Cofounder & CEO: Jed Wheeler
Over his 14 year tech startup career Jed has led product development and go-to-market efforts at multiple companies, played key roles in three successful exits, and built products that every American has interacted with.
Outside of work, Jed is a master gardener who learned the joy of making things grow from his grandfather who grew up on an Almond farm in Winters California. Over the last decade in particular, Jed has devoted countless hours to habitat restoration work with Californian native plants.
Jed first had the idea for Manzanita when drought made the well on his property in rural Mendocino run dry and his vegetable garden died without irrigation - except for the native food plants which continued to thrive.
Cofounder & CSO: Chris Hendrickson
Dr. Christopher Hendrickson received his Ph.D. in Horticulture from Washington State University. He is an expert on crop physiology and stress resilience through physiological, metabolic and genomics contexts. His training and industry R&D experience in plant biology has spanned from whole-plant physiology, energy and mass-balanced lenses to intricate biochemical assays, genomics and molecular biology-based approaches to answering impactful questions in plant systems.
Dr. Hendrickson’s prior work on pear cultivars to identify putative regulatory genes in fruits’ variable cold-induced ripening competency resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications. The work was awarded USPTO patents and enabled gene-informed rapid breeding toward improved pear postharvest ripening control
Bioinformatics Specialist:
Micki Palmersheim
Micki Palmersheim has almost a decade of experience in researching bees and pollinating insects, and is proficient in statistical analysis, predictive modeling, and using empirical evidence to support pollinator conservation and enhance local insect biodiversity. She is passionate about innovating ways to support the growing demand for agricultural production that are sustainable and able to support native bee populations.
Micki holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from North Dakota State University and a Master’s degree in Entomology from Virginia Tech. While working as a research assistant at the USDA-ARS in Fargo, ND, she investigated the sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoid exposure on nesting behavior in the Alfalfa Leafcutting bee, a managed solitary bee that is crucial for its contributions to Alfalfa crop production. Later, she dedicated her thesis to focusing on quantifying attractiveness of ornamental landscape plants to native pollinators for supporting biodiversity in urban areas.
