Daphne Preuss

Daphne grew up in northeastern Colorado, where several generations of her family raised wheat, sorghum, corn, and cattle. Subsequently, in her work with Chromatin, she acquired Sorghum Partners, a long-standing sorghum seed company, and grew that business to distribute improved sorghum hybrids into over 50 countries. Her team at Chromatin focused on making the crop more sustainable for farmers working with limited water resources. Since exiting in 2019, she has served as an Executive Board member or Operating Partner leading startups through value inflections and M&A processes. Earlier in her career, Preuss was a Professor and Howard Hughes Investigator at the University of Chicago. She served for six years as Chair the NCBI, the NIH’s DNA database division, and was a member of BIO’s Food & Agriculture Section Governing Board.