Wade Gease is an AOA-certified senior alpaca judge, judge training instructor, presenter, designer, and consultant/mediator for the worldwide alpaca industry. He is a previous owner and manager of a sustainable alpaca ranch for eighteen years. He now unveils his own wholesale/retail product line and services as The Alpaca Guy.

Wade has been honored to be involved with many different activities in the alpaca world: presenting his personal educational seminars at industry gatherings, consulting, commentating, coordinating for auctions or fashion shows, and providing private evaluations for alpaca breeders. Another favored activity has been leading yearly educational trips throughout Peru. Contact him to be put on his Peru Trip notification list.

Wade was the first to produce a N.A. made alpaca bamboo fabric. Thereafter, he created an upscale clothing line highlighting alpaca fabric, Alpaca Couture. The company's vision was to gain greater attention from a discriminating consumer and help the industry gain greater recognition as an attractive fiber for fashion. Fashion shows were presented in Las Vegas, Orange County, and San Diego. The business transitioned into his popular wholesale business, The Alpaca Guy.

Mr. Gease also forged ahead in making other alpaca materials and created a wet felting machine for home/farm use to empower ranches to make on-the-farm products, The Wet Felting Wizard. It has had over 25,000 views on YouTube and has sold as far as the Netherlands, France, and South Africa.

Wade earned an associate degree in Aeronautical Science, a bachelor’s degree in chemistry & a master degree in Biochemistry. He is also a Camelid Fibre Sorter certified from Olds College Natural Fibre Centre, Canada. His past has given him experience in construction, was a certified flight instructor, chemistry instructor, co-owner of a gift & floral store and a cardiovascular sale representative for multiple pharmaceutical companies. He enjoys scuba diving, home improvement projects, and anything related to alpaca fiber!

Diana is an AOA Halter, Senior Fleece Judge, Judge Trainer, and Instructor in the United States. Diana received her Certification as an International Alpaca Judge trained in Peru at the International Alpaca Judging School (IAJS) in 2004. She has actively judged in Canada and the United States since 2001. Diana has over 35 years of experience breeding, showing, and raising alpacas and other breeds of livestock.

Along with her husband, Tim, they established Aussie Acres Alpacas in 1994. We became known for our ability to successfully produce grey and sought after Huacaya breeding stock. Both Diana and Tim were honored to share those grey genetics worldwide. Diana's love for alpacas and her commitment to fleece education was the inspiration that led to the purchase of The Alpaca Breeders Fiber School, LLC. Diana also serves as an alpaca industry consultant, educator, Fiber Sorter, Grader and, continues working on her Wool Classer status and is always available for consultations.

Diana currently serves on the AOA Judges Advisory Committee (JAC), AOA Judge Training and Certification Committee (JTCC) as Liaison and served on the Advisory Board for the Mid-America Alpaca Foundation, the Board of Directors of Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies and past leader of the Leading Llamas and Alpacas 4-H Club.

Diana was born in Germany. At eight years of age, she moved to Colorado with her parents. She earned an Associate Degree in Occupational Studies with an emphasis on Medical Billing and Coding and maintains her Paralegal and Medical Billing and Coding certifications. Prior to acquiring alpacas Diana was employed as a Paralegal for the Weld County District Attorney. She has one son, Jeff and grandson, Alden Ray.

Robin Nasemann was born in 1985 in Wuppertal, Germany and graduated from high school in 2004 in the North of London, England. He studied Business Management in Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland, receiving a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science in Economics and Communication. Since 2004, his family has been breeding alpacas near the city of Munster in Germany (Abolengo de Alpaca). Robin has been working as an alpaca screener for several different associations in Germany and Austrian and has screened alpacas all over Europe and South America. From 2007 to 2009 Robin was an honorary board member of the AZVD e.V . At the end of 2010 he began the AOBA show judge training program, which he successfully completed as a 'certified AOBA' (now AOA) judge in 2013. To date, Robin has judged over 40 shows in the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Austria and Germany. He has judged the biggest show in Europe - the British Nationals, the Royal Melbourne in Australia, US National Fleece Show, and the World Alpaca Conference in 2023.

Heather Thordarson is originally from Portland, Oregon but now resides in beautiful Central Oregon with her husband Kristian and two sons, Kolbe and Hunter.

Heather has an extensive background in animal care and training that began with managing a large-scale boarding and training facility for dogs. After that, she worked her way up the ranks at Guide Dogs for the Blind in Boring, Oregon, before a recurring injury forced her to step away from a fulfilling career training both the dogs and visually-impaired clients. After marrying her husband in 2013, they opened a 30-stall boarding and training facility for horses on their property and shortly thereafter, purchased their first five alpacas. Heather quickly realized that raising alpacas aligned much better with her family's lifestyle after having her sons in 2015 and 2018 and they began to pursue building an alpaca herd that would be competitive at a national level. While taking a deep dive into everything alpaca-related, Heather realized she had a knack for parsing out individual traits and selecting and breeding high quality animals. This led her to start pursuing an apprenticeship in the AOA Judge's Certification Training and she was accepted into the program in 2023.

When Heather isn't working on the farm or at shows, she enjoys travel, reading, and cooking for her family and friends. She has also volunteered at several dog rescues as an adoption coordinator, went to China to rescue dogs from slaughterhouses and has fostered and adopted several rescue dogs with challenging personalities. She also loves anything to do with fiber arts.