Operator.
First or rebuild.

Tulane University

I was part of the only undergraduate cohort ever able to take the International Development & Technology Transfer major — a short-lived, interdisciplinary experiment that brought sociologists, engineers, economists, and faculty consulting for USAID and the World Bank into the same program. My finance-major friends called me a "business hippie." The major gave me my first framework for combining purpose, systems thinking, and an entrepreneurial mindset.

Study abroad on a year-long School for International Training (SIT) program across Spain, Argentina, and Brazil — living with non-English-speaking families from cities to favelas to indigenous communities. Senior capstone: solar-powered, internet-connected health centers in Africa.

The thesis behind every chapter that follows was written here.

Clinton Health Access Initiative

Embedded inside Liberia's Ministry of Health in the first years after a 15-year civil war. Contributed to the first post-conflict National Health Plan, identified a $280M funding gap, and led the process that secured a $9M emergency World Bank grant — the first post-war donor funding the Ministry managed directly, which catalyzed $500M+ in downstream health investment.

Designed a training program for mid-level MOH staff that was later replicated across 10+ government agencies as the President's Young Professionals Program. Secured $3M for solar and ICT at off-grid health facilities — the observation that became a company three years later.

Stayed on the thread through USAID's Powering Health initiative — three more years working with energy and health ministries across Africa, authoring guidance documents still in circulation and advancing off-grid clinic electrification before founding One Degree Solar.

One Degree Solar

The capstone thesis became a company. It started from the observation I'd been chasing since college: clinics with no electricity. Inside Liberia's Ministry of Health, I helped secure millions in traditional solar financing to retrofit health centers — but the hardware was expensive, fragile, and hard to service. I kept watching the cost curves on LEDs, photovoltaic panels, and lithium-ion batteries. The moment was arriving when a ~$100 system could do what a several-thousand-dollar one did five years earlier.

So I founded One Degree Solar. We built BrightBox, Africa's first certified multi-light solar system — designed from the start to be repaired by local electricians using locally-sourced parts. Backed by Schneider Electric and Kiva. Distribution partnerships with Coca-Cola and other Fortune 100 companies. Around 45 staff plus a contract sales organization; roughly 25,000 systems deployed across East Africa.

Also built what I believe was the first SMS-based customer service, inventory tracking, and warranty platform in African off-grid solar — paperless digital warranties, automated maintenance reminders, customer segmentation. In 2012, none of this was standard; the category norm was paper warranties and no way to reach the supplier after a sale. Covered by WorldWatch Institute, ICT Works, and Echo Mobile.

Featured on Al Jazeera's earthrise ("Solar Revolution," filmed in Kenya's Rift Valley), in Fast Company, and at SOCAP. Full P&L ownership, top to bottom — hiring, capital, product, supply chain, go-to-market.

Formlabs

Same pattern, different industry. Formlabs had taken expiring industrial 3D printing IP and put it into a desktop form factor with better UI/UX at a fraction of the cost. Their mission was to democratize access to digital fabrication. For me, that meant something specific in healthcare: lower the cost of innovation, put advanced tools in the hands of more clinicians, and widen access to personalized medical devices — including the assistive kind my son relies on. Personal alignment and company mission pointed the same direction.

Joined as employee ~125 — first dedicated medical hire, long before the company hit unicorn status at its Series D with NEA in August 2018. Spent the first months in operating rooms, radiology suites, and hospital labs — observing, not selling. Stayed until the company was approaching 1,000 employees and a $2B valuation (SoftBank-led Series E). Over six years, grew the healthcare vertical 8–10× — from ~2% to 16–20% of company revenue — through enterprise partnerships, the Form Cell enterprise product (priced $100K–$150K depending on configuration, roughly 30–40× the flagship printer), and FDA-cleared workflows. I called the leads, shaped the packages, and sold the first deployments, including the first to Northwell Health.

Partnerships with Mayo Clinic, GE Healthcare, Materialise, STERIS, the VA, FDA, and UCSF. When COVID hit, a direct call from Dr. Summer Decker at USF Health took us from concept to the first FDA Emergency Use Authorization for a 3D printing company in two to three weeks — 100M+ nasopharyngeal swabs across 60+ countries, up to 48% of company sales at peak, a USPTO Patent for Humanity.

MassChallenge

Lead Programs, Community, and Marketing — about 40% of the organization's headcount and a $3M operating budget. Architected the strategic pivot from generalist accelerator to five-sector platform (health, climate, fintech, security, sustainable food), including a restructure of the team itself: the roles, hiring, and operating model needed to deliver the new model rather than the old one.

Redesigned how MassChallenge captures, qualifies, nurtures, and places volunteer experts with startups. Built a suite of AI-native tools (LLM classification pipeline, alumni search, portfolio intelligence dashboard) as core infrastructure, not add-ons. Current cohorts: $96M in revenue, $260M raised — 2× prior-year totals.