Brenda and Perry Rea

Food and family are the two pillars of Perry and Brenda Rea’s lives.

Perry, whose parents were born in Italy, grew up cooking with his mom, surrounded by good food from a young age. After the couple started dating, Brenda was quickly familiarized with a cornerstone of Italian cuisine and culture: olive oil. But when she noticed that most of the olive oil Perry’s family used was imported from Italy, she wondered why no one was producing a high-quality product in America.

After researching the best places to grow olives, the couple, with four children and one on the way, moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Arizona, traveling to Colorno, Italy, for an olive oil sommelier course hosted by the International Olive Oil Academy along the way. Twenty-six years later, Queen Creek Olive Mill (www. queencreekolivemill.com), located on a 56-acre estate at the foot of the San Tan Mountains, is now a familiar name in kitchens across the Valley. Fan-favorite products include flavored olive oils, vinegars, tapenades, sauces, and Brenda’s line of natural, olive oil-based skincare, Olivespa, all sold on-site and at a retail store at Kierland Commons.

As they’ve expanded from 1,000 to over 11,000 trees over the years, Brenda and Perry have drawn on lessons from their own families while working to make the mill what it is today. Brenda, whose parents raised her to believe that anything is possible, has a passion for giving back, donating a bar of soap to a local women’s shelter for every three bars of Olivespa soap sold.

“I grew up working in the family automotive business and took it over from my dad once I graduated college,” Perry says. “My dad is my mentor – my strong work ethic came from him. My mom taught me all about food and gave me a love for cooking, something I’ll always be grateful for – as well as those who are fortunate enough to eat at our table!”

Igor and Irina Ilyinsky are firm believers in the power of audio. When they returned to their respective cities after meeting on a cruise ship in 2001, the long-distance couple talked on the phone for hours every night, which proved essential in developing the communication skills they rely on today as a husband-and-wife business team.

It was on a family trip to Italy years later that the Ilyinskys, who had always encouraged each other’s entrepreneurial spirit, began brainstorming a new business idea. “I was very organized and booked some tours in advance, but we didn’t realize that jet lag and having teenage girls would impact us meeting a tour guide – we kept missing our tours,” Irina says.

In Venice, they decided to take things into their own hands, downloading a variety of apps that were ultimately disappointing.

Igor, equipped with a background in technology and love of coding, knew there had to be a better way, and ListenUp was born. The community storytelling app (www. joinlistenup.com) delivers location-based audio, like a museum tour that keeps going as one explores the architecture, natural wonders, and historic mom-and-pop businesses.

“We want to make people aware that the Phoenix/Scottsdale area is a place where awesome things happen,” Igor says. “As former small business owners, we’ve made it our mission to allow businesses to tell their story hyper-locally, to anyone within walking distance, in a way that generates revenue.”

With information available in 22 languages, Igor and Irina, both Soviet immigrants themselves, understand the importance of accessibility. “We came here when we were 3 years old. Our families had no language, just a couple of suitcases,” says Irina, who considers ListenUp an important resource for refugees and immigrants around the world. “We want them to have this information about where they are now in their own language, so they truly have pride in where they’re moving.”