Tsuyoshi Stuart Oda is an investment banker turned urban farmer with a passion for innovation and sustainability. In 2013, Stuart founded Alesca Life, an agricultural technology company that builds turnkey vertical farms and precision agriculture solutions to make food production more localized and data-driven. Alesca's investors include Mistletoe and BitsxBites, and the startup has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a 2021 Global Innovator, 2020 SDG Champion for Zero Hunger, and 2019 Technology Pioneer and was selected into prestigious accelerator programs including Stanford StartX, Unreasonable Impact, and Dubai Futures as a leader in the field of controlled environment agriculture and hyper-local food production. Stuart has presented on the topic of agricultural technology at the United Nations FAO, TED World Theater, and other global forums. He previously worked in the investment banking division of Merrill Lynch and the global emerging markets corporate development team at Dell. Stuart received his B.A. in Political Science and Business Economics from UCLA.