Meet Our Team

Cannon Michael

President & CEO Bowles Farming Company

Cannon Michael is the President/CEO of Bowles Farming Company. He is the 6th generation of his family to work in the family farming business. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Cannon joined the company in 1998. Cannon became the President and CEO in 2014 after his uncle Philip Bowles retired. Cannon is an advocate for California agriculture and intelligent water policy. Environmental stewardship, ethical treatment of workers and sustainable production are core values for Cannon and the Bowles Farming Company team. The farm grows 20+ crops and employs both conventional and organic farming practices. Cannon is active and engaged in California water and agriculture issues - he serves as the Chairman of the San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority, as a director on the Water Education Foundation Board, as a director on the San Luis Canal Company Board, as a director on the Henry Miller Reclamation District Board, as the president of the San Luis Resource Conservation District Board, as a director for the Center for Land Based Learning, advisor to Terravion and WaterBit (two technology startup companies), as a director for the Family Farm Alliance, as Treasurer for the Exchange Contractors PAC, as a director of the Cotton Incorporated Board, and as director and past chairman of the California Cotton Growers Association. He was also appointed by Governor Brown to the Merced County Designated Local Authority, a governing board responsible for winding down the affairs of dissolved local redevelopment agencies in Merced and Los Banos.

Douglas-Jon Iten

General Manager, Great Valley Seed

Doug joined Great Valley Seed in December 2020 after living in the desert for most of his life. He was raised in Holtville, a small farming community in the Imperial Valley.  Both of his parents worked in agriculture exposing him to the industry at an early age. After graduating from U.C. San Diego with an Economics degree, Doug returned to the Ag world for a crash course in produce. For the previous 16 years he worked with Headstart Nursery’s greenhouse operations, managing their desert seed and transplant programs.  Doug has always had an affinity for native plants which eventually led him to Great Valley Seed. His wife Bonny is involved with fresh produce sales and both their kids love visiting the farm.  He is excited to raise his family in an agricultural setting with a focus on protecting the future of California landscapes. 

Ashley Boren

CEO, Sustainable Conservation

Ashley has directed the strategy, growth and operations of Sustainable Conservation since 1997. Ashley received a 2007 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for her unwavering commitment to innovative, balanced problem-solving to address a variety of critical environmental problems facing California. Prior to Sustainable Conservation, Ashley spent eight years at Smith & Hawken, a mail-order and retail gardening company, where she worked in finance, new business development, inventory planning and retail merchandising. She began her career at The Nature Conservancy in program development and fundraising. In addition to her work at Sustainable Conservation, Ashley serves on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and UC California’s President’s Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Ashley served on the Board of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation from 2002 to 2011 (the last two years as Chair), on Stanford Business School’s Alumni Consulting Team Board from 1995 to 2002 (the last three years as Chair), and Executive Committee of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute’s External Advisory Board at UC Davis from 2008-2018. Ashley is a graduate of the Marlborough School in Los Angeles, which awarded her their 2008 Woman of the Year Award, and has a BA in human biology, an MA in applied economics and an MBA from Stanford University.

Houston Wilson

PhD Director, University of California Organic Agriculture Institute Assitant Cooperative Extension Specialist, Dept. Entomology, University of California, Riverside

Houston is a researcher, extenstion service specialist, and leads the Wilson Lab at the University of California, Riverside. Houston is the Presidential Director for the University of California’s Organic Agriculture Institute, which was established in January 2020 with an endowment by Clif Bar and a matching endowment from UC President Janet Napolitano. Wilson, a UC Riverside agricultural entomologist based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center is tasked with launching the institute and charting a path for future growth while also focusing on immediate priorities including multiple outreach and training opportunities for growers, publication of production guidelines, and developing research programs. Houston’s work with the Wilson Lab strives to leverage our understanding of insect biology and ecology to develop cost-effective pest management programs that can improve the environmental quality of crops production. Current projects primarily focus on the development of non-chemical pest management strategies such as biological control, mating disruption, sterile insect technique, and habitat diversification, in addition to more fundamental work on the biology of key insect pests such as the navel orangeworm, leaffooted bug and grape leafhopper. These projects span across a diverse array of crops that includes almonds, pistachios, walnuts, wine grapes, olives and figs. Houston received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from UC Berkeley, where he trained as an agroecologist with emphasis in entomology, biological control and landscape ecology.