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As Chief Investment Officer, Ross chairs Manna Tree's investment committee and drives the firm's investment strategy.

From stacking shelves at his grandfather's grocery store, learning about crop production on his father's farm, and supporting the launch of his wife's cookbook publishing company, Ross's love for food investing and business acumen has been a lifetime in the making. Ross has built his career around balancing investment decisions, market expansion, and leadership within organizations to reach optimal scale.

His experience growing investments comes from the management consulting firm, Strategic Architect, which he founded in 2009. Ross worked closely with 20 firms annually, each with between $5M and $500M in revenue. He counseled the C-Suite and family offices on investment decisions, market expansion strategies, and how to scale teams and operations. Ross has trained 5,000+ leaders on implementing strategies linked to cash flow, debt structures, sales strategies, and marketing plans to unlock growth. Clients included: the PGA Tour, Vail Resorts, DOW, and the University of Colorado.

Before launching Strategic Architect, Ross was the president and owner of a company that implemented a first-of-its-kind mortgage program with publicly-traded homebuilders, Lennar and DR Horton. This landed him on the Inc. 5000 list and contributed to the firm's successful exit in 2009 to a private equity investor.

Ross earned his finance degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and was an Executive Leadership Scholar at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. He has volunteered at the University of Colorado to help launch the first-ever leadership certificate program and has been active in supporting the school through experiential leadership retreats in Vail, serving as an advisor for the Natural and Organic MBA program, and supporting students to develop a values-based approach in business.

Outside the office, Ross loves to share nature with his friends and family; he is an avid skier, mountain biker, hiker, and fly-fisherman.