II. Enterprise
Building what did not exist, and selling it well.
Before and alongside nonprofit leadership, I founded and ran companies in the United States and China and directed development programs across East Asia. Enterprise taught me that a mission needs a model, and that a model must be paid for.
$96M
portfolio sale after repositioning eleven care facilities
$27M
sale of a health technology platform built on a $125,000 investment
$155M
development portfolio across four countries at the Asian Development Bank
345
staff led across Laos, China, Vietnam and Mongolia
Remediating an underperforming care portfolio
- Situation
- An eleven-facility residential and acute care portfolio under CMS regulation comprised underperforming assets, with occupancy at 74 percent.
- Decision
- Acquired the portfolio and remediated it: repositioned operations and delivered a $10 million capital and life safety program across 24-hour operations of 1,325 staff.
- Result
- Occupancy grew from 74 to 95 percent on $137 million of annual revenue at a 9 percent operating margin, and the portfolio was sold for $96 million.
Senior care enterprise in China
- Situation
- Most entrants I encountered in China’s aging sector were building devices that required factories and supply chains before serving a single customer; digital services barely existed.
- Decision
- Built a $33 million enterprise from inception around digital and earned-revenue models, including a health technology platform and Care Expo China, an exposition business serving 125 exhibitors.
- Result
- The technology platform sold for $27 million following a $125,000 investment; the exposition business was also founded and sold.
Programs for vulnerable children in four countries
- Situation
- National systems for maternal and child health, pediatric disability and early intervention were underdeveloped across the region.
- Decision
- Directed a $155 million portfolio across Laos, China, Vietnam and Mongolia, leading 345 staff within a $271 billion multilateral institution, and negotiated agreements directly with national ministries.
- Result
- An $18 million sovereign loan to Vietnam to build national early intervention systems for children with developmental disability, and a $6 million women-led enterprise finance initiative in Mongolia.
AI governance for nonprofit boards
- Situation
- Nonprofit boards are adopting artificial intelligence faster than they are governing it, leaving fiduciary exposure in procurement, privacy and oversight.
- Decision
- Developed a complete AI governance suite of twenty-four instruments across seven domains, a series of board briefs, and research on AI in the development function.
- Result
- An ongoing pro bono effort, giving nonprofit boards the instruments to govern artificial intelligence before they deploy it.