Paula is a third generation shareholder and CEO at SnoTemp Cold Storage. Founded in 1957, SnoTemp encompasses over 800,000 square feet of temperature controlled warehousing in Oregon, providing a critical link in the farm to fork supply chain. Paula was born and raised in Eugene and around the family business until attending the University of Colorado in Boulder and receiving a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and History. Since 2006 she has worked in all areas of the business as SnoTemp more than doubled in capacity and employee growth. She is passionate about supporting the food supply chain regionally and working alongside family members to sustain and grow the family businesses.

Sheryl Kesey Thompson is a 2nd generation co-owner of Springfield Creamery, the makers of Nancy’s Probiotic Foods in Eugene, Oregon. Although Sheryl’s roles have been many over the years, she currently serves as VP of Marketing for the company and works alongside three generations of her family each day. Committed to Nancy’s legacy of offering healthy food to as many people as possible, Sheryl has worked tirelessly to support the needs in the local community as well as across the country. Earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Oregon, Sheryl squeezes in time for her garden and as well as filling up her rock tumbler as often as she can with beautiful Oregon coast agates.

Nelly is the Director of Operations for Cafeto Coffee Company, a multi-generational family company that has been sourcing, importing, roasting, and distributing certified organic coffee for over 35 years. In the robust coffee industry, she is a certified Q grader (equivalent to a wine sommelier) and holds multiple certifications with the Specialty Coffee Association. In addition, is a member of the Oregon Coffee Board and the International Women’s Coffee Alliance. Passionate about minority-owned businesses and family-owned businesses, she is also an advocate for women within male-driven industries. In her industry, she has already taken steps in creating direct relationships with female coffee producers and Cafeto Coffee pays a premium for their harvest.

She holds a Master of Business Administration from University of Oregon’s Executive MBA program and a Bachelor degree in Spanish from the University Hawai’i combined with minors in Latin American and Iberian Studies and Hawaiian Natural Medicine. When she is not working she loves to travel to explore new places, visit family in Costa Rica, and enjoy the active lifestyle the Pacific Northwest has to offer with her family and dogs.

For the past thirty years Marty has been an entrepreneur. He has either developed new businesses or turned around failing businesses. He has worked with famers and small businesses in the USA, Japan, New Zealand, Guam, Samoa, Northern Marianas, Kenya, and Micronesia, that wish to expand beyond their current level. During the past twenty years Marty has been primarily involved in marketing value-added agricultural products in the natural foods segment. He has experience in launching products internationally and setting up international distribution. He has developed a professional command of business principals with a focus on international marketing and branding. Marty currently co-owns Singing Dog Vanilla, a 15-year-old company that markets its branded vanilla products in the USA, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Chile, Korea, and UAE.

Marty has taught Marketing Management Consulting at the Japan American Institute of Management Science, and he taught Small Business Development at the University of Hawaii. He has also served as a Guest Lecturer at numerous universities all over the world.

Seth is the Co-Owner of Revolution Design Group. He provides brand strategy and marketing communications guidance to retail and wholesale food, beverage, and consumer packaged goods customers throughout North America. He also directly oversees Digital Advertising, Content Development, and Web Development.

Seth holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in Marketing and Brand Strategy. He has also completed a Certificate in Public Relations Strategy from Cornell University, and a B.S. in Multimedia Design.

Seth currently serves on the boards of multiple non-profits and focuses his charitable and philanthropic work on education, children, equity, and the disabled

Raj started Young Mountain Tea with a promise– if a Himalayan co-op of farmers would grow tea, Raj would setup a company in the US to sell it. Since then, the company has worked to create a new market in the US for single-origin organic teas, and sources from a network of 850 tea makers spread across 5 regions of India and Nepal.

Raj also works on supporting rural Oregon entrepreneurs with Oregon RAIN and serves on the board of Wild Gift, a non-profit dedicated to supporting early-stage social entrepreneurs. He loves spending time in the mountains, hiking in forests, playing guitar, and starts as many mornings as possible in the sauna.

Nathan’s passion is helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to market. Following early career training in the software industry as a project manager, business analyst, and sales manager, Nathan received his MBA from the Lundquist College of Business in 2006. Following the Oregon MBA, he was founding CEO of Floragenex, a genomics research company based on technology developed by co-founder Dr. Eric Johnson at the University of Oregon. Floragenex, which was developed through the UO Technology Entrepreneurship Program, moved from lab to market with a combination of grant funding, Oregon-based early stage investment, and a strategic investment from a seed company in Illinois.

Darcey Howard is the Chief Marketing Officer for Thinking Tree Spirits; a small batch, farm-to-flask distillery that uses old world methods to create new world taste profiles in gin, vodka, American style rum and brandies. Her success record in growing global brands includes Coconut Bliss, Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Kerry Foods/Da Vinci Gourmet and Starbucks. Darcey is an energetic leader that engages teams to create elegant solutions through strategic process development. When she's not shaking and stirring spirits for a living she's exploring the world through good food.

Nathan Woods is the COO aka Chief of Stuff at Run Gum, a Eugene based brand that helps make people’s busy day not suck with their performance boosting energy gum. Nathan is employee number one for the 6 year old company and has seen the company go from its very first sale on its website in October 2014 to launching nationwide in Target and Walmart. When he isn’t leading day to day operations for Run Gum, Nathan focuses his attention to their direct-to-consumer and digital marketing efforts.

Sat Bir Khalsa is the Director of Global People & Culture leading the human capital for East West Tea Company. Sat Bir believes People power business and engaging the hearts and minds of talented individuals around a shared purpose will drive outstanding results. He has been with EWTC for nearly 20 years, supporting the growth and success of the employees and the company. He is also involved in the local community having held roles on advisory committees for local non-profits, and industry related boards. He attended boarding school in India where he gained an appreciation for many different cultures and saw first hand the value of diversity of thought and experience. Sat Bir feels blessed by his family, including his wife of 26 years and two adult children who keep him grounded and focused on being present in all facets of his life.

Justin is the owner and CEO of two Eugene-area food manufacturing businesses (Bagel Sphere and Oregon Copacking). He serves on the Supervisory Committee of Oregon Community Credit Union, and previously served as Board President of Oregon Tilth. Prior to operating his own food manufacturing businesses, Justin was the General Manager of Hummingbird Wholesale, organic foods wholesaler based in Eugene, OR which sources beans, grains, seeds, nuts, honey and other agricultural products from farmers in Oregon and the greater Pacific Northwest.

In addition to working in food manufacturing, Justin serves as the director and lead trainer of The Kind & Effective Workplaces Initiative, which empowers leaders and team members alike to lead and engage with kindness within the workplace, thus respecting the dignity and needs of individuals while still effectively pursuing organizational goals and objectives.