Our mission is to promote environmental and economic stewardship through regenerative agriculture. We do this by providing flexible loans to human-scale farms, ranches, fisheries, and food producers looking to propel their operations forward.
But we don’t do it alone—Steward gives qualified lenders the opportunity to purchase loan participations, advancing our mission by helping to fund the growth of regenerative agriculture in their community or across the country.
Regenerative - practices that increase biodiversity, enrich soils, improve watershed health, sequester more carbon than they release, and enhance ecosystem services.
Sustainable - holistic approaches that sustain working lands, natural resources, and local communities.
Human-scale - operations that engage more “hands on the land”, establishing a productive and restorative scale of agricultural management.
Appropriate - right-sized and suitable for a specific community, location, or operation.
Equitable - systems and businesses that support underserved groups and empower communities.
Dan founded Steward to combine his background in finance, real estate, and technology with his passion for agriculture, which stems from his maternal family who have been farming on the Eastern Shore of Maryland since the 1880s. He is driven by a desire to restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Dan was previously Co-Founder, President, and Director of Fundrise, the first and largest real estate crowdfunding platform, which has raised over $4 billion from 400,000 investors since inception.
Dan received a B.S. and a M.B.A from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and currently lives in London, UK.
Ryan joined Steward in 2021 after working in both farming and politics. He owned and operated an urban farm in Detroit, Michigan for seven seasons and later served as Chief of Staff for a U.S. Representative. As Steward's COO, Ryan leads the team in setting our course, priorities, and goals.
Bridget joined Steward in 2020 after spending seven years as a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers in both Los Angeles and London. She supported the early development of Steward’s lending model and now leads our finance, accounting, and investor relations functions.
John joined Steward in 2021 after decades of experience as in-house securities and corporate counsel in the financial services industry. John worked at JPMorgan Chase for almost 15 years and subsequently worked with several growth stage businesses with a focus on renewable energy.
Jerome joined Steward in 2018 with more than a decade of experience in developing first-class online financial platforms. As our VP of Technology, Jerome leads product development, platform infrastructure, and data security. He is an avid motorcyclist and adventurer.
Alissa joined Steward in 2020 after working for several years with various agriculture start-up companies. As VP of Operations, Alissa leads projects from their initial stages through funding and servicing. She is an expert on agriculture and sustainability and gave a TEDx Talk on the topic in 2023.
Michael joined Steward in 2022 after spending more than a decade working in commercial real estate financing. As our VP of Credit, Michael leads the loan underwriting, business analysis, and risk assessment processes. He has a deep passion for agriculture and good food.
Jesse joined Steward in 2023, having worked in marketing and content development since the late ‘90s. In 2012, he shifted his life and career into farming where he and his wife founded Studio Hill, a 350-acre regenerative farm and Savory Institute Hub in Vermont.
Get project announcements, farmer introductions, company updates, and more by subscribing to the Steward newsletter. Join our growing community of people who are making regenerative agriculture the foundation of our future.
Whether you’re growing food or want to advance the regenerative agriculture movement, together we can strengthen communities, re-nourish the soil, and put the pieces of a broken food system back together. Join us by becoming a steward today.
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