Aleks Drogobetski is an action-oriented product manager, lean customer developer, and remote team expert from Ukraine, currently working as a Senior Product Manager at Beachbody based in Santa Monica, California. Aleks graduated from Boston’s Northeastern University, D’Amore-McKim School of Business in 2005 after working at MIT’s Lincoln Labs, and since then has worked as a developer and lead product manager at Disney, Guitar Center, Starkey Hearing Technologies, Wiredrive, and other innovative corporations. Aleks has a unique and sought-after ability to integrate complex hands-on back-end and front-end web development with consumer-facing integrated marketing solutions. In recent years, he has applied his digital know-how and passion for the island by helping local Orcas businesses reinvent themselves in the digital age. Aleks is co-founder of celebrity real estate and lifestyle brand, Velvet Ropes, which attracts hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors.

Baturay Baliç is a former professional soccer player from Turkey, who has begun his own soccer school on the island, getting the local high school team to the state semifinals in 2017. While coaching, Baturay has been involved in the service industry on the island for six years and is currently serving at The Inn at Ship Bay. Living year-round on the island for four years now, Baturay considers himself an ‘islander’ and plays as hard as he works. He is a well-recognized local figure in the general and service industry community, and on nice summer days, Baturay can be found kayaking and playing beach volleyball.

Tucker Simmons is a former reality TV executive turned documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist. After leaving small-town Louisiana where he grew up, Tucker moved to Los Angeles to pursue his passion for entertainment and entrepreneurship. In addition to his career in television and true crime investigations, Tucker is also co-founder of the celebrity real estate and lifestyle brand Velvet Ropes. Tucker has been visiting Orcas for over 10 years and has just begun the search for the perfect home on the island.

Yuri Mamchur was born in Germany and grew up in Russia. Yuri first came to Orcas Island for a summer job at Rosario Resort in 2002, while attending law school in Moscow (not Idaho); years later, he bought three condos at the resort. Yuri has lived in Seattle, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, and throughout his career has led business development and consulted with Fortune 500 companies, foundations, startups, media, and government agencies. Yuri earned his European law degree in 2003, Georgetown public policy in 2004, Vanderbilt MBA in 2011, and Vanderbilt Law School LLM (U.S. law degree for foreign-educated attorneys) in 2018. Most recently, Yuri served as the Director of Global Media and Advancement for Starkey Hearing Technologies. Yuri is a classically-trained pianist, music composer and producer, who recorded his second studio album on Orcas Island in 2004. Yuri considers Orcas to be his life’s true home. Throughout the year, you can find him running and swimming at the lakes and watching sunsets from Mount Constitution.