Ruth Alford, Founding Partner, Roasting, Training, Café and IT Operations
Ruth is a serial entrepreneur who has extensive experience establishing and managing Café s, roasting and training operations. She also owned an IT consulting firm that provided IT solutions to start-up companies. Ruth holds a BS in Commerce, University of Virginia and Microsoft certification.

Pankaj Badlani, Founding Partner, Finance, Strategy, Sales & Business Development
Pankaj has 10+ years experience in supply chain operations, strategy, business development and finance.  His last role was Director of Market Strategy for the Premium Coffee & Tea business of Coca-Cola (Brands Far Coast & CHAQWA).   Prior to that he held the position of Chief Operating Office at KX Industries LP, a small to mid-sized water purification company.  At KXI, he was instrumental in setting up a joint venture between KXI and the Godrej group of India.  Pankaj has consulted for several clients through his own consulting firm as well as at Ernst & Young in India.  He holds an MBA degree from Cornell University and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Rocky Heinsz, Founding Partner, R&D, Food & Beverage Operations
Rocky has 20 years of experience at Coca-Cola R&D and Marketing, with extensive exposure and experience in brand marketing, account management, product and processes development, supplier development, QA, training, strategic research, consumer research and insights development, manufacturing optimization, etc. Rocky lived in the US, Spain, Germany, and Belgium and was responsible for all new product development for Africa and Europe, prior to his last role as Global R&D director and Founder for the Premium Coffee & Tea business that Coca-Cola recently launched in Singapore, Norway, Canada and the US. (Brands: Far Coast and CHAQWA) Rocky holds a Masters degree in Food Science from the University of Georgia and a Bachelors degree in Marine Biology. Special training includes Strategic R&D Management from INSEAD in France.