reached out to me last September," Vanzura told BostInno. "After doing some basic research, it didn't take me long to know that I was interested. The technology was really interesting and after spending time with John [Friedman] and Brad [McNamara], we really connected."
The company also hired the former VP of engineering at eatsa, now Brightloom, Jake Felser as head of engineering.
This announcement comes on the heels of the startup's $15 million Series B funding in February. Freight Farms runs a network of smart farms across 44 states and 25 countries. Each smart farm, called a “Greenery,” is housed in a 320-sq.-ft. hydroponic shipping container. These vertical farming containers are all linked to the startup’s data platform, Farmhand.
The startup’s customers range from food distributors and grocery stores to educational institutions and corporate campuses. In the past, the company has worked with the Compas Group, Google and Federal Realty Investment Trust. The eight-year-old startup claims its farms can grow more than 500 varieties of crops at a commercial scale by using 99.8 percent less water than traditional agriculture.
Freight Farms' director of marketing and community relations Caroline Katsiroubas told BostInno that the company is working on devising ways in which it can help the community in the COVID-19 pandemic, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
The company is providing technical support to farmers in its network and offering access to its Farmhand software free for three months.
