As co-founder and managing partner, Ross co-chairs Manna Tree’s investment committee and drives the firm’s investment strategy through his leadership of Manna Tree’s investor relations team.
Ross has built his career around balancing investment decisions, market expansion, and leadership within organizations to reach optimal scale. This mindset landed Ross on the Worthy 100 list in 2021 as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the country building firms that are making a difference.
His experience growing investments came originally as an operating President where he scaled his firm 400%, and exited to a private equity investor in 2009. His industry leading efforts placed him on the Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing firms in his category due to an innovative mortgage program he co-developed with two of the nation’s leading publicly traded homebuilders.
In 2009, Ross founded an advisory firm Strategic Architect, where he worked closely with over 20 companies annually, each with between $5M and $500M in revenue. He counseled the C-Suite and family offices on investment decisions, market expansion strategies, and how to scale teams and operations.
Ross has trained 5,000+ leaders on implementing strategies linked to cash flow, debt structures, sales strategies, and marketing plans to unlock growth. Clients have included: the PGA Tour, Vail Resorts, DOW, and the University of Colorado.
Ross earned his finance degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, an Executive Leadership Scholar at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and a Financial Management Certificate from Cornell University. He has volunteered at the University of Colorado to help launch the first-ever leadership certificate program, and has been active in supporting the school through experiential leadership retreats in Vail, serving as an advisor for the Natural and Organic MBA program, and supporting students to develop a values-based approach in business.
Outside the office, Ross loves to share nature and longevity hacks with his friends and family; he is an avid hiker, skier, biker, and fly-fisherman.
