Sylvio has over 25 years of international experience in the Agribusiness sector and is passionate about technology innovation and business growth opportunities across the Food and Ag supply chain. As part of a third generation of family farmers in Brazil, Sylvio was fortunate to have grown up with the freshest possible food. He believes that everyone should have convenient access to healthy food that is produced through sustainable and regenerative practices. He graduated in Agronomic Engineering and started his career working for a venture capital firm investing in Ag/Food companies across Latin America. He moved to the US in 2002 and after completing his MBA he joined FMC Corporation in Philadelphia as part of their Agricultural Products Corporate Development team working on M&A opportunities in the agrochemical sector.
In 2005 he joined Cargill in Minneapolis and was one of the three founding members of a venture start-up focusing on investing in waste to energy renewable energy generation and carbon emissions reduction across the globe. From 2008 to 2010, as Head of International Product Development, he led a team to launch the company’s first business to consumer product in Europe (the Truvia tabletop sweetener). In 2010 he joined the Cargill’s Risk Management business unit and helped them to expand their offer of financial hedging solution to farmers and food globally. In 2013 he started a new role at Syngenta as Head of Strategy and Business Development for North America where he led the company’s introduction of a specialty corn technology into the North American livestock feeding market. During that time, he was exposed to all sorts of new AgTech startup companies that saw Syngenta as a potential investor. In 2016, Sylvio started his own consulting company, Green Prairie Consulting, to advise investors in the Food and Ag sector which led him to be invited to join the Executive Team of Wheatsheaf (Grosvenor Food & Ag Fund), a large UK based privately owned investment company part of The Grosvenor Estate, that invests across the Food/Ag value chain in Europe, North and Latin America and Australia.
In 2020, Sylvio joined Manna Tree partners, a sector- focused investment firm based in Vail, CO dedicated to improving human health through nutrition, while seeking to provide private equity-level returns to investors. As a member of Manna Tree’s Investments Team, Sylvio leads Business Development and deal origination as well as works very close to the portfolio companies to support portfolio value creation. He serves on the board of Manna Tree portfolio companies Good Culture and The New Primal.
Sylvio also serves as a mentor for innovative start-up companies such as TechStars “Farm to Fork” Accelerator and Plug and Play Agriculture Technology. He was also a member of the Kirchner Group, where he advised global, innovative food companies and currently is a member of the Advisory Council for the Kirchner Food Fellowship program.
Sylvio has a Bachelor’s Degree in Agronomic Engineering from the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.