SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Plenty, the flavor-first vertical farming company with a mission to improve the lives of people, plants, and the planet, today announced the expansion of its technical leadership team. The team is helping to lead all technical aspects of Plenty’s new Compton facility, set to be the largest output indoor vertical farm in the world. Additions to the team include Jessica McKinley as vice president of product management, Matt McMahon as senior director of technical program management and Roberto Medina as senior director of manufacturing engineering
“We are delighted to welcome these key members of our technical leadership team and to tap into their extensive experience,” said Nate Storey, co-founder and chief science officer at Plenty. “As we expand our farm operations and work to bring new farms online, Jessica, Matt and Roberto will be critical in ensuring strong collaboration and success between our engineering, construction and plant science teams.”
In her role as VP of product management, Jessica McKinley oversees the Technical Product Management (TPM) and Farm Architecture teams at Plenty. She brings over 14 years of experience to the team, most recently serving as VP of product at Zymergen for the personal care portfolio. Prior to that, she served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and senior scientist and product development director at Solidus Biosciences.
“Plenty is getting ready to open our Compton indoor vertical farm, the likes of which has never been done or seen before,” said McKinley. “We are proud to be in Compton with its deep agricultural roots, and I look forward to working with the company as we bring their vision to improve access to healthy, nutritious food around the world into reality.”
Matt McMahon will lead the deployment of Plenty’s farms, overseeing all elements of site planning, design and construction. A global expert of 30 years in end-to-end large-scale planning, design and construction, McMahon previously managed the Global Plan of Record (gPOR) at Google, responsible for the planning, design and construction of the company’s fleet-wide data center buildings.
Roberto Medina will oversee the design and management of production lines within Plenty farms, ensuring Plenty’s engineering systems and standards are manufactured to the highest level of quality and efficiency. Medina brings extensive expertise in supply chain and manufacturing operations management, working with consumer packaging and global food and beverage companies such as Heinz Glas, Anheuser-Busch and Coors.
About Plenty
Plenty is an American farming technology company that frees agriculture from the constraints of land, weather, seasons, time, distance, pests, natural disasters, and climate. The company’s plant scientists, engineers, and farmers have developed its indoor vertical farming technology to grow nutrient-rich and pesticide-free plants with extraordinary flavor. Plenty’s proprietary towers and intelligent platform make it the only vertical farm that can grow multiple crops with consistently superior flavors and yield. Plenty’s flagship farm and headquarters are located in South San Francisco, California, and the company operates the largest of its kind Research and Development farm in Laramie, Wyoming. Plenty is currently building the world’s highest-output, vertical, indoor farm in Compton, California.
