Orlando Saez

Global Business Leader

2023 - Current

Responsible for expanding the business beyond the Midwest for this precision agriculture enterprise focused on full cycle digital agronomy and crop health with analytics.

Senior Advisor

2023 - 2024

Strategy, capital, and market positioning for middle market companies with a technology differentiation in agriculture and telecommunications sectors. Harrison is an M&A investment banking firm with a PE fund.

Co-Founder / Chief Executive Officer

2015 - 2023

Spearheaded cross-functional business operations for the enterprise, including strategic planning, market development, and staff recruitment. Demonstrate subject matter expertise by serving as the inventor and patent author of core company IP focused on expediting the global adoption of the company’s crop diagnostics proprietary technology. Define the go-to-market (GTM) strategy which engaged two of the largest global brands (Bayer and BASF) at a national level within 2 years. Secured over $7M in early funding with institutional investors to accelerate precision farming around the globe. Architected successful M&A transaction with Intelinair.

Chief Operating Officer

2012 - 2015

Maintained responsibility for a full spectrum of modalities, including action plan development, financial modeling, and technology platform implementation. Exhibited robust communication skills to cultivate customer/supplier relationships and coordinate pilots for initial customer engagements. Successfully secured $2M in seed funding from an institutional investor. Acted as a subject matter expert by defining market strategy and sales for key account pilots nationwide.

Director, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Technology (DCEO)

2011 - 2012

Developed policies and directed programs focused on enhancing economic development across the state of Illinois. Strategically modified the state’s public-private policy to align with goals. Oversaw a $400M annual budget for key programs, while supervising a 30-member team. Raised $78M from Federal funding for the State of Illinois, and initiated a $20M state-sponsored venture capital fund, which invested in 17 deals over 18 months. Earned recognition for leading a state-sponsored campaign to create 1871, the nation’s largest digital start-up community tech hub.

Chief Executive Officer

2009 - 2011

Established the company’s strategic direction by constructing organizational policies and business plans to support funding. Engaged in contract negotiations with the company’s top vendors. Provided direction to 3 executive reports: the COO, CMO, and EVP of Business Development. Delivered guidance on business development and product strategy for the e-commerce platform, which attained over 300K monthly unique users within 2 months of deployment. Generated $300M in annual sales during tenure.

Vice President, Marketing & Product Development

2003 - 2009

Led all aspects of marketing, airport business model strategy, including search engine optimization (SEO) and online portal strategy. Drove product marketing and outbound marketing across all channels. Demonstrated people management expertise to direct a cohesive team comprised of marketing managers and product engineers. Facilitated the development and deployment of a key product platform by applying Agile/Scrum methodologies. Attained recognition for pioneering Wi-Fi service in the 60 largest airports in North America and the UK in 3 years. Delivered exemplary leadership to advance annual revenue growth from $5M to $40M+ within 5 years.

Director Data Solutions

1998 - 2001

Vice President Operations

1994 - 1998

Leading B2B Access Internet Service Provider in the Midwest. Sold to Winstar on 1998

Engineering Manager

1991 - 1994

Managed SuperCell CDMA base station software development and integration testing teams. Responsible for expanding stress, stability, and performance testing staff in Bangalore, India.