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.

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