Elanco executive to lead agbiosciences initiative
INDIANAPOLIS — AgriNovus Indiana, the state’s initiative to promote and accelerate the growth of the agbiosciences sector, has named an Elanco Animal Health executive as its acting CEO.
Aaron Schacht, executive vice president of Innovation, Regulatory and Business Development for Greenfield-based Elanco and chair of the AgriNovus Board and CEO search committee, will serve as acting CEO of the initiative.
AgriNovus Indiana’s current president and CEO, Beth Bechdol, was confirmed by the United Nations to be the deputy director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Her last day with AgriNovus is Feb. 28.
Leo’s Market hosting dine-to-donate event
GREENFIELD — Leo’s Market and Eatery, 2212 W. Main St., Greenfield, is having its first dine-to-donate event from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, March 22.
The store will donate 10% of its proceeds that day to The Landing Place, 18 W. South St.
Founded in 2013, The Landing Place is nonprofit organization that works to provide a safe and supportive environment for Hancock County youth to find help. The facility teaches people recovery principles to break the cycle of addiction and other destructive behaviors.
Investments in Indiana tech companies up
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s tech ecosystem ended 2019 with one of the best years in the history of the state, with total 2019 venture capital and other types of funding investments increasing 260 percent over 2018, according to TechPoint, Indiana’s non-profit tech growth accelerator, which tracked the economic information via publicly available announcements.
In 2019, 62 Indiana tech companies publicly announced venture capital investments, grant funding, merger and acquisition deals, private equity and debt financing for total investments of more than $358 million.
USDA announces innovation agenda
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced earlier this month the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, a departmentwide initiative to align resources, programs and research to position American agriculture to better meet future global demands.
Specifically, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will stimulate innovation so that American agriculture can achieve the goal of increasing production by 40% while cutting the environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050, according to a news release.
