Agriculture & Natural Solutions Acquisition Corporation

Agriculture & Natural Solutions Acquisition Corporation is a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company for the purpose of effecting a merger, amalgamation, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.

About Us

We intend to capitalize on Riverstone and Impact Ag Partners’ platforms to identify, acquire and build a company whose principal effort is developing and advancing a platform that decarbonizes the traditional agriculture sector and enhances natural capital at scale.

Since 2000, Riverstone has raised over $40 billion across the capital structure in all major components of the renewable and conventional energy, power and infrastructure markets, with exposure to over 200 projects in 15 countries. The firm maintains offices in New York, London, Houston, Mexico City and Amsterdam. Impact Ag has over 20 years experience managing almost A$1 billion of assets across 19 projects and 500,000 acres in the USA and Australia. Together, our board of directors and management team has a demonstrable track record of identifying high-quality assets, businesses and management teams with significant resources, capital and optimization potential.

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Our Team

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Robert (Bert) Glover has been our chief executive officer since September 2023 and will serve as a director following completion of this offering. Mr. Glover is the founder and Managing Director of Impact Ag Partners, a real asset management firm founded in 1996 investing in agriculture as a nature and climate solution with assets and teams across Australia and North America. Bert sits on all of the various investment committee vehicles managed by the firm, using his 30 years of experience to oversee investment. Prior to founding Impact Ag Partners, Bert was the Managing Director of Ag Investment Management, an Australian-based real asset and advisory firm responsible for advising global corporations, institutional investors, and private family offices. In 2011 Bert co-founded and was appointed CEO of Maia Technology, an agricultural farm software data platform. Bert has served as the chair of InAg.tech an Innovation cluster for agriculture and is a board director of six businesses in the agriculture sector across Australia and the USA.​

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David Leuschen has been our sole director since September 2023 and is expected to serve as the chairman of the board of directors following completion of this offering. Mr. Leuschen is the co-founder and senior managing director of Riverstone Holdings LLC. Prior to Riverstone, Mr. Leuschen was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs and founder and head of the Goldman Sachs Global Energy and Power Group. Mr. Leuschen was responsible for building the Goldman Sachs energy and power investment banking practice into one of the leading franchises in the global energy and power industry. Mr. Leuschen additionally served as chairman of the Goldman Sachs Energy Investment Committee, where he was responsible for screening potential direct investments by Goldman Sachs in the energy and power industry. In addition to his board roles at various Riverstone portfolio companies and investment vehicles, Mr. Leuschen has served as a director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Cross Timbers Oil Company (predecessor to XTO Energy) and J. Aron Resources. He is also president and sole owner of Switchback Ranch LLC and on the Advisory Board of Big Sky Investment Holdings LLC. David serves on a number of nonprofit boards of directors, including as a Trustee of United States Olympic Committee Foundation, a Director of Conservation International, a Director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Founding Member of the Peterson Institute’s Economic Leadership Council, a Director of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and a Director of the Montana Land Reliance. Mr. Leuschen received his A.B. from Dartmouth and his M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business.

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Dr. Jennifer Aaker will serve as a director following completion of this offering. Dr. Aaker has been the General Atlantic Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business since 2001 and serves as the Coulter Family Faculty Fellow at Stanford Graduate School of Business. A behavioral scientist and author, Dr. Aaker is widely published in leading scientific journals and her work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Forbes, NPR, CBS MoneyWatch, Inc., and Science. Dr. Aaker is the coauthor of several books including the award-winning book, The Dragonfly Effect, which has been translated into over ten languages, as well as Power of Story, which drew on behavioral science to provide a hands-on tool putting The Dragonfly Effect model to work. Her professional areas of focus include artificial intelligence, digitization and brand value. Dr. Aaker currently serves on the board of directors of Codexis Inc. and on the board of directors and audit committee of the Stephen and Ayesha Curry Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation. Ms. Aaker served on the boards of Corporate Visions, Inc. from 2011 to 2016, California Casualty Insurance from 2009 to 2015, and Accompany from 2014 to 2018. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award, Stanford Distinguished Teaching Award, Citibank Best Teacher Award, George Robbins Best Teacher Award, Robert Jaedicke Silver Apple Award, and the MBA Professor of the Year Award. Dr. Aaker completed her PhD degrees at Stanford University, and holds a BA from UC Berkeley.

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Jeffrey H. Tepper will serve as a director following completion of this offering. Mr. Tepper is founder of JHT Advisors LLC, a mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) advisory and investment firm. From 1990 to 2013, Mr. Tepper served in a variety of senior management and operating roles at the investment bank Gleacher & Company, Inc. and its predecessors and affiliates (“Gleacher”). Mr. Tepper was head of investment banking and as a member of Gleacher’s Management Committee. Mr. Tepper is also Gleacher’s former chief operating officer overseeing operations, compliance, technology and financial reporting. In 2001, Mr. Tepper co-founded Gleacher’s asset management activities and served as president. Gleacher managed over $1 billion of institutional capital in the mezzanine capital and hedge fund areas. Mr. Tepper served on the investment committees of Gleacher Mezzanine and Gleacher Fund Advisors. Between 1987 and 1990, Mr. Tepper was employed by Morgan Stanley & Co. as a financial analyst in the M&A and merchant banking departments. Mr. Tepper served as a director of Silver Run I from its inception in November 2015 until the completion of its acquisition of Centennial in October 2016 and has served as a director of Permian Resources Corporation (f/k/a Centennial Resource Development, Inc.) (NASDAQ: PR) since October 2016. Mr. Tepper is a former director of Alta Mesa Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMR) and its predecessor, Silver Run II, between March 2017 and June 2020. Mr. Tepper received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in finance and accounting.

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Ted W. Hall will serve as a director following completion of this offering. Mr. Hall the founder of Long Meadow Ranch, an innovative group of family-owned companies established in 1989 producing grapes and ultra-premium wine, olives and extra virgin olive oil, grass-fed beef and lamb and fruits and vegetables, using diversified, organic and sustainable farming methods. Mr. Hall is currently chairman and founding director of Progenco, Inc., an AgTech company employing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to improve efficiency of the beef and dairy industries. Mr. Hall is the former chairman of Grass Fed Foods LLC (“GFF”), which was formed in November 2022 by the merger of Sunfed Ranch and Teton Waters Ranch. Prior to the formation of GFF, he was a founding director and chairman of Sun Beef LLC, dba Sunfed Ranch. Mr. Hall served as a director of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEET), the premier specialty coffee and tea company in the United States from 2007 to 2012 and, from 2007 to 2017, as a director of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM), the leading kitchenware, specialty foods, and home furnishings retailer in the United States. Mr. Hall is a former chairman of the board of The Robert Mondavi Corporation (NYSE: MOND), a global producer of fine wines. Following a strategic review led by Hall in 2004, the company successfully merged with Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) to create the world’s largest wine producer. As a former senior partner of the global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, Mr. Hall has more than 25 years of experience in both the private and public sectors, working with chief executives and boards of directors of Global Fortune 50-size companies in the areas of strategy and organization. As a co-founder, and later chairman, of the McKinsey Global Institute, he has spoken and written in many forums on the nature of the evolving global economy. Sharing worldwide leadership for the firm, he served for twelve years as an elected member of McKinsey’s board of directors. Mr. Hall currently serves as a director of the Timothy W. Hall foundation and the Napa Valley Grapegrowers foundation. Mr. Hall holds a BSE degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA degree from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

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Robert Tichio will serve as a director following completion of this offering. Mr. Tichio has served as chairman of the board of directors, a member of the audit and compensation committees and chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee of Tritium since January 2022. Mr. Tichio served as a member of the board of directors and nominating and corporate governance committee of Solid Power, Inc. from December 2021 to May 2022. Mr. Tichio is a partner and managing director of Riverstone Holdings LLC. Mr. Tichio joined the firm in 2006 and has been focused on the firm’s Private Equity business. Prior to joining Riverstone, Mr. Tichio was in the Principal Investment Area (PIA) of Goldman Sachs, which manages the firm’s private corporate equity investments. Mr. Tichio began his career at J.P. Morgan in the Mergers & Acquisition Group, where he concentrated on assignments that included public company combinations, asset sales, takeover defenses, and leveraged buyouts. Mr. Tichio received his A.B. from Dartmouth College as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate, and later received his M.B.A. with Distinction from Harvard Business School. Mr. Tichio serves on a number of nonprofit and Riverstone portfolio company boards.

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Thomas Smith has been our chief financial officer, chief accounting officer and secretary since October 2023. Mr. Smith serves as Riverstone’s chief financial officer of fund accounting. Prior to joining Riverstone in 2013, Mr. Smith served in several financial roles within Apax Partners, LP, most recently as the assistant controller. Previously, he worked with Ernst & Young LLP, where he focused on assurance engagements for both public and private companies. Mr. Smith earned his undergraduate degree from Fairfield University and is a certified public accountant.