Kristy Leissle

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Dr. Kristy Leissle is Founder & CEO of African Cocoa Marketplace, Inc., a digital marketplace that connects sellers, buyers, investors, and service providers for African cocoa. Kristy is Co-Founder with Bill Guyton of Specialty Cocoa & Chocolate Associates, and with Moutia Murheb of the Cocoapreneurship Institute of Ghana. She currently serves as Curriculum Director for the Cocoa Masterclass, a professional education series by Cacao Latitudes. She previously worked as Cocoa Marketer for Twin & Twin Trading, where she marketed specialty cocoa from Africa, and as Education Director for the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle. An internationally recognized expert in the cocoa and chocolate industries, Kristy has spent close to twenty years researching and writing about African cocoa supply chains. She is the author of Cocoa, on geopolitics, and the series, "I am a cocoa farmer," for Confectionery News, where she sits on the Editorial Board. Dr. Leissle holds degrees from Oxford University, University of Washington, and Boston College. She lives in Johannesburg.