Sara Menker

Sara Menker is an Ethiopian businesswoman and executive who served as the chief executive officer of Gro Intelligence from 2014 until its closure in 2024. Her parents were middle class and she attended a private school in Addis Ababa.

Career Menker began her career in commodities risk management at Morgan Stanley. She eventually moved through Morgan Stanley to portfolio trading and management. She left her job in Wall Street in 2014 to use her skills in data analytics for social good. So, she founded Gro Intelligence, a company that leverages artificial intelligence to forecast agricultural trends.

She became concerned by threat of a global food crisis, and started to investigate how Africa could mitigate the Earth's growing demands for food. She estimated that by 2030 food shortages could be as significant as the 2008 financial crisis or dot-com bubble crash. This is due to systemic issues in the food supply chain, as well as a general increase in population. Gro Intelligence includes information such as the cost of avocado exports from Mexico and popular coffee beans, and uses artificial intelligence to make predictions about trends in food prices. She has used Gro Intelligence to investigate the impact of natural disasters, including droughts, on food supply. The reports inform companies on what and where to sell products, as well as supporting policy makers and insurance companies. She has presented at the Rockefeller Foundation, X and The New York Times.

Menker is a trustee of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the Mandela Institute for Development Studies. She was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014. She is also a member of The Aspen Institute African Leadership Initiative. Menker is involved with Cognition X, the artificial intelligence information platform. In 2021, she was included in the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2021, Menker was selected as a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst.

In February 2024, Menker was replaced as CEO of Gro Intelligence and in May 2024, the company announced it was closing down.