Theodore Landgraf: Board Advisor – Leader, Innovator, Motivator, Strategic Change Agent
Mr. Landgraf is an experienced global leader empowering, motivating, and producing the lasting change for individuals and organizations. His international experience empowering and changing the lives of many executives, leaders, and organizations in more than 150 nations has increased profits, improved capital, and reduced costs in the tens of billions of dollars with sustainable outcomes.
Mr. Landgraf is a committed and an initiative-taking executivewith more than 30 years of global business, training, strategic, procurement, finance / funding, and leadership experience in many different industries, from minor to Fortune MNCs.
Global Leadership and Executive Profile
+ Growth Leader: Experienced in capital improvement, revenue profit increase, and bottom line cost and efficiencies for many small to large clients in many nations.
+ Global Experience: Many industries (private, public, small, large, non-profit, local, and national government).
+ Organizational Systems: Streamlined entire procurement, finance, and management systems in many organizations increasing profits, improving capital, and reducing costs ($1 Million to more than $100 Billion+ gross revenues).
+ Best Practice: Creation and implementation of best practices, standard operating procedures, governance, compliance, turnkey systems, contracts, and training for efficient maximization of teams and profits, capital improvement, and cost reduction.
+ Knowledge Management: Developed a comprehensive, in-depth set of intellectual property in business processes, leadership, management, business development, procurement, capital, cost, and other core business areas.
+ Local, Regional, National, and Global Strategist: Developed and implemented many business and finance plans for optimum outcomes in many organizational KPI areas.
+ Developer: Many businesses and individuals throughout Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.
Mr. Landgraf’s Clients and Partners
Professionals, entrepreneurs, executives, business owners, managers, directors, board members, and many more wonderful people from diverse backgrounds and experience with more than one-thousand organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Ben Landgraf: Board Advisor – Marketing, Sales, Client Acquisition Solutions, Projects
Mr. Landgraf is a dedicated, highly motivated individual with more than 12 years of experience in marketing, sales management, social media, client acquisition and services, training, and project management.
Mr. Landgraf has accomplished many task objectives, projects, and developments, including the following:
+ Increased branding, sales, and marketplaces for ATS in the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, and many other regions.
+ Recruited marketing professionals, clients, and Franchise Owners for ATS.
+ Helped create, test, and implement a global funnel marketing and sales system for ATS.
+ Increased productivity, trained fulfillment teams in safety and fulfillment, conducted safety audits, improved productivity, and quality, and implemented process guidance.
+ Helped orphanages and nonprofit organizations throughout the island of Mauritius, Reunion, and South Africa.
Mr. Landgraf’s leads client acquisition and services, project management, and global social media marketing. The primary areas include marketing, support clients, partner recruitment, business development, social media, global communications, and administrative project management.
Mr. Landgraf’s education and training:
+ Central Washington University – Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management and Minor in Administrative Management.
+ Skagit Valley College – Associates in Arts.
Shane J. Peed: Business Owner | International Farmer | Global Agricultural Consultant
With more than 30 years of experience across the agricultural sector, Shane J. Peed is a proven business owner, farmer, and international consultant. He has spent the past two decades leading agricultural development initiatives for both large-scale corporate operations and smallholder farmers worldwide.
Shane has consulted directly for major international farms, overseeing the management and optimization of several thousand hectares at a time.
Executive Profile
Mr. Peed is deeply passionate about agriculture and its essential role in delivering safe, healthy food to consumers. He champions the adoption of modern, sustainable farming techniques that increase productivity while reducing environmental impact and protecting public health. Known for his hands-on “field-to-fork” philosophy, he partners with farmers and companies to implement best-practice methods that drive efficiency and maximize profitability at the farm level.
Professional Background
Shane’s career encompasses a wide range of leadership roles, including the construction and operation of a modern grain storage facility in Eastern Russia, prototype development, and manufacturing improvements for John Deere, AGCO, and Case IH equipment through manufacturing facilities; CNC product sales; and the successful launch of a family-owned agricultural equipment dealership in Iowa, USA. He has also directed numerous high-impact international farming and agribusiness projects in the Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, and Ghana.
Professional Exposure and Experience—Project Portfolio
2001—USA: Co-founded The Gator Center, a family-operated agricultural equipment dealership. Built the business into one of North America’s largest salvage dealerships for used AgChem/AGCO fertilizer application machinery while expanding sales of new and used equipment globally. Trained in all aspects of service on agricultural equipment and operation.
2008—USA: Launched East Gate Farm Store, an international export company specializing in fertilizer application equipment. Successfully supplied markets in Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, Ghana, Australia, and many others.
2010—Eastern Russia: 5,000-hectare corn, soybean, and potato farm. Developed programs for seed selection of all crops. Supplied and set up all potato equipment and processes.
Assisted in the setup of a Case dealership in Eastern Russia, which included repair and operations training. Set up a Sukup grain storage facility for a 30,000-hectare corn and soybean project. Trained operators on no-till equipment and application equipment. Assisted in the import of equipment, inputs, and seed.
2012—Philippines: Started a fruit export company shipping Cavendish bananas, pineapples, and mangoes to Eastern Russia and Middle East locations. Imported micronutrients for aerial applications along with product registration. Developed a high-altitude corn project integrated with early-stage palm oil trees.
Consulted on proper storage of fruits, packaging processes, and agronomic approaches to various crops, which included moringa, guava, tomatoes, and mangosteen.
Set up a small-scale 3,000-a-week poultry operation with feed processing for broilers. Worked with rice growers that were struggling with diseases and low production.
2012—Ukraine: Provided strategic consulting to a major Ukrainian agricultural enterprise, designing management systems and operational protocols for 110,000 hectares.
Conducted a complete process audit and delivered detailed recommendations to senior leadership, with ongoing site visits and progress reviews through summer 2019. This project focused on seed corn, conventional corn, and soybeans.
2013—Ghana: Assumed management of an unprofitable farm in Ghana by request of the ownership team. Delivered complete operator training in modern crop production, turning the operation profitable within two years. After three years, the project was returned to the original ownership team, who still operates the farm today.
Assisted on a cassava production and processing program. Reviewed numerous farm projects and advised on production processes and agronomy practices.
2014—Western Russia: Began consulting for a western Russian corporate farm, directly managing a 5,000-hectare section. Increased productivity through modern practices for a corn-on-corn project. Assisted in the improvement of crop production in Penza for corn, wheat, and soybeans. Consulted on many aspects of the crop production programs, from selecting herbicides, fertilizers, and tillage processes to equipment selections.
2016—Western Russia: Assisted in developing a new 1,000-hectare potato project and storage facility in Western Russia. Additional crops were grown on another 2,000 hectares, which included wheat, field peas, flax, and rape.
2021—Nigeria: Assisted in the development of a new farm in the far northern regions of the country. Guided in the selection of a non-GMO seed for the region.
Current Projects
2019—USA: Relocated back to the United States to support and grow the family business. Focused on revenue enhancement and strategic positioning in preparation for a future sale.
Development of test fields for biological products, seeds, equipment testing, processes, manure applications, and various crops. Special testing is utilized for international projects and customer training.
2022—Ukraine: Assisting in the development of a seed distribution company targeting high-quality hybrids and varieties of seeds from canola, rape, potato, sugar beet, soybeans, peas, wheat, and corn. Developing strategic buyers in the northern African countries from grains produced in Western Ukraine.
2023—Liberia: Ongoing testing of corn hybrids for smallholder farmers. Selection of small farm equipment and agronomy.
2024—Kenya: Development of a new white corn project in Narok. Set up of all required equipment, agronomy programs, storage, and commodity marketing. Purchasing and exporting equipment from the USA to Kenya.
2025—Tanzania: Assisting a seed producer in testing a new non-GMO white corn hybrid developed in the USA for distribution throughout southern regions of Africa. Joint project with ASI.
2025—USA–Puris Seed: A joint venture with ASI and the registration process of hybrid
non-GMO corn and varieties of soybeans in Russia and surrounding countries. This includes the African countries.
2025—Russia: Assisting an equipment dealer and custom application group to develop their manure application business. This includes equipment selection and program layout.
2026—Ethiopia: Export of coffee beans to the USA for final processing. Launching a new line of specialty coffee products in the USA.
Art Brunton: Procurement, Inventory Control, Logistics, and Forecasting/Demand Planning
Executive Global Experience
Mr. Art Brunton brings 38 years of operations (14) and consulting (24) experience in supply chain and procurement leadership in business sectors such as pharmaceutical and biotech, financial services, food & beverage, telecommunications, agricultural, healthcare, hotel, specialty chemicals, investment banking, and light metals sectors.
Some Results
Mr. Brunton’s value through procurement and supply chain improvement to his companies and clients has been through process and organization transformation, value chain improvement, and sustainable training. In these areas, he has consistently led both major initiatives and teams to breakthrough results of $250M+ in savings, and significant business risk mitigation.
Global Empowering Leadership Training
Mr. Brunton is also an international Procurement trainer, having trained across North America, Asia, West Indies, and Europe for over a decade. Most recently, he has developed a comprehensive, robust set of intellectual property for the process of supplier relationship management (SRM).
Personal History
Mr. Brunton grew up in Aliquippa, PA, outside of Pittsburgh, and now has a home in Delray Beach, FL. He is a proud father of one daughter who is a Rheumatologist at a hospital in Maine. His two corporate assignments were with Alcoa (‘86-’93) in Industrial Engineering and UDV (now Diageo, ‘94-’00) where he spent most of his time in Procurement and Supply Chain. In mid-2000, he stepped into the consulting era of his career, and has not since looked back.
Education
Mr. Brunton’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University, and an MBA with a concentration in value-added management and finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
Jim McBride: Board Advisor – Operations, Sales, Growth Leader, Global Strategist
For more than 40 years, Mr. Jim McBride has been showing companies and investors the best strategies and inside secrets on how to preserve their assets, increase their profits, and reduce costs. Mr. McBride has advised and mentored thousands in sales, sales systems, and operations over his 40+ years in business and management. Mr. McBride’s focus on details to help optimize, improve systems, and operations is his passion.
Some of Mr. McBride’s 40+ Year Career Accomplishments:
+ Served more than one-thousand organizations.
+ Supported more than ten-thousand people with their sales and sales processes resulting in billions of dollars in revenues.
+ Implemented and directed more than one-thousand training calls and webinars empowering organizations in sales, increased clients, more revenues with greater profitability.
Mr. McBride, with his passion for effective and efficient processes, has made a career out of learning, showing organizations, and empowering clients with the best implementation strategies, and the most innovative and up to date ways to accomplish this. His diligence to help find individuals and organizations ways to better accomplish this is his strength.
Empowering and supporting organizations to grow and thrive is always Mr. McBride’s priority. He also likes to share with people and organizations there is just as much opportunity in protecting what you have, while becoming efficient with what you have. Mr. McBride compares it to this: “It is hard to fill up a bucket when there are holes in the bottom. Plug up the holes and the bucket will fill up even with a trickle.”
Mr. McBride loves the outdoors, is an athlete, enjoying most sports. He is an accomplished Skier, Surfer which is something he has loved for over 45 years.
A dedicated family man, business leader, Mr. McBride is currently COO of ATS, residing in the San Diego area for almost 60 years, and an Alumni of the United States International University (B.A., 1991).
Erwin Jack: Global Team Developer, Relationship Growth Expert, Servant Leader
Mr. Erwin Jack is a respected executive with more than 30 years of diverse relationship skills development and more than 10 years of sales and marketing experience.
Mr. Jack is exceptionally instrumental in bringing together people and partnerships for the mutual benefit of all parties involved. Mr. Jack’s desire to successfully develop people and grow business makes him an outstanding ATS contributor as he provides reliable support to people within and outside of the organization.
Mr. Jack empathizes with people and actively seeks to find solutions through collaboration. Being astute, he even finds himself mentoring people.
Mr. Jack’s background includes a degree in Mathematics Education with Distinction from the University of Calgary, with service in various roles from education, customer service, sales, marketing to strategy, and experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
Mr. Jack is committed to integrity and trust; he genuinely inspires others to successfully achieve their potential. Whether in professional or personal life, Mr. Jack’s beliefs drive him as a genuine leader. He is dedicated to his wife and three children and is a strong proponent of family life.
Gary W. Rodgers: Certified Public Account, Corporate Executive, and Entrepreneur
Mr. Gary Rodgers has more than forty years’ experience with Major National Accounting Firms and Multinational Corporations.
Mr. Rodgers attained national recognition for expertise in Banking, Insurance, and Not for Profit Organizations by the AICPA, and other Accrediting Organizations. Mr. Rodgers served as a trusted advisor to clients in areas of taxation, attestation, M&A transactions, and other advisory services, including peer reviews for CPA firms.
As a corporate executive, Mr. Rodgers was extensively involved in Mergers & Acquisitions, Start-Ups, and Turnaround engagements for major corporations, and for his own ventures.
Executive Profile
+ Engineered the successful turnaround of troubled corporations in both service and manufacturing industries, and led start-up organizations which includes not-for-profit organizations.
+ Heavily Involved with all phases of M&A activities, including valuation, negotiation, due diligence, closing activities, integration and post-acquisition analysis.
+ Led by a see the end in the beginning approach to all personal and business activities. Endeavored to be honest, act with integrity, and be considerate of the feelings and needs of others.
+ Thoroughly engaged in income tax analysis, planning and compliance, including experience with multi states taxation across all 48 contiguous states, and consolidated planning and compliance issues with complex vertically and horizontally integrated corporate structures.
Family and Personal Life
Mr. Rodgers is a loving family man, devoted to his wife of fifty-two years, Sherrell Franks Rodgers, who is an artist and the absolute love in his life. Sherrell and he have five grandsons, three granddaughters and one precious great grandson.
An avid hunter and fisherman for more than forty years in the natural paradise which is Arkansas. A baseball and football player for many years. A lover of the game of baseball, and a catcher for fourteen years including two years on semi-pro baseball teams in Arkansas. A little league baseball and women’s softball coach for many years in multiple locations in Arkansas.
Mr. Rodger’s is also a writer with published stories, with his stories primarily about experiences as a child and young adult in a small town in Northeast Arkansas.
George Adongo: An international career coach who has appeared on Keynote Speaking, engages in Fortune 500 executives, Hollywood stars, besides appearing on prominent USA TV and radio shows, and podcasts discussing social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, and global authentic career innovation.
Some Career Life Highlights
+ Mr. George Adongo served as a Project Manager for a global social impact program for eight years, managing resource mobilization, planning and execution of projects.
+ In 2022, he contributed to a book (yet to be published) among the world's influencers as a co-author, "The 28 Credentials of Entrepreneur."
+ He debuted in the world's top influencers in the celebrated journal "Brave Inspires Brave" with the article "Trailblazing Global Social Change through Vicarious Learning." Likewise, he is featured in the second publication “Global entrepreneurship: Decoding the Investors’ concerns.”
He featured among the global Icons in the Brave Inspires Brave podcast, discussing Contribution to Global social change through communication for Development.
+ As an academic, Mr. Adongo mentors undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students in research skills.
+ He mentors upcoming authors in writing conceptualization, focusing on ideation, developmental, line, and copy editing.
+ He discusses the influence of African and Asian community leaders on social impact programming with major networks.
+ He brings community transformation, as done for a prestigious national school in Kenya in 2024. They enlisted him as Academics and management chair of his class, where his teamwork, analytical, and communications skills have transformed the community.
Financial Experience
Through his role as a liaison between investors and business owners, Mr. Adongo is facilitating Finance Readiness Consulting, with ATS, for projects from $100 Million to $5 Billion in more than 160 nations. He is also building his own personal portfolio through onboarding Relationship Development Directors.
Activities, Leadership
+ He serves as a liaison between donors and social impact initiatives in Africa, emphasizing research, funding due diligence, and sustainability.
+ Along with colleagues from the USA, he has served as a board member for a group that oversees non-governmental organizations.
+ He is also a board chair of two non-governmental organizations in Africa.
+ He reviews, writes, and edits ATS content and materials, which is utilized with international partners.
+ He specializes in mentoring young professionals, producing seasoned graduates who hold prominent positions as thought-leaders worldwide in the fields of education, research, entrepreneurship, agriculture, media, and health.
+ He oversees numerous executive coaching colleagues while providing his own executive coaching business practice.
Author
+ Mr. George Adongo George is currently completing his book, which seeks to highlight the seminal value of global career liaisons.
+ Co-author (Publication underway): Vol. 2, "The 28 Credentials of Entrepreneur."
Education
+ George is a PhD student: Development Studies.
+ He is pursuing a second master’s degree in international Community Development at Northwest University, in Kirkland, Washington, United States.
+ He graduated from Africa International University in Kenya with a master's degree in divinity with a focus on Biblical studies (Greek).
Mr. Noel Ciambotti: Merchant Services Leader
Mr. Ciambotti brings nearly 18 years of specialized experience in the merchant services industry. Over the past 14 years, he has partnered with more than 1,000 companies across diverse sectors to reduce credit card processing fees by an average of 22%, delivering Millions in combined savings.
The client portfolio spans a wide range of industries, including automotive, medical, healthcare, hospitals, oil and gas, restaurants, utilities, community and state colleges, transportation (long- and short-haul), hauling and demolition, embroidery, machinery, B2B, and B2G operations, among many others.
Ciambotti serves businesses of every scale—from small mom-and-pop convenience stores processing $20,000 per month to large enterprises such as major oil companies and medical device manufacturers handling more than $20 million in monthly credit card volume.
He has deep expertise working with auto dealerships, both single-location and multi-location operations. Across his entire client base, the results are consistent: significant fee reductions, with some merchants realizing savings of 40–50%, and as much as 100% with compliant dual-pricing programs now available.
Exceptional customer service is the foundation of his success. Of all clients served, only seven have left the portfolio—one of whom continues to maintain an account as a backup. Departures occurred solely due to bank financing requirements or the implementation of proprietary integrated software that could not accommodate external processing.
Notably, Ciambotti has never raised processing rates for any client in his portfolio. This unwavering commitment, combined with proactive support and a network of strategic industry partners, allows him to deliver customized, proprietary solutions tailored to each business’s unique needs.
As a U.S.-domestic merchant processor, he provides reliable, transparent, and highly effective payment processing services built on trust and long-term partnerships.
Mr. Jeff Joslin: Board Advisor – Entrepreneur, Technology Visionary, Leader, and Mentor
Mr. Jeff Joslin is an entrepreneur and a technology visionary who is passionate about helping you grow your business by leveraging the most powerful technology on the planet, AI.
Mr. Joslin believes AI has become one of the most influential paradigms shifts in history and is transforming how people and communities engage with each other.
Mr. Joslin is also extremely passionate about leadership development and is convinced businesses in technology provide one of the best environments for new leaders to learn, grow, and thrive.