Barney Debnam is the WW Agribusiness Director at Microsoft. Barney has spent the past 25+ years building agtech startups and growing global agribusinesses. Beyond experiences in the late 90’s agtech 1.0, Barney has contributed to digital solutions at GROWMARK/FS, Deere & Co and DuPont. During his time at DuPont he worked with Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Research and IT. Barney was Global CIO for DuPont Crop Protection and Pioneer Hi-Bred International just prior to the formation of Corteva AgriScience.
Barney graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering then went on the study agricultural engineering at Texas A&M University. Barney grew up in a 4-H farming family in Kent County Maryland, which his father and brother continue to operate today.
Why is Barney at Microsoft? Few, if any, industries can match Agriculture when it comes to mission alignment with Microsoft, opportunity to apply innovation to the betterment of society and with the potential to empower agribusinesses to achieve more.