Meet Leigh Lamontagne
One of the most exciting things about being a startup is building our team - drawing together our inner circle to help us realize our vision and grow our company and culture. Over the next while, we will be introducing you to more of our team at Ground Truth Ag, continuing with our Grain Quality Control Consultant, Leigh Lamontagne.
Meet Leigh
“It seemed interesting,” Leigh says of his initial meeting with Chief Executive Officer Kyle Folk to discuss the founder’s concept of using machine learning and vision to grade grain in real time on the combine. Having recently retired after a successful career in grain grading and quality control, Kyle’s offer to consult for Ground Truth Ag came at a good time.
“Some very large companies had tried to develop similar products in the past without success – but that was a while ago and I knew that there had been significant advancements in technology since that time,” Leigh recalls. “I told him I didn’t think it was going to be easy and that there would be hurdles to overcome. He was firm that he was going to give it a shot. That’s how it started.”
What Leigh enjoys most about the work is the team he gets to work with. “It’s been really interesting to work with a group of people who have completely different backgrounds and skills from myself and the colleagues I’ve worked with throughout the years. I enjoy seeing them come together and just go after whatever the challenges of the day are. This team is making this type of ag tech a reality.”
Having been with Ground Truth Ag since very early on, Leigh has provided his expertise on the development of the new ag tech product from inception to working prototype.
“It's been exciting to watch the team work together and see their progress – both what they can do with this kind of technology and the unique ways they are overcoming past challenges,” Leigh says. “I really enjoy every time there's a new update to the program and seeing just how much it was able to learn as we show it more samples and train it on more things.
Outside of his consultant role at Ground Truth Ag, Leigh keeps himself busy.
“I like cooking a lot. I have a wood-fired pizza oven in my back yard along with a very big garden in the summer. I seem to have a weird and endless list of hobbies,” he laughs. “My wife really likes to travel and, happily, she takes me with her. We’ve visited a lot of cool places – one that stands out was a city called Mostar in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s split by a river. And just by walking over a bridge, it’s like you’ve stepped into another world.”
