Paintball Media Magazine February 2021 February 2021 | Page 35

Left to Right : Mike Ratko , Ryan Krischke , Debra Dion Krischke , Richmond Italia , Craig Miller , Paul Satler
Lynn Scott - President / CEO of the only publicly traded paintball company , Brass Eagle , in the late 1990s and VP at Crossman before that , Lynn Scott was one of the first true businessfirst executives in paintball . He wasn ’ t a player turned paintball business owner . He was a business executive that worked his way up the corporate ladder and ended up running one of the largest companies there ’ s ever been in paintball , acquiring several companies ( like JT Paintball ) for Brass Eagle in the process .
Tim Schloss - Tim has spent a lifetime in paintball as owner of National Pro Shop , Pursuit Products and he ’ s the one and only person licensed to use , manufacture with , and sell Tiger Stripe products in paintball . Tim ’ s Pursuit Products was one of the early sponsors of teams and players in our game supporting the likes of Navarone , the Ironmen , Constant Pursuit and many more . He is also a true ambassador for paintball , especially early on when he traveled to places like Russia , the UK and Europe promoting paintball in new regions of the world .
John Sosta , Jackie Sosta , and John Bonich - John Sosta has been credited by many as engineering the first electronic paintball marker in 1991 , when he designed a gun for his then teammate ( UK Predators ) who had a broken wrist and couldn ’ t pump the gun . Both Sosta and Bonich did a lot with the Automag in the early 90s as well in Europe . And they introduced the new Formula 5 format to tournament paintball . Jackie was the business manager for John Sosta and Bonich and she went on to run NPS Europe which developed into KEE Europe . She is a very influential business woman in European paintball .
George Statler - George Statler founded Bullseye Paintballs in 1988 after owning Nature ’ s Best Vitamins . If you haven ’ t figured out the tie-in there ... paintballs are manufactured using encapsulating machines , just like the ones that encapsulate vitamins , minerals and supplements . George was a very public paintball figure playing on several teams including his own Bullseye Snipers . He also sponsored many teams , including the Ironmen , Terminators , Black Diamonds and others . George once publicly challenged Jeff Perlmutter to a $ 10,000 one-on-one match but Jeff never accepted . Jeff of course was the man behind PMI and their RP Scherer paintballs . George also founded the Bullseye five-man series tournament series in 1991 .
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