FROG FUEL - Key Persons
Aaron Saari is a modern marketing aficionado who helps mission-driven startups and small businesses grow through a combination of automation, digital marketing, and strategic storytelling. He creates marketing systems that minimize human and financial expenses while maximizing exposure and sales volume. He's also a West Point grad and was an Army officer with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in a former life.
Akash may be a late bloomer in the OCR community but that has not deterred him from already achieving some major milestones; 30x Spartan Open Wins, 2018 Spartan World Open Series Champion, 2018 Spartan U.S. Open National Series Champion, 2018 15th place overall World's Toughest Mudder OCR World Championships (OCRWC) Qualifier 2017, 2018, 2019, 3X 1st place Bone Frog Elite Endurance.
In his time away from OCR and training, Akash works as a chiropractor and professor of Biology. He contributes much of his recent successes to the science of nutrition and exercise physiology. "It is amazing how an ordinary person can be extraordinary". Even as a slightly older athlete he plans to continue to grow and improve in the sport.
Alexander is an experienced executive who has worked for many Fortune 250 companies managing departments such as M&A, Business Strategy, Information Technology, Risk Management and Cyber Security. He has served on many corporate and industry boards (Tipping Point Technologies, CISO Governing Board). In 2005, he co-founded Nicholas K Clothing, a high-end retail fashion line. He was a former United States Navy SEAL.
2018 AAU Jr. Olympic Games 3000M national champion. 3K Cross-Country National Champion.2019 AAU Jr Olympic 3000m Champion.2019 Footlocker Southwest XC 3k Champion and broke the 3k course record for Footlocker Southwest in the 11-12 age group. Went 4:43 in the 2020 Schrader mile in as a 7th grader.
Chris is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Brown Belt under Travis Tooke out of Houston, Texas, Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu Houston. He is also an active Jiu-Jitsu coach and competitor at Midtown MMA Houston. He competes nationally and internationally. His accomplishments include: 2019 European Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship bronze medalist, 2017 Pan Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship bronze medalist, 2017 Mexico City International Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship Champion, 2016 World Master Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship Champion, 3x Houston International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship Champion 2017/2014/2010 and 2019/2018 silver medalist, 2017 Austin International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship silver medalist, 2017 Dallas Spring International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship bronze medalist and 2017 Dallas Spring International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu NoGi Championship silver medalist.
Claudia is a high-level runner and Triathlete with "All American" status 4 years in a row. She won the National Championship title (2016) and runner-up (2017) in her age group at the long course National Championships and placed overall female in many Triathlons over the years.
Claudia qualified for the ITU and Ironman 70.3 World Championships 5 times. Her career highlight so far is, when she placed 1st in her Age group at Ironman 70.3 in Augusta in September 2018 and will compete at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nice, France in 2019.
In 2017 she competed at the World Championships in Canada, representing Team USA and placed 8th overall and 1st American in her age group. She is a Ironman certified Triathlon coach and works with Triathletes and runners of all levels via online coaching.
Daniel Weinand joined Shopify in 2005 and co-founded the Shopify platform that launched in 2006. He was the Chief Design Officer since 2008 and also served as the Chief Culture Officer up to a successful IPO. Daniel Weinand is currently a co-founder and partner for NuBlu and Blue Pacific Studios.
Daniel is a recipient of Ontario Business Journal's Forty under 40 award and has been named in INC. magazine's 30 under 30 list. He is currently writing music full-time and traveling for poker games in his spare time.
Prior to joining OP2 Labs, Eric worked in senior sales and marketing positions for SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Kenwood Electronics. Notable are his 10 years at SIRIUS, where he directed the retail launch nationwide and helped to secure majority market share at several big box retailers, including but not limited to Best Buy, Circuit City and Walmart.
Jerry was a Christian Minister and church planter for thirty two years. He retired and is competing full time in Ironman distance triathlons. He is sponsored by Chainwheel Drive, Rudy Project, Kennedy Law Racing and Ventum Bike. Jerry is the 2018 Ironman 70.3 World Champion, 2018 70.3 All World Athlete Ranking 1st in Word-1st in Nation, and 2018 Overall All World Athlete Ranking 1st in World-1st in Nation.
George Grubbs III comes from a long line of luxury car dealership owners. George led his Infiniti team to be the #1 volume Infiniti dealership in the world and continues to set retail records for the Infiniti brand. He owns the largest Infiniti dealership in the world along with Acura and Volvo dealerships in Grapevine, Texas.
Jeff Byers is a former Navy SEAL who attended BUDs at age 19. Now 43, he has over 45 deployments and 3000 days deployed to combat zones between the Navy and USG.
Kaison is a former Youth USA wrestler with eight state titles in collegiate and freestyle wrestling.
He holds 19 Oregon state records, 9 national records, and 8 world records, in the bench press, deadlift, and push-pull, across three different age groups and seven different weight classes with the WABDL, (World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters Federation) . In 2017, he competed in the CrossFit Open and placed 129th worldwide, 1st in Oregon. In 2018, he placed 62nd worldwide, 25th in the United States, and 1st in Oregon.
He considers himself a regular dude trying to stay healthy through fitness, good nutrition and by making good life choices every day. His plan is to enter the field of exercise science someday and become a physical therapist to help other people recover from injuries.
Job Titles:
- BJJ Multi X World Champion. Head Instructor at Alliance Headquarters
Michael Janke is a 6-time founder, accomplished entrepreneur and former member of SEAL Team 6. Mike is Co-Founder of Data Tribe - a unique startup studio and venture capital firm, specializing in commercial technology startups focused on CyberSecurity and Data Science.
Job Titles:
- 4 Guinness Book of World Records. Owner and Founder of Twelve Labors Project and Former Navy Veteran
Richard Smith is a competitive Obstacle Course Race (OCR) athlete. Over the past 6 years, he has competed in over 70 OCR events around the country with several top 10 finishes and multiple top 3 finishes. He finished in the top 50 of the Spartan Race Elite Point Series Standings in 2013, 2014 and 2015 race seasons. The highlight of his career was a 3rd place overall finish at the 2015 Hawaii Spartan Sprint while on his honeymoon. Rich moved to Clute, Texas in 2015 and has enjoyed meeting new people with like-minded fitness goals. When he is not training for his next OCR race he enjoys coaching CrossFit and playing sports with friends.
Job Titles:
- Professional Boxer 14 - 0, 7 by KO