Leadership Team
Andrew Diprose
Andrew is CEO and leads the RootWave team. He joined from Alpha Financial Markets Consulting which he helped grow from a start-up to the world’s largest dedicated investment management consultancy.
James Holdgate
Joined RootWave from Vax where he held the role of Head of New Product Development. He brings over 20 years of experience in consumer products and medical devices and expertise in product development, project management, team leadership and lean systems.
Tom Archer
Tom is Head of Sales and Marketing for RootWave. He joined from UPL where he was European portfolio marketing manager. He has expertise in crop protection markets with over 20 years’ experience in portfolio marketing and new product development.
Board of Directors
Andrew Diprose
Andrew is CEO and leads the RootWave team. He joins from Alpha Financial Markets Consulting which he helped grow from a start-up to the world’s largest dedicated investment management consultancy.
Jorge Heraud
Jorge Heraud is passionate about bringing practical, high technology to agriculture. Jorge was CEO of Blue River Technology which uses computer vision and AI to detect each plant individually and reduce chemical use by a factor of 3. Jorge successfully raised three rounds of financing prior to being acquired by John Deere in 2017. Jorge was then the Vice President of Automation and Autonomy for John Deere leading 600 people working in robotics, autonomy, machine leaning and computer vision. At John Deere he lead the release of See & Spray and the Autonomous 8R tractor. Prior to this, Jorge worked at Trimble Navigation as Business Unit Director for Precision Agriculture and Director of Engineering.
Willem Broekaert
Willem Broekaert is currently Managing Partner of V-BIO VENTURES, a life sciences venture fund which he co-founded in 2015. V-BIO VENTURES supports innovative companies in the sectors of therapeutics, diagnostics and agricultural improvements.
Thomas Gatacre
Thomas is currently the active chairman of Jellycat, a soft toy company which he started 32 years ago. Jellycat now has sales of £70m, 80% of which is sold outside the UK. Previously Thomas worked in insurance and farming. He is a board member of the body that looks after the family estate, property, monuments and garden of de Wiersse in the Netherlands.
Lars McBride
Lars has over 40 years’ experience in business, including as an Executive Director for a diversified global industrial group and Finance Director of FTSE 250 company when it sold for £630m. Lars is an experienced Chairman and Non-Executive Director and currently holes numerous board roles at small businesses.