Robyn O’Brien is on Forbes Impact 50 List for her work at the intersection of agriculture and climate. She is the founder of Sirona Ventures and co-founder of rePlant Capital, financial services firms scaling climate solutions on farm and inside the food industry. She is a Fulbright scholar, best-selling author and widely recognized speaker on global food systems.
Robyn has been called “food’s Erin Brockovich” by Bloomberg and the New York Times. Her TEDx talk has been translated into Chinese, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek and other languages. She advises food policy at the local, state, federal and global level.
She is also an adjunct professor at Rice University’s Jones School of Business where she teaches a course on food innovation and entrepreneurship.
With a twenty year career in food and finance, Robyn triggered an allergic reaction in the food industry when she asked: “Are we allergic to food or what’s been done to it?” and drove awareness to the skyrocketing price of EpiPens when she coined the term #epigate, advocating for people with food allergies.
She works closely at the intersection of food and finance, recognizing that capital is the first ingredient in any product. She partners with multi-national brands in the food industry to drive change, which she believes happens at scale when passion and purpose align.
“In the absence of the truth, all of us stand helpless to defend ourselves, our families and our health, which is the greatest gift we have. Robyn O’Brien’s courageous pursuit is an example of how we can all do our parts to protect the health of our families.” —Erin Brockovich
