Agriculture firm’s CEO to speak at Purdue Club annual dinner

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Chris Moorman doesn’t look the part of a stereotypical business executive.

Wearing a Purdue T-shirt and a backwards baseball cap, he looks like he would be more comfortable leading a fraternity than a company.

But looks can be deceiving.

Moorman, who studied economics at Purdue University and was a former Wall Street commodities trader, is the founder and CEO of Rubicon Agriculture in Greenfield.

The company, created in July 2015, is providing technology-based solutions to help the world feed itself with sustainable agriculture using automated hydroponic growing methods.

But instead of greenhouses, Rubicon has created a way to grow an acre’s worth of fresh produce inside a recycled 40-foot shipping container or what the company calls AgroBoxes.

With advanced manufacturing automation applied, Rubicon has successfully grown organic crops in less time, for less money and fewer problems than traditional farming.

Moorman will be the guest speaker at this year’s Purdue Club of Jackson County annual dinner and auction Feb. 23 at Celebrations, 357 Tanger Boulevard, Suite 101, in Seymour.

He will talk about how he found his passion for sustainable agriculture on a life-changing trip around the world, visiting impoverished countries and how that experience, coupled with his education at Purdue, fueled his desire to change the world by making it easier for communities to produce their own local food year-round.

Club President Chuck Gordon said he first heard of Moorman and Rubicon Agriculture on the radio.

“Someone on the radio made a comment about it, and I looked them up,” Gordon said. “I thought he would be perfect to come speak to us, so I made contact with him, and he was willing to do it.”

Gordon said Moorman is “innovative” and local, having grown up in nearby Bedford.

Read the full story in Friday’s Tribune and online at tribtown.com.

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