Grand Junction, Colorado, United States
Dora Fang is an expert at creating strategic partnerships, opening new markets, and catalyzing growth at companies such as eBay and Harley-Davidson and her local communities and friend circles. She was an entrepreneur in her 20s before earning an MBA. She loves deciphering business models, learning industries, and untangling ecosystems (she’s worked in many, from medical devices to automotive to renewable energy!) In 2020, she downshifted and fatFIRE'd to enjoy life, learn more, give back, and spark joy. Dora’s focus on helping women achieve self-sufficiency and self-confidence began in college while volunteering at the county "battered women's" shelter. In San Francisco CA, she served on Asian Women’s Shelter 25th Anniversary Steering Committee and as a shelter volunteer/advocate. In Park City UT, she served on the Peace House Board, worked on their capital campaign, and as their Utah Domestic Violence Coalition liaison. She also volunteered as a Victim Advocate for the Park City Police and Summit County Sheriff (UT). She is an active alumna, having served as Co-President of the Dartmouth Club of Utah, Chi Omega Young Alumnae President in Washington DC, on the Duke University’s Admissions Advisory Committee, and current class secretary for her Tuck MBA class. She's also a leader within Burning Man crews in California, Utah, and Colorado, having served as a board member of Airpusher Collective and its inimitable airship, and as co-lead/treasurer/petrol for Cosmiquarium Village. In Western Colorado, she volunteers at Community Food Bank, serves on the Fundraising Committee of Habitat for Humanity Mesa County and Volunteer Advisory Committee for Colorado West Ballet, is a Commissioner on the City of Grand Junction Arts and Culture Commission, and on the Advisory Board of Visit Grand Junction. Her passion project is Give Everything and the Grand Junction Giving Box, a community gifting project she created to share resources, build community, practice generosity, and boost sustainability in the Grand Valley. Dora earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University in Public Policy and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She is a California-certified Domestic Violence Counselor and natively fluent in Mandarin Chinese. She's called 14 places home and lived 800 nights in her Winnebago Navion while traversing 60,000 miles around USA/Mexico! She has a home base in Grand Junction CO where she recently completed a 400sqft tiny home design/build. She lives/travels with her 2 rescue dogs, Tessa (12yo lab mix) and Merlin (3yo shih tzu).
Retired at age 45 and enjoying early retirement through continued savvy investing and careful management of real estate portfolio spanning Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri, and Texas. Divested holdings in Wisconsin, California, and Utah. (2006 is when I first became an "accidental" landlord) Focused on giving back, building community, and sparking JOY ✨
Recruited to build a new department focused on growing ancillary revenue at a publicly traded vertically integrated REIT with 60,000 multifamily units on the West Coast. • Built strategic and operational infrastructure and team to grow ancillary revenue from $75MM to $100MM+. Managed a team of 9. • Pursued new partnerships to enhance resident amenities, increase enterprise value, drive ancillary revenue, and improve resident loyalty via external vendors/networks and existing portfolio assets such as parking, storage, rooftops, walls, etc. • Innovated within utility program to maximize allocation and reimbursement from residents, along with portfolio-wide coordination to manage utility costs. • Measured and optimized relationships and revenue from internet, cable, telecom, laundry, vending, filming, and furniture partners, including consolidating connectivity provider relationships to increase ancillary revenue and decrease IT spend.
Recruited to create a new B2B division in military, law enforcement, and security. Referred by Backcountry.com executive. • Defined business model, product offering, branding, positioning, and partnering strategy, by researching market opportunity, understanding competitive and M&A landscape, creating marketing materials, building business partnerships, negotiating legal agreements, defining technical specifications, and managing product offerings. • Partnered with key international training groups to access multi-hundred-million dollar size international law enforcement contracts with the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Justice. • Managed platform software selection/configuration, curriculum development, and instructional design to deliver industry innovation through best-in-class product offering. Leveraging shared services of parent company, along with a team of contractors.
Recruited to create a new business called Detour, a different way to explore the outdoors with a local adventure guide. Referred by former deal counterparty from eBay. • Created and iterated business model (C2C, C2B, B2C) from startup to operations, including deeply understanding complex legal, risk, insurance, land use, finance, and tax issues for an outdoor services marketplace. • Negotiated 50+ B2B relationships with professional outdoor guides/outfitters, across activities such as snow kiting, ice climbing, bouldering, fly fishing, mountain biking, etc. to create compelling and unique offerings.
Hired by President to identify markets, potential channels, and business development partnerships for next generation product line of photovoltaic/thermal equipment for retrofit residential market. Followed my manager from Sungevity to EchoFirst. • Laid out B2B product roadmap and go-to-market strategy, including enablement plan for channel partners (builders and contractors) on selling to homeowners. • Crafted consumer lease and operator agreement, extremely sophisticated consumer-facing/legal documents that were critical for market launch.