What drives you?
When I’m sitting in a burning room, a thousand ideas, strategies, solutions come to me. I need that pressure. I can adapt very quickly so that stressful situations put less emotional strain on me.
The best advice you’ve ever gotten?
If it’s not good for you, do something else.
What are you learning right now that you’re not so good at yet?
I always like to look to the future and learn as much as I can about the things we deal with. At the moment, AI is one of them.
What would you change if you had the power to do so?
Partnerships and collaborations: To drive change, I would form strategic partnerships with other businesses, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Through joint efforts, we could improve the development of more sustainable supply chains, the promotion of local agriculture and access to healthy food for all people.
Which superheroine power would you like to have?
I would like to have the superpower of regeneration. This power would allow me to restore natural resources, revitalize ecological systems and bring about sustainable change on a global scale.
Ema Šimurda
In 2017, Ema Šimurda opened the world’s first vertical farm-to-table restaurant, GOOD BANK, in Berlin, which quickly became a favourite on the German food scene and won various awards. Born in Croatia, she took detours early on to get where she wanted to go. She dropped out of school at 15, has been self-employed ever since, and later fought her way to study economics in Vienna.
Her affinity for technology and innovation led her to e-mobility, where she worked in product development and marketing. Topics such as the “city of the future” and sustainable technologies, as well as the realization that urban nutrition needed to take an even more innovative direction led her to start her own company. Together with Leandro Vergani, who comes from a traditional farming background, she developed the idea of a farm-to-table restaurant into an award-winning food brand.
The GOOD BANK brand consists of restaurants, a farm box, catering and ready-to-eat products for retail. Since 2021, Ema has also been developing her own vertical farming plug-and-play hardware solutions called farmie for restaurants, retail, hotels and more.
A sought-after speaker and serial entrepreneur, Ema has spoken at numerous conferences and events about vertical farming, creative solutions for the future of food and innovative technologies related to nutrition.
A Berliner by choice, she is also the mother of a 12-year-old daughter.
Topics
Vertical farming, creative solutions for the future of food and innovative technologies related to nutrition
Languages
German, English, Croatian
Formats
ReferenCES
- Winner AgTech FoodTech Summit 2016
- Winner “Innovation” Gastro Founder Award 2017
- Winner of the Silver Palm, Leaders Award 2017
- Tech Open Air 2017
- snack Frankfurt 2017 (dfv Conference Group)
- CES Las Vegas 2018
- Forum Centermanagement of the German Shopping Center Council 2018
- Rolling Pin Award 2019 nomination
- Winner Top Business Caterer 2019
- Winner Gastro Stern 2019
- BBC Follow The Food Panel 2020
- Financial Times Future of Food Summit 2020
- Nomination for The Fizzz Award 2020
- WORKTECH22 Berlin
- The GREENTECH FESTIVAL CONFERENCE 2023
What drives you?
When I’m sitting in a burning room, a thousand ideas, strategies, solutions come to me. I need that pressure. I can adapt very quickly so that stressful situations put less emotional strain on me.
The best advice you’ve ever gotten?
If it’s not good for you, do something else.
What are you learning right now that you’re not so good at yet?
I always like to look to the future and learn as much as I can about the things we deal with. At the moment, AI is one of them.
What would you change if you had the power to do so?
Partnerships and collaborations: To drive change, I would form strategic partnerships with other businesses, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Through joint efforts, we could improve the development of more sustainable supply chains, the promotion of local agriculture and access to healthy food for all people.
Which superheroine power would you like to have?
I would like to have the superpower of regeneration. This power would allow me to restore natural resources, revitalize ecological systems and bring about sustainable change on a global scale.