About Us

Dr. William Aderholdt is the Executive Director of Grand Farm, a non-profit organization energizing and guiding an innovation ecosystem to solve challenges in agriculture. William joined Grand Farm in 2019 as it was getting started, and was the first hire of the initiative. He helped develop and establish the strategic vision and programs that he now has the opportunity to lead through the immense effort of an extremely talented team. Grand Farm, providing a fresh approach to innovation ecosystems, has been the lead, co-lead, and a consortium member on many of the economic resiliency federal programs established in response to COVID-19 – including NSF Engine Type II, EDA Good Jobs Challenge, and EDA Tech Hubs. It has a nearly 600-acre Innovation Campus in Casselton, North Dakota, where the initiative is headquartered, and teams starting in Georgia and Montana.

William is passionate about the process of innovation — how collaboration, competition, and collision work in chorus to inevitably lead to solutions to the world’s largest challenges. A process which has repeated itself countless times throughout human history, all around the world.

William, his wife Lana, and their two children call Fargo, North Dakota home. Fargo and North Dakota captivated Lana and William during the Fargo Marathon in 2016, during which the decision was made to move there from Montana. William was drawn to the community because it was large enough to make a global impact and small enough to have focus.

He earned both his PhD and Master in Education, and a B.S. in Cell Biology and Neuroscience from Montana State University. While completing his dissertation, he learned software development and data science – providing a foundation of understanding in emerging technologies he now uses every day in his work.