Work
I build things that grow.
2006 to 2011
Illinois and the world
school, the world, then the banks
AIESEC
Executive board, exchanges
My Illinois years: teaching in Kibera, Nairobi, running AIESEC’s exchanges, and sending more than 50 students abroad on internships.
University of Illinois, 2006 to 2009
PwC
Experienced Associate, Consumer Finance Group
Two years in PwC’s Consumer Finance Group in Chicago, consulting to banks and the government through the financial crisis, and why I left.
Chicago, 2009 to 2011
2011 to 2013
Exploring
leaving PwC, and learning from nature
The Simple Good
Co-founder
The Simple Good, my first project after PwC: a crowd-sourced photo blog of small good things every culture shares. My co-founder still carries it on.
Chicago, 2011 to 2012
Buy Positively
Co-founder, with Mike Rome
Buy Positively, with Mike Rome: a Groupon for conscious local businesses meets Kickstarter for social enterprises. We designed it, tested it, called it.
Chicago and New York, 2011 to 2012
System Solutions
Systems and finance
A season in my dad’s IT business in Northbrook: a new accounting system, a budgeting and forecasting dashboard, and the start of Casa Oro Group.
Northbrook, Illinois, 2012 to 2013
Rancho Margot
Volunteer
Volunteering at an off-grid ranch in Costa Rica in 2013: compost, corrals, gardens, and an Excel farm-management system built between shovels.
El Castillo, Costa Rica, 2013
Project Bona Fide
Volunteer
An off-grid permaculture farm on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua, in 2013: one pair of shorts, digging and hauling water, and the first chocolate I ever made.
Ometepe, Nicaragua, 2013
2013 to 2014
Experience Institute
ecology, community and business, in practice
Experience Institute
Founding student
A self-designed graduate year at the Experience Institute, 2013 to 2014: three apprenticeships in Australia, the Philippines and Chicago, and one question.
Chicago, Australia, the Philippines, 2013 to 2014
Clear Springs Sanctuary
Apprentice, then planner
A Permaculture Design Certificate at Geoff Lawton’s Zaytuna Farm, then the business plan and financial model for a retreat center in New South Wales.
New South Wales, Australia, 2013
The Windship
Procurement, building, storytelling
After Typhoon Haiyan, three months in Leyte helping build the Windship, a typhoon shelter of tires, earth and bottles, with a village and Earthship.
Batug, Leyte, the Philippines, 2014
Leo Burnett
Design thinking, innovation team
Design-thinking research at Leo Burnett with its chief innovation officer: interviews at every level, a company-wide workshop, a 30-page report.
Chicago, 2014
2014 to 2018
The builder in San Juan del Sur
a hostel, a farm, then five guesthouses and a café
Rancho Regeneración
Developer and designer
80 acres in El Carrizal, south of San Juan del Sur, now a registered private wildlife reserve: water, roads, compost, food, trees and an earthbag dome.
El Carrizal, San Juan del Sur, 2015 to now
Casa Oro
Partner and operator
San Juan del Sur’s first hostel, bought with partners in 2015, rebuilt in four months, and reopened in January 2017 with the first Café Oro.
San Juan del Sur, 2015 to now
Casa Oro Group
Founder and CEO
Five guesthouses, three places to eat, tours, shuttles, chocolate and a farm in San Juan del Sur, built since 2015 to give back more than it takes.
San Juan del Sur, 2015 to now
Nuestra Casa
Designer and builder
A dilapidated house near the beach turned into a six-bedroom guesthouse in 2016, with a 10-meter water-tower lookout and murals by ten artists.
San Juan del Sur, 2016 to now
Casa Andalucía
Designer, builder, engineer
A hillside B&B over the bay, rebuilt twice: once by choice, with bamboo and bottle walls, and once after an October 2017 storm brought the hill down.
San Juan del Sur, 2016 to now
El Pacífico
Designer and builder
A garden hotel in La Talanguera, rewired, replumbed and redesigned room by room. Oro’s chocolate factory started in its kitchen and is still there.
La Talanguera, San Juan del Sur, 2017 to now
Casa Ruth
Designer and builder
An abandoned five-bedroom house on a hill over the bay, gutted and rebuilt with a crew of ten: new wiring, polished brick and a straw-insulated roof.
San Juan del Sur, 2017 to now
The book
Author, in progress
A book about regeneration, told through my own life: a promise made in 2014, a proposal with Dane Johnson, an ending still being lived.
2014 to now
2018 to 2020
The pivot
bamboo, earth, then chocolate
Oro Chocolate & Coffee
Founder
Bean-to-bar chocolate made at our own factory in Nicaragua, and a café, roastery and chocolate line in a Wicker Park shoe store I rebuilt.
San Juan del Sur and Chicago, 2019 to now
2022 to now
Connecting it all
from the start of the chain to the end of it
Reserva Los Nogales
Managing partner
A rainforest reserve and coffee farm at about 1,000 meters, on the edge of the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve. I came for the coffee in 2022 and stayed as a managing partner.
Peñas Blancas, Nicaragua, 2022 to now
Ingemann
Partner and CFO
Award-winning Nicaraguan cacao from more than 1,000 farming families, and raw wildflower honey from more than 100 beekeepers. I’m a partner and the CFO: I run the finance, build the organization and keep the whole thing on track.
Tipitapa, Nicaragua, 2024 to now