Personal Bio
My wife Marty and I moved to Burlingame in 1997 from Los Angeles, where I was a diplomat in residence at the Pacific Council on International Policy at USC. It was the capstone to a 12 year career in the US Foreign Service in which I served our country in Syria, Washington DC (State and US Trade Rep’s office), and Hong Kong.
We moved to Burlingame because of the reputation of the schools and because of its charming residential neighborhoods. We brought 2 children here -- Nick and Grace -- and had two more at Stanford (Jack and Peter).
From 1997 to 2007 I was managing partner at the oldest US venture capital company in China, called ChinaVest. We invested in manufacturing, services, logistics and IT. In my tenure at ChinaVest, I became deeply familiar with the challenges of growing a business, and enormously respectful of an entrepreneur and his backers who are willing to try.
In the last 18 months, I have been working with partners in Washington DC and New York to launch a new financial services firm that will help advise and find funding for "social enterprises," those companies whose goods or services create a social benefit -- clean air, low cost housing -- in addition to earning a profit. Our firm has clients that can convert scrap auto tires into valuable commodities cleanly, or who are striving to bring modern horticultural and farming techniques to war-torn Rwanda. It is heartwarming to work with such passionate entrepreneurs who plan to not just make money, but to make the planet a slightly better place.
I also serve as a Director for the non-profit Foundation for a College Education, an entity aimed at giving kids in East Palo Alto a chance to go to college and succeed.
But my most important non-profit activity of all is being "dad" to my four children. In the end, if that is all I am, it is enough.