Chris Smith
I'm Chris Smith, President and sales guru, creative mentor, and master collaborator. I'm a young 46, single, with 2 children. My son, Brandon, is a college junior and my daughter, Megan, is a senior in high school. I was born in Morocco as my father was a navy pilot stationed there and at the time. After obtaining an Electrical Engineering degree, I worked 5 years designing cock pit instrumentation. My inspiration of one day starting my own business pulled me away from Engineering. I started my first company offering office water coolers that could refill themselves with purified water. This led me to adding in coffee to the water cooler thing and I began searching out fantastic coffees from around the world. My passion in the search for fantastic beans grew enormously and I began thinking about roasting coffee for myself. I was truly in love with coffee at this point and the idea of CoffeeXperts was beginning to form. Besides my passion for that supreme bean I enjoy golfing, traveling, playing on my digital piano, and my newest hobby of photography.
Christian Guignard
I am Christian Guignard, the Roast Master at CoffeeXperts. I'm 43, married 13 years to my wife Cinnamon and have 4 children. Born and raised in Switzerland, I earned a B.A. in agriculture and livestock and ran my family's large dairy farm. Later my thoughts turned outward and I joined an international missionary organization which took me in ten years of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to places like Quebec, France, Mauritius, Thailand, and California. In 2000, we moved to my wife's hometown of Omaha and I began roasting coffee and eventually became the big bean baker. My hobbies include skiing and mountaineering- two things Eastern Nebraska is famous for- and thus I've adjusted my activities to spending time with my family swimming, camping and fishing on the Platte.
Scott Fuglei
I'm Scott Fuglei, the marketing and sales guy, IT consultant, graphics dude, photographer, DJ, decorator and resident barista for CoffeeXperts. I'm 35, married to Amy- a professional student- and in May introduced a new baby boy to the world, Felix. I was born in Omaha and lived here through high school then moved to Lincoln, NE where, in only ten years or so, I managed to earn a BA with majors in History and in Political Science. In Lincoln I worked as a barista for several years in a very busy drive-through. Here my dependence on caffeine turned into a love affair with espresso. After Lincoln Amy and I joined the Peace Corps and spent some time in Niger, West Africa, where my love affair with 125 degree mornings ended and I experienced for the first time the sad state of Nescafe instant coffee. After Africa we moved to Davis, California where Amy studied and I worked as the marketing director for an organic co-op grocery store. After too few years on the West Coast, Amy's education brought us back full circle to Omaha and I got back into coffee. When we have time, Amy and I love to be outside- hiking, biking, camping and traveling. We've been all over the world with our backpacks and can't wait for Felix to start walking so he can carry his own stuff.
Jason Burkum
I'm Jason Burkum, Associate Roaster here at CoffeeXperts since early 2008. I'm 35 years old, married for nearly nine years to my wife Marcy, and have a hilarious 3 year old daughter named Everly Scout. I recently moved my family back to the Omaha area after spending the previous 12 years in Nashville, TN, where I was heavily involved in the Christian music industry as a record producer, songwriter, and session bass player. Many a long night spent hermetically sealed in a recording studio started my long term relationship with coffee, so when I was offered the opportunity to become a roaster I jumped in head first and have discovered a real passion for roasting. When I'm not roasting coffee you can find me still producing records here in the Omaha area, leading worship at my church, or hanging out with my family - probably boring them with details about coffee roasting.