Agricultural Business & Technology Institute
Meet the Staff
Neil Ledford – Program Leader/Faculty
Neil Ledford has nineteen years experience in teaching agriculture related courses in the California Community college system. In addition, he has field experience in the fertilizer-crop protection industry, as well as in the vegetable seed industry. During the period from 1988 – 2004 he was employed by two separate international vegetable seed breeder-producers in roles such as product manager and marketing manager. He traveled extensively with both Royal Sluis, Inc. and Syngenta, Inc.
Mr. Ledford holds a Bachelor of Science (Soil Science) and Master of Science (Agricultural Sciences) from California State Polytechnic University and has completed professional education and/or graduate level coursework at U.C. Santa Cruz, UCLA, Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management and the American Management Association. He is currently the program leader for the Agricultural Business and Technology Institute at Hartnell College in Salinas, California.
Steven Triano, Agriculture Instructor
Dr. Triano has been an agricultural genetics researcher in academia and industry since 1989. He earned a B.S. in Biology from CSU Chico, and Ph.D. in Genetics from UC Davis. His primary research has focused on plant breeding and genetics with other projects in post-harvest physiology, production systems, manufacturing systems (especially modified atmosphere packaging), nutrition, and control systems technology. Dr. Triano joined the Hartnell faculty in Spring 2007 as a professor of Agriculture and Biology.