Welcome to the good life pledge table It's really really excited to be with you all My name is Taj James, I'm the one of the co-founders of Full spectrum capital partners and along with cat Taylor co-founder of co-creator of Good life pledge and We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna tell you a little about the journey that we've been on with a Powerful group of seven communities that we're connected to who are helping to bring this to life and You know, I want to want to invite you cat to offer any words of welcome before we jump into this Just really eager to share the learning journey and You know where we are at this point. Thanks. All right so So so so today's a little bit of a celebration. It's been a year since co-cat 2021 when Regan Pritzker cat and I got together and and Officially launched a good life pledge, but we want to take take you on a little bit of the journey Right for how we got here and you know, it's been a real Honor to to work with you cat over the years and understand how your Commitment and passion for justice began at a very young age and and how how this journey is sort of connected to that but This the story kind of has a few chapters and we like to say Spartan Berg was the spark The equitable development working group was the lab The village was the catalyst and so cat 21 was the launch. So this this story's got a few a few Dimensions to it and it begins in Spartan Berg and and cat wanted to see if you wanted to share a little bit about Meeting former state senator Harold Mitchell and what that did for your sense of the possible Sure And I don't know Taj if this is where we're gonna talk about what we've learned in the last year Okay because I'm not to go off script, but I think I need to reflect on what I've learned throughout the journey so I Guess beginning with philanthropy philanthropy is very important because it attends to immediate needs and and Preventing suffering as much as it can but it has inherent limitations It actually takes money to make money and wealth has been stripped from frontline black and brown communities Where as if there were assets in those communities, they could generate the income that could even replace philanthropy and In a sense philanthropy to me as an admission of failure because if we were running society right in the first place We wouldn't need so much charity to sort of you know staunch the wounds Social enterprise which we have practiced a lot Creating beneficial state bank and to venture funds is an essential ingredient of an economy that Can be based on sacred values reciprocity and mutualism But it has limitations as well and just for one example when the bank seeks to lend into frontline communities that lack an equity or net worth It's very difficult that doesn't sit on top of a lack of equity Comfortably so we have to recognize that that's a necessary condition to solve Another example is that we started Tomcat Ranch to gain the insights of an actor in the ag system And we know we need to move to regenerative practice and restore agricultural opportunities for Traditional indigenous black people of color communities But they lack land access because land was stolen and that's another asset that needs to be shifted back We can engage in policy and legislative work to get the rules right But you need capital to be on the game board at all to and for those rules to have any relevance we certainly need to Be in cultural strategies and narrative shift because we're trying to win hearts and minds not just Kind of suggest prescriptive moves without inspiration so all of this recognition of that these are Necessary strategies, but they're not sufficient. They're not going to get us over Into the beloved community in which we all seek to live So that's when we considered the necessity of asset transfer wealth transfer Restoration of self-determination based on well community and individual wealth So Just to note some of the lessons of the last year and we did a Spartan Berg is one of our mentor communities I met Harold Mitchell on the presidential campaign As you know, he and his community with a community engagement process and community led vision and plan Parlayed a $20,000 EPA grant into $300 million of capital investment, which is necessary For that self-determination and shifting of power And it is those place-based community led development strategies that actually yield the most informed and likely to succeed solution Stack I mean his is an incredible there that community solution stack is incredible I'm uncovering federally qualified health clinics affordable housing least to own housing Industry new industry in the renewables in terms of energy and other things and it goes on and They continue to develop solutions for their community Another lesson of the last year has been that when the mentor communities and cohort communities get together in community in circle They have enormous insights to offer one another and support. That's really essential and I'm going to just Leave us all with the possibility that a compliment to place-based Community equitable community economic development and shifting assets those communities is creating assets for everybody if we think about organizing businesses that constitute network effects monopolies like Netflix you do Facebook everything as platform cooperatives and think about strategies to give Micro-shares of equity in these big commerce platforms to the users as another way to build wealth democratize the ownership of these big monopolies and Ensure that community values are adhered to on those platforms and not profit maximization Beautiful, thank you Kat and so if you're if you're listening in you basically just heard The last chapter of the story cat cat reflecting on the big lessons of the journey over the last year And so now we're going to go back to the beginning I'm going to give you a little little preview of kind of how we got here and as as Kat said the connection with with Harold and Regenesis was the spark in terms of imagining what was possible Cat has been in deep relationship with our brother Peter Bratt the filmmaker who's also a leader in friendship house and Kat decided to make a commitment to the village To support the work there and the commitment that she made to the village Became a commitment that has been made to now the village and for other communities to bring significant assets to the work They're doing so so the connection relationship with the village sort of expanded into five communities and these five communities Which which yeah, and then we got together and and launched it launched it last year. So And since then we've had the village share their work with with the broader so cap community at Spectrum and You're gonna hear more from brother elder leader who who had some deep conversation with Kat recently on elders podcast So you're gonna get a deep dive into that if you want so we've done a lot in the last year And we're gonna we're gonna dig into more of where the communities at and some of what they're what they're learning But but before we get into that I wanted to see Kat if you can just share a little bit about what what is the good life But we've been talking about it, but but what in the heck the heck is it exactly? So a little akin to the giving pledge which was a commitment by high net worth individuals to give half of their wealth away during their lifetime and Reiterating that that's necessary, but insufficient we created co-created a pledge. It's a work in progress It's a pledge to give one-third of our assets away shifting them to community control ownership And ownership during our lifetime in order to attend to that lack of wealth in community and Therefore create more possibilities of innovation And self-determined self-determination for those communities. We began the pledge by working in concert with five cohort communities The village being one of them, but also Urban Tilt cooperation Richmond the big we foundation in Memphis Allen's worth of first community finance and founded by black Californians and Eldra's group inside circle and the Aspire housing Vision so we chose those five cohort communities and we work Also in concert with mentor communities Spartanburg, South Carolina the Regenesis Institute Harold Mitchell's organization and Push Buffalo with Rawa Also as communities that are out in front on community-led development and from which we can learn much We invite others into the pledge either by joining and making a commitment of assets to those five cohort communities Or bringing their own communities into the circle And making a commitment of current grant funding to support capacity building and for capital absorption needs But also the shifting of assets of some sort into those communities So that's it. And I think the thing I'll Think I'll just add to you is you know, but what what? really characterizes the Acid holders length of this investors who really are helping to build and grow out this this This good life pledge community is you know, you are all folks who Who really trust community who really? Understand that that's where the solutions are and are all good listeners and are willing to partner with communities well to to do what's needed and Deliver what's per you know, deliver what what what what the communities most need to move forward their solutions. So It's it's been a real Pleasure to kind of grow and help to leave this community over the last few years So what we're going to do today is we're going to give you a few updates from Some of the communities who who aren't here with us and then we're going to get a deep dive into the work of inside circle Aspire and justice capital. So Just just a few things I want to celebrate Any of you who who are aware of the amazing work of push buffalo and Laura will probably drop some links in the chat to some of the groups so you can find out more about what they're doing They they're about to get a new mayor it looks like and uh, it's a real power and and testament to to the grassroots economic power building work that's been done there The community there started just with a few blocks and now they've they've done economic development in a in a 50 block radius and Really just demonstrated What what happens when communities get access to the rights and kind of capital and support and they're Just finished a big big giant sort of housing project that no one thought they could do and got done and they're about to Take on a giant 1.5 megawatt community solar initiative there. So big things happening big big things happening in in both In both Buffalo and in spartanburg spartanburg is also getting ready for some big energy projects to build on the community Uh economic development that they've done there recently and I've got got some other big plans in the work so so the sort of the the The mentor communities that we work with continue to kind of raise the bar and take it to the next level We in partnership with the other communities. Um The other community I want to mention is is memphis and and that's the the the site of historic clayborne temple Where the sanitation workers were we're doing their historic strike when when martin the king was assassinated there and uh at clayborne temple, uh The nasa trauma and the big we foundation are Moving forward that that bold vision that that king was organizing for there of what it looks like when we when we address Racial and gender injustice and in economic injustice Uh all at once and and they're and they're doing some new land land acquisitions in memphis and um working with land banks there to kind of expand some of their Their economic development um prospects beyond some of the neighborhoods they've been working in so so big big things happening in memphis um Want to pass the chat to see if you can give any updates with uh, what's happening with the village we know he's you and morris spending time with them this week and uh, Maybe you want to talk a little bit about what's what's going on there Sure. Yeah, uh, so for those who don't know the village is um What they say a 21st century solution to a 21st century reality, which is the You know the the profile of urban indians um Is intertribal without you know physical or cultural home really and There's 720,000 American indians In alaskan natives in california and 90 of them live in cities. That was that was that was an eye-opener for me Um, so this is going to be a home a center uh, both of healing um and services, but also of opportunity and and wealth community wealth building for American Indian community in san francisco and the american indian cultural district So that's what it is. Um, what's new is uh, everybody's probably heard about the justice 40 initiative from the by administration Which is great. Um, the village was lucky to be included in the justice 40 accelerator Which basically is preparing Communities and organizations to receive those funds when they win. I'm saying when optimistically those start flowing um, so justice 40, um, was it was a great achievement for them the accelerator And then the other exciting part is for me to think about yes There's harm that we need to repair and there's reparations to do but there's really If you take a reciprocity mindset, um, there's really value and and wisdom and healing that can come from these communities as well And the exciting one that we're and I heard about the other day We have a what I think of as a community wealth working group at the village And one of the key principles is idea food is medicine. So in partnership with a with a group called deep medicine circle um, and their um rupa rupa maria is a doctor that is a started that organization Um, it's thinking about how come we use the idea of food as medicine To both like heal this community but also heal all you know, everybody And in doing so creates sort of an economic And and a value generation engine around the village Like can you imagine if doctors could prescribe like a good healthy diet as a prescription? That's the sort of one mental model I have for like how this community can help us You know heal More broadly um, and just as a you know as an example the rupa highlighted the staff That's apparently 60 of the er visits for covet at her hospital Were people that were also malnourished and it were over 80 of people in the icu were also malnourished So I think food is medicine and culture as medicine from this community is a really exciting development that You know i'm excited to be a part of I think just more broadly we're trying to figure out how to create a model for urban indian liberation And using this as a template like this doesn't exist Apparently doesn't really exist as a thing as a as a type of entity in other cities And so how can we create this in San Francisco? And then build it out expand it and sort of spread it to have you know, even more scale impact And healing throughout the country and the world Um, so yeah, that's that's that's the village Great, thanks chad. Um, so the two other communities we want to give give some brief updates on our Richmond and the reinvest in our power and urban tilt folks there and and the allen's work community And and um cats had some time to spend with with both of those communities recently A bunch of us were up in allen's worth for the annual celebration of of That community in kernel allen's worth at the state park there and meeting with community leaders and cat wanted to see if If you could share some of the exciting updates of how allen's work is collaborating with the state parks department to To help support the community development work there Great. Thank you. Yeah, so allen's worth does host the state historic park um, so uh another update is in partnership with the parks And there will be several conversations going forward is to really, uh, optimize What that park represents to tell the history accurately of the first black finest and funded town in california Of its power of its prosperity of its trajectory towards being a thriving beloved community um of the history of societal assault removing the railroad spur the source of water that to larry lake as trying to um assassinating colonel allen's worth um in modern era trying to locate vastly polluting industries on the edge like confined animal animal factory operations um, so Get telling the history accurately is important and then to contextualize that in the park offering With the modern struggle against disinvestment displacement and gentrification The very authentic leadership of allen's worth which has been at this work for almost five decades Is in a conversation with the park service to get that part right But has also engaged um the community to develop their own solution stack for reviving uh revitalizing the modern community of allen's worth and some of those solutions And I won't do justice to the full panoply of them, but they have a 60 acre tack farm, which is um, uh based on regenerative ag practice Um to achieve food security and food sovereignty in their community as what was commerce um, they also have a strategy to work with the local ecological organizations because they're in a very important ecosystem for ecotourism For youth development They are have plans to develop commerce again in allen's worth for Self-sufficiency of the community and they are on the corridor of the high speed rail that's in development now so working to make sure that that's um doesn't produce any harms for the community and actually um facilitate some of the Planning and development that they want to do again. It's really important that that's a community led process and we're Actually in a position to help park service achieve some of their goals of diversity and racial equity as we work together um then the Community of richman has been At work for a long time in organizing through cooperation richman our power And the their local farm urban tells They are in the shadow of the chevron oil refinery They have had to fight the harm that that industry and that player It flicks on communities, especially adjacent ones and they're currently Helping to resist Chevron creating a 2.0 version in another non-renewable energy production that could potentially harm the community That's the sort of defensive work But they've had some incredible wins on the community planning and vision Most notably they have been able to um acquire The acreage that constitutes the urban till farm Um, and that farm has been really busy during covet We actually partnered with them through growing the table to give more families access to fresh organic produce during the crisis But also to support the farms that produce that organic produce in addition to urban till's own farm To make sure that we bridge by pock lgbtq plus regen organic farmers into the post-covid food economy So the uh It's just been a great time, uh for both of those communities And it they have a lot of forward momentum And they are learning together with the other cohort and mentor communities Thanks so much gat. Um, so we are Um, you are all you are all for a really, um exciting treat um If you think back to not last summer, but this the summer before that, um We we were a part of many of us were a part of What um, most historians think to be the largest global mobilization in human history I think before that it might have been the woman's march globally And it was the it was the global uprising in defense of black life after the the heartbreaking murders of Mr. Floyd and Ms. Taylor and too many others that Whose names we we must never forget And in that moment there was a recognition that That we need to reckon not just with our history And the truth of our history but with the current reality of of the violence that that is occurring in our communities At the hands of the the the institutions that That that many believe are there to to to to serve and support us And so, you know in the in the aftermath of that There were about 12 billion dollars of financial commitments that were made to try to address that injustice Unfortunately, there was a recent report that came out that said only About a third of those financial commitments have been upheld. So as we invite You all to join us in this good life pledge commitment The only thing More important than making a bold commitment is is keeping our commitments. So so we're reminded that You know, the commitment's only the beginning of the journey And in partnership we can find our way forward, but but one of the things that people don't don't Understand very much about is that when folks were talking about, you know supporting communities Alternatives and and and resourcing community safety solutions and shifting resources out of police departments and prisons and jails and Institutions that don't don't bring healing to our community There hasn't been a lot of understanding of who are the people Working in the communities who who do the work of keeping community safe And what does it take to support those folks to to absorb those resources at scale? So that as the institutions that that that don't serve our community Get divested of resources that those resources actually go into The the the communities that have been harmed and they go into the hands of the people who know how to help us Know how to help us all to heal from what um what we've experienced and so We're you're you're you're in for a treat because we are going to um We are going to to reflect on this question. So sister nasa who again is the leader of uh, the re-foundation and the work in in menthis has this notion that um Part of the reason why we're sick as a society is because the culture is sick And that if we want to become well, we need a well culture And that means, you know telling the truth about who we are um, and that means telling stories that that bring out the best of who we are as as uh stewards in the web of life um, and so Um, the other thing you're going to learn about and this is true in spartanburg And this is true in richman and this is true in all of the communities that we work in We all have communities to stories to tell about this, which is that when you're trying to do economic development If people aren't safe If people aren't well, you can't do anything That that that safety and health and wellness is the foundation for all the other goals we have in our community And it's the foundation for shared economic prosperity and driving. So so this is um Sister christina and brother eldra are gonna are gonna take you deep into what Is really required in that healing what it really necessitates and and and calls on all of us to bring forward and uh, and we will all be transforms in this in this so um, i'm gonna pass it over to eldra and christina and then you're gonna We're gonna we're gonna go in we're going in Thanks tash. Do we have the ability to show the video? Yes, I will I will switch over to that now and um Let me see here Stop to share and start to share i'm gonna stop And i'm gonna start I'm gonna get this thing going here please share All right I Served 24 years of a life sentence in the california prison system I was somebody who was a career criminal prison is one of the most segregated places on the face of the planet And uh inside circle was born out of a huge racial riot in 1996 on a piece of facility Inside circle adopted me while I was serving my life sentence I was somebody who thought I had it all figured out And when I went inside what I found was Pain I found trauma I found a grown man who was hiding A little boy who had been hurt and didn't know how to deal with that The system is failing us What was found what was discovered in those spaces what was discovered in those healing circles Was empathy humanity give the people the space to heal So the way to treat the community and be effective is to treat the community as a whole The way to get there is to treat the individual every individual as a whole don't go for Treatment categories statistical outcomes approach everyone as an individual meet their individual need In new jersey right now. We're in six juvenile prisons with the JJC And we work with the cohorts of young man We even build a youth back to the community model through the bridging program We call it young adult empowerment where they attend weekly financial readiness Job readiness workshops and also the healing circle component of dealing with the emotional turmoil of reeling in society The more we do towards bettering ourselves the more we can help someone else in that supportive process for them We provide people the place and the space to figure out the things about themselves that they don't know What inside circle is looking to do is to create the spaces Where individuals can deal with trauma And that's why we're partnering with local community-based public health and safety programs workforce and ownership training models and justice capital to create that space within their own neighborhoods together We will offer a first of its kind national network of next gen Transformational housing and community centers with our services designed to be a cornerstone We're both community healing as well as economic prosperity This is something that we will be bringing across the nation. If so something that was born In a prison chapel in Folsom, california, and if this is something that will spread From south carolina to new jersey At a city near you So, uh, thank you tash and uh, it's always a pleasure to sit with you christina When when when I think about the big vision of of what it is that we're looking to do or or Be a part of this, uh Giving pledge is it's just what you just saw in that video is Creating spaces where where people can heal Where communities can heal because we're you know, you hear a lot of talk about transferring wealth and transferring assets Which is, you know, definitely a big part of the solution and There is a need for healing We're talking about Addressing generational trauma We're talking about empowering people To deal with and be in a different relationship around money around community and around healing and if I don't know how to be in relationship Like that if I don't know how to be healthy like that You can give me all of the billions in the world And what you're going to have is an unhealthy community We know what that looks like what we're looking to build and support is healthy communities What we're looking to do is not just infuse capital into these communities, but infuse health into individuals and support individuals into Empowering themselves and empowering their communities to grow into whole healthy and thriving institutions That is the big vision Yeah, and I think you know if we look around us eldra, right We see the existing models literally the buildings of harm all around us, you know, you go to any downtown city anywhere you see a 12-story prison But you don't see the 12 story healing center Right, we don't have those institutions Of care and yet the community has the solutions. We've all survived this long Right, we're still here and we're going and we're going to stay here and we're going to win because this is all inevitable, right? um when services are not when systems are not serving communities new services and systems must be built And so, you know, I think that um knowing that the community already has the solutions um the unique approach that you know that we're bringing into this conversation and that we've partnered with um, you know cat and and the team at the good life pledge around Is making sure that we're actually resourcing and providing the physical place For all the magic that eldra just talked about That when you don't want to go and engage police But you actually want to create a restorative justice model and actually address the harm And really heal from the harm that's been done Around whether it's domestic violence incident or whatever it may be You know that there's actually a place for you to go And that place is co-owned with the community And it's resourcing and serving at scale what the community actually needs And so how do we offer housing mental health services rather than criminalize them? How do we make sure that the capital stays within the community? The first things first is we need to anchor in the community and that's really what aspire is which is what you heard eldra introduced earlier Aspire is the place where that live learn grow build model that is grounded in community based public health And safety models all across the country that have been making communities safer Have been creating value and protecting our communities for decades Where they can actually be resourced And actually come to scale along with the needed real estate And housing services and supportive services mental health services entrepreneurship training and workforce training models food and energy access Into the communities that need it most So these then become anchors in the community Where we can hire local folks that will build out those properties that build out around those communities To make sure that the community is able to own and lead its own development rather than just fuel gentrification and other forms of extraction But this is this isn't just philanthropy You know justice and healing Delivers value to cities counties and states and they know it and gentrifying developers know it Right when a community becomes safer it becomes vulnerable for gentrification when you increase transportation Access when you increase food access right when I finally get a Trader Joe's where I can get some fresh food Then boop-de-doop boop, you know, everybody gets pushed out now and gets a benefit from that But in this model in our approaches Um communities are actually leading that Governing and owning those solutions Um and actually have a place so that they can make sure that they're fending off displacement But actually creating more shared prosperity Um, you know just statistically right we can drill down into some of these numbers an urban institute study found that in dc for every 10 fewer incidents of gunfire per census track One new business was opening and one less business was closing 20 more jobs were going into those new businesses 1.3 million more in sales were at those new businesses Right developers know That having healthy and safe communities creates value It's just usually extracted from those communities and leads to displacement But there's another way and it's replicable And um, and that's what we're building When when when you speak about what we're building Christina I'm I'm In this space. I want to use a provocative word Okay, we're talking about abolitionism And and by definition An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution And this is something that cat and our partners Are modeling for things we're talking about Challenging the systems that are in place and building new systems that work That that's what we're talking about here building systems that work for everyone not for some folks Not for most folks not for the privy privilege few and we're not talking about knocking people down and making people wrong And and and placing blame what we're talking about is is building structures and putting things in place to empower folks to be able To build their communities. That's right when I think about, you know, post george floyd where we're at right now I you know, I heard the statistics about the commitments that were made Just following those events and what the follow-up has been since then and the question that I ask is As as a community, what what does that say about us? What does that say about me? And a moment in time What will my legacy be what we're talking about here is legacy building. That's right. Yeah Again, you know, we're talking about healing generational trauma and building A legacy for the future. That's right Yeah, I mean, it's it's what do we build in its place, right? And who's gonna govern that who's gonna lead that who's gonna own that And there actually is a place and I think cat, you know, you you said this so eloquently earlier He said we would need philanthropy if all these institutions were doing their job in the first place right And and so literally what we're talking about with this fire is building those institutions Um in public private partnership Well, we are where we are Given a little adrenaline Jump to those to those models Um, and I think, you know, even when you are bringing that up As we're building out these legacies, you know, one of the things that also makes me think Eldra is this kind of divest invest framework around abolition, right? If you're a person with wealth 90 I would be willing to bet you a very large hot fudge sundae at my favorite ice cream spot That you have been invested in the building of of prisons in america Because municipal bonds built every prison in america Right and every person who has a lot of wealth is deeply tied up in municipal bond industry, right? Both for its tax and advantages and you know, it's a safe quote-unquote place right And in that a lot of people don't know that they've been invested in police brutality settlements Because literally cities counties and states bond those out as municipal bonds That we pay for As taxpayers and that people who buy those bonds make profits off of right So on the divestment side, there's so much to Realign capital out of right, but the question always becomes. What do you want to invest into? What do you want to invest into and that's you know, that's why we created aspire But I think that also on a state level that's coming up as well um earlier this year for example, the state of alabama Wanted to build new prisons with core civic and one of our, you know, financial institutions barclays Who had committed to no longer financing private prisons was going to finance the deal Well investors for the first time in the history of anybody knowing or knowing that this is possible investors actually refused to finance that deal The state of alabama didn't have a problem putting forward that deal and going into debt around it But investors actually refused to finance that deal And they couldn't get it financed in the public markets. They couldn't get it financed in the private markets Now they're doing some crazy, you know Hail mary to use covid relief dollars to build these prisons. I mean, it's craziness, right? But this is how entrenched people are in those old ways eldra. You know what I'm saying? Like they're gonna live or die on that and what they and that's You said this when we were prepping you said all that comes from this intense place of fear Don't they realize That you could be a part of the solution restorative justice making communities healthy and safe It's not just good for those communities. What is good for them will be good for everybody You know what I'm saying like if if if we can get police to stop killing black people That will be great for white people too. You know what I'm saying? And so in this process um making sure that we're bringing folks back into circle for them to understand that All of this is Going to be good for everyone And that their shared prosperity both there's huge cost savings Huge cost savings that'll go to the city county and state Every time we prevent a homicide in the state of new jersey We save the state 8.2 million dollars our community-based public health and safety models are Are preventing dozens of those a year even within a huge uptick in in violent incidents, right? So there's huge amount of cost savings. But again Will the community participate and so the paradigm that you're that you know our audience here is hearing from you from me from cat from from chat and taj is Coming back into relationship to each other so that they're shared prosperity We don't have to be prosperous on the backs of someone else not being prosperous. That is a lie I'm I'm curious. I want to I want to see cat if you have some reflections on You've played a lot of roles in terms of you know running a farm in a ranch and running a foundation and and and running a bank and I want to I want to just sort of Ask you to put on your banking hat for a second because um beneficial state bank one of the most innovative financial institutions that we have Really built to try to strengthen and grow community wealth It was one of the places where you essentially transferred a bunch of your assets In a way that now are flowing out into communities in such powerful Ways and banks play generally a really important role in local economic development and as you sort of hear um Eldra and and Christina sort of talk about some of the the barriers and challenges that that they're Working with like from the perspective from with your banking hat on like what What are the breakthrough solutions that you think might be here? that other Leaders in community banking need to understand in terms of specifically like how do you support? Good local development that doesn't displace the people who it's supposed to benefit And that's really been kind of the core challenge in local development is is that problem and and Yeah, I just just wanted to see if you have some reflections on that as as our as our resident banker Sure So we are trying to be a good innovative community forward environmentally Supporting bank in what is actually quite a bad system, but an essential system We think of banking as the first and original most powerful form of crowdfunding We're just crowdfunding the wrong things So to uh, Christina's framework of divest invest we have to get the banks out of financing private prisons fossil fuels gentrification Extractive finance we have to stop the harm And then we have to turn what is a very powerful biggest industry on the planet is financial services toward creating benefit for all um, and some of the strategies we've explored is really Make our lending practice and our investment practice aligned with public benefit and community economic development and environmental stewardship Manage it to be a high percentage of doing that and no percentage doing the harm but also Using charitable assets. We are We get some from treasury to For instance boost the amount of affordable housing we can finance We're exploring the possibility of charitable capital coming in To stand in the place of equity that was stripped from communities small business households So that they can have a nest egg up on which we can lend money and they can grow that asset for their own wealth building So there's much to be done And there's innovation on the horizon I know some people are fearful of blockchain developments and cryptocurrencies and smart contracts and everything but We have to be prepared to harness new developments like that in favor of values banking and community benefit Because it's probably coming down the pike and it does have the possibility of democratizing and opening up access to financial services I think yeah, because I think you just sort of illustrated the core idea that we're exploring here, which is communities need access to all the different kinds of capital, but if we can if we can help communities regain a stewardship of assets, then that's what allows them to access resources and multiply capital in all kinds of ways and I think what you just shared is also a really powerful illustration Of kind of where the innovation that you've been doing in the financial sector Meets the innovation that eldre and christina have been doing and when we get that when we get all of that creativity and innovation together There's no problem that we can't solve. It's just it's really really exciting The kind of the kind of partnerships that that that happen in this space sort of between communities And between innovators both on the capital side and the community side So I want to just sort of go back to you eldre and christina because cat and i are curious just like How is being a part of the the the good life pledge community Sort of impacted and influenced the work that you're doing and and what can we do next like what can we do To sort of take it to the next level because we've done a tremendous amount together in the last year But this is the time to take it take it take it to the moon. So How has it been a benefit and what and what do we need to be focused on next? You use the word benefit and impact the the greatest benefit and impact Has been from my perspective connecting these communities Because we're talking about folks who we use this term boots on the ground The folks who are the boots on the ground in these communities doing the work and they're holding a lot of pain They're holding a lot of trauma They are are literally working and living and existing in in perpetual mass units in their community And so what we've had the opportunity to do is connect with these folks and begin to create the spaces So the individuals who are providing the services and and and healing and building the communities Have a space to go and decompress have a space to go and and and and relieve and heal and and and and Get out the things that they're sitting on And if i'm not able to do that if I don't have a space to do that It won't be long before i'm no good for anyone else. I need a space to do my I have to do my own work You know, we talk if if if folks again, I'm going to be a bit provocative think about 1994 and that 90 days between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda And they had a thing called reconciliation because nobody was going anywhere cat mentioned, you know, it's about Uh doing no harm moving forward. Okay. Yeah, we stopped doing harm and we still have to live together We still have to be in community with one another and if i'm still carrying Uh unhealthy energy towards you and some things that have happened how healthy is the community going to be and vice versa So what we can do moving forward? Real simple all sitting circle together When i'm sitting in circle, i'm doing my work. I'm looking at those blind spots I'm looking at those shadow parts of myself and i'm giving myself the opportunity to heal and i'm supporting others in healing And i'm recognizing where we are we have more things in common than not So that's what we can do moving forward is invite everybody into these healing spaces Because at the end of the day, we're all humans. We all bleed red. We all put on, you know, our shoes one foot at a time Like drop Thank you very much. And just that's just a little taste of what what elders describing is um The realest thing you've ever experienced just just really really listening to each other And and each of us recognizing the work that we each have to do and that and I think that's what what I really like About the good life pledge community is that everyone in this community is doing their work Everyone in this community knows they have a role to play Everyone in this community can make a contribution and And we do that, you know powerfully as as just human beings coming together to solve these problems. So um, thank you just passing to christina to To um, yeah to share share your thoughts on what's next and how it's how it's supported the work Yeah, I think a couple of different ways. Um, you know one I think almost every good life pledge community has basically Asked us to come and partner with them So it's given us, you know aspire location three four five six, you know, etc um It's also I think as a community on the good life pledge allowed us to drop a lot deeper And get a lot more real than just kind of traditional philanthropy You know, I remember when we first sat down with doria, for example, you know Um, we were just in a small breakout room and she was hearing and me and erin had just come off of a circle That we had just facilitated. So we were kind of lit, you know what I mean just in general energetically and You know, she was like, you know, this is something we never talk about But yesterday I dodged three bullets, you know, they mean like this is just how you know all of All of this food and access and energy Like all the things we're talking about is still happening in the confines of a community that is not currently safe And she was like, you know the mental health that that means for our community We just lost one of our members a couple of weeks ago, you know It just allowed for a deeper drop in to the community, which really I think um Was important um on that connection tip and then the last thing I would say is just Um, you know talking with folks like chad who I know y'all are going to hear from a little bit more in a second And others is just we've been able to simplify our work a lot more Like ultimately what is aspire aspire is a real estate and venture private equity fund Like that's what it is, right? We're just doing it with the community Not on the community or extracting from the community, but it's um, so it's been of service to us to just keep it really really simple Because those of us that are in the work we can get so deep into it, you know, they mean Um, and also I think that serves back for us to inform other investors to say, you know No matter what asset class you're working in we can help you get out of bad stuff And we can help you get into good stuff, right? But then it's on us as a good life pledge community to make sure that those products and services Are, you know at scale and able to absorb that level of capital support And um, you know, and that's on us That's on us as a community to to operate together But I think just simplifying it so that people don't get lost in all the Words or maybe stuff that mere elder said was challenging to somebody, you know, they mean provocative That's cool. Like sit with that You know what I'm saying sit with that and also it's really pretty simple It's really pretty simple We're just we're just making sure that we're resourcing communities who have already had a long track record Of effective efficient service delivery that has created value for somebody else And we're just saying we could invest in them to participate in their own value creation That's it And so, um, just want to appreciate both of you for giving us a little Uh, a little taste of of of the healing that you've been doing and the foundation that you've been building And you know in all of the projects that we work with and in all the communities we work with, um It's exciting that that in the work that you do what you've built is is built to absorb capital Yesterday and all different kinds of capital at an extremely significant scale And I think there's a way in which both the spartenberg work and the and the work in push buffalo kind of shows what can happen over time and The work of aspire and inside circle and justice capital is that is another Example of of anyone who's wondering what can communities do this at scale. Absolutely The communities are ready To do it. We just they just need the trust and the partnership To make to make that forward and and speaking of that are my favorite, um Tarsh, can I can I say one thing? Oh, of course I know time is abandoned. I see a question here and it's kind of sticking out to me What's the value proposition these community led initiatives deliver for their investors? And i'm not super sophisticated But I was 19 years old and I had a six-week criminal trial that cost the county a Sacramento 1.3 million dollars And the folks that we are sitting with the folks that we are supporting To not be going through a six-week trial I'm not a mathematician, but you add it up Thank you With 35 young folks in in in New Jersey right now who are not Committing crimes again who are not killing again Who are not robbing again who are not praying on their communities any longer? So I don't know what those figures look like But it seems like a lot to me Luckily I do um and yeah So we're talking about reduced policing costs reduced incarceration costs reduced medical and Medicaid costs reduced prosecutor and court costs Those are just direct benefits to government Doesn't include also the direct benefits to the general public In terms of reduced medical costs supported by high rates to um, you know to cover uncovered patients As well as the indirect benefits to both government and general public reduced assistance programs Sending increased educational participation and attainment increased tax revenue on the property income and sales side Also an indirect benefits to general public. We're talking about growth in small businesses access to capital increases Increased incomes and educational attainment reduced pain and suffering improved property values We kind of go on um and those are the value that is literally the value that we're capturing within our structures Which I won't take up too much time here But that's how um, that's our value proposition and that's the value that gets extracted from our communities because we create that every day with our programs Every single day like we said, you know for one homicide. We're saving the state of new jersey 8.2 million dollars times 48 But how much of that is going back into the southward of newark So Thank you for that breakdown christina I think I think the other thing for people to know and it relates to just this theme We coming back to you of asset transfer and what's the role of asset transfer as a particular kind of gift as a particular kind of Contribution in relationship to unlocking some of the other resources So within justice capital, you've got all of the kind of revenue-based financing Savings that get redirected in communities, but it also Creates opportunities for scaled investments to make conventional investments at conventional rates of return. So christina can tell you a lot more about that But that that's the other thing that that makes the model scale There's room for the asset transfer. There's room for the public finance There's room for the philanthropy and there's room for for um conventional investment In in in the development, which is which is kind of the secret sauce of it. So um, I will leave you all to Send a message to christina and she will she will break that down for you. But now I want to turn to uh one of my favorite people chad Who is Who is the guardian of trust? He's a real big fan of not just trust-based philanthropy that trust-based asset transfers trust-based Impact investment trust trust trust. Let's really trust the community. He's going to tell you a little bit about How how you can become a part of this and how this is growing. So let's pass it to chad Yeah, thanks everybody for including me today. Um, let me back to the value question like how you know, what can What can this community do? I think it's reorienting what we think of as valuable like I think there's like this fundamental shift and like What what are we optimizing for and it's you know, historically capitalism optimizing for growth returns and and it's reorienting what are we optimizing for and and uh It's kind of one of the analogies for me for the good life pledge that's been useful is and and I guess Step one to me is like a mindset shift. So and it's shifting from grants to asset transfer and and The analogy that has been useful to me for people with wealth privilege Is thinking about like what do you do to create stability for your kids? and for folks that have worked with um Indigenous groups and sort of being part of the village has been you know, such a blessing to me They when you're in those spaces like everybody is family every email start with hey familiar intros hey relatives So redefining what what we think of as family Uh, I think as it is it helps us shift like what we think is valuable And so if you think about traditional like how you take care of your kids if you have wealth privilege You don't give them an allowance until they're 90 you you you Do something else which is typically you would set up a trust And a trust is an asset transfer like you're doing you're transferring an asset that's in their control that is Purpose is to create flourishing for that person that you really care about a lot But we're not doing that with these communities yet, but we will and so to me like traditional grants and and and funding operations super important still have to do it You still got to give kids kids allowance But to create long-term stability We need to do asset transfer for the communities just like we do for their kids So that's like a mindset shift that has been helpful to me Am I thinking about how to have impact and so I'm asked myself now every dollar Both investment philanthropy impact investing everything how much of that is serving to build community wealth So start to apply that filter to everything you do Um and second is to then once you've bought in yourself like wield your influence like appreciate the influence you have And invite others to shift their mindset and to take the pledge and to opt in to this new way of doing things Another mindset shift for me is that to realize that this is possible Like this feels everything feels terrible and like it feels like we've been doing this stuff for so long and nothing's getting better Everything's complicated But this actually makes it pretty simple like it's it's a pretty simple ask if we can just shift assets That's going to have a massive downstream leveraged effect going forward So have some hope like it we can do this we can do this and it's actually when you break it down it's pretty simple and The action that makes it simple is number one match cast challenge And and and participate with it one of the initial good life pledge communities And this is a way of converting part of this element I'm going to go into detail But you're actually converting any of this daff resource if you have donor advice fund That money's inert for the most part except for when you're doing grants But we all know sort of the deployment percentage of daffs is not great So you got this inert capital sitting in your daff turn into a productive asset You can do that by matching cat's challenge because you're taking Part of your daff as a loan guarantee and turning that into capital in these communities and giving them access to capital They wouldn't otherwise have so that's one that's one easy button Sign up for good life pledge and support the community match cat's challenge Beyond that funding Community capital vehicles when you think about this is a way to get your percentage up How much of your capital is going to build community wealth? you can increase that percentage by Doing more and doing it in the direction of supporting community capital vehicles and Taj and rachel and folks have started this this resource called community capital info that has a list of these type of entities That you can give to so it's a way of shifting your mindset If you shift to your mindset that you want to increase improve your percentage going till coming community wealth There's another way to do it And then finally just simplest is if you have land give it back to the people it was stolen from That's that's the most easy. That's like the easiest asset transfer sort of mental model for folks I think there's a subset that folks that actually have you know land to do but that's again an easy button um, and finally The idea of expanding expanding the the message in the in the understanding of good life pledge is idea of creating cohorts in the communities that you're in so I'm in philanthropy workshop, which is a network of 400 social investors who are actually committed to disrupting the status quo in philanthropy Trust-based philanthropy was like sort of the starting point. I sort of see good life pledges like trust-based, you know squared and And they use like proven best practices and really dynamic peer learning To do that. So philanthropy workshop is a community that i'm a member of And so in partnership with them, we're excited to say that we're going to start a good life pledge cohort Within philanthropy workshop. So if you're in a community any community like that and you're interested in this Expand it by by starting a cohort and we can we can help you do that And so it's going to start with a with an action lab is what they call it And they're also very aligned on the principle of it's important to learn it's important to have community But it's also important to do stuff. And so like what is the action that's going to come out of this? Not just talking and feeling good about each other um So ultimately we're hoping to do is create a cohort that's going to opt into the good life pledge And to to match the commitment to support one of the five communities And so if we can do that, um, you know that if you apply that idea Think about all the communities you're in think about who might be attracted to this to this model That's how we can expand it And to you know to elder's point start to be in community with other people who are interested in this new new direction and which is Something we can do it is it is possible. So That's how I think the socap folks can help So I invite you to join us happy to you know collaborate and brainstorm on how to do it Thanks chad So if you're out there thinking that hey, we need a socap uh cohort in the good life pledge Reach out reach out to chat reach out to cat reach out to us and we'll we'll help you organize that We're having some good conversations with our with our friends in tonic and resource generation donors of color network and some of the other networks that have made real commitments to equity In in what in in the resources that they're stewarding and and talking with them about doing a very similar process to what chad described with with TPW so that's that's that's one of the ways we're growing the community. So I want to pass it to cat for just any last reflections and um learning appreciations For the conversation we've had and what's coming next um Well, I think it's my job to say that we have to hold ourselves accountable um philanthropy has made some pledges that it hasn't kept in the past And this is definitely an age where if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem um And also that winning slow is losing so we have to do it right away And we can build community around holding ourselves accountable um and um the joy of recognizing that when Frontline communities do well. We will all feel better and be healthier and be well and achieve The mutualism that we need to heal our planet Stay on here not get spit out like a watermelon seed um And it realize a lot more joy and self-determination Beautiful Thank you cat and I and I completely as usual lost track of time We're probably beyond our appointed hour, but appreciate everyone who's who's uh, who's hung in there If you are on your way to other sessions, please, please stay engaged in in the so cap Dialogues there's just so much that comes out of these conversations Every year but along along the way so cap is just such an important place for us to come together and Looking forward to when we'll all be able to to be in a in a big giant warehouse again Because that that's always fun when we can be this non virtually and and hoping everyone's doing all the Health and safety things that we need to do in order to get closer to that reality. So just appreciation for you all joining us in the conversation and um now is officially the after party which is where we Linger and hang out and uh drink champagne. No, no champagne. I got just tea but um And we we sort of just talk when you ever want to jump in and talk so some people on the panel may have to go because They're very busy, but I'll hang out for a little while and whoever wants to chat We'll hang out so Thanks cat. Thanks chan. Thanks. I'll draw Appreciate y'all. Thank you well


Aloha and welcome to Business in Hawai'i with Reg Baker. We're a show that broadcasts live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 from the ThinkTech studios in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Hvalululu. We have finally got a really pretty day out there. We've got blue skies, a few little clouds and no rain. So it's good to be in Hawai'i. We're a show that focuses on success stories of businesses in Hawai'i. There are challenges of doing business here. There's a lot of regulations and taxes and costs are high. But we have some companies that do very well and they thrive and they have figured out how to work around some of these challenges. And today we've got a company called Booz Allen Hamilton and the Vice President who runs things out here is Bob Linsky. And he is going to explain to us a little bit about the company and what they do and how they make it work here. So Bob, welcome to the show today. Thanks, Reg. Pleasure to be here. You've actually been in Hawai'i for a while now. Yeah. Been here about 21 years total. All right. And how did you end up coming to Hawai'i? Would you tell us about that story? Okay. Well, I actually was born and raised in Michigan. And then... Cold country? Very cold. And went to college in Colorado, went to the Air Force Academy. Another cold country. Very cold there as well. But there was beautiful weather compared to Michigan. And anyways, while I was a cadet, I had the opportunity to come over here. And I spent a week here as a cadet. And during that, I pretty much fell in love with Hawai'i and said, first step, I got to get stationed here. Well, an interesting trivia story you were sharing with me earlier. Why were you here as a cadet at the Air Force Academy? I was on the football team and got the opportunity to come over here and play against the rainbows and playing that beautiful aloha stadium. And that was all part of it. But the way we were treated out here, just the people were so nice. And obviously the weather is nice compared to Colorado. We were freezing before we left and played in December. But there was so much more just about the culture and the people. And decided I want to come back to Hawai'i someday. And it took me a while. I had to apply three different times every time I was transferring, kept trying to get a job in Hawai'i. And eventually I did. While you were in the Air Force? While I was in the Air Force, right. So eventually I was able to get out here on active duty and spent three years here on active duty and then left. And I very clearly remember that flight out of the islands, heading back to Colorado Springs, which is a great place. But I was a little tear in my eye, leaving Hawai'i behind. But I knew I'd be back. And three years later, I moved back. You know, I came over here in the military as well. And one of the things that I remember about that flight is that they put you in backwards. It was on a C-130 and they flew us backwards the whole way over. So when you left, did you fly backwards when you left? No, I was on a commercial flight. Oh, you're so lucky. Yeah, so you ended up leaving. But then you went other places too. So you worked in different locations while you were in the Air Force. Yeah. I had the opportunity to move around a little bit. I lived in Mississippi for a little while, Colorado Springs, Southern California. That was my first assignment. So that wasn't too bad. Southern California is a young second lieutenant. In fact, while I was there, my old roommate, he was stationed at LA Air Base. So I went out and visited him a lot and he taught me how to surf. So that had a little something to do with it as well. Learned to just love the ocean and that was part of the reason to say, let's see if we can get out to Hawaii. Today, my wife surfs. My kids surf. We're kind of a water family and just all of us love being around and in the ocean. This is certainly a place to not only surf, but to be in the water because there's a lot of water activities out here. So you got his whole family out here still? Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Got my wife, Mila. And kids, I got a senior in high school, Zachary, and a sophomore in high school, Dillon. So aloha. And where do they go to high school? They're at Puneau. Oh, very good. So they're all enjoying the weather now, I hope. You're all in the water and you're working for a company called Booz Allen. And you spent 20 years in the Air Force? No. Actually, I did 10 years active and got out at mid-career and my wife and I were both active duty and we both separated and transitioned to the reserves. At that time, we said, you know what, of all the places we've been stationed, we'd like Hawaii the best. Let's go back there for a few years. So we moved back here thinking it was going to be two to five years and here we are. And so how did you end up finding this company Booz Allen and getting a job with them? Was that something you had always had your sights on or how did that play out? No. That's a great question. I knew I wanted to come back to Hawaii and through the service academies in general, we have a thing called the Service Academy Resource Directory. Today it's all online but back then it was literally a book you had to buy. And so I turned to the Hawaii page and I started calling, cold calling, grads. And the first two I happened to call were Navy grads. The second one that I called was a guy named Ted Peck. Actually, the first person said, hey, I don't have anything here. It was Sun Microsystems but called Ted Peck over at Booz Allen. He might have something. It was the first time I'd heard of Booz Allen. And so I reached out to him, had a conversation and one thing led to another and I got a job out here. But one thing I would tell you is as I was transitioning from the military, we go through a thing called Transition Assistance. I mean, you probably know that being from a military yourself. In Transition Assistance they told us 70% of you will leave your first job within a year. So I knew right then that I'd better get a job that looks good on my resume. And so as I started looking into this thing called Booz Allen, looking at the website, doing some research, it looked like a pretty good company. And a couple of things that stood out were they had on the website they had a thing that celebrated come back kids. People would left the firm, found out the grass wasn't necessarily greener and come back. And that happens more often than people think. Yeah. And the other thing was they celebrated their alumni. So people that had been in Booz Allen and left and gone off to other careers and they celebrated that too. And I saw some quotes in there that said things like, I got my MBA at Booz Allen. And so anyway, long story there, but I felt like that's going to look good on my resume. You know, because I'm not going to be here in a year, right? So now I've been at Booz Allen for 18 years. Well congratulations. Thanks. And just out of curiosity, and this always helps with the transition, but there's, does Booz Allen hire veterans? Is there a good contingent of veterans within the company? Yeah, we certainly do. Formwide, I think the number I heard the other day was somewhere between 30 and 35 percent of Booz Allen employees or former, have some tie to the military. Out here it might be a little higher just because of our client base, but it's, I want to say it's less than 40 percent. It's probably 35, 36 percent right around there. See that helps in a couple different ways, you know, with the transition into the company and picking up the culture and also with retention and keeping employees around. Because it's an environment that you're comfortable with, you know, your former military moving into a company that's got a lot of military people working there already. You know what to expect. They know what to expect. There's not a clash, you know, sometimes, you know, from my experience, personal experience is that when you go to work for a company that doesn't have that. They don't know, you don't know, and it takes a while before people can be comfortable with the communication and the different cultures that may exist. I was used to having a very structured environment, clear definition of what was expected and what the results were supposed to be. Some companies aren't always set up that way. Yeah. Well, I think there's a lot of synergy with the values between the military and Booz Allen, and I think that attracts certain people, but not just veterans. I mean, we have a very diverse workforce, and I think that if, you know, in interviews people ask me all the time, you know, what do you love about Booz Allen? And I think the first answer is it's the people, and I think it's the culture and the values that attract those people and keep them in Booz Allen. Now, does Booz Allen have a regular recruiting process? Yeah, we sure do. In our industry, we're one of the few that have local recruiters here in Hawaii. So we actually have two full-time recruiters here in Hawaii, and we've got, I don't know, the number of firm-wide, but a very large network of recruiters. And so if we get to a point where we need to surge beyond the two local recruiters, it's a very fluid process of just extending that out. Yeah. And so how would somebody find out about the opportunities that might be at Booz Allen here in the Hello Little Office? Yeah. On our website, boozallan.com, boozallan.com, you can check it out. But you can look for the jobs, and they're sorted in a lot of different ways, and you have the ability to sort. So you can look specifically for jobs in Hawaii in there. We've got a lot of openings, even right now. So people need to go and take a look at that, and I guess there's instructions, and once they find something that they might want to be able to apply for, there's probably some instructions or some guidance on how to go through that. Very good. You know, that's something that I think, you know, we get a lot of students watching this, and I think we also have a lot of veterans watching this because of some of the history that we've had of guests on the show. So don't be surprised if all of a sudden your dashboard lights up with people tapping into that. They're welcome to. Just out of curiosity, what type of positions would boozallan have opened? Can you think of any offhand of what might be available, the type of work that they're looking for?  So we work with our clients, whether they're U.S. government, which is out here, the majority of our clients, but we also have a few other areas that we support. So we help them solve problems, and we help them in a lot of different ways. But some of our strength areas are cybersecurity, engineering, data science and analytics is an area that we're investing heavily in to include artificial intelligence and machine learning and where that can take us into the future. Yeah, so I mean, there's a very broad spectrum. I'd say consulting. I mean, we're a 104-year-old consulting firm. And today we've kind of reemerged as really being known for technology and innovation. But what we're trying to do is make sure that we never lose sight of that 104 years of consulting heritage. So when we look at a problem, it's looking at it from a people process technology standpoint and really want to bring those consulting capabilities and skills to the situation. A good example of that would be, you know, if we're working with a client to transform an IT system or working on, you know, changing processes to make them more efficient. There's an aspect of that that really requires change management and strategic communications and a number of other things to make them successful. So that's kind of how we approach a problem and our jobs are going to be related to any number of things in those areas. You know, a couple opportunities come to mind pretty quick. You probably heard that the IRS servers went down and they're trying to figure out how to make sure that doesn't happen again. So, you know, I might refer the IRS over to you for some extra work. But the Department of Taxation also, they've got three different systems over there to try to figure out. So there's some opportunity there. I know there's probably aren't the type of jobs you're looking for, but they definitely need some help. But I would imagine that with the way technology is evolving so quickly and people are, you know, they may have state of the art technology and systems in place this year, but then all of a sudden two or three years later, maybe they're not so state of the art anymore and they have to transition and try to move things and stay current. Is that the type of work that you're involved in? Yeah, I mean, any technology that people work with today, the pace is incredible in how fast it moves.  And so, you really, it's critical, one for us, you know, with our employees that we're all staying as current as we possibly can, and so we have a very robust education program and torsion assistance. It's a never-unding process. Yeah. You've constantly got to be refreshing, you know, your knowledge base. And you've got to sign over there on the wall, it says lifelong learning, and that, I mean, that's kind of how we think about it is when you come to Booz Allen, it's the beginning of a career, and we're going to continue to invest in you. And we have, as I said, you know, great development programs and includes internal and external trainings. We also have the opportunity for people to completely reinvent themselves over time. You know, we've got some people who've come in very focused in one area, maybe from their past experience, and saw that, you know what? In this particular case, there was an individual who looked at cybersecurity and said, I think that looks really interesting, and it took them a couple of years to get some of the education and the certifications, but completely transformed over into a line of work that they had never had any experience in prior to Booz Allen. Well, and that's why people will say that they got their MBA at Booz Allen, because it's a constant learning process and very valuable. So, we're going to have to take a short break here. We're going to be gone for about a minute, but when we come back, what I'd like to be able to do is maybe spend a little bit more time on Booz Allen, the company. I know we've touched on that already, but how is it structured? What does it do? I guess it's headquartered in D.C., but we'll spend a little bit of time on that. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here today with Booz Allen. We're talking a little bit about the company, what it is, what it does, and we've got Bob Linsky here, who's the VP out here in Hololulu, and he's sharing all this information with us today. So, we'll be back in about one minute. Aloha. I'm Keeley Ikeena, and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Together. In Hawaii Together, we talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together, working together for a better economy, government, and society. So, I invite you into our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Join us for Hawaii Together. I'm Keeley Ikeena. Aloha. Hello, everyone. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Desbang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands, and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii with Dr. Baker. We're here this week talking with Booz Allen. We're getting a crash course on exactly what that company is and what it does. One of our technicians over here thought it was a beer company. It's not. It does a little bit different. But Bob, what's your elevator speech? Describe Booz Allen for us. All right. That's a great question. I was talking to my dad not too long ago, and he was giving me a hard time because he's eight years old now, and I've been here 20 years, and he says, you've been there 20 years, and I still don't know what the heck you do every day. But yeah, like I said, it's a 104-year-old management and technology consulting firm. In fact, the consulting industry was really founded by Booz Allen. And it was Edwin Booz who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1914 and started a firm with the whole idea that organizations can be better if you bring someone in from the outside, fresh set of eyes, to partner with you and think about how you solve problems. Challenge some of the things that you've always done one way, but there might be better ways or best practices. Yeah, that's very healthy. So that was kind of the beginning. So we were really a pure commercial management consulting firm right up until World War II. And it was during World War II that the Department of the Navy reached out to Booz Allen, and we came in and helped them really create a lot more efficiency and capacity. So the Navy was looking at how can we ramp up and scale up in preparation for the war. And so we were very focused with them on processes and streamlining things and allowing them to invest that energy into building the capacity they needed. You may not be able to comment on it, and I can understand that. But I had an opportunity one time to do a tour of the Coronado, USS Coronado. And I was impressed because basically that ship is one floating computer. And it's a command center, I guess, for a battle group that goes out. But the systems and the technology and the accuracy and the efficiency that all of this technology brings to the table is a huge game changer. Yeah, well, and that's to maybe further amplify what kind of things Booz Allen does. So we worked with the Navy Postgraduate School over the last few years and developed a hackathon that tests out the ability to get into those systems on a Navy ship. And so it's working with the Navy, and it's a really innovative way of essentially crowdsourcing solutions. So as we all know, the military, the processes and the timeline for making change and investment, it can be a very slow process. And with the speed of technology, it's very difficult to stay ahead of the adversary. So the commander of the Navy, postgraduate school at the time, Commander Zach Staples came up with this idea and implemented it, working with us, brought us on to help him do it. So we built a machine, essentially, that has the communications computer systems of a Navy ship, and then invite hackers from all over the world to come in and spend a weekend trying to get into those systems and help us to figure out how they did it so that we can quickly get better. And it's really, I went to one of those down in Austin, and it's great because the Navy stands up there and says, all of you, and this is a very diverse crowd of hackers, you're here to serve your country this weekend. You know, I've always found it interesting that they actually have these hacker conventions across the country, across the world. I mean, they're all over the place, and it's kind of neat to think that there's actually an organization out there that's bringing them together. But what better place to test your vulnerabilities is to have some of the best people in the industry, if I can call it that, trying to get into the system and learning from that. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we're in the process. We have that machine here in Hawaii today in our office. And it was shipped here from Boston where we did the last one, it's gonna be shipped from here to Seattle later this year, but in the meantime, we're working to prepare to host one of those hackathons right here in Hawaii. Wow. So just out of curiosity, how does somebody get invited to one of these? Do you have to be an accomplished hacker? We're right now, we're still in the early stages of shaping it, but the way we do it is we work with our clients. So we're working with clients at US Pacific Command, the Navy, and others to kind of figure out exactly how large we wanna make it and how those invites will be. But this one will be a little bit more by invitation. It's gonna be a little bit smaller, but there will still be opportunities for many of you out there to get involved in it. It'd be interesting just to come out and be an observer and watch some, because I guess it would be an interesting place for some people watching. There's some real characters out there. But I guess the, where is Booz Allen Headquartered? It's in DC? Yeah, the headquarters is in McLean, Virginia, and we have offices all over the world. We have about 25,000 people in the firm. Wow, that's huge. Out here, Hawaii is kind of our hub for the Pacific Rim, and we have just under 300 people here in Hawaii, and 500 in the Pacific Rim. So we have offices in Seoul, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Guam, and the latest, we just opened a commercial office in Singapore, and it's very focused on commercial cybersecurity, mostly for financial services. Nothing in China yet, huh? No, not yet. Not that we could admit to. But you actually came out here when the company was, the hollow operations was a little bit smaller. So you've seen some real big growth here. Yeah, yeah, I'm very fortunate to get the job with Booz Allen coming right out of the military, and we had 30 people in Hawaii at the time. 30. And that was 1999, and there was no office. Most of our people, we all worked on client site, and I got interviewed at the Hilton Wine Village, and, you know, it came at a good time, and we had some very good opportunities and projects over, you know, over many, many years to grow the business. And it just grew, and so from 30 to 300, that's an amazing growth. Yeah, congratulations. It's a fun company to be with, and that kind of growth mode. And so does Booz Allen have different departments, different divisions? Do they focus, I guess they got a consulting piece, but they got other pieces as well? Yeah, we're, first of all, it's one profit and loss center for 25,000 people. One P&L for the entire... That's really unique. You know, all of you in the business community understand how significant it is with 25,000 people, and what that does is creates a very collaborative, open environment where we're all incentivized to help each other be successful. And there's not a lot of that inherent competition that's going on, and where you are managing different departments with their own separate P&Ls. I mean, it can sometimes get a little nasty, you know, going after the limited resources that a company has, and infighting that takes place, but having just one P&L, if I can use the word, brings harmony to the process. Yeah, I think one of the key things about it, and you were asking, you know, how we're organized, is we have an arm called the Strategic Innovations Group, which we developed a few years ago, and it's like a skunkworks, right? It's a R&D shop internal investment to develop new cutting edge technologies and look over the horizon and see what's out there, what's coming. You know, I mentioned artificial intelligence, machine learning, that's an area where they're spending a lot of time in immersive learning through augmented reality and virtual reality, those kind of things, and our business here in Hawaii is one of their favorites to work with, because we face very operational clients, as you mentioned earlier, kind of at the tip of the spear. So the developers and the people that are helping develop that love coming out here and working with us, and we, you know, they come out here on a regular basis, spend time with our people, learning about the requirements, because our people are there working side by side every day with clients, and can say, hey, this is the project I'm working on, this is what my client's struggling with, how can you help me to make my client more successful? And that's the beginning of many prototype projects that we then deploy out here to our clients. Well, and that's, you know, we had that earlier conversation, it's a great laboratory to have out here, because you get to see what the needs are first hand, and then get involved in trying to figure out how to meet those needs. Yeah. You know, it's a very rewarding process, especially when you can meet the needs. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's very good. Do you, what kind of people does Bird, Moose Allen look for when they're going out of, if there was somebody that was in college right now and are thinking about a degree, what is the most sought after degree that you're looking for? You know, it's really kind of all over because we find that even, you know, obviously we do a lot of recruiting for electrical engineering, communications, computer science, various engineering programs. Those are, we look very closely at those, but we find that, you know, the liberal arts side of it is also very critical. So when you can find somebody who's got both, that, you know, kind of left brain and right brain, working in tandem, those tend to be the most successful employees because you can think about a problem differently and yet you have the foundation and the technical understanding to work out. It's a pretty unique individual. That's a good skill set to have to be able to have that right and left brain capability. Yeah, and you know, speaking of that, I mean, I mentioned data science and we kind of joke about a data scientist being a purple unicorn because they're very, I mean, it's really unique skill set. You've got the coding experience and the analytics and also having the industry knowledge and the understanding domain experience. It's rare to find all of that in one person. So what we try to do is, we, one, we try and find some of those, but we also try and develop them. So if we can find people that have strength in one or two of those areas, let's train and grow data scientists and the other. And the other thing though that we do is team, right? So as you, you know, what are we looking for? We're looking for people who are very collaborative, very successful in a team environment because an example of that would be around data science. Our clients need a data science and analytics solution. Oftentimes their first reaction is, I want to hire a data science. Can you bring me a data scientist and put them here with me? And our answer is, we could do that, but it might be a lot more efficient if we use our team from downtown where maybe every one of those individuals is not a full on data scientist, but when you put them together, we can provide a very robust data science capability. And so it's a combination of having people there side by side partnering with the client and kind of the reach back to these capabilities that can bring additional insight and solutions. Sure. And you get the synergies of everybody's having the different skill sets working together to be able to identify things that maybe an individual wouldn't have necessarily seen. Right. And I was gonna joke a little bit. I said you get all these hardcore technical type people in there, but somewhere along the lines, it's got to have a little sprinkle of people skills too. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's a unique individual, could end up having a very rewarding career. Fortunately, we are out of time. We'd love to continue the conversation, but you do have a website that people can go to to find out more about the company and the opportunities, and what is that website again? It is boozeallon.com, no E on the booze. That's right, it's strictly booze. Okay, Alan, good job. Very good. Well, Bob, appreciate you being here today. Had a great conversation, looking forward to catching up with you again soon. Until then, we'll see you around town. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30. We talk about successful businesses in Hawaii. Until next week, aloha.