Linda Cusack - CEO

Linda was born in Zambia, and moved to South Africa when she was six years old. The entrepreneurial spirit always in her blood, Linda owned two award-winning, landmark restaurants in South Africa. In 1999, she made the difficult decision to leave the country she loved to immigrate to the United States. Now settled in Arizona, Linda has been working with multi-million dollar South African companies looking to expand into the U.S. since her move. In 2005, Linda co-founded Rooted in Africa. Embracing the business ethics of the organic industry and inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of Africa’s people, Linda wanted a company that would inspire her and allow her to work from the heart. As CEO, Linda has driven Rooted in Africa’s astonishing growth and rapid success, and is looking very excitedly to the future.

Bruce Guidotti - CMO

Bruce is a marketing professional with a proven record of success in marketing both established and new brands.  He has very broad brand experience across consumer packaged goods (food and HBC), telecommunications, technology, restaurant (QSR and CDR), pharmaceutical, as well as retail and service businesses.  The bands he has helped establish and build include a host  of household names – Loving Care, Balsam Color, The Dry Look, Jhirmack, Soft ‘n Dri, Life Cereal, Milky Way, Twix, Mazola, Aunt Jemima, Starz!. Encore and many others.. He was responsible for several marketing efforts recognized as extraordinarily successful by the American Marketing Association and other industry groups and trade publications – [These included 2 Gold category Effies and a Grand Gold Effie -best campaign of the year among all marketing efforts - for Quaker Oats].   Bruce also has done a substantial amount of work with other start up organizations including a number of internet companies – including myteam.com, CitySearch and Ticketmaster.com

 Harvard B.A. & Wharton M.B.A.

Big things are happening at RiA - watch this space!