SPEAKER: James Frasche

CEO of Shelter Homes, LLC

Jim Frasche’s first trip to the Middle East in 1971 began as a lark, and ended up lasting 5 years. From 1971 to 1975, he drove eleven times from Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to Germany and Denmark, trading in carpets while driving West, and in German small appliances and power hand tools when heading East. Between trips, he worked for the US Information Agency and RCA Globcom Systems as an English teacher and curriculum writer in Teheran, the University of Pennsylvania Museum as an archaeological expedition photographer in Iranian Azerbaijan, and as a tour guide for the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. After returning to the US to get a Masters’ degree in international business management from Thunderbird, he later worked at the Denver Research Institute at the University of Denver as a contractor to USAID in Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, and India.

After visiting Afghanistan for the first time in 1972, he always harbored dreams of returning to run a successful business which would also have a real impact on the quality of life of the Afghan people. He followed that dream in April, 2002, returned to Afghanistan, and founded the bottling company Afghanistan Natural Beverages in Kabul to provide safe drinking water to local markets and to the international community. At the same time, he was Deputy Director of The International Foundation of Hope, an American NGO with extensive tree nursery operations in Jalalabad, and a K-8 school in Kabul. Jim returned to Denver in December, 2007, after his landlord was kidnapped and his presence in Kabul posed too great a security risk to his local employees and business partners.

Jim was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Denver World Trade Center, and has enjoyed a career in international business development and consulting. He is currently CEO of Shelter Homes, LLC, a Denver- based company specializing in emergency housing structures for international disaster relief agencies.

Jim holds a BA in Anthropology from Colorado State University, an MIM from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), and various professional certifications relating to beverages production, quality and security.

MODERATOR: Rob Reuteman

Freelance Journalist

Rob Reuteman is a freelance journalist based in Denver. He had been business editor at the Rocky Mountain News for 12 years prior to its shutdown in February 2009. Overall, he had been an editor at the Rocky for 26 years, working as city editor, state editor and national editor. Reuteman is currently president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, a 3,200-member group of financial journalists based in Phoenix.

PANELIST: James Yeager

Minerals Exploration Geologist / Geochemist

Mr. James Yeager is a minerals exploration geologist / geochemist with over 30 years in the mining industry. He has managed exploration and development projects in the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, and Australia. He received his BSC in Geology from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of New Mexico.

He is an equity owner in three business including Skyline Assayers and Laboratories in Tucson, Arizona, 1776 Properties in Tucson, Arizona, and La Mancha Holdings, Inc. Skyline Assayers and Laboratories is one the largest U.S. based analytical laboratory providing analytical services to the mining companies in the U.S, Mexico, Latin America, and Africa. 1776 Properties is a risk capital company providing financing for oil and gas exploration in Texas and property holdings in Arizona. La Mancha Holdings, Inc is a uranium exploration company with properties in southwest Colorado. He also serves as a director for a number of junior mining companies.

For the past 10 years, he has worked as a small business owner and consulting geologist. Clients include Triumph Gold, Vista Gold and the World Bank. For Triumph Gold,  where he was responsible for the exploration and development of the Guarche Gold project in Venezuela and Vista Gold where he was responsible for the development drilling at the Maverick Spring project in central Nevada. For the World Bank, Mr. Yeager served as a consultant to the Ministry of Mines in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007. It was during this contract that He was intimately involved in the Aynak tender process.

He is a member of a number of organizations including Prospector and Developers Association of Canada, Northwest Mining Association, Colorado Mining Association, Society of Mining Engineers, Geological Society of Nevada, and the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce.

PANELIST: Paul Hudnut

Co-Director of Colorado State University's Global Innovation Center for Energy, Health & Environment

Paul Hudnut is Co-Director of Colorado State University's Global Innovation Center for Energy, Health & Environment and an Instructor at the College of Business. He was instrumental in developing the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise Program, which provides graduate students with the tools, experience and network to build and manage triple bottom line ventures.

His background and interest is in building companies in the bioscience, energy and information services industries. Paul is a founder and former director of Envirofit International, Ltd., which was a TechAward laureate in 2005 and won a World Clean Energy Award in 2007.  He has also served as a board member of New Belgium Brewing Co. and Inviragen, and is a faculty council member of Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion.  He blogs about entrepreneurship, development and sustainability at “What’s a BOPreneur” and serves as an advisor to NextBillion.

Prior to joining CSU’s College of Business in 2003, Mr. Hudnut was an executive at Heska Corporation, U S WEST and PR Pharmaceuticals.  Paul earned his BA from Colorado College and his law degree from University of Virginia and has completed the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School.

PANELIST: Steve Rooney

Founder and CEO of Ground Floor Capital

Steve Rooney is the founder and CEO of Ground Floor Capital, where he has closed more than $80 million in transactions for financing renewable energy business development, as well as land acquisition, development and construction for green real estate projects.

Steve recently returned from a multi-year project in Iraq where he worked first as a Senior Manager for Grant Thornton, and later as the Senior Rail Advisor at U.S. Department of State.

His work in Iraq focused on establishing a transformational public private partnership for Iraqi Republic Railroad and later for other Iraqi state-owned industries.

Over the years Steve has become a master at securing investment dollars for worthy projects.

HOST: Thomas Frey

Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute

Thomas Frey is Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute as well as Google top rated futurist speaker.

As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come.  His keynote talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Capital One, Bell Canada, Visa, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Times of India, Leaders in Dubai, and many more.

Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, Tom has been referred to as the modern "Father of Invention" and the "Dean of Futurists."  Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.