Mr. Kelly is CEO of MAKE Technology LLC.  He is a senior strategist and product executive who builds companies on the front edge of innovation in blockchain, big data, multimodal distribution, content, and adtech.

He has worked in both advisory and operational roles with startups and Fortune 100 companies. Positions include  Founder/ CEO of Make LLC, Casper Labs, Playsino Inc, and Veeker Inc, as well as leadership roles at International Game Technology, Pinnacle Systems, 20th Century Fox, Booz, Allen & Hamilton,  A&E Networks, and Billboard Magazine.

Mr. Kelly has been investing in and advising blockchain companies since 2013.  He has led over $1 billion in M&A transactions over his career and held numerous board positions for public and private companies.  He holds an MBA from Columbia University and is a voting member for the Academy Awards through the Producers Guild of America.

Mr. Forni is the Founder & President of Select Oil at CuraLeaf and previously was CEO of Cura Cannabis Solutions. He has become one of the most notable faces in the cannabis industry. A third-generation Portlander, the young CEO and entrepreneur founded Select, the best-selling cannabis brand in the U.S., by pioneering what is now an industry standard vape cartridge, free of silica fiberglass and helping push forward hardware innovation. Mr. Forni is known as the leader behind the largest acquisition in cannabis history; in May 2019 Cura Partners Inc.’s Select brand made headlines for its record-breaking, billion dollar acquisition by Curaleaf, creating the world’s largest legal cannabis company by revenue.

It’s there that Mr. Forni will continue to lead Select’s rapid expansion across the U.S. From creating better hardware, to establishing a better supply chain that is free of pesticides, to building a better company that provides health insurance, benefits, and a higher minimum wage – his influence in the cannabis industry is built around his relentless pursuit of progress. An entrepreneur by trade, Mr. Forni has always had a hand in building companies, but found his calling in cannabis in 2015 when he began pioneering processes and setting standards in one of the fastest-growing industries in the world.

In his role at Cura, Mr. Forni was honored as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Cannabis by High Times Magazine in 2017 and 2018, and as one of the 40 Under 40 to Watch by Marijuana Venture Magazine in 2018. Under his leadership, the company placed 45^th on the Inc 500 in 2018, achieved a top three place in Portland Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies in 2019 and The Fastest growing company in the History of Oregon in 2018, and was named as one of Oregon’s Best Companies to Work for by Oregon Business Magazine in 2018 and 2019. Mr. Forni received his BS degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of Oregon. He played hockey in college and still loves it to this day.

Mr. Warren is the founder of Sage Venture Partners and co-founder and former General Partner of Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm with over $1.2 billion under management. He has over 45 years of experience in venture capital and leveraged buyout investing, with experience ranging from consolidating fragmented industries with growth-through-acquisition strategies to funding and providing board leadership to start-up companies. He serves on the boards of numerous private and public companies.

Mr. Mastropietro is a seasoned financial professional with extensive experience in the areas of accounting, operations, and finance.  Prior to joining Ropart, he spent 16 years in several financial roles with companies ranging in size from micro-cap to Fortune 500, including 2 years at the world’s largest hedge fund.  Mr. Mastropietro is a former NCAA student athlete having competed in soccer on athletic and academic scholarships.

Mr. Mastropietro received a B.S. in Accounting from Salve Regina University.

Mr. Al Maskari is Executive Chairman of Al Maskari Holding (AMH).  AMH is the privately-owned holding company of the Al Maskari family portfolio. AMH traces its foundation to 1968 with the establishment of the Al Maskaria Group in Abu Dhabi to engage in petroleum trading and oil field services. Over the past 50 years, AMH has expanded to comprise diversified enterprises with international investments and operations.

In addition to chairing AMH, Mr. Al Maskari serves as a board director on select subsidiaries and joint venture partnerships. Prior to joining his family conglomerate as the third generation of leadership, Mr. Al Maskari conducted strategic engagements in the financial, petroleum, and public sectors as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Mr. Al Maskari sponsors philanthropic initiatives across the MEASA region through his family’s non-profit endowment Al Maskari Foundation. He is an Aspen Institute Fellow, serves on the UAE University Leadership Council Advisory Board, and is Chairman of Endeavor UAE.

He received his MBA with Distinction from Yale University’s School of Management, graduated Summa Cum Laude in Economics from Rollins College, and is an alumnus of Choate Rosemary Hall.

Mr. Goergen is the founder and Chairman of G5 Capital LLC, a growth equity firm focused on early stage investing and providing advisory services to high growth, powerfully branded, fast moving consumer products, services and technology companies. He also serves as the Chairman of Silver Star Brands, a Wisconsin-based internet retail and catalog company, which is a majority owned company within the portfolio.

Prior to his leadership of G5 Capital, Mr. Goergen served for 15 years as a member of the management team of Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), ultimately as the Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors. From 1994 to 2016, Blyth was a leading, publicly-traded, multinational holding company which at its peak achieved revenue of over $1.5 billion. Blyth specialized in the management and growth of direct selling, internet retail and direct marketing companies. In 2015, Mr. Goergen led the successful sale and privatization of Blyth to the Carlyle Group.

Before joining Blyth, Mr. Goergen served as Account & New Media Director for McCann-Erickson, where he oversaw E-commerce development and Internet marketing efforts for consumer products and services accounts. Prior to that, he competed on the ATP / ITF professional tennis tours from 1993 to 1994.

Mr. Goergen graduated in 2000 with an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1993 with a B.A. from the University of Richmond. He currently serves on the Wharton Entrepreneurship Advisory Board as well as the Board of the American Catalog Mailers Association.

A classic entrepreneurial success story, Robert B. Goergen created an entire industry when he expanded his regional candle business into a global operation and guided Blyth, Inc. to a position as industry leader in candles and home fragrance products, ultimately selling the firm in 2015 to Carlyle Group.

Mr. Goergen is also Founder and Chairman of The Ropart Group, a private equity firm that has invested over $100 million in more than 25 companies since 2001, ranging from startups to buyouts, across an array of industries.

Previously, Mr. Goergen was a Partner with McKinsey & Company and was Managing General Partner of The Sprout Group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.  Prior to that, he worked with McCann-Erickson and Proctor & Gamble.

Since 1997, Mr. Goergen has served on the Wharton School Board of Overseers of The University of Pennsylvania. He initiated the Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program with a path-breaking gift of $10 million gift in 1998. This program is one of the largest and most diverse academic programs of its kind in the world.  More than 2,000 students and entrepreneurs each year participate in courses that combine theory with practice, allowing students to gain access and insight from the entrepreneurial business community.

Mr. Goergen has served the University of Rochester as a member of the Board of Trustees since 1982 and as chairman from 1990 to 2003.  In 2008, he was awarded the university’s highest alumni honor, presented in recognition of his outstanding career achievement and service.  Mr. Goergen and his wife, Pamela, have gifted more than $40 million to the university, including grants to support its undergraduate programs and annual awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching, and lead gifts to the Robert B. Goergen Athletic Center, the Robert B. Goergen Hall for Biomedical Engineering & Optics and the Goergen Institute for Data Science.

Mr. Goergen is currently a member of the National Gallery of Art Collectors Committee in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Whitney Museum in New York City. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. until 2010.

Mr. Goergen received his undergraduate degree in physics, graduating cum laude from the University of Rochester, and received his MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.

Mr. Stofer is a Partner at The Ropart Group. He helps lead Ropart’s investments in venture capital, growth equity, and private equity/debt, including a current portfolio of over 25 companies and several cryptocurrencies. He has advised numerous portfolio company management teams and has served on several boards, currently as an observer of Study Hall and advisor to Hypescale Global Solutions (HGS), and previously as a director of Digital Traffic Systems, QC Laboratories, and iCentris. He has been with Ropart since 2006 when he joined the firm as an Associate. Previously he worked in the Transaction Services and Risk & Advisory practices of KPMG, where he advised clients on M&A and strategic consulting engagements.

Mr. Stofer received an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and a BS in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

Managing Partner – Ropart Asset Management Funds

Manager / Investment Committee – Ropart Investments, LLC

Executive Chairman – Hypescale Global Solutions (HGS)

Founder – Make International, Inc. 

Special Advisor to the CEO – Casper Labs

Venture Partner – Draper Goren Holm

Venture Partner – Falkon Ventures

Mr. Goergen prides himself on his dedication to mentoring young CEOs and working closely with more experienced executives in growing technology companies.  RAM has made dozens of investments in technology and technology-enabled consumer products companies over the last 20 years – from early investments in web 1.0 (Allrecipes.com) and infrastructure (VeriCenter, a data hosting center owner-operator), to current investments in blockchain and web 3.0.  In addition, RAM has made numerous investments in the cannabis industry including vertically-integrated MSOs (Cura Partners/Curaleaf, GoldLeaf, PCH), pure play full spectrum CBD (Prospect Farms) as well as ancillary technology and services (14^th Round).

Mr. Goergen has served in the C-Suite (e.g., ViSalus) and on over a dozen corporate Boards of Directors during his career, including: (current) Crexendo (NASDAQ:CXDO), Hyperscale Global Solutions (HGS), Study Hall Ltd; (previous) Cura Partners, Digital Traffic Systems, and QC Laboratories, among many others.

Over the last several years, Mr. Goergen has increasingly become an advocate of all aspects of cryptocurrencies and the use of blockchain as an integral part of software infrastructure.  He manages an active token portfolio and currently acts as Special Advisor to the CEO of Casper Labs (www.casperlabs.io) and as a Venture Partner for Draper Goren Holm (www.drapergorenholm.com).

MAKE International is a globally-focused blockchain technology services company that helps its clients by designing and building the world’s most impactful blockchain applications and services to connect people and businesses. Through its extensive experience, MAKE International is uniquely positioned to create revenue, save costs and improve business processes for SMBs, large enterprises and government entities alike. For more information, visit www.makeinternational.io.

Prior to founding the RAM Funds in 2001, Mr. Goergen began his career in mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance at Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette (“DLJ”), where he executed several billion dollars’ worth of buy-side and sell-side transactions.  After DLJ, Mr. Goergen was Director of Mergers & Acquisitions at Blyth, Inc., a leading global designer and marketer of personal and decorative products.