THE BENCH
Execution Has Names.
Every line of AFG is owned by an operator who has run industrial systems before.
Sourcing. Manufacturing. Compliance. Logistics. Commercial. Operations — carried by named operators, already on the clock.
Nothing here is delegated. Everything is owned.
Accountability is structural, not promised.
Strategic food infrastructure for the Americas.
THE BENCH
Named. Accountable. On the floor.
Juan E. Tavares
Executive Chairman & CEO
Fifth-generation member of the Tavares family, a hundred-year industrial family from the Dominican Republic. Phillips Andover; University of Miami, BBA Entrepreneurship 2002. Co-founded Biologique, AvanzaMe (acquired by Banco Popular), LendingPoint, and Sylvan Food Group. Atlanta Business Chronicle 40 Under 40. Leads the holding, the capital structure, and the institutional relationships that keep the platform accountable to U.S. and Dominican counterparties alike.
Remer Lane
Chief Strategy & Growth Officer
35+ years in agribusiness leadership, M&A advisory, and global supply-chain strategy. Former Booz Allen Hamilton consultant. Background spans Savannah Foods & Industries, Heritage Capital Group, and Oaklins. At Americas Food Gateway, leads the institutional strategy, the buyer-facing commercial architecture, and the capital-side narrative that translates platform capacity into contracted growth.
Ricardo Rosa
Chief Innovation & Development Officer
25+ years industrializing innovative food products — from formulation to commercial scale. Co-Founder of Sylvan Foods. Leads the product-development pipeline and the commercialization of new formats: turning ingredient science into manufactured product the institutional buyer can specify, certify, and reorder.
Atilio Guzmán
Head of Compliance & Food Safety
25+ years in food safety, regulatory compliance, and quality systems. Architect of the certification stack — consistently achieving BRCGS certification at AA audit grade — and the daily owner of FDA facility registration, SMETA, and FSVP coverage. The certification gate the platform operates behind is his operational artifact.
Ariel Valdez
Chief Financial Officer
Owns financial structuring and capital markets for the platform. Leads investor relations, financial modeling, and the capital-deployment strategy that pairs operational milestones to the funding sequence. The financial discipline the institutional partner requires sits under his sign-off.
Jesús Santiago
VP, Operations
20+ years in food manufacturing. Manages the JBT IQF production line, cold-chain logistics, and facility operations. Owns the daily operating discipline that keeps throughput aligned with the certification posture the platform is built on.
CONTINUE