‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author J.D. Vance exits AppHarvest board after controversial tweets
AppHarvest announced Wednesday that author J.D. Vance is no longer a board member of the Eastern Kentucky mega-greenhouse company, days after he made controversial comments on Twitter.
Vance authored “Hillbilly Elegy” and is the co-founder and partner of Narya, a venture capital firm in Ohio. He was an early AppHarvest investor.
Equilibrium CEO and Chairman Dave Chen also exited the Board of Directors.
“We thank Dave and J.D. for being early investors who threw their full support into establishing AppHarvest as a mission-focused company doing good for people and planet,” Jonathan Webb, the CEO and founder, said in a statement.
AppHarvest Chief Communications Officer Travis Parman said Vance let AppHarvest leadership know he wanted to exit the board recently and gave his resignation.
“J.D. Vance let us know that he wanted to exit the board recently and gave us his resignation, which we announced once it was final,” Parman said.
Vance has recently made headlines for controversial comments about state voting laws and Fox News.
In a post on Twitter Monday, Vance said states should “raise their taxes and do whatever else is necessary to fight these goons” in response to corporations who are protesting against voting restrictions.
Vance also called Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a tweet “the only powerful figure who consistently challenges elite dogma — on both cultural and economic questions,” which is “why they try to destroy him.”
When asked about the comments by Vance, Parman said “it would not be appropriate for me to discuss his motivation” for leaving the board.
Vance has been pushed to run for U.S. Senate in Ohio — most recently in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial and a Washington Post column.
Ciara Burnham, an executive and investor, and Geof Rochester, a thought leader in Corporate Social Responsibility marketing, replaced Vance and Chen. Remaining board members include Webb, AppHarvest president David Lee, businesswoman Martha Stewart and five others.
AppHarvest produced its first tomatoes this year at its flagship facility in Morehead. The facility employs 300 Eastern Kentuckians.
The company aims to have 12 facilities growing and supplying fruits and vegetables by 2025. AppHarvest previously announced a Berea facility to grow leafy greens and a Richmond facility to grow vine crops.
The company also went public on Nasdaq as APPH, APPHW.
