About

For two decades Chris Ramezanpour has worked closely with farmers, university scientists, government agencies, nonprofits and international institutions on food, agriculture, and conservation projects in the U.S. and Sub Saharan Africa. Mr. Ramezanpour has helped raise over $90 M from public and private partners to support this work. Mr. Ramezanpour has extensive experience in food/ag research, conservation ag programming, grant writing, financial modeling, business development, strategic planning, and supply chain analysis.

Mr. Ramezanpour earned his Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School in 2008. He is the President and co-founder of Secure Food Solutions (SFS), a biotech company based in Memphis, Tennessee. SFS is developing rapid diagnostics to detect dangerous pathogens that threaten global food supply chains. SFS has two platforms: (1) Rapid microbial tests for fast, simple, low-cost detection and enumeration of Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, etc.; and (2) Fast, simple, affordable imaging devices for farm families in Sub Saharan Africa to detect and remove aflatoxin-contaminated foods, like peanuts, corn and cassava (aflatoxin is a dangerous fungal carcinogen responsible for critically high rates of child mortality and stunting in SSA). Mr. Ramezanpour has received three separate applied research grants from the National Science Foundation to help develop these technologies.