Jim Green

President and Founding Partner of Las Vegas Greens, LLC and Desert Greens H2O

Jim Green brings many years of broad experience in the agricultural business to Las Vegas Greens/Desert Greens as well as a critical imagination and exposure to all parts ot the agricultural world. From growing up on the family farm, which still exists and in which he is still an owner, to starting his career after college selling seeds, to trading and hedging in agricultural commodities, his understanding of agriculture and its markets help place LVG/DG in an advantageous position. Intellectual properties and designs on Hydroponics ideas with A Frames will help boost this advantage.

Mr. Green’s agricultural experience began during his childhood on a grain and livestock farm in Henderson County in Western Illinois. Farming and agriculture have been part of his life, from seed to sow. He attended Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance with a minor in Economics. Mr. Green supported himself through college by working for DeKalb Ag Research. Upon graduation, he entered the DeKalb management training program and was quickly promoted to District Sales Manager. In 1979, Mr. Green entered the Management Trainee Program at Heinold Commodities. After completion of the program, he was appointed Regional Sales Manager of Heinold’s Central Region. He served in this position until 1985, when he accepted a position as National Sales Manager of Merchants Trading. At Merchants, he diversified his pursuits by establishing a retail business as well as expanding the firm’s local and introducing broker business. In 1988, Mr. Green joined Balfour Maclaine as Senior Vice-President and returned its troubled Chicago operations to profitability. In December 1990, Mr. Green and Mr. Swinford, along with a group of colleagues, left Balfour Maclaine and founded the Livestock Division of Rosenthal Collins Group, a Chicago based Futures commission merchant. In February 1991, Livestock Division of Rosenthal Collins Group registered as a branch office of RCG with Mr. Green as its manager and associated person. In 2019 Marex Spectron purchased Rosenthal Collins, and Jim Green continues to lead the Livestock Division. Jim is also a founding principal of Rosetta Capital Management, a firm that has specialized in agricultural trading for over 20 years. He and the late Michael Swinford registered RCM in May 1997. Mr. Green is responsible for the management of all aspects of RCM’s operations and trading decisions.

Throughout his financial career, Mr. Green has maintained involvement in all aspects of his family farm; it is his grounding and True North.

Tom Blount

Grower and Hydroponic Expert and Founding Partner Las Vegas Greens, LLC and Desert Greens H2O

Tom Blount is a premiere hydroponic systems designer, multi-crop/multi-application grower and founding partner of Las Vegas Greens/Desert Greens H2O. Mr. Blount and Mr. Green erected their flagship greenhouse in March 2016, and filled the structure with Mr. Blount’s next-generation, low-carbon footprint, hydroponic and aeroponic grow systems. Mr. Blount is responsible for all Management and Direction of Agricultural projects. Mr. Blount works closely with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Services (UNCES) to document his systems’ production benchmarks and nutritional data on numerous crops with White Paper support.

Before Mr. Blount attended Diablo Valley College, he became passionate about gardening, and studied plant biology and landscape design. He used his free days from school to work as a landscaper with 5/3 Investments and his evening position was with ARC Labs. From 1988 to 1992 he began to dedicate all of his spare time to hydroponic R&D coupled with production, supplying a restaurant he owned in Hawaii with fresh, consistent produce. An ill father required Mr. Blount to return to the mainland in 2005, and he fell headlong into full development of an efficient, closed-loop, hydroponic grow system with maximum production capacity and negligible waste. Since then Mr. Blount has been involved in a multitude of research and development projects (offered upon request). Tom Blount is a pioneer in the field of hydroponics, and is one of its foremost experts. In addition to his work with numerous universities and laboratories, he lectures and consults for government agencies and NGO’s.

Kip Thompson

Marketing, Client Service, and Strategy

Mr. Thompson brings over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing. He has served in multiple capacities, primarily in the managed futures industry advising both private and institutional clientele in alternative investments. The majority of his career has been involved in the due diligence, fund creation, maintenance, marketing, and sales development of creative strategies and portfolio selection services.

Mr. Thompson’s career in the alternative investment industry began with Prudential Bache in 1987, and then with the managed futures department of Kidder Peabody. While there, his primary responsibility was the Commonwealth of Virginia’s account in managed futures.

Mr. Thompson was with Man Financial’s office for managed futures in San Diego, California, and then with Granite Asset Management and Daniel B. Stark & Co. also in San Diego. There, Mr. Thompson was responsible overseeing the operations for various portfolios including a large private fund of funds of Commodity Trading Advisors—from the due diligence on the individual investments to the communications with the clients. During this same time, Mr. Thompson was also given the charge to create a specialized grouping of sector-specific CTAs to meet the mandates of a private hedge fund in the energy markets.

In Chicago, Mr. Thompson worked in managed futures first with AlphaMetrix and then with Rosetta Capital Management on diverse aspects of managed futures.

He is now based in San Diego, California, and is with Paradox Commodities, a consulting and third-party marketing firm and owns an insurance agency.