Lauren Abda

Lauren Abda is the Founder and CEO of Branchfood, a launchpad for food innovation and one of the largest communities of food innovators in the world. She is also a Co-founder of Branch Venture Group, one of the first angel investment networks focused exclusively on funding food startups in the US. Lauren is a member of the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, she is on the Board of Advisors for the Boston Public Market Association, and she has served as a mentor and judge for leading startup programs including the Rabobank-MIT Food & Agribusiness Innovation Prize and MassChallenge. Prior to her entrepreneurial endeavors, Lauren consulted for foodtech businesses in Boston and San Francisco, worked as an analyst for Salt Venture Partners, a corporate venture capital firm within the Harvard Common Press, and wrote reports on international food safety development initiatives on behalf of the Agriculture and Commodities division at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She has a Master of Science degree in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont.