Our Story

Regenerative Enterprise is built on a foundation of decades-long innovation, scientific rigor, and visionary leadership. Its leadership brings a rare combination of field-tested expertise and transformative thinking to the challenges of ecological restoration and regenerative development. Their collective experience spans continents and climates, from pioneering seawater agricultures in Mexico and Eritrea, to reversing desertification in Saudi Arabia,  to restoring mangrove ecosystems in W Africa, each project a testament to their commitment to scalable, sustainable impact.

Regenerative Enterprise's story starts with Carl Hodges, a brilliant scientist who was instrumental in the development of onshore aquaculture systems, controlled environment and greenhouse agricultures, and who was the father of seawater agriculture, as the founding member of the Environmental Research Lab at the University of Arizona in 1971.  

Carl was recruited and befriended by Sheikh Zayed al Nahyan, the first president of the newly-formed UAE, to help construct water-efficient agricultural systems at Jubail Island in Abu Dhabi in 1972.  While there, Carl had a significant realization:  even with the efficiency gains of modern technology, there would not be enough fresh water to feed everyone.  This sent Carl on a quest for how to produce food using seawater.  

That same year Carl recruited a young architect and landscape architect, Ned Daugherty, to help design and prototype a new agricultural system that would utilize untreated seawater to grow newly-domesticated halophytic crops, such as salicornia.  This was done at Puerto Peñasco, and then Bahia Kino, in Mexico, under the University of Arizona's Environmental Research Lab.  Howard Weiss joined as a team member in 1982, bringing marketing and PR experience, along with a dedication to the vision of what seawater ag could offer the world. 

In 1999, after decades of prototyping this new agriculture and breeding new strains of saltwater crops,  Carl and Ned had the chance to build the first commercial seawater ag system, at the Greening Eritrea Project.  While not defined in the terms at the time, this was the world's first circular, regenerative aquaculture, integrating modern technology with agroecological principles to grow shrimp, tilapia, constructed wetlands, halophytic crops, and to prototype mangrove agroforestry systems. 

The Greening Eritrea Project was a smashing success, with 400 local employees, multiple tons of production exported to the EU, and shocking impact:  a 1000% increase in bird biodiversity, 2 degrees cooling of the local climate, and ability to provide for all local peoples' fodder needs without the use of freshwater, while achieving zero pollution from their aquacultures.  Unfortunately, the political risk of Eritrea became reality, and the project was ended abruptly in 2004.  

After Eritrea the team pivoted to Egypt, working with Gensler to develop a large project that would guarantee the security of its fuel and fodder supply chains while greening the Red Sea coastline.  After 3 years of studies and feasibility, this 100,000 acre megaproject was approved by President Hosni Mubarak in December of 2010, only to be jettisoned 50 days later during the Arab Spring. 

While Egypt was being developed, on the other side of the Red Sea, Neal Spackman became cofounder of the Al Baydha Project, where he was hired by the King Faisal Foundation to figure out how to reverse desertification in Makkah.  

Spackman's work at Al Baydha became a proof of concept for the kingdom-wide Saudi Green Initiative, as Al Baydha's system became a fractal for hyperarid watershed development and agroforestry.  After a decade in Makkah dedicated to rehabilitating some of the most degraded land on the planet, Neal left to pursue an entrepreneurial career dedicated to regenerative land, food, and water systems. 

After Al Baydha, Neal attended Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and through Stanford's Tomkat Center was introduced to Ned, Howard, and Carl.  The shared ethos and approach were immediate, and they have been working together ever since.  Carl passed away in 2021, leaving a legacy as one of the greatest scientists of his generation, and a pioneer of saltwater agriculture and integrated aquaculture systems.  

Through Regenterprise LLC, Neal, Carl, Howard, and team support sustainability endeavors via consulting, and also incubate, cultivate, and launch regenerative enterprises and projects.