Dec 19, 2018

Cool Planet names Rik Miller chair, adds Armstrong to board

Cool Planet, an agricultural technology company focused on sustainable agricultural solutions, has made multiple changes to its board of directors intended to strengthen the company’s focus on soil health technology development and to support growing commercial momentum.

First, the company has appointed Rik Miller, the former President of DuPont Crop Protection, as chairman of the company’s board of directors. He will replace Howard Janzen as chairman. Janzen, the ex-CEO of Cool Planet, will remain on the board.

The company will also add a new director, Dwight Armstrong, the former CEO of National FFA Organization and vice president of the Global Group at Provimi. Armstrong will replace Dennis Weibling who has resigned from the board to facilitate the change to a heightened agricultural focused board of directors. All board changes will go into effect immediately.

Since joining Cool Planet’s Board of Directors in 2017, Miller has been a valuable strategic leader. His experience helped guide the company’s strategic growth plan, research and development investment, and sales and marketing strategy for its soil health product-line, Cool Terra as well as the company’s emerging seed germination / early plant establishment and biological delivery technologies.

“Rik brings tremendous credibility and strategic vision to our Board of Directors, and when coupled with his successful background at DuPont in developing and launching globally relevant ag products, he is a natural fit to be Chairman of our Board,” said Cool Planet CEO Jim Loar. “Rik’s leadership comes at an exciting time in our company’s history as we ramp up production to fulfill growing customer demand for Cool Terra® and continue to develop and prepare for the launch of our exciting new biological delivery and seed germination technologies.”

In addition to Miller’s appointment, the company is also adding  Dwight Armstrong to its Board of Directors. As the former CEO of National FFA, and experience at animal nutrition company Provimi leading the operations and acquisitions of multiple nutritional brands, Armstrong brings experience, knowledge, and connections in the agriculture and animal nutrition markets. He will help progress Cool Planet’s agribusiness partnerships and further develop its animal nutrition / probiotic technology product line, Cool Fauna.

“Cool Planet takes an innovative, science-based approach to research and development that is progressive and provides growers and producers tools that result in a more productive, profitable, and sustainable future,” said Armstrong. “I’m excited to join this exceptional team and help them reach more producers with their transformational technology.”

The company announced in July, 2018 that it had closed $20MM in funding to fulfill growing customer demand for Cool Terra and allow the company to begin construction of its commercial production facility in Alexandria, Louisiana. The funding will also help the company continue to invest in the R&D and commercialization of its Engineered Biocarbon technology for other diverse agriculture sectors such as soil health, animal nutrition, biological delivery, and seed germination / early-plant establishment.

Cool Planet is an agriculture technology company that develops and markets Engineered Biocarbon technology products for soil health. The company’s first commercial product line is Cool Terra, an award-winning soil amendment, which works to improve key soil performance characteristics for greater plant growth and quality. Cool Terra is also carbon negative.

Over 100 independent, third-party field trials have shown that Cool Terra® delivers, on average, a greater than 12 percent increase in yield while generating a greater than 3:1 grower return on investment. Cool Terra provides sustainability and profitability for agriculture, landscape, turf, nursery and ornamental markets. Cool Planet is also innovating animal nutrition, biological delivery, and early plant establishment products to address the growing global concerns of soil health, sustainability and food security. Learn more about Cool Terra and Engineered Biocarbon technology at www.coolterra.com, on Twitter at @CoolPlanet and on Facebook at facebook.com/CoolTerraNews. Contact the company about Cool Terra® at [email protected] or (888) 564-9332.