Improving global food security with equal parts engineering and imagination

As a child, Vasilis wandered the marbled hallways of the Ministry of Agriculture, where his father, Athanassios, introduced Greece to
the fumigants that would improve the country’s crop yield and safety. Years later, after studying agronomy at university and working with respected scientists in the field, Vasilis returned to the family business to work alongside his father. Bringing research and technology together, he synthesized the solution that helped solve the greatest challenge of modern farmers – crop loss control – and began cultivating the vision that is Centaur. Now with children of his own, his work is an extension of his family’s legacy. Adding precision and control to the world’s food supply chains, he hopes to improve global food security and transparency so all families can enjoy the benefits of a healthy and robust diet.

Raised in the rawhide trade, an ancient profession tied closely to Greece’s rural economy, it was expected Sotiris would follow suit like the generations before him. But he dreamed in numbers and theorems, leading him to break with tradition, pursue engineering, and eventually settle into software development for the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley. When his friend Vasilis shared his emerging vision, Sotiris instantly recognized Centaur’s potential to remedy one of today’s most glaring contradictions: our ability to use technology to understand our physical world and the disconnect with how our food is produced. Returning to his roots, Centaur allows him to close the divide, integrating crops with the technology that makes food production safer and ultimately more democratic.