Ray Aspiri expresses more pleasure for the jobs he helped create rather than for the business successes he has achieved. As a career entrepreneur, Ray has launched and helped grow a dozen companies in varying industries for over a half-century.

He served as the Chairman of the Board at Tempress Technologies, Inc., a privately held research and development company that specialized in high-pressure fluid dynamics for the oil and gas industry, a technology used to develop RipeLocker’s vacuum system. And as the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Tempress, Inc., a privately held company specializing in thermoplastic, thermoset, and mold-making technologies for heavy-duty truck, marine, sporting, and shipping containers for distribution, aided in the mold design of the RipeLocker container.

His investment in Redmond-based Physio, opened opportunities to be involved with the leaders in the medical instruments industry, leading him to become a major investor and board member at Woodinville’s Quinton Medical, the largest U.S. provider of cardiac stress testing systems and cardiac rehabilitation equipment. Ray expanded his medical industry portfolio and is an investor in and has served on the board of publicly traded Omeros for 18 years, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Aspiri's investments extend to his community involvement where he helped found the Catholic Fund to sponsor scholarships for private Catholic education in Western Washington.

He intends "to make selective investments in the future that can improve the quality of life for people," – a motto he passionately abides by as one of RipeLocker’s board members.

Ray and his wife Edith have been married for over 60 years. They live in Seattle and are extremely close to his 6 children, 13 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.

Bob was born and raised mainly in New York and Massachusetts. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and then with a Ph.D. in Liberal Arts from the University of Dallas.

After the University of Dallas, Bob has spent 25+ years in the technology sector focused on enterprise software, with 20+ years at Microsoft, and served as a Corporate Vice President for his last 10 years at the company. Following Microsoft, Bob was a General Partner at Ignition Partners investing in enterprise software startups. Upon leaving Ignition, Bob has spent the last 3 years as an Operating Partner for Goldman Sachs where he advises Goldman on enterprise software investments from their $5B+ Growth Equity fund and sits on several boards for them. Bob has served on the boards of Nimble Storage, Skytap, Trifacta, Shyft, Amplero, Aryaka, Striim, and Aware, as well as many non-profit boards.

Bob and his wife Annmarie have been happily married for more than 30 years and have 4 children, 1 son in law and 2 young grandsons and currently splitting their time between the Pacific Northwest and Arizona.

David has lived in the Central Valley of California all of his life, working in agriculture from an early age. He is a third-generation farmer, bringing a lifetime of knowledge and experience to RipeLocker.

Today David is the CEO of Frutura, a sales and marketing network committed to supplying global customers with premium fruit 365 days a year. Frutura was created in 2021 with the acquisition of several business units, Agricola Don Ricardo a grower packer, and exporter located in Ica Peru, Dayka and Hackett an importer seller with distribution to all major customers in the US market, Citricola Saltina in Uruguay, and Subsole a grower packer exporter located in Chile.

On January 1st, 2020, David stepped down as the President of Wonderful Citrus, he had been with the company for 21 years. He first held the position of Chief Operating Officer and was named President in 2001. Wonderful Citrus is the largest integrated grower, packer, and shipper of citrus in North America and perhaps the World. Wonderful Citrus owns and farms approximately 60,000 acres in various locations throughout California, Texas, and Mexico.

David served as a Director of Sunkist Growers, Inc from 1996 until 2006, and was its Chairman in 2005 and 2006. He served as a Director of the United Fresh Produce Association and its Chairman from May 2012 to April 2013. In 2011 David was named an Honorary Fellow by the Ag Leadership Foundation and in 2012 he was named The Packer Magazine’s “Produce Man of the Year”.

David has been active in the citrus industry most of his adult life holding various roles in other organizations but recognizes the need to give back to non-profits as well. He was a Trustee on the Board of Children’s Hospital Central California located in Madera for over 10 years, two as its Chairman. Being a believer in the Ag Industry and the need for future leadership, he was a Director of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation from 2007 to 2012.

David has an AS Degree in Plant Science from Reedley College, California. He and his wife Lisa currently live on their ranch in the Orange Cove area. They currently farm Citrus in both Fresno and Tulare Counties of California, as well as South Texas.

George Lobisser is the Co-Founder and CEO of RipeLocker, LLC. RipeLocker is focused on the manufacturing and operation of low-pressure vacuum chambers used to extend shelf-life and suppress decay in perishables.

George has been in the postharvest business since the year 2000 when he assumed the role of President & CEO of Pace International, LLC after purchasing the company. During George’s 12 years at Pace, the company rose from being a relatively minor player in the industry to become one of the leading companies in the world focused on the postharvest treatment of pome, citrus, and stone fruit. At the time of Pace’s sale to Valent Biosciences in 2012, approximately 85% of the Company’s revenues were attributable to new products developed during George’s tenure including fungicides, thermo-fogging application technology, sunburn protectants, and fruit coatings.

Prior to his years at Pace, George was a partner in S/L Partners, a private equity firm owned by him and Herman Sarkowsky. S/L invested in multiple Seattle businesses where it assumed an active role in management. George’s career started in the tax department of Deloitte, where he advised high-net-worth individuals in business, accounting, and taxation.

 
Board of Directors


George’s previous Board positions include B-Line, LLC; Java Trading Co.; NeoVision Corporation; Washington State Investment Board; The Seattle Reparatory Theatre, and The Produce for Better Health Foundation. He has been a part-time lecturer at the University of Washington School of Business and is a member of the Washington State Bar Association (inactive).

George holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Northern Colorado and a Juris Doctorate from Gonzaga Law School.

George and his wife Nancy reside on Bainbridge Island, Washington. They have a son Kyle, daughter-in-law Kristen, granddaughter Sabine, and a daughter Mallory, all residing on Bainbridge Island.

Scott McFarlane co-founded Avalara nearly 20 years ago. Avalara started as a provider of digital sales tax compliance solutions in the U.S. and has grown globally to become the market leader in compliance automation software. Avalara’s mission is to be part of every transaction in the world by automating the compliance journey for businesses of all sizes.

Scott brings a one-of-a-kind passion and unrelenting drive to his role as CEO of Avalara. Over the course of his three-decade career, he has combined innovation with rigorous operational discipline. His ventures leverage new technology to disrupt the status quo, in businesses ranging from personal fitness to cybersecurity to compliance automation. He started his first business while still in college, partnering with his roommate, Augie Nieto, to launch Lifecycle, a groundbreaking computerized exercise bike.

In recognition of his people management and corporate leadership skills, Scott has been regularly named a Power 100 leader by the Puget Sound Business Journal and one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today. He received the GeekWire CEO of the Year award in 2015. Under Scott’s leadership, Avalara has been frequently recognized as a best place to work, was named one of the Most Loved Companies by Newsweek in 2021, and regularly receives Top Rated awards from TrustRadius for peer-to-peer customer recognition. Avalara has been a top partner for many ERP platforms and online marketplaces and was named Partner of the Year by both NetSuite and SAP in 2022.

On June 15, 2018, Scott successfully took Avalara public. Six days later the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Wayfair decision that states can enforce sales tax collection for remote sales by businesses based outside their geographic boundaries. This dramatically accelerated the transition to digital compliance and created tailwinds that helped Avalara’s business achieve new heights, making Avalara one of the top stocks of 2019 according to Forbes. After four years on the NYSE, Avalara shareholders sold the company at a valuation of $8.4 billion to Vista Equity Partners, a leading global investment firm, in late 2022.

Today, as a privately held company, Avalara is one of the top 1,000 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization and employs more than 4,800 people globally, with offices across the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and India. Avalara remains steadfast in its vision to be the global cloud compliance platform.

Entrepreneur J. David Orem spent much of his professional career in business development, marketing, and operations positions in the restaurant industry. He brings 25 years of management, financial and operational expertise from running a small business in Washington state which led to significant growth and subsequent sale. Prior to that were engineering and sales positions in the pharmaceutical industry.

 
Board of Directors


David served as CEO of privately held Northwestern Restaurants, Inc. from 1990 to 2015, a company recognized for its operational excellence of 37 Taco Bells. David also negotiated the franchise rights to bring three Sonic Drive-Ins to the Pacific Northwest in the early 2000s. David serves on the board of a privately owned Washington State aerospace company and volunteers with non-profit charities in the Seattle area. David holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial Management from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

He and his wife Peggie live on Mercer Island, Washington, and have three adult children.

Brenton Roy, President of Oasis Farms, Incorporated, was born and raised in Eastern Washington and is a graduate of Gonzaga University. At age twenty-four, he took over his family’s farm operations, and over the past twenty-five years has spearheaded remarkable growth of the business – increasing gross revenue by twenty times and expanding operations to include a wide variety of crops including hops, blueberries, apples, vineyards, and stone fruit, as well as installation of associated processing facilities.

Brenton was named 2007 - 40 under 40 by the Puget Sound Business Journal and 2015 Grower of the Year by Good Fruit Grower magazine. He is also the past Chairman of the Washington State Wine Commission and currently sits as the Chairman of the Washington State Blueberry Commission.

Brenton lives on the farm in Prosser, Washington with his wife Alicia where they have raised their three daughters Cacia, Aida, and Ezri.

David Gonzalez has spent much of his professional career in the fresh flower industry, both in Colombia and the USA.

Initially in Colombia, as part of The Queen’s Flowers network of companies, he participated in the late 90s and early 2000s in the active growth and consolidation of many production units of the organization.

He moved to Miami FL in 2006 as General Manager of The Queen’s Flowers Corp. This was a great opportunity to expand his experience in the logistics and sales side of this industry. Since then, The Queen’s Flowers has become one of the leading importing and distribution companies of fresh flowers in the USA.

In 2010, after becoming familiar with vacuum storage technology, he led a project to custom build a vacuum chamber for flowers, sponsored by The Queen’s Flowers with the help of Atlas Technologies in WA. Which today has innovated into the RipeLocker technology.

Born in Colombia, David holds a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, and as a Fulbright Scholar, he received a Master’s in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University.

Scott Masingill brings over three decades of transportation and logistics industry experience from Prime, Inc. to RipeLocker. Prime Inc. is a leading truckload/intermodal carrier in the USA to provide food processors, fresh produce shippers, retailers, and foodservice providers with superior transportation solutions.

Scott is an avid competitive golfer. He was All American at OSU, 9 times Idaho State Champion, and a former Champion's Tour player. His successful golfing career earned him numerous accolades including numerous titles and honors as a player over the past four decades.

He is a member of the Idaho Hall of Fame, Pacific Northwest Golf Association Hall of Fame, and Payette HS Hall of Fame. He’s also sat on the PNGA Board and was on their Executive Committee as a Vice President.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oregon State University. He lives in Payette, Idaho with his wife Laurie and border collie Lily. He enjoys spending time with his 5 children and 7 grandchildren living in Boise. His favorite fruits are blush cherries and red pears.