CEA Alliance adds two to board of directors

The Controlled Environment Agriculture Alliance (CEA Alliance), a membership trade association representing and serving vertical farms and greenhouse producers, appointed two members to its board of directors, the association said in a news release.

Dan Malech, senior vice president of strategy and general counsel for Plenty, said Craig Hurlbert CEO of Local Bounti, and Andrew Horowitz, North American Director of Strategic Development of KUBO Greenhouse Projects, have joined the alliance’s Board of Directors effective March 1.

Hurlbert has served as Local Bounti’s chief executive officer since December 2023 and as a member of Local Bounti’s board since November 2021. He co-founded the company in 2018 and previously served as senior vice president of strategy from June 2023 to December 2023 and co-chief executive officer from November 2021 to June 2023.  He also co-founded BrightMark Partners, a growth equity and management firm providing capital and resources to venture, growth phase and middle-market businesses, and served as a managing partner from January 2014 to March 2021.  Previously, he served in various leadership roles at TAS Energy, General Electric Company and North American Energy Services.  He earned his B.S. in Finance from San Diego State University and his MBA from California State University-Long Beach.

With a Chemical Engineering degree from Northeastern University, Horowitz brings experience to the CEA Alliance in the design, construction, and validation of highly technical projects in both the life sciences and CEA industries. He also is a member of the board of directors of the non-profit Resource Innovation Institute (RII).  Before working at the Netherlands-based 
KUBO, he worked as a project manager and engineer at Little Leaf Farms and as a process engineering consultant at the Barry-Wehmiller Design Group.