Lima, Montana, United States
Experienced CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder, Entrepreneur, Senior Research Fellow, Senior Advisor, Visiting Professor, Conservationist, Regenerative viticulturist & rancher and volunteer wildlands firefighter. 2017 Harvard Business Review 100 Best CEOs in the World. Demonstrated history of successful turnarounds in the global financial services industry. Skilled in Strategy, M&A, Infrastructure Management, Technology & Innovation, Investor Relations, Securities, Client Relationship Management, Structured Finance, Risk and Investment Management, Geopolitics & Economic Intelligence. Globally connected professional with a post graduate degree in Defense Studies and Economic Intelligence from IHEDN, an MBA in International Finance from Columbia Business School and an MSc in Management Science from Kedge Business School.
The Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) is an innovative academic program designed to unleash the potential of experienced leaders to help solve society’s most pressing challenges. As a university-wide initiative, ALI draws upon the expertise of all of Harvard’s professional schools and academic departments. ALI Fellows come to Harvard and embark on a full immersion in inter-disciplinary academic learning, leadership development, and peer-to-peer collaboration to develop a social impact strategy focused on their issue of choice. Participants in the ALI program become part of a vibrant community of changemakers who continue learning, collaborating, and innovating for impact.
Impact Ag Partners is a specialist agricultural asset management firm incorporated in Wyoming and headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. The company focuses on identifying and managing investment opportunities in the agriculture sector, emphasizing regenerative practices and natural capital monetization.   Impact Ag Partners manages approximately $1 billion in assets across more than 620,000 acres in Australia and the United States. Their portfolio includes mixed farming, livestock, broadacre cropping, permanent tree cropping, and natural capital projects. The firm offers end-to-end services, from capital raising and due diligence to asset acquisition and operational management, aiming to deliver both economic returns and positive environmental outcomes.  In 2023, Impact Ag Partners launched the SLM Agri Carbon Fund in collaboration with SLM Partners, targeting A$250 million to invest in regenerative agriculture and carbon projects. The firm also expanded its landholdings by acquiring 137,000 acres, reflecting its commitment to scaling sustainable agricultural practices. 
Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) is a non-profit international development organization based in Washington, DC. CNFA's mission is to increase and sustain rural incomes in less developed areas of the world by assisting farmers and rural entrepreneurs. CNFA works in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, South and Central Asia, Africa, the Near and Middle East and the Caribbean to improve agricultural economies by strengthening market linkages, building input supply networks, promoting enterprise growth and development, enabling agribusiness financing and improving processing and marketing. CNFA was founded in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan as the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs and was focused on expanding grassroots dialogue on the U.S. stake in global economic growth to include farmers, agribusinesses and small- and medium- size companies. In 1993, CNFA began the Food Systems Restructuring Program, using USAID funds to bring about agricultural reform in the NIS (Post-Soviet states), and sent out its first international volunteers to Russia and Ukraine. Having shifted its focus to promoting international development, the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs legally changed its name to CNFA in September 2007.
“Land is kin, together let’s leave it better.” Livestock make it possible to be agriculturally productive while maintaining and improving the fertility of land over time (i.e. capacity for water capture, hosting of robust microbial, vegetative and wildlife communities). Old Salt ranches monitor changes in key ecological indicators, working to discern the degree to which management is responsible and to continuously improve stewardship. The idea is to work with nature rather than fighting it with chemicals. Ruminants convert grassland and ligneous forage into nourishing and useful products, mimicking the symbiotic role that native ruminants had with forests and grasslands. Livestock can also make valuable use of grain byproducts (e.g. hulls, screenings, brewers grain, etc) unfit for human consumption while fertilizing soil and terminating crops in place of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides that damage land. Old Salt espouses husbandry that relies on handling skills and techniques to work primarily with an animal’s mind rather than relying on force. Injecting growth hormones into animals unnecessarily risks detracting from overall well-being in the same way steroids would in humans. Consistent access to open space and adequate shelter is important for quality of life. Furthermore, sub-therapeutics (i.e. antibiotics used for disease prevention instead of treatment) are avoided to prevent antibiotic resistance. Skillful balancing of genetics, feeding and management is key for raising livestock that produce exceptional nourishment at a good value. Ultimately, animal-based agriculture has the power to produce nourishing food while maintaining and improving long term ecological health, leaving space for the wildlife that share the landscape. That's a win-win, that's Old Salt.
CBEY’s mission is to inspire, support, and accelerate the transition to a just and thriving world, connecting people, ideas, and resources to foster business and cross-sector solutions to global challenges. CBEY brings together a diverse group of students, faculty, alumni, and other participants with a shared desire to save our planet. We believe in intersectionality, innovation, collaboration, and equity. We believe in shared power and diversity of thought. We believe that a thriving world will take all of us, but the onus for undoing systems of oppression rests on the shoulders of the individuals who most benefit from those systems. CBEY is committed to playing its role in removing barriers to access and success and to doing its part in encouraging others to do the same, so the industries and organizations at the intersection of CBEY’s work can begin to reflect our increasingly diverse and ever-changing world. We believe in our community and its power to enact change.