Katrin Jakob, PhD, is an entrepreneur, scientific and business advisor, and Founder & Managing Partner of California Business Associates LLC and mentor for the Silicon Valley AgTech Incubator THRIVE AgTech. California Business Associates is a business consultancy for startups and medium sized companies in Ag & Food technology, Biotechnology and Renewables. She has over 20 years experience in plant and microbial biotechnology and R&D project management. She received a Diploma in Crop Science from the Humboldt University in Berlin, and a Ph.D. in Crop Science from the University of Giessen, Germany, and performed her postdoctoral research in plant molecular biology & genetics at the University of Chicago. Katrin started her career at the Institute of Crop Science at the Federal Agriculture Research Center in Braunschweig, Germany, and worked at Mendel Biotechnology in California as scientist and team lead, heading research in plant pathology, molecular breeding, biofuels, plant transformation and microbial technologies to enhance crop productivity and stability.