Meet The Stepladder Family
It takes a small village of talented, passionate people to manage the farm, make the cheese and all the details in between. We've curated a group of amazing individuals and families to care for our animals, hand make delicious artisan cheese and share our story with hungry customers.
MEET THE CREAMERY OWNERS
Michelle & Jack Rudolph
Jack first discovered his love for goats after visiting a goat dairy in Northern California with his sister in high school. Shortly thereafter, he began procuring fresh goat milk and making his own cheeses at home while working at a startup in Palo Alto. Quickly finding himself drawn to cheesemaking more than anything else, Jack decided to purchase his own goats and move to Stepladder Ranch to take over his grandfather’s ranch operations and build a creamery. Michelle's background is in event planning and wineries. She moved to the Central Coast to attend Cal Poly and never left. Jack and Michelle met during the inception phase of the creamery and have been managing the ranch together ever since.
HEAD CHEESEMAKER
Robin Proffitt
Robin Proffitt, our head cheesemaker, joined our team in 2018 after working in the brewing industry as a brewer for a handful of California Breweries. He is a cheese and food science nerd in the best sense of the term and loves sweating the details. Many of our cheese club exclusive cheese ideas are cooked up by him and our team, and he makes every batch of cheese we make a little better than the last. Outside of work, Robin is a fan of beer, an excellent and adventurous home cook, and likes spending time with his winemaker wife Samantha, his cat Coppa, and his dog Stilton.
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Whitney Buswell
Whitney Buswell, our Director of Business Operations, joined our team in 2018 to lead tours and sell for us at farmers markets. Since then, she has done a little bit of everything: milking goats, creating videos for our Youtube channel, writing blogs, becoming an expert in Google Sheets and building sales models -- you name it, she can do it! In her spare time, she loves spending time with her family and her dog Sarah, playing video games, and watching Frasier and the LA Clippers.
DIRECTOR OF CREAMERY OPERATIONS
Ryan Aikens
After a decades long career in the brewing industry, and beverage manufacturing, Ryan came to Stepladder where he is now our Director of Creamery Operations - he first fell in love with dairy products while working on a brewery in Brittany France. Over the past 7 years, he has grown our team and our production considerably and always leads with a positive attitude. In his spare time he enjoys grilling, vinyl records, and vintage VWs.
HERD MANAGER
Sophie Worthington
Sophie joined our team in 2017 after stints working at a couple of local dairies in San Luis Obispo county with a degree in Animal Science from our cow milk partner, Cal Poly SLO. She is a lover of all animals, and has helped spearhead our holistic approach to animal husbandry at Stepladder. In her spare time, she loves spending time with her family, hiking, and getting out in nature.
