Ryan Lefers

Dr. Ryan Lefers is the Co-founder and CEO of Red Sea Farms, an innovative sustainable agtech company for extreme climates founded in the extreme climate of Saudi Arabia. Ryan holds a BS and MS in Agriculture Engineering from South Dakota State University and PhD in Environmental Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where he also serves as a Research Scientist with the Center for Desert Agriculture. Prior to his current roles, Ryan spent time as a Professor with Texas A&M University and also as an environmental engineering consultant. As a professional engineer and researcher, Ryan has focused his efforts on systems that serve to advance water and food security in the local environment. Ryan is an expert in sustainable controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems and the complex interactions between food, water, and energy. His inventions have resulted in patents focused around cooling, air purification, water savings, energy savings, and system optimization for CEA. Ryan’s passion is to serve people and the planet through problem solving and innovation for food and water security.

Red Sea Farms is an agtech company that delivers smart and environmentally sustainable innovative agriculture systems to produce premium, planet-friendly fresh produce. Red Sea Farms has a mission of contributing to global food security to positively impact numerous food insecure regions of the world – financially, environmentally and nutritionally. With innovation driving our mission, the Red Sea Farms company and technology has been recognized with multiple awards such as the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit, the 2020 FoodTech Challenge Award, and the 2019 Entrepreneurship World Cup.