After many years of attending EXPO West, the world’s largest Natural Products trade show, Jim Slama focused on building local sustainable food systems in the Midwest. He launched the Good Food Financing and Innovation Conference in partnership with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009. More than 75 businesses have pitched investors at the conference and raised over $100 million in capital.

In partnership with Whole Foods Market, Slama created the Good Food Accelerator in 2014 to support emerging brands to grow. Many of the 50 graduates are women and minority owned businesses and the program has a strong focus on working with underserved entrepreneurs.

He recently co-founded Naturally Chicago with the CEO’s of KeHE, Presence marketing and SPINS to grow the Chicago Natural Products ecosystem. FamilyFarmed also has a leading farmer training program that has worked with over 15,000 farmers in 43 states in food safety, post-harvest handling and more.