Erica Centeno is the Interim CEO of California Harvesters. Erica brings over 12 years working in agriculture and agribusiness to CHI with a particular focus on hiring, training, and motivating employees, and resolving employee issues. Prior to joining CHI, Erica worked at Sun World International, where she managed logistics and operations, between the sales and farming teams, handled costs and projections, and maintained bookkeeping and accounting records. Erica was born and raised in Delano and has deep personal connections to the farmworker community in the Valley. 

Elvira Mendoza is CHI’s Director of Employee Relations. Prior to joining California Harvesters, Elvira previously worked as the Assistant to the Vice President of Farming at Sun World International, bringing years of experience helping to track and coordinate farm labor crews for one of the largest table grape companies. She has an eye for detail and takes pride in her work. Since joining the company, Elvira has developed all the policies and procedures for CHI employees and develops all of the workforce training curriculum, including our most recent Pre-Harvest Training. Elvira is focused on making sure CHI workers have the best, most professional working conditions possible. 

Fernando Perez is CHI’s Operations Manager. Fernando has worked in agriculture in the Central Valley since 2005, from working as a swamper to supervising shipping, packing, and receiving for a large table grape packhouse. Fernando is born and raised in Bakersfield and received his Bachelor’s in Computer Science from California State University, Bakersfield.

Rupal Patel is a Principal and Founder at Good Scout Capital. She brings 12 years private equity experience managing $150 million in renewable energy and agricultural capital investments and 10 years organizing and advocacy experience focused on poverty, labor and immigration issues. Rupal has developed 1.6 GW of renewable energy projects, including the 579 MW Solar Star Project, ranked in the top 10 largest photovoltaic projects in the world. She developed and managed an inaugural Corporate Social Responsibility program for one of California’s largest table grape producers gaining awards and recognition from Walmart, Costco, and Fair Trade USA. Rupal received her B.A. in Sociology and M.P.P. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Brendan Martin is founder and director of The Working World, a cooperative financial institution and business incubator based in Argentina, Nicaragua, and the United States.  Brendan originally moved to Argentina in 2004 to work with a group of Argentines looking to support the “recovered factory” phenomenon, and out of this was born The Working World financial institution and its methods of non-extractive finance and just-in-time “evergreen” credit. Brendan is a 2009 Ashoka fellow, a two-time Ashoka Globalizer, a nominated Prime Mover, and a frequent speaker on the solidarity and cooperative economy.

L. Lloys Frates, Ph.D. is President at Frutura: a global produce company with a focus on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG). Previous to Frutura, she was a Managing Director at Renewable Resources Group (RRG), an L.A.-based impact investor and asset manager focusing on sustainable agriculture and water in the U.S., Latin America, and Australia, where it has over 75,000 acres under management globally. In addition to CHI, Lloys serves on the Board of Directors of Agrícola Don Ricardo, a Peru grower-packer-shipper of permanent specialty crops. She has experience in organized labor and served as an Executive Board Member of UAW 2865, the union for graduate student employees at the University of California. Lloys is an elected member of the Southern California chapter of the International Women’s Forum. She earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a B.A. from Sweet Briar College.

Sejal Patel is CEO/President of Akasha Strategies, where she assists her clients in design and implementation of Project Management needs, from renewable energy project buildout to creating Corporate Social Responsibility programs. In her former role at Renewable Resources Group (RRG), Sejal gained expertise on agricultural asset management, California’s water markets and implementing sustainability measures throughout RRG’s agricultural portfolio. Prior to her work in agriculture and water, Sejal worked for various economic justice organizations focused on research and policy design in environmental justice, the Affordable Care Act and worker’s rights.  She earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jim Houston is the Administrator of the California Farm Bureau Federation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for California’s farmers and ranchers and finding solutions to problems facing agriculture and rural communities. Prior to his appointment as administrator, Jim served in various roles at CFBF; he was manager of the Governmental Affairs Division, manager of the Legal Services Division, and the organization’s administrative counsel. Jim also brings six years of experience from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in legislation, public engagement, and administration, including serving as Undersecretary of CDFA from 2015-2017. Prior to that he represented various agricultural clients and also served 5 years in the State Capitol working on agricultural policy. Jim received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and earned his J.D. from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.

Rick Wartzman founded and leads the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society at the Drucker Institute. He previously served as Executive Director of the Drucker Institute from its founding in 2007 until early 2016. Wartzman is a regular contributor to Fast Company, where his commentary was recognized by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing with its Best in Business award for 2018. His latest book, The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America was published by PublicAffairs in 2017. Before joining the Institute, Rick worked for two decades in newspapers. He began his career at The Wall Street Journal, where he served in a variety of positions, including White House correspondent and founding editor of the paper’s weekly California section. He joined the Los Angeles Times in 2002 as business editor and, in that role, helped shape “The Wal-Mart Effect,” which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Rick is the co-author, with Mark Arax, of the best-seller The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire, which was selected as one of the 10 best books of 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle and one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year by the Los Angeles Times.

D. Cole Frates is Founder and Principal at RRG and co-leads the Firm's Investment Committee. Prior to starting RRG, he served as president of Samda Inc., which he sold to Azurix Corporation, where he worked as Vice President. Cole earned an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from the University of Tulsa.