Alison Sunstrum
Alison is CEO of CNSRV-X Inc. (Conserve X), a Canadian company researching and applying emerging technology in agriculture. She is the Managing Partner of The51’s $50M Food & AgTech Fund investing in diverse founders transforming food and agriculture, and an AgTech Venture Partner at Builders VC, a San Francisco/Calgary venture capital fund helping founders modernize antiquated industries with $500 AUM. Alison is a Fellow and Founding partner in the Ag Stream of the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Rockies. She serves as a Director of Ontario Genomics and a Steering committee member of the Biological Engineering Council of Canada. She is an advisor to the Arrel Institute, University of Guelph’s Feeding the Future Pan Canadian strategy, and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies/Conseil des académies canadiennes, Technologies for Food Security Panel. Alison is a judge and mentor to the Weston Family Foundation Homegrown Innovation Challenge, a six-year challenge aiming to build the resilience of Canada’s food system. Formerly as CEO/Co-Founder of GrowSafe Systems Ltd., she grew their research and development skunkworks from an Alberta garage to global operations receiving international recognition for science-based innovation. She holds patents for innovative technology and has published and presented widely. Alison is passionate about advancing women in STEM and, in 2021 was recognized as one of Canada’s most influential agricultural leaders.