In 2013, Ryan was the first American farmer in 57 years to grow, successfully harvest, and process a commercial-scale industrial hemp crop in the United States.

Ryan is a fourth generation Colorado farmer in Southeastern Colorado. Ryan spent over 20 years building custom homes and has very deep background in construction as well as farming. This experience in the building industry gives Ryan expertise and knowledge needed to create hemp building materials with the confidence that they will not fail. After creating Rocky Mountain Hemp, Inc., (RMH) in 2013, Ryan recently purchased the family farm from his father. RMH is dedicated to leading efforts in legalizing industrial hemp farming in the United States. Rocky Mountain Hemp continues to pursue the development of our hemp seed genetics while perfecting the nuances of hemp farming in Colorado.

Tom had been in the cotton industry for 40 years when he saw the writing on the wall and converted a cotton gin so that it could process hemp.

Along with others in the co-op, Pires is in the process of converting the Riverdale, California gin location in to something new. It’s one of the only gins in the country working toward processing hemp for fiber.

The gin can process the hemp stem into fiber that has a multitude of different uses.

“The high concentration of the CBD or the flower portion, that’s gone,” says Pires. “This came through a regular grain harvester or a combine. It’s now modified to process hemp or to harvest hemp.”

Tom is the Board of Directors of the California Cotton Ginners Association and knows this industry better than anyone else in it.

Mike is an experienced industrialist that has been developing products at Western Fiber for the last ten years.

He is an early pioneer of passive, airtight and energy-efficient buildings. He worked on the earliest high-performance buildings in the United States, which predated the Passive House movement by several decades!

Mike uses this knowledge and decades of experience in the building industry to create innovative products for high-performance green buildings, including insulation, panels, and wood preservative products.

Mike often speaks at conferences across North America. He was a featured speaker at 2019 Texas Hemp Industries Association and at the Hemp Paviliion at the 2020 World Ag Expo.

Matt is an experienced and proven sales leader with a demonstrated history of excellence exemplified by the recognition of achievements of members of his team.

Matt has an educational background in animal sciences, and has worked in sales for over fourteen years.

Matt is an experienced manager of large teams. His role at Western Fiber is business development and sales.

Matt maintains an international network of hemp product supply partners that are affiliated with Western Fiber under the umbrella group called, The Ambary Collective.

Matt is a continuous learner and has interests in international trade, tax law, payment systems, fintech and leadership.