Ali Morrow
In 2013, she was awarded the Munk School of Global Affairs Fellowship in Global Journalism at the University of Toronto and worked as journalist with Thompson Reuters' investigative units in Washington, DC, Istanbul and London. She specialized in food security, climate change, food, agriculture and energy/fuel policy, and has published and broadcast internationally with a broad range of international media outlets, including The New York Times, Reuter's and the two climate-focused news services of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, AlertNet and Trust.org, the Globe and Mail and more. Ali's work as a strategic planner earned her and her clients a People's Voice Webby Award (2010), Gold Digital Market Award from Marketing Magazine (2010) and Interactive Award from Applied Arts (2009). She is actively involved in the agriculture and food startup ecosystem in Europe, and serves as a mentor with Copenhagen and Amsterdam-based agrifoodtech accelerator and fund, RockStart. Ali holds an MA (with honours) from the University of Western Sydney, and BA (with distinction) in Philosophy from the Wilfrid Laurier University. She lives in London.
Alexandra (Ali) Morrow was most recently a founding Principal of Astanor Ventures, an impact investment firm seeding positive change across the food and agriculture sector by investing where tech meet nature. She developed the firm's investment thesis, successfully fundraised for their first fund, sourced and due diligenced the early portfolio and now works across the firm to build out and manage the portfolio in Europe and the U.S., along with the firm's co-Founders and team. She has led or been involved in Astanor's investments in Cervest [https://cervest.earth/], Hyris DNA [https://www.hyris.net/], InFarm [https://www.infarm.com/], La Ruche Qui Dit Oui [https://laruchequiditoui.fr/fr], Modern Meadow [https://www.modernmeadow.com/], Notpla [https://www.notpla.com/], Produce Pay [https://producepay.com/], Smallhold [https://www.smallhold.com/], Stockeld Dreamery [https://www.stockeld.com/], Ynsect [http://www.ynsect.com/en/] and others.
Ali has a strong strategic and creative background, with her past work spanning food system economics, politics, innovation and social impact. She was previously head of strategy at the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and strategic planning director at global advisory and advertising firms' the Brunswick Group and JWT, leading JWT's social impact and innovation practice: JWTethos. The lion's share of her work has focused on the food, agriculture, health and tech sectors, where she's worked with FTSE 100 and 250 companies to position their brands for growth aligned to positive social impact and financial returns in the future.
As a member of Class 25, Ali is serving her fellowship under the mentorship of George Arjun Coelho, from Astanor Ventures