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Jack McCarthy

Co-Founder & Partner

Jack is a Co-Founder and Partner of Gold Leaf Farming, where he leads the firm’s investment efforts. Since 2017, GLF has purchased over 7,500 acres of farmland in the western US valued at >$150 million. 

 

Before founding GLF, Jack was at TPG where he invested in large food, agriculture, and other industrial businesses across North America, completing over $3 billion of transactions. Prior to TPG, Jack was an economic policy advisor for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

 

Jack received an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BS in Economics from Indiana University. He serves on the Almond Board of California’s Global Market Development committee and completed the Almond Board’s Leadership Program.

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Brandon Rebiero

Co-Founder & Partner

Brandon is a Co-Founder and Partner of Gold Leaf Farming, where he leads the firm’s farming efforts. Brandon is a tree nut grower, manager, and consultant and has overseen approximately 20,000 acres of crops throughout California in his career. 

 

Before founding GLF, Brandon worked closely with private investment firm Trinitas Partners which built a portfolio of over 10,000 acres of almonds throughout the state. Brandon played a significant role with Trinitas including managing and advising on due diligence, plant science, orchard development, orchard management, investor relations, and strategic planning. In his spare time, Brandon is a partner in Rebiero Brothers, LLC, a small almond grower in Stanislaus County, CA. As a small grower, he is still intimately involved in every aspect of the business from driving tractors to farm strategy.

 

Brandon attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where he obtained a B.S. in Pomology and a Minor in Plant Protection Science. He completed the Blue Diamond Leadership program as well as the Almond Board of California Leadership Program. Brandon formerly served on the Production Research committee for the Almond Board of California.

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Ramon Campa

Farm Manager - Yuma

Ramon oversees Gold Leaf’s medjool date farms near Yuma, AZ. 

 

Ramon has a background in ag technology, and is leading the charge as Gold Leaf uses technology to farm dates more sustainably and efficiently. As part of a new generation of farmers, Ramon understands the importance of transitioning to more tech-enabled practices (e.g., using drones, in-field sensors, etc.). His work background specializes in farm management, breeding, and experimental designs.

 

Born in Yuma, AZ and raised in the border towns of San Luis, AZ and San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico, Ramon had the opportunity to attend the Arizona Western College and the University of Arizona - Yuma Campus where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Technology Management. 

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Ryan Hackett

Regional Director – Central California

Ryan is a Regional Director at Gold Leaf Farming, where he manages farm operations for Central and Southern California. 

 

Before joining Gold Leaf, Ryan worked as a tree nut grower and crop consultant in the Central Valley of California. For most of his career, Ryan worked with Gold Leaf founder Brandon Rebiero at Wilbur-Ellis advising Trinitas Partners and other California growers as an agronomist. 

 

Ryan attended CSU Fresno State, where he obtained a B.S. in Plant Science – Plant Health. While attending Fresno State, Ryan first met Brandon working as his intern. Ryan grew up around ag where his family farms in the Oakdale area

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Jared Hajik

Regional Director – Northern California

Jared is a Regional Director at Gold Leaf Farming, where he manages farm operations for Northern California. 

Prior to Gold Leaf, Jared worked for Wilbur-Ellis Company as a Pest Control Advisor (PCA), taking a care of almonds, walnuts, tomatoes, rice and alfalfa.  At Wilbur-Ellis, Jared worked closely with Gold Leaf founder Brandon Rebiero advising Trinitas Partners and other larger growers. 

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Jared attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and was a cadet in the Army R.O.T.C. program.  Upon graduation he served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officer in the Army and deployed to Khost Province, Afghanistan. 

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Arnold Dockstader

Assistant Farm Manager – Kingman

Arnold R Dockstader oversees the Pistachio operation located in Kingman Arizona. 

 

Arizona grown, Arnold grew up in the cotton fields of central Arizona. He began work as a parts technician for Case IH and dove into Agresearch working for the Agricultural Research Service branch of the USDA. There he spent the majority of his time doing research on Honey Bees and Cotton. He was given the opportunity to be an intern for Deseret Farms of California where he worked as an irrigator and pesticide sprayer for a 2000 acre Walnut and Plumb orchard. 

 

After graduating with a BS in Agronomy, crop and soil science from Brigham Young University - Idaho, he secured a full-time position as Farm Unit Manager for South Valley Farms in Wasco CA where he oversaw 3000 acres of Almonds. 

 

Arnold served in the United States Air Force as a Tactical Aircraft Maintainer for the A-10 Thunderbolt II (a.k.a. the Warthog). He is currently serving as a Non-commissioned officer of the Arizona Air National Guard working primarily as a Maintenance Operations Controller for KC-135 Stratotankers. 

He had the opportunity to serve in Operation Shadows Edge and Task Force Guardian along the Arizona Border and Operations Freedoms Sentinel in Al Udeid, Qatar. 

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Oscar Diaz

Farm Manager 

Oscar manages our GLF17 and GLF18 farms in the city of San Joaquin. 

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Garrison Quinn

Assistant Farm Manager 

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Sawyer Clark

Director of Development & Special Projects

Sawyer is a farm kid from Oregon's Willamette Valley, where his family continues to grow hazelnuts. He spends his time at Gold Leaf Farming split between acquiring new properties and leading operational initiatives with the farm team - especially those regarding the company's sustainability practices.

 

Before joining GLF, Sawyer served as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army, bootstrapped and joined a couple startups, and completed a short stint in a family investment office. Sawyer received an MBA and MS in Environment & Resources from Stanford University, and a BA in Political Science from Pepperdine University.

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Josh Guggenheim

Director of Acquisitions

Josh is the Director of Acquisitions at Gold Leaf Farming, where he leads the firm’s farm sourcing and expansion efforts.

 

Before GLF, Josh worked at Lightview Capital, a private investment firm focused on business services and technology. Prior to Lightview, Josh worked at Alvarez and Marsal as a turnaround consultant and started his career at Deutsche Bank.

 

Josh graduated with honors from Emory University with a degree in Economics. 

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Hyeong Shin

Manager of Acquisitions

Hyeong is a Manager of Acquisitions at Gold Leaf Farming, where he works on the firm's farm sourcing and expansion efforts.


Before GLF, Hyeong worked at Rothschild in Los Angeles focusing on technology, business services and consumer M&A and strategic advisory.


Hyeong graduated from Pomona College with a degree in Mathematics.

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Santiago Larrain

Acquisitions

Santiago grew up in Chile, where his family still grows plums, and he visits whenever he can.  At Gold Leaf Farming, he splits his time between acquiring new properties in the US, exploring new business opportunities for the company in different geographies/crops, and overseeing the farms in our portfolio.  

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Before joining GLF, Santiago spent most of his time designing, funding and developing large infrastructure projects for the government of Chile and for Entel, a leading Telecom company in Chile and Peru. He was always looking to get back to farming.  He received an MBA from Stanford GSB and has a degree in Industrial and Transport Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. 

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Monica Garcia

Business Manager

Monica is Gold Leaf’s Business Manager, where she leads our administration. She wears many hats from accounting & finance to HR, and keeps the day-to-day office operations running. 

 

Before joining Gold Leaf, Monica worked in a variety of finance roles in the Bay Area at companies such as Applied Materials, Santa Clara University and Digital First Media. She lived in the Bay Area for many years and recently relocated back to Modesto, her hometown. As a child she grew up around farming - her grandfather owned a small almond orchard.

 

Monica attended Santa Clara University where she obtained a B.S.C in Finance and a minor in Spanish.

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Dan Hirst 

Vice President of Finance

Prior to joining Gold Leaf, Dan spent over ten years at Teays River Investments, a food agriculture holding company, where he led the creation and development of the finance function in a start-up, high growth environment.  Prior to Teays, Dan was an audit senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in both the United Kingdom and USA, serving public and private companies primarily in the private equity, real estate and financial services industries.

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Dan is a Certified Public Accountant and Fellow Chartered Accountant.

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Elyza Murillo

Accounting Manager

Elyza is the Accounting Manager at Gold Leaf Farming, where she is responsible for accounting and reporting at all of our farms. Elyza’s past experience working at a CPA firm ensures our books are in order and we have reports we can use to make decisions across the company and on the farms. 

 

Elyza graduated from CSU Stanislaus with her B.S. in Business Administration, concentrating in Accounting. In her free time you can catch her reading a book or spending time outdoors with her three dogs and husband.

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Peter Sherman

Director of Finance

Before coming to Gold Leaf, Peter was an early Finance employee at Farmer's Business Network, where he built the company's Finance Operation team.  Prior to FBN he worked in Corporate Finance at E&J Gallo Winery and as a Field Artillery Officer in the U.S. Army.

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Peter received an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business and graduated with a BA in Politics from Oberlin College. 

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Amberlynn Garrett

Accounting

Amber is an Accountant at Gold Leaf Farming.  She is currently responsible for Accounts Payable and Vendor Management.  Prior to joining Gold Leaf, Amber worked as an Accountant for various companies across the San Francisco/Bay Area. 

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Amber has a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from San Francisco State University. 

 

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Katie Skujins

Accounting

Katie is an accountant at Gold Leaf Farming, where she is responsible for bookkeeping, accounts payable, vendor management and day-to-day cash management.

 

Katie has a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from California State University, Stanislaus. Katie has worked closely with the almond industry since 2012, owning an agriculture transportation company that transported bees during almond bloom and later joining the finance department at the Almond Board of California. 

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Oralia Padilla

Human Resources

Oralia graduated from San Joaquin College in computer Administered business. She has worked in payroll and human resources for 27 years.  She grew up in the central valley and actually worked in some of the fields around some of the orchards that we currently own.

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In her spare time she enjoys watching her grandsons compete in BMX racing.

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Alayna Panages

Executive Administrative Assistant

Alayna is the Executive Assistant and Investor Relations Admin for Gold Leaf Farming. She is dedicated to elevating the experience of the investors and providing exceptional support to the leadership team. 

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She graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a degree in Business Administration.  She has spent the last 10 + years supporting executives in the Sacramento area.  

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Kaitlin Nicholson

Procurement

Kaitlin earned her bachelor's degree in Agriculture Business from California State University, Bakersfield and is currently pursing her Master of Agribusiness from Kansas State University set to graduate August 2022. Kaitlin's background in procurement, forecasting, process management, data analysis, and sustainability efforts will help support Gold Leaf Farming.  Prior to Gold Leaf Kaitlin helped to support Trinitas Farming as Procurement Specialist with previous experience in the trucking industry as well.  She also holds a qualified applicator certificate.

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Tanner Snider

Grow Strategy Lead

Tanner leads the firm's growth strategy efforts, looking into new crops, geographies and other opportunities to invest in. 

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Jackie Zielke

Vice President of Operations

Jackie is the Vice President of Operations, where she develops and leads the firm's farm operational strategy and is responsible for the entire farming team. 

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Before GLF, Jackie worked for Home Chef as the VP of Fulfillment, where she led the overall operational efforts in the production of e-commerce and retail meal kits across the country in addition to leading the company's logistics, skills training, and safety strategy.  Prior to Home Chef, Jackie worked at Sysco Foods as a Food Safety Program Manager and Reinhart Foodservice where she held a number of different roles including being the Plant Manager of their custom cut meat processing plant. 

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Jackie earned her Master's degree from Michigan State University in Food Safety. xx

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Jack McCarthy
Brandon Rebiero
Ryan Hackett
Ramon Campa
Jared Hajik
Arnold Dockstader
OscarDiaz
Garrison Quinn
Monica Garcia
Dan Hirst
Elyza Murillo
Santiago Larrain
Hyeong Shin
Peter Sherman
Sawyer Clark
Amber
Katie
Oralia
Alayna
Tanner
Kaitlin
Josh G
Jackie
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