My introductory post. How to begin; the hardest part, right.

I am sometimes referred to as an “American African”; why? Well, I moved to Africa (initially Kenya) in the mid-1980s and never left. It has been a long, and interesting, journey that, I trust, will cover many, many more miles before it comes to an end!

In My Youth

I grew up in Tucson, Arizona with one dream; to play shortstop for the Boston Red Sox—me and, no doubt, several million other kids at the time! Needless to say, that didn’t happen; so, I had to think about alternatives.

BA; MA; MBA; five years in Central America working in business financing and development; then back to the US where I joined a small private financial advisory services group that only did business in Africa. With that group, I formed a private equity fund in Kenya and re-located to Nairobi. And thus began my (to date) 30+ year journey living and working in Africa.

African Odyssey

Over that 30+ year period, I have generally worked for myself; started, owned and managed a number diverse businesses. In Zambia, for example, a corporate finance and securities brokerage business that I ultimately sold and which continues to operate; in Botswana, a regional affordable housing development business; and now, a renewable integrated energy solutions business focusing on private offtakers—businesses and communities—with an initial Southern Africa focus. The common thread of all of them has been to provide an affordable service that is needed, but not necessarily available—in Africa.

On the personal side, my wife and I have 5 children between us (not quite the Brady Bunch), all of whom had the great experience of attending school in Africa at various stages throughout their lives. We don’t get to see them as often as we would like as they all reside in the US with spouses and our 3 absolutely fabulous grandchildren.

In case you are wondering, that's me on the far right

So Why STEEMIT?

It might seem odd that an investment banker would be interested in the crypto/blockchain world. But I've seen many interesting and promising things in my life - things that my peers would generally reject because they don't understand them. I was fortunate enough to meet a few enthusiastic Steemians (@kiligirl, @tim-beck, and @gavvet) who grabbed my attention and interest. I attended the Steem Saturday meetup in Johannesburg last year (where I met Ned) and I think that's where the enthusiasm rolled over me.

Admittedly, I'm still getting to grips with blockchain technology. It was STEEMIT, however, that demonstrated a real-life use-case, and I soon started seeing other practical use cases that I foresee using in my business.

I puzzled over the relevance of crypto currencies in the "real" world, but I am now convinced that they (STEEM in particular) can be accessed and utilized to solve real world problems, problems that, if resolved, will have a direct, positive, and lasting impact on people’s lives; many of them here in Africa.

So here I am - putting my writing where my mouth is: my first STEEMIT post. I look forward to meeting you.

My wife and I