Craig is the President and CEO of Grow Utah and the Founder of the RAMP program.  He has extensive experience in advising and assisting entrepreneurs in emerging businesses across a wide range of industries. He’s been the Owner/Executive/Partner in a variety of start-up businesses in industries including consumer audio, broadband, digital document systems, professional services and training. He’s also served as the senior advisor and strategist to numerous public and private entities seeking to create a robust entrepreneurial supportive ecosystem. Previously, he served as the Director of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur program in the Western U.S.

Brad has been a RAMP mentor for 5 years.  He is the founder of Snowbasin Equity Investments and recently retired as CEO of Setpoint Systems which was part of a roll-up of automation manufacturing companies sold to Hitachi. He has spent most of his career in the trenches with small to mid-sized businesses as CEO, President, CFO, and COO. He understands how to get and keep companies in the black by steering cash flow and EBITDA toward profitability.

As a nuts and bolts guy, he is ready to help businesses achieve their potential or turn around under-performance combining discipline and creativity in leadership; managerial, technical, functional skills; and strategic perspective to bring long-term growth and profitability. Through experience, he has learned how to settle down and standardize an organization’s operations to help it move forward.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Beirne (Bern) brings a vast wealth of knowledge, skill, industry connections, and experience to his clients. Over the collective years, his company’s products sold over $100 Million in retail sales in tens of thousands of storefronts around the globe.

Beirne started with a single $5 product (THE BAND sports watchbands) in his basement, and with his partner/brother grew his company to 75+ employees, hundreds of products, thousands of customers, and millions in sales. He’s been in the trenches and worn many hats, and been beaten up along the way.

For over a decade+, Beirne & the High Mountain team have worked with companies large & small helping guide innovators and established companies around the pitfalls and roadblocks that all businesses encounter, while applying valuable insight and connections to fuel new growth. From retail packaging concepts, POP displays, logistics, and more to sales plans, distribution & rep networks and tradeshows, Beirne has the “been there, done that” skills to bring real world scenarios and hands-on practical guidance to steer companies towards the straight line to success.

David Rupp is passionate about product development and loves sharing his expertise as a mentor in RAMP. Throughout his career, he has taken multiple products from concept to market. David has design and manufacturing expertise in fabrication, cnc machining, plastic injection molding and composites.

Currently, David owns and runs two businesses, Drift and Coaxed. Drift is an outdoor sporting goods company that manufactures and sells products using advanced materials. Drift’s flagship product, Drift boards, has earned a number of industry awards including 2018 Outdoor Retailer Innovation Award Finalist, 2019 ISPO Brandnew Finalist, and has most recently been co-branded with Burton Snowboards. Coaxed is Dave’s engineering consulting firm. Coaxed has done work for a number of companies including PSE Archery, LifeTime Products, and Snowie.

Before Drift and Coaxed, Dave was a design engineer at ENVE Composites and IMDS, designing high end bike components and medical devices, respectively. Dave graduated from Utah State University with a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and has a Master in Business Creation from the University of Utah.

Andrew Deceuster, PhD., brings both the practical engineering and product design insight to the RAMP members as well as the advanced methods of additive manufacturing. His work at an archery company included machining the prototypes on the CNC machine, making design revisions based on feedback and used rapid prototyping to print models to achieve the desired ergonomics for custom releases. He has industry experience in developing welding procedures for aerospace structural casting and has researched new welding methods to improve production and eliminate scrap. He is certified to weld on stainless steels, nickel based superalloys pre/post hip.

Andrew’s interests are in the design and prototyping arenas and helping innovators gain these valuable skill sets. He enjoys solving production problems such as: additive manufacturing, welding, thermal processing, mechanical design, and industrial design.

Justin Bott has been integral part of Grow Utah and its mentor initiatives from some 20 years. He specializes in marketing strategies including leveraging social media for product positioning and lead generation. He’s mentored over 100 startup companies within the Utah entrepreneur ecosystem.

Justin currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing for a SaaS manufacturing software company where he has created and built the entire suite of marketing assetts, channel development, lead generation programs, website marketing, channel partner program, social marketing and more.