Management Team

James is originally from Houston Texas where, after receiving his primary education, was employed by Remington Oil & Gas to work on oil platforms in the early 2000’s. Following this, he moved to Panama in 2007 where he attended the UNIVERSIDAD AMERICANA and earned a law degree. While Mr. Gooden was earning his degree, he was employed by the law firm of Gray & Co as a legal assistant and later by Infante y Perez Almillano as a Para-legal.

After receiving his law degree, James achieved success in a number of business ventures in Panama. Among these were buying, renovating, and selling single-family homes, and purchasing and managing a fleet of Uber cars. In addition to being a key investor in the Colorada Fresh Pineapples pineapple plantation, James is very fluent in Spanish, and brings a wealth of knowledge with on the ground problem solving and management experience to the project. He also recently married his Panamanian fiancé and is obtaining his Panamanian citizenship.

Guillermo is an agronomic engineer and MD-2 pineapple specialist with a bachelor’s degree from Earth University in Costa Rica. During the last two decades he has actively participated in the development of major agriculture projects, with a focus on efficient use of all resources (labor, materials and equipment), with high levels of productivity and very high standards of product, social and environmental quality.

He began his career in large scale pineapple farming at Fresh Del Monte Produce in Costa Rica where he first served as a Quality Inspector. Guillermo then advanced to positions ranging from Agriculture Supervisor, Quality Assurance Manager, Operations Manager, Harvesting and Packing Superintendent, and finally Agriculture Superintendent.

During his tenure at Del Monte in Costa Rica, he oversaw all aspects of as much as 1,500 hectares of MD-2 pineapple production involving between 600 and 800 workers. This included operational control of all the stages of cultivation, starting with soil preparation, irrigation, planting, crop development, cultivation, harvesting and packing as well as development and implementation of short and long term production programs. He also oversaw all administrative responsibilities related to the position. Lastly, he was in charge of the implementation and monitoring of the different accreditations (ISO 14001, Global Gap, TNC, HACCP, GAP, GMP, ETI, etc.). In addition to Del Monte, he also held the position of Quality Assurance Manager at Frutas de Exportación Frutex S.A in Costa Rica.

After his many years of working in Costa Rica, he was offered the positon of Senior Manager of Fresh Fruit Operations at Del Monte Philippines Inc. in the Philippines. In this capacity, he oversaw all aspects of 6,500 hectares of MD-2 pineapple production including planning, execution and control of all the programs related with production starting with land prep, planting, crop care, harvest and packing. This included the technical component to ensure full compliance of programs in terms of productivity, yield and quality as well as properly planning and executing budgets related with headcount, material, services and labor. He also planned and executed the production program in coordination with the commercial department to fulfill all the requirements from their customers in Asia and Middle East.

Following his tenure in Costa Rica and the Philippines, Guillermo became the Technical Director at Agri Advisors S.A. in San Jose Costa Rica. Agri Advisories was created to assist and work with companies and producers of MD-2 pineapple in various regions around the world. This involves implementing modern and efficient crop management programs covering all stages of the process from soil preparation, planting, growing and crop protection, harvesting, post-harvest handling, packaging and cold chain. Likewise, their portfolio includes the development of nutrition programs that consider not only the needs of the crop but the protection of the environment where they are grown.

Mr. Ewert’s experience in land acquisition, project development, and sales & marketing began in late 1994 in Southern California and transitioned to Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia beginning in early 2007. He began his career as a land broker at the land division of Grubb & Ellis Company in San Diego California and following this held positions at Whittlesy Doyle Land, Amcal Multi-Housing, and John Laing Homes as either a land broker/development advisor or land acquisition manager.

Since relocating to Central America in early 2007, Don has had key involvement with various types of land development projects in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia from acquisition to sales and marketing. Don’s experience in the land business makes him a key part of the Colorada Fresh Pineapples pineapple project in Panama.

Jorge is fully bi-lingual and has lived in both the USA and Panama. As such, he is comfortable conducting business activities in both cultures and languages. He holds a license in business administration and accounting from the Interamerican University. His work experience ranges from sales and customer service in a variety of fields with companies based in both the USA and Panama.

More recently, Jorge has played a hands on role in land acquisition and land sales in Panama with the building and development community. In this role, he routinely worked with homebuilders, land developers along with arquitects and engineers. He brings multiple skills and talents to the management team at Colorada Fresh Pineapples.

Mark brings a proven track record as an accomplished Manager of Technical Services and Project Controls, from developing work processes, project set-up / start-up to directly managing Project Controls on projects, across a broad array of major capital projects, executed under the full spectrum of commercial structures that brings perspective to managing risk and ensuring decision quality.

His responsibilities have included developing work processes, procedures and training, claims management and claims support as well as risk Management programs. In addition, he has extensive experience in project start-up and implementation through baseline, initial project planning, and project Controls team management during execution. Further, Mark has project “cold eyes” reviews and internal audits (including recommendations for corrective action) along with systems development hands on experience.

His client interface responsibilities have included development of Decision Support Packages (DSP) for client investment decisions to help ensure good capital stewardship. Additionally, knowledge and experience in accounting, subcontract administration, claims and progress measurement provide a comprehensive understanding of project management and control processes.