In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. 
Theodore Roosevelt

By the Summer of 2006 I had logged nearly 20 years in Investment Banking and Capital Markets, yet poignant dissatisfaction, lack of passion, and conviction that massive economic problems were on the horizon led me to consider a change. After meeting contractual obligations in February of 2007, I took Mr. Roosevelt’s advice and decided to act. My concern for our long-term energy prospects and alternative energy Investment Banking expertise led me to Viasyn, a private alternative energy company based in the Bay Area. Due to significant ties to Maine, four small children and a passion for the active outdoor lifestyle, I had been seriously considering a move to Portland for a number of years. Ultimately, Maine’s appeal proved too much and I offered to lead Viasyn’s expansion into the NY-ISO and ISO-NE markets. Despite a love for the Bay Area and friends that had truly become family, Maine became our home in Fall 2007.

I embraced my initial foray into socially responsible capitalism working with alternative energy powers GE Energy Services, Babcock and Brown, Cape Wind, First Wind and Wells Fargo Energy. Sadly, I found the energy markets rife with political agendas, empty rhetoric and a power structure lacking conviction – not exactly a breeding ground for effecting change. Unfortunately, I had also been correct regarding my prediction of economic malaise. Improvident political bailouts and the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy left me even more disparaged and pessimistic about our collective future. Although I remain a board member at Viasyn and I am very proud of their work, I began to look more profoundly at the world and how large institutions rarely effect real change.

I was fascinated with a Fast Company article entitled “Message in a Bottle” which highlighted the economic and social impacts of the single-use water bottle business. As I learned more about the economic and environmental impacts of single use bottles, I learned more about the socioeconomics of water and realized it is indicative of a larger distribution of wealth problem.

Although scarcity of clean water, environmental destruction resulting from single-use bottles and distribution of wealth may seem disparate issues, their relationship became my passion and resulted in a Living Product™, the creation of the economic principle of Redistributive Consumerism™ and its means of distribution – Life Is Fluid™ (LIF™).

LIF is not a company – it is an environmental steward, a redistributive mechanism, and a lifestyle. Together we will Create Waves and affect the desired outcome – a significant decrease in the number of single use plastic bottles littering our landfills and oceans and more effective distribution of health and wealth.

I will take the lead and my ability to coalesce a strong belief in capitalism with a focus on effective distribution of health and wealth can be attributed to Berkeley’s Haas School of Business where I benefited from a MBA program with a strong entrepreneurial and corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) curriculum. In fact, Berkeley Haas recently launched a new curriculum designed to create more “Path-bending Leaders”. My own path bending leadership is combining in-depth understanding of business and economics with empathy normally attributed solely to non-profits. The creation of our economic principle of Redistributive Consumerism and, more importantly, the knowledge requisite to see it succeed is further evidenced by my experience as a Graduate Student Instructor for two former Chairpersons of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisers
– Laura Tyson (Clinton) and Christina Romer (Obama). However, leadership is about more than impressive credentials* and can be summed up as follows:

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them. 
-Paul Hawken

I have assembled a fantastic team and have an extensive business network, but we will not meet our lofty goals without you. Life Is Fluid – Together we can Create Waves

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