About Us
OUR STORY
Our mission is to improve the way farms of all types grow vegetables, flowers, and specialty crops. We’re revolutionizing planting with our patent-pending precision germinated seed planters. Our systems enable the grower to germinate their seeds on the farm and then plant them directly in the soil. This eliminates the labor and energy-intensive process of growing and transplanting seedlings.
“As the founder, I’ve been asked why we named this company Eden Concepts. I have to give credit to a good friend who, like me, enjoys a good hike. He once told me, “We were made to live in a garden.” We’re not working to recreate the Garden of Eden (or anything close to it), but we do believe that harmony is the original way we were intended to live. I was taught in engineering school that friction wastes energy and should be minimized in order to have a smooth, well functioning system. In Eden Concepts, we believe everything we do as a company should project harmony in relationships with our customers, clients, and all other partners.”
– Walter Cromer, Founder of Eden Concepts, LLC.
OUR TEAM
Walter Cromer
Founder
Walter is the founder of Eden Concepts. He has worked as an agricultural research engineer for the University of Georgia and spent most of his career prior to Eden building and leading IT teams for entrepreneurial companies in the East Tennessee area.
John Wilkerson, Ph.d.
Principal Research Engineer
John is Principal Research Engineer and leads all product research & development projects. John has over 30 years of experience in sensors, instrumentation, and controls for agricultural equipment and processes and holds several patents.
Janet Cromer
Co-Founder, Software Engineer
Janet is co-founder of Eden Concepts. She holds B.S. degrees in Math and Computer Science. Janet develops algorithms and associated software for Eden’s revolutionary planting technology.
Jason Graves
Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
Jason has designed and developed many commercially successful products for the consumer market in his 19 year career as a mechanical engineer. He has a passion for creativity, innovation, reliability, and manufacturability with a strong focus on customer centered product design. Jason earned is B.S.M.E. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Joel Reed
Product Design Specialist II
Over the past 30 years, Joel Reed has designed or assisted in designing a wide range of systems, including Particle Spectroscopy, Long Range Firearms, and Chemical Reactors.
For the last decade, he has been almost exclusively involved in start-up/early-stage projects and has a passion for pushing the boundaries of the current state-of-the-art.
Joel holds two US Patents for transportation security devices and is a service-connected disabled veteran.
Jacob McClaugherty
Engineering Aide
Jacob is a senior at Hardin Valley Academy in Knoxville and has been accepted to the University of Tennessee Tickle College of Engineering. He plans to study mechanical engineering. Jacob completed an independent study advanced placement research project titled “Electrical Stimulation on Plant Growth” and received credit for his work.
ADVISORY TEAM
Wallace Pill
Advisory Team
Professor Emeritus, University of Delaware
Cliff Caudill
Advisory Team
Cliff is the President of SCORE Greater Knoxville. He is retired from John Deere, where he held positions in forestry product development.
Shawn Carson
Advisory Team
Shawn is a faculty member of the Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he teaches courses in entrepreneurship.
John Morris
Advisory Team
John founded NetLearning and sold it to Thompson Corporation. He is the founder and executive VP of the Lighthouse Fund and was formerly CEO, Coach, and Mentor of Tech 2020, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Tom Valunas
Advisory Team
Tom served as CFO of three startup companies one of which became a public company that was later acquired by a Fortune 500 corporation. He was president of a seed capital investment subsidiary of a major aerospace company. Tom graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics and MBA.