Craig Tashjian
Managing Partner
Chief Investment Officer
Craig has a long history of serving agricultural investors and cofounded AMERRA in 2009. As AMERRA grew both in size and capabilities, Craig’s role evolved to Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. As CIO, Craig directs the firm’s strategic vision and investment strategy in private equity, special situations and debt investments.
Craig believes that the key component to AMERRA’s success is identification, development and retention of exceptional human talent – both inside AMERRA and at portfolio companies. As a result, he leads AMERRA as a progressive, entrepreneurial company dedicated to continuous learning and growth. He invests a significant amount of his time and AMERRA’s resources in both formal and informal development activities and sees his role as an advisor to our teams. When speaking at the Global AgInvesting conference in April 2018, Craig was quoted as saying “the key to AMERRA’s success is our talent and culture.”
Craig’s technical leadership is rooted in insights he developed investing in the food and agribusiness and natural resources markets for over 30 years, with expertise covering global agriculture, aquaculture, natural resources and trade finance markets. Craig also leverages his experience in previous roles where he managed Société Générale’s Natural Resources business line in the Americas and served as Global Head of Commodities at Standard Chartered Bank, managing multinational commodities finance teams.
Throughout his career, Craig leads by example and takes a “roll-up-your-sleeves” approach. He travels frequently to source and diligence prospective investment opportunities, engage with existing portfolio companies, attend board meetings and keep his finger on the pulse of developments in agribusiness markets to continually develop new investment themes.
His experience and innovative approach to food and agribusiness investing has led to his recognition as an expert in the agribusiness asset class. As a result, Craig is invited to speak at agricultural investment conferences and forums around the globe and is a sought after advisor to other companies and universities interested in this sector.
He currently sits on the boards of Avramar S.A. (Greece), Aquaship A.S., Biomega AS (Norway), F&S Agrisolutions Indústria de Biocombustíveis Ltda. (Brazil) Mercon Coffee Group (U.S.A.) and Rio Amambai Agroenergia S.A. (Brazil).
Craig holds an MBA from Rutgers University and a BS in Finance and Accounting from Lehigh University along with Series 7, 24 and 63 securities licenses.