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Dr. Rivard has a long history of entrepreneurship in the medical and health field. After earning his undergraduate and medical degrees from Loyola University of Chicago, he began a practice in the newest medical specialty of the time, emergency medicine. After 26 years – and having raised two children — he changed careers and founded Illinois Vein Specialists in Illinois in 2008, another growing medical specialty business. He also began diversifying his investments to focus on health and organic farmland. His interest in organic farming goes beyond profit. It also includes the mission of creating a more socially conscious and sustainable future for his children. Dr. Rivard is now reaching out to other physicians and health care professionals to bring attention to the varied health illnesses associated with our current food production system. Specifically, he is concerned about the growth of Type 2 diabetes, food allergies and various cancer incidences that may be associated with our food choices. He views investing in Iroquois Valley Farms as a chance to both reclaim our health and sustainably grow capital.
Mr. Ambriole, his wife, and his parents farm around 1,800 acres in Huntington County, Indiana near Ft. Wayne. Mr. Ambriole is the first farmer to join the Board and brings a wealth of experience and energy to the group. Currently, he farms 500 acres of certified organic land, half owned and half leased. An additional 300 acres of farmland is being transitioned to organic certification, including the Company’s Old Oak and Sparta Woods farms. Mr. Ambriole is an active user of cover crops (rye grass, buckwheat, oats, oil seed radishes and clovers) and has a custom cover crop seeding business, along with an organic fertilizer business using on-farm earthworm production. Along with the typical grain crops, he also grows organic greenhouse tomatoes and raises Nubian goats for local cheese production.
Mr. Ambriole was awarded Indiana State Star Farmer in 2008 and Huntington County Conservation Farmer in 2010. He is a Supervisor on the Huntington County Soil & Water Conservation Board and a member of the Organic Valley Grower Pool.
Ms. Dodge is a long-time farmer, creative entrepreneur, successful business owner, and energetic environmental activist. She has been Northeast Community Development Manager for Iroquois Valley Farms since 2013. She manages her family’s 350 acre farm in Pownal, Vermont, leasing it to several organic operators. She co-owns a flock of Katahdin sheep, and with her partners, manages them by the Alan Savory Holistic Management system. She is a former beefalo farmer, raised and marketed grass-fed beef before its importance to consumers became widely embraced. She is one of the pioneers of the locally-grown food movement, and created Taste Vermont, a bi-annual event in the ’90s which promoted public awareness of specialty farmers in Vermont and their importance to the Vermont brand.
Ms. Dodge served as a trustee of the Vermont Land Trust, where she took part in helping the organization move toward supporting diversified farms and farm acquisition programs. She is a member of the board of directors of the Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation, and serves as their liaison to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
She is an owner of The Mountain Goat, an outdoor outfitting store in Manchester, Vermont. She lives in Manchester with her husband, Dale Guldbrandsen, who partners with her in their Iroquois Valley Farms position.
Mr. Lau is an independent securities and commodities trader. He was previously a market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange for 16 years and has been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade for 20 years. He holds degrees from Lawrence University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Lau is a life member of the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club, and since 2010 has co-managed Two Roads Farm LLC, a 320 acre organic farm in central Illinois.
Mr. Mantoan is an advocate for ecological farming and farmland preservation. Mr. Mantoan was a managing partner at Accenture and consultant during his 30-year career in business. Mr. Mantoan served on the board of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee for twelve years and on the board of Wellspring Organic Farm for six years. He has served as a member of the Company’s Board since 2019. He received his BA and MA in Accounting from the University of Illinois.
Mr. Mantoan grew up in the farming community of Kankakee County, Illinois. Along with his siblings, he is a co-owner of his family's 100-acre certified organic crop farm in Kankakee County. Mr. Mantoan and his wife also own 200 acres of certified organic farmland in Washington County, Wisconsin. The farm is managed by his son, who is raising livestock on pasture and using permaculture methods to grow perennial crops. Mr. Mantoan resides in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.
Malaika Maphalala is a Private Wealth Advisor and Partner at Natural Investments LLC, a national SEC registered Investment Advisory firm that has specialized in exclusively socially and environmentally responsible investments for over 30 years. A lifelong advocate for social change, Malaika is driven by a passion for finding innovative approaches to bringing people and resources together to address social and environmental complexities.
In her role as Wealth Advisor, Malaika provides portfolio management and financial planning for high-net-worth individuals, families, and institutions across the country that want to use their wealth as a tool to transform society and economic systems using humane, restorative, and ecological principles as the guide. She specializes in Regenerative Investing, which is investment that directly supports the regenerative capacity of communities and ecosystems. Her areas of special interest and expertise encompass investments in sustainable agriculture, community development, clean and renewable energy, cooperative businesses, and microfinance.
Malaika received her BA from the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies at the University of Redlands and she holds a Certified Private Wealth Advisor® designation from the Investments and Wealth Institute in conjunction with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
She currently lives full time on the island of Hawaii, her home for almost 25 years, where she and her family tend and enjoy their beloved, rural, solar-powered, organic farm and homestead.
After a 30-year career in corporate finance and real estate, Mr. Miller returned to his native Illinois landscape in 2005 by purchasing a 10 acre farm from a family estate of his relatives. Keeping the farm in the family, he re-connected with local relatives and friends farming organically. In 2007, he co-founded Iroquois Valley Farms LLC to enable a new generation of farmers and investors to support healthy food production. Mr. Miller is currently CEO and President of the Company.
Prior to developing sustainable farmland ventures, Mr. Miller held executive positions at Bank of America, Santa Fe Southern Pacific and First Chicago Corporation, including the management and oversight of large leasing portfolios. In 2008 he formed Working Farms Capital, an entity seeding new ventures in sustainable agriculture while providing transitional farm management services.
Mr. Miller is a 1975 graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, and a 1978 graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. Mr. Miller views education as the primary key to changing the health and economics of our current food production systems. In that capacity, Mr. Miller is a founding member of the advisory board for Loyola University’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability and is a recipient of the Institute’s first Damen Award, recognizing his services related to positive environmental change. Mr. Miller resides in Winnetka, Illinois with his wife and family. He continues to restore his small organic farm in Iroquois County, a family heritage since 1875, now being transitioned to native prairie and permaculture production.
Mr. Miller is a co-founder of Iroquois Valley Farms LLC, and has served as it Chief Executive Officer continuously since the company’s founding in 2007. He has previously served on the Board of Managers.
Rory, a 5th-generation farmer, and his wife Amber have one daughter and farm their family’s 500- acre Beyercrest Farm in southeastern Minnesota near Rollingstone in Winona County. Their farm is diversified as an organic dairy, beef cattle, and grains; and makes extensive use of rotational pasture grazing and cover crops.
Rory is active in organic and sustainable farming advocacy as exemplified by his membership on Organic Valley’s Dairy Executive Committee and as a Director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. He is active in his community, especially his church, St. John’s Lutheran Church of Lewiston, Minnesota.
Rory has a BS in Animal Science from University of Wisconsin – River Falls, and an MBA from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.
D.D. is private investor and former attorney. She is an advocate for local, sustainable, organic, and regeneratively grown foods, with particular interest in creative uses of capital to fund the large-scale expansion of this sector. She is a co-founder (2011) and continuing member of the Sustainable Local Food Investment Group (SLoFIG), a 30-member, mission-based, angel investor network based in Chicago, Illinois. From 2010 through 2014, she was an investor in Two Roads Farm LLC, a single-farm investment partnership founded by David Miller and Dr. Stephen Rivard which merged with Iroquois Valley Farms LLC in 2014.
As an attorney from 1992 to 2007, D.D. was licensed with the Illinois and Missouri bars, and licensed to practice before federal courts in several districts and circuits. Her work included extensive criminal law practice. Her academic credentials include a BA from Dartmouth College and a JD from Georgetown University.
D.D. and her husband, Johannes, have two sons, and reside in Chicago, Illinois. They also have a small farm near Reeseville, Wisconsin. D.D. is active in non-profit and political fundraising, and is a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the American Youth Foundation.