Jay Ragusa is the Founder of Gofer Ice Cream LLC. Gofer Ice Cream started with the 2003 opening of the original shop in Greenwich, Connecticut.  The concept and brand of Gofer Ice Cream, however, was first conceived of and documented by Jay in 1998. He has led the company to expand to the current five area Gofer Ice Cream shop footprint with a combination of company and franchisee-owned shops. He also developed the Gofer Ice Cream Brand, Gofer’s franchise model, and operating systems. He is a Founding Partner of Gofer Franchise Systems LLC, a company established to award and manage franchise growth starting in 2019.  

Prior to founding Gofer Ice Cream, Jay spent several months working and managing in an ice cream start-up in NYC, called “Creme Lita”, primarily to gain hands-on experience in the ice cream industry specifically. For the eight years leading up to that, Jay worked at UBS Asset Management New York Inc. both a Private Equity, Junior Analyst and control position at first,  before moving on to being a lead Analyst on the Growth Equities and Technology Fund at the firm. During his career at UBS, he earned an M.B.A. at Fordham University Graduate School of Business and before that a B.S. in Finance from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.