Worth: Travel & Cities Issue

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

The Great Getaway

Hike the Himalayas, cruise the Antarctic, taste spiced Caribbean rum, and discover 10 unique beaches.

CONTENTS

44 Paradise Found: Our Ultimate Beach Bucket List Worth scoured the planet to find 10 unique beaches to hit this summer.

52 heading south Antarctica journeys always held adventure, but now the trip comes with a surprising amount of luxury.

60 Hiking the himalayas From Kathmandu to Everest, traveling in Nepal is filled with peak experiences.

85 Worth’s Rising cities 2023

32 groundbreaking women 2023

60

The Newer Normal

Travel has always been part of human nature. Our earliest ancestors roamed the Earth in search of new horizons, and over the centuries, travel has evolved from a means of survival to a way of expanding knowledge, bridging cultures, and fostering economic growth. Even in today’s hyperconnected world, travel has become an essential catalyst for progress, innovation, and prosperity.

Eliminating the COVID travel restrictions is a significant move towards an even newer normal. When Worth returned to print in 2021, our first issue was “The Brave, New World of Travel.” We recognized the importance of personal and business travel, not only for its economic impact on the airline, hotel, and hospitality industries but for the value generated

by in-person interactions that digital communications or collaboration tools cannot replace.

As a media company, we see ourselves not only as a creator and curator of content, but also a connector of people. Travel allows us to bring together global leaders for meaningful conversations, which has always played a significant role in our business. The importance of the events we produce extends beyond the compelling on-stage discussions, equally important are the serendipitous interactions and conversations that happen in the hallways, over meals, and during breaks that do not happen virtually.

This year we have already hosted sessions in Davos during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on Corporate Values and Sustainability

and In Austin during SXSW on responsible and ethical artificial intelligence. Our Techonomy Climate event in Silicon Valley brought together entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate sustainability executives to discuss addressing the climate crisis. The Women & Worth Summit convened a fantastic group of women on topics related to gender equity and equality, while our Cities Summit is focused on economic development.

We have an ambitious fall schedule with our east coast Techonomy Climate event in New York during Climate Week, Accelerate Health in Boston that will explore the digital transformation of healthcare, the return of our Techonomy retreat in November, and ending the year with our Worthy 100 celebration.

While this issue recognizes the importance of travel, it is crucial that we prioritize sustainable and responsible travel. We must protect the environment, preserve local cultures, and ensure that communities benefit from tourism in a balanced and equitable manner. This requires a collective effort from governments, businesses, and travelers themselves to promote sustainable practices, reduce carbon footprints, and support local initiatives that promote conservation and community development.

Travel is not merely a leisure activity; it is a powerful force that drives economic growth, fosters cultural exchange, and promotes personal and professional development. As business leaders and global citizens, we have a responsibility to recognize and support the importance of responsible and sustainable travel for the economy.

Escaping the Tourist Traps

The Best Travel Experiences Are Always Worth the Cost

ating lasting memories. For this issue, we send writers to the top (Nepal) and bottom (Antarctica) of the planet and more than a few places in between.

The damage from the COVID19 pandemic can be measured in job losses, global GDP, and, most importantly, human lives.

Quantifying how the outbreak isolated us as individuals, communities, and nations is harder. The idea of a global citizen traveling the world for new experiences was quickly replaced by home-bound workers scrolling for unwatched shows on Netflix. Although difficult to quantify, the problem has drawn the attention of health authorities. Dr. Vivek Murthy, The U.S. Surgeon General, recently issued a report titled Our Epidemic of Loneliness, in which he concludes that loneliness “has to be a public health priority that we consider on par with tobacco, with substance use disorders, with obesity and other issues that we know profoundly impacted people’s lives.”

Sounds like the perfect time for Worth’s annual travel issue. Travel is more than just visiting new places or checking off a bucket list. It’s about immersing ourselves in new cultures, expanding our perspectives, and cre-

We sent Eric Cornog to hike the Himalayas in Nepal. Known for its towering peaks, vibrant culture, and warm hospitality, a trip to Nepal is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The trails offer stunning views of snowcapped peaks, colorful prayer flags, and friendly locals. Trekking in Nepal is also an opportunity to connect with the local culture and way of life, whether staying in tea houses or interacting with the Sherpa people.

We sent Deborah Grayson and Jonathan Russo to cruise Antarctica, the planet’s southernmost continent, to explore one of the last untouched wilderness areas in the world. Surrounded by icebergs, penguins, and other wildlife, his journey reminds us that we are all part of a global ecosystem and that our actions can profoundly impact the environment. It’s a humbling experience that can inspire us to be more mindful and responsible in our daily lives. Also, the food on board was fantastic.

This issue also allowed us to highlight Worth’s Rising Cities for 2023, many of which are destinations in their own right. Charleston, SC, for example, offers a rich history and vibrant culture. From its cobblestone streets to historic homes and gardens, Charleston is a city steeped in tradition and Southern hospitality.

The careful balance of preservation and progress has made Charleston stand out. The city has a thriving arts and culture scene, with world-class restaurants, museums, and galleries that showcase the best of Southern hospitality and creativity. At the same time, Charleston has preserved its historic architecture and landmarks, ensuring visitors and locals alike can appreciate the city’s past while looking toward the future. With a growing economy and a commitment to sustainable development, Charleston is a city that is truly on the rise and one that is leading the way in urban conservation and growth.

Finally, we scoured the world to find the most unique beaches. From pink sands to proximity to rainforests, we found beaches that offered sun, sand, and something extra. My favorite is Secret Beach in Dominica. Secret Beach is a pristine stretch of sand tucked away in a secluded cove accessible only by boat. Once you arrive, you’ll be greeted by crystal clear waters, gentle waves, and a sense of tranquility that is hard to find elsewhere. Although, when I arrived by kayak the sand was covered with crabs…but they politely scurried away and left me to spend a perfect afternoon with a beach entirely to myself.

As humans, we need connection and community. We also need to be alone. Travel, done right, can deliver the best of both.

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Our Mission Is Building Worth Beyond Wealth

Worth helps our influential, successful community better invest their time and money. We believe business is a lever for social and economic progress. From practical financial advice to exclusive profiles of industry leaders, Worth inspires our readers to lead more purpose-driven lives. Through our conferences, digital channels, and quarterly print publication, we connect the people and companies that are building the future. We showcase products and services that are indulgent, luxurious, and sustainable.

Pam Krueger

Pam Krueger is a recognized investor advocate and award-winning personal finance journalist and author. She is the founder and CEO of Wealthramp, which helps consumers find vetted fiduciary, fee-only financial advisors. It is the only service that protects people from unwanted solicitations by putting the consumer in control of when and how they talk to their referred advisor. Since 2019, Wealthramp has paired more than 20,000 people with advisors they can trust.

Krueger is also the creator and co-host of MoneyTrack, a weekly investor education TV series that aired on 250+ public stations on PBS from 2005-2019 and was funded by the Investor Protection Trust. She is also the co-host of the popular Friends Talk Money podcast, a show for those 50 and older who are looking for practical advice on how to define retirement and deal with money on their terms.

Evan Cornog

Evan Cornog is a historian, educator, and journalist. He has served as Dean of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, Associate Dean at Columbia Journalism School, Publisher of Columbia Journalism Review, and as Press Secretary to New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch. He is the author of three books on American political life. In addition to travel articles for Worth, he has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The American Scholar, and Columbia Journalism Review.

Oliver Rist is a long-time journalist specializing in all kinds of technology. Though he lives in Connecticut, he’s traveled the world, usually on a motorcycle. Riding like this, he’s motored up and down Route 66, negotiated an ocean of switchbacks across the Alps touching Germany, France, and Italy; whizzed through the Andalusians; traveled the length of the Pacific Coast Highway down to Cabo San Lucas in Baja; even dragged a modified Norton up the Tribhuvan Highway in Nepal back when he was younger, dumber, and didn’t yet suffer from altitude sickness. His current rides are a Ducati Diavel and an aging, but nevertheless awesome, BMW K1200S. Since seeing Curtiss Motorcycles’ electric flagship, however, he’s started dreaming about one of those and maybe figuring out how to EV restomod a ‘69 Mustang Mach 1. Oliver Rist is Worth’s new automotive columnist.

Formula One Drives Billions

In the 2006 classic comedy Talladega Nights, NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) finds an unusual nemesis in Jean Girard (Sascha Baron-Cohen), a highly absurd French Formula One driver. The dichotomy between the two drivers is an implied rivalry between NASCAR, Formula One (F1), and their respective fanbases: American and international. Ricky Bobby prevails at the movie’s end, and F1 is expelled from the American imagination. But almost twenty years later, the longtime international favorite is rapidly overcoming its ‘un-American’ stigma and establishing itself in the U.S. with three groundbreaking races in Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas.

A 20th-century classic, F1 grew out of the hugely popular European Motor Racing Championships of the early 20th century. When a new formula (or set of rules) was established in 1946, the Turin Grand Prix became the first-ever Formula One race. The open-cockpit road races were hugely popular from their conception. But the sport didn’t become the economic powerhouse it is today until Bernie Ecclestone, former chief executive of the Formula One Group, overhauled the management of the sport’s commercial rights. For years, racing circuits made individual deals with teams. But in the 1970s, Ecclestone offered all F1 teams to circuits as a cohesive package, setting the stage for the sport’s multibillion-dollar transformation.

Like other high-profile sports, F1 drivers are considered ‘star athletes.’ Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the 2021 and 2022 F1 World Champion, will make $55 million in 2023 from driv-

ing alone. To put a salary like that in context, Lebron James, arguably one of the greatest athletes of all time, will net a mere $44 million salary in 2023. Also generously compensated in F1 are the strategists of each team, charged with making crucial decisions about passing, pit stops, and more. But the costs don’t end there. Leading engineers, precise equipment, and the finest materials are all tantamount to success, and teams pay over $15 million for each car. For existing F1 teams, the base fee for entry starts at over $600,000, plus an additional $17,000 for each driver. For every success or point scored, another $6,100 and $2,100 are added, respectively. Moreover, teams hoping to enter Formula One for the first time are slapped with an exorbitant anti-dilution charge of 200 million dollars—a price rumored to soon skyrocket to $600 million.

In contrast to most commercial sports where team value is maximized, most F1 teams are “either making a small profit, coming close to breaking even or even taking losses compared to how much they are spending,” writes Jacob Asmpaugh in the Michigan Journal of Economics, for brands such as Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin, participation in F1 isn’t necessarily profitable in and of itself. Instead, the sport helps them to market their superior status and engineering, increasing the value of each brand’s purchasable cars. Similarly, for high-profile and longtime sponsors such as Shell (and their 90year partnership with Ferrari), F1 success and the luxury brand association offers crucial marketing and product differentiation.

But how did a sport that for decades failed to take hold in the United States finally catapult itself to unheralded levels of American popularity? In 2018, Formula One partnered with Netflix to produce the hit reality TV show F1: Drive to Survive. Though the sport is based on precise engineering and technologies, the show instead emphasizes the high-stakes drama between drivers, brands, and more. It offers the sampling vital to any reality show: desperado playboys, honest competitors, perfidious sponsors, and family dynasties (not unlike the plot of Talladega Nights). “Formula One is the ultimate competition…the drivers have an almost fighter-pilot-like mentality,” Christian Horner, Principal of the now dominant Red Bull

How F1 overcame its ‘un-American’ stigma while catapulting economic growth for U.S. cities.

Racing Team, says to the camera in one episode. In a country that holds reality TV near and dear to its heart, F1 has found the perfect way into the American market. And its influence is here to stay.

Austin, known as the “live music capital of the world” and famously home to two of the largest U.S. music festivals, brings in most of its local economy each year from hosting the F1 United States Grand Prix. Although in 2012, the construction of a Formula One racetrack seemed like a questionable investment, the Circuit of the Americas became an economic staple for both the city of Austin and the state of Texas. In 2021, Formula One fans reportedly spent over $600 million in the city during

the U.S. Grand Prix’s three-day run. According to an analysis performed by AngelouEconomics, the race had a total economic impact of almost $1 billion—an outcome equivalent to hosting two Super Bowls at the same time.

Despite having no Formula One history, Miami made waves last year with the inaugural Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix, a brand-new race that runs through the parking lots surrounding the city’s Hard Rock Stadium. While still finding its bearings, the race brought over $350 million to the city through advertising spending and consumer revenue.

Front Office Sports estimated that race patrons spent almost $2,000 per person, over twice that of the average

tourist to the city. The race garnered impressive 27% more views than its established Austin predecessor.

It is additionally hopping on the F1 train in Las Vegas, a city that saw its last F1 Grand Prix in 1982. Eagerly anticipated, the new race is expected to surpass its American counterparts. According to a report conducted by Applied Analysis, the economic impact of the Las Vegas Grand Prix is projected to reach $1.3 billion in visitor spending and operational costs. It will bring the city almost 8,000 jobs and 361 million dollars in salaries. In contrast, the 2020 South Point 400 NASCAR race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway brought in a meager $120 million.

In keeping with F1 tradition, the Las Vegas race will take place on city streets, a commitment that reverberates far beyond the race itself. To create a circuit that meets F1 specifications and accommodates speeds of up to 230 mph, Las Vegas has had to invest in substantial infrastructure improvements and accommodations. Nevada’s Clark County and Formula One are pouring over $30 million into infrastructure upgrades, including redoing the whole of Vegas’ iconic Strip.

But the economic appeal for F1 cities reaches far beyond a race’s immediate impact. As Formula One signs decade-long contracts with host cities, it provides a reliable stream of revenue and an opportunity for establishing an American influence within the sport. “We are going to mark [the city] not only for the week of the event, but we are going to mark F1 in Vegas as a place where we will develop the sport,” explained Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali. As F1 ingrains itself within American culture, so will American culture impact the sport’s mores and technologies.

What this sort of influence might look like remains to be seen. But even as F1 has dramatically altered the United States’ relationship with motorsports, the words of Talladega Nights’ beloved American hero, Ricky Bobby, continue to ring true: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”

Leading From the Front

Regardless of resource limitations, mayors are expected to provide tangible solutions for daily problems.

The nation’s mayors solve problems rather than get distracted by national ideology and cultural war grandstanding. In his 2015 book entitled If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities, urban studies scholar Benjamin Barber celebrated mayors as primarily pragmatists. The pragmatic focus of city leaders continues to be the solution to society’s most vexing challenges often through building civic trust, innovation, and collaboration.

At a recent Mayor’s College gathering of 50 mayors hosted by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, 30% of the mayors in attendance described their most horrific experience as a mayor as when they have to take the lead in healing their city after a crisis that involves significant loss of life.

Devastating events like mass shootings are on the rise, fueled by disturbing statistics like the purchase of more than 16 million guns in the past year and a 12%

increase in hate crimes. Even though an individual mayor has little or no control over the causes of these events, they become the most visible symbol and face of a community’s response to these crises. In looking at how mayors step up in these moments, we see a consistent pattern of courageous and empathetic leadership and a pattern from which other mayors and corporate executives can learn.

When a mayor is elected, they face the realities of visible front-line leadership in a multi-stakeholder environment. Mayors cannot choose between constituencies; each constituent holds the city publicly accountable for multiple aspects of their daily lives. Regardless of resource limitations, mayors are expected to provide tangible solutions for daily problems.

Mayors are the CEOs of the cities they run but with the additional challenge of limited control over resources across diverse stakeholders. Though mayors are publicly held accountable for crime, they have limited or no control over schools, families, gun laws, and other fundamental drivers of violence and crime. Nevertheless, they rise to the occasion when crises occur.

A mayor learns quickly that their effectiveness depends on continuously earning trust and credibility with deep local connections and visible frontline engagement. When a crisis occurs, the pattern of visible frontline engagement leadership emerges as the Mayor’s natural response. Here are some of their lessons:

DON’T FOCUS ON WHO IS AT FAULT, REACH OUT TO THE VICTIMS AND SHOW EMPATHY. Unlike a large corporation that immediately calls upon consultants, public relations specialists, and lawyers to “manage” the crisis and deflect fault when they have a factory explosion or an oil spill, the first response of mayors is not to focus on fault but to reach out to the victims, to be present, and to show support, from the front lines and not behind desks. As the Mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf poignantly noted, “Mayors are unable to bring back a slain family member. But they can sit with a mother, listen to them, feel their pain, make sure they are not alone, and comfort them.”

Another mayor, Byron Brown of Buffalo, added from his tragic experiences with a shooter in a supermarket in Buffalo that “the bottom line is in empathizing, being there, listening, showing that you’re feeling pain, make sure they are not alone, and comfort them.”

BE THE PUBLIC FACE OF LEADING THROUGH CRISIS

During and in the aftermath of a crisis, uncertainty and fear prevail. Mayors become the public spokesperson during the crisis, the voice that the community trusts. Recognizing that they were elected because people believed in them to make the right decisions, mayors speak on behalf of the community. As a prominent clergy leader, the Pope’s strategic advisor for communications Father Manuel Dorantes advised our Mayors at our Mayor’s College, “You are the hope-giver in chief for your cities. The people of your towns believe in you to be the beacon of hope for your city.”

This is one of the areas where the response of cities and mayors shines through. While there are some inspiring corporate parallels, such as the model followed by Johnson & Johnson’s CEO, James Burke, in response to the Tylenol crisis, which is still the gold standard for corporate leadership during a crisis, there are also instances of corporate responses that have lacked a human touch, such as the weeks that elapsed before BP’s CEO made a public appearance following BP’s oil spill resulting from Deepwater Horizon’s rig explosion and the death of 11 crew members.

SEEK SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE FROM PEERS.

When in a crisis, mayors reach out to each other and have a de facto support group of peers to lean on for advice, encouragement, and solace. Often, other mayors who have gone through similar crises take the initiative to reach out to the mayor in crisis. Many of these leaders find that when in a crisis, otherwise trusted and loyal advisors, staffers, and family members may be unable to fully empathize with the unique challenges of leading a city through a healing process. They can only turn to their peers, who have been in similar situations, as genuine sounding boards, fellow travelers who can empathize fully and who understand where the challenges and pitfalls are.

After all, as Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin noted, “All of us who serve as mayor have that unique sense of being all-consumed by the mission, every minute of your day. It gives you a deep and unique sense of meaning that few can understand.”

These lessons of visible frontline engagement are timeless and transferable to all leaders across sectors, not just mayors, in earning trust and credibility across stakeholder groups.

Amidst the heat of crisis, sometimes it pays to be authentic and human—leading from the front lines rather than hiding behind layers of protective, risk-averse lawyers and PR flaks who take the humanity out of leadership.

As New York’s legendary Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia once explained, “There is no such thing as a Democratic or Republican sewer break. You just have to solve the problem.”

“All of us who serve as mayor have that unique sense of being all-consumed by the mission, every minute of your day. It gives you a deep and unique sense of meaning that few can understand.”

—LUKE BRONIN

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Post-Pandemic Broadway Lets New Voices Sing

Broadway is back with new shows, an increased community commitment, and a focus on inclusivity.

Broadway has long been the barometer by which New York City’s health has been measured. On March 12, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Broadway’s doors to close for over a year—the longest shutdown period in history. To put this into perspective, following the 9/11 attacks, Broadway shut its doors for only two days. This extended hiatus left the community questioning if Broadway could return to its former glory, and if so, what would be different?

In September of 2021, Broadway and its 96,900 crew members returned. The lights were not only on, they were ablaze.

“Theatre is back,” says Darren Bagert, a two-time Tony Award award-winning producer. “When you look at the numbers and know that we’re just beginning spring, and the sales are so strong on so many shows…it’s exciting.”

Broadway may be back, but the way it has returned is turning heads this season. “Creatives were not sitting home twiddling their thumbs during [the pandemic],” says Wendy Federman, thirteen-time Tony Award-winning theatre and film producer with over 90 production credits. “What was churning before was being honed by the creatives.”

In a 2022 interview, Ron Simons expressed that the pandemic acted as a catalyst for long-overdue change. “This shifted in a year,” he said, “We had diverse audiences. We had diverse stories in one season.” For example, post-pandemic, the stage was graced with a reimagined production of Arthur Miller’s play, Death of A Salesman, as a critical examination of “the American dream through the lens of a Black Loman family living in a white world.” Broadway legend and Tony Award winner André De Shields were at the helm of this production. Other original works include Thoughts of a Colored Man, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, Ain’t Too Proud, Ohio State Murders, Strange Loop, KPOP, and the revival of Parade

This overwhelming triumph of diverse stories and voices is a far cry away from the Asian American Performers Action Coalition’s (AAPAC) previous visibility report which concluded that during the 2018-2019 season, 58.6% of roles were played by white actors across all New York City stages.

“Broadway has been a leader in diversity from the beginning, way before film and television,” says Federman. “Our collective [desire] to support new voices, …whether they’re in casting or in who we are presenting to audiences, there’s a real thoughtfulness now. [We’re] making sure that everybody’s getting a shot whether they are at the table, leaving the table, on the stage, or behind the stage.”

This same sense of inclusivity has expanded beyond the stage into its philanthropy to get the next generation of theatergoers in seats. “Now more than ever,” Bagert emphasized, “we are working with incredible organizations and programs to ensure that underprivileged and younger audiences get to experience live theater.”

Broadway’s commitment to exposing young students to the theatre is not new. The Broadway Bridges program, launched in 2017, regularly provides NYC Public School sophomores $10 Broadway tickets to live performances.

“What happened during the shutdown,” Federman says, is that “fundraising between the Actors Fund, now called the Entertainment Fund, and Broadway Cares, supplied needed assistance whether it was health-related or to help keep non-for-profit theaters from having to close.”

What the Broadway community has done surpassed the communities expectations. By the time Broadway reopened in September 2021, the COVID19 Emergency Assistance Fund had given $18.95 million to members of the Broadway community.

To say that Broadway is back somehow feels like an understatement. The lights are on, the applause is loud, and the support of those in leadership reinforces the community. “Yesterday was plain awful, but that’s not now; that’s then,” as Annie would say.

Building Psychological Resilience in Ukraine

Armed only with a Doctorate in cognitive science, Laura Vanderberg is uniquely poised to help on the Ukrainian frontlines.

At the beginning of 2022, Dr. Laura Vanderberg was a tenured professor, department chair, and program director at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. A few months later she was single-handedly facilitating the shipment of custom body armor to the Ukrainian front lines. “I knew nothing about body armor at the time. But they desperately needed help. And I knew, unequivocally, that it was my duty to act,” says Laura.

With her Doctorate in Applied Child Development and Masters in Mind, Brain, and Education, Laura’s passion for cognition and educational systems began, unusually, in Ukraine. After finishing college, Laura volunteered for PeaceCorps and spent two years teaching English at School Number Nine in Olek-

sandria, a small city in the central part of the country. “In Ukraine, education is built on relationships. Your teachers and classmates are like your family,” she explained. “They taught me language, culture. They taught me how to cook. They taught me everything.”

Over the course of the past twenty-five years, Laura stayed in close contact with her former students and colleagues. At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of last year, Laura immediately contacted her friends to see how she could help. She quickly discovered that Ukrainians were receiving generalized humanitarian aid that didn’t actually target their needs. “My friend called me and said, ‘They sent potatoes!’ What am I supposed to do? Build a potato cannon?’” Laura joked.

Laura’s former students and colleagues soon sent her a list of their top needs, the most urgent of which was equipment necessary for outfitting frontline defenders. She felt honored to be entrusted with such a crucial responsibility, but also out of her depth. “Honestly, I didn’t want to be implicated in either war or violence,” said Laura. “But I saw that my friends were being murdered, and I knew that I had the resources to help them.”

Through the support of those closest to her, Laura was connected with a former Marine Corps Officer who, in turn, helped to put her in contact with a military manufacturer of tactical defensive gear. “At my core, I’m an interdisciplinary scientist,” she explained. “I’m able to make connections, formulate a plan, and put it into action.” Within a number of weeks, Laura was sending body armor prototypes to Ukraine for field tests and revisions. “I was working directly with our manufacturer, translating feedback and coordinating deliveries to the frontlines,” she said.

In order to garner the support and funding she needed, Laura soon turned her one-woman operation into Global Community Corps—a multifaceted nonprofit

devoted to supporting the Ukrainian people. Aviva Hollander, one of Global Community Corps’ founding employees, explained that “understanding what the Ukrainian people were asking for to actually being able to deliver was a huge undertaking.” “We’re a true grassroots operation,” Laura added. “We’re made possible by hundreds of small donors from all walks of life.” As of this past January, Laura and her team shipped over 3,000 pounds of defensive gear to Ukrainian troops in addition to generators and other basic necessities.

Around September of 2022 however, needs began to shift. Ukrainians started reaching out to Laura, asking about the possibility of psychological support. “The innovative capacity of the Ukrainian people in crisis is incredible,” she said. “As their infrastructure is decimated, they repair it better than it was before. So, the need for material resources is actually decreasing. But in order to continue fighting and rebuilding, they need to be both surviving and thriving. And in order for that to happen, they need to be assisted both spiritually and psychologically.”

As a cognition expert and someone intimately acquainted with Ukrainian culture, Laura found herself specially situated to help cultivate a framework of psychological resilience. “There are certain cultural nuances that I think most outsiders probably wouldn’t understand,” she said. “Coming from a history of Soviet oppression, most Ukrainians are private and guarded.” Laura recognized that for a system of emotional support to be effective, it would need to come from the models of support already present in Ukrainian culture, such as the intimate educational system that inspired her 25 years ago. “Most people wait until a conflict is over to address the psychological consequences of war. But leaving trauma like that unaddressed is harmful in itself,” said Laura.

After Global Community Corps’ final shipment of body armor, Laura immediately got started on devising a structure of psychological support, capable of reaching over a fifth of the Ukrainian population. Drawing together a small group of international experts and Ukrainian practitioners, Laura helped to design a model that draws on the influence and expertise of Ukrainian nonprofit organizations and military chaplains. “We’re trying to bring targeted support to each and every caretaking layer of society,” said Laura. The top-down approach uses the knowledge of community and spiritual leaders in order to reach the most vulnerable populations: veterans, children and women.

In one of their primary initiatives, Global Community Corps has collaborated with Eleos-Ukraine and the Ukrainian government to extract women from places where they’ve endured extreme sexual violence as a result of war. The women are then brought to safe shelters where they are provided with comprehensive rehabilitation, both psychological and physical. “Without this kind of support, these women would be too broken down to take care of their own children and families,” explained Laura.

In another project that draws directly from Laura’s academic expertise, Global Community Corps has partnered with schools and childrens’ centers to provide counseling to children who have either lost or been separated from their families.

“Most of these children are suffering from severe trauma disorders,” said Laura. After participating in a program designed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and implemented by Ukrainian teachers, the displaced children began to show clear improvement within weeks. “The caretakers know what they’re doing. It’s our job to make sure that the caretakers are taken care of.”

“A key part of our job is to anticipate human needs,” explained Laura. “If there’s an infrastructure assault that happens in the summer, everyone can see what’s going to happen come winter.” The Global Community Corps team works to streamline and provide basic necessities for refugees in order to simplify the psychological load of displacement. Laura and her team recently partnered with a Ukrainian company to manufacture readily available, simple clothing. “Imagine you’re fleeing for your life, and in order to just get a pair of underwear, you have to sort through huge piles at Goodwill,” said Laura. “People think they’re helping by sending second-hand clothing. But for a nervous system that’s just trying to survive, those sorts of small tasks and decisions can be impossible.”

Only one year after the formation of Global Community Corps, Laura and her team have had an immeasurable impact in providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainians in need. “We can’t predict how long the war is going to last,” said Aviva Hollander. “But at the very least we can help these people recover.”

Laura hopes that the frameworks she’s been able to establish in the Ukraine can be applied to other war-torn areas going forward.

“At first I was a conduit for news. Then I became a conduit for supplies,” she reflected. “And now I’m a conduit for knowledge, I’m a conduit for resilience. And that means I’m having a real impact.”

“Most people wait until a conflict is over to address the psychological consequences of war. But leaving trauma like that unaddressed is harmful in itself.”

Quiet EVolution

The latest EV motorcycles aren’t just efficient, they’re goddamn beautiful.

Aprilia, Ducati, even Harley Davidson hold the top spots if you’re looking for the best in motorcycle vogue. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a Ducati Diavel in my garage, and until I started this story, I figured I was in the top five bikes for sheer style. Turns out not so much.

At least for the next few years, the most stylish and exclusive bikes won’t sport those logos. These new motorcycles will come with names like Arc, Curtiss, and ZiggyMoto. They’re coming from the bleeding edge, a place concerned not just with style but with merging that style with the latest in engineering and design. There aren’t many of these two-wheeled opuses available, and for many, they’ll be prohibitively expensive. But if you get your butt on one, it’ll be an experience you won’t soon forget.

The fact that these bikes run on electricity is almost incidental. That’s not what they’re selling. They’re each building their vision of the motorcycle’s future; redesigning the whole motorbike concept and why you want to own one.

If you’ve shopped for an EV motorcycle in the past, then you’re aware that the Big Three issues in that market don’t center much on price but on the charging level, the range, and the bike’s top speed. The kind of battery the bike uses, its capacity, and how many of them the bike can carry, are also important factors, but they really just contribute to different aspects of the Big Three. What stands out about this new crop of ultra-exclusive bikes, though, is that they couldn’t care less about the Big Three, though they all still throw a polite nod to speed.

Standard EV bikes come from established brands that take the designs they’re currently selling, re-brand them, and then work to stuff a battery-based power plant in there. That’s a fine approach, and it’s certainly come up with some cool machines, like the BMW CE 04 or the Harley-owned Livewire S2 Del Mar.

But companies like Curtiss Motorcycles aren’t interested in building that bike. “We’re enthusiasts, and what we’re building is our vision, not the industry’s,” says Matt Chambers, co-founder, and CEO of Curtiss, which formally announced its flagship bike in May 2023 at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel, California. That machine carries a potentially arrogant name: The 1. But Chambers and Curtiss are working hard to live up to the moniker.

“We always wanted to build the two-wheeled vehicle of our dreams, not just taking whatever production components we could find and building a different version of the same old thing,” says Chambers. “We didn’t build from the outside in, we re-designed from the inside out. The fact that we’re building The 1 around an electric drivetrain is less about the environmental benefits of EV than it is because we think gas-powered en-

gines have just gone as far as they’re going to. Electric is the next logical step because it gives us greater freedom to innovate and refine.”

That thought approach let Curtiss chief designer, JT Nesbitt, build a machine around a central shaft that aligns all the bike’s components in a straight line. Curtiss calls this its axis-centered design and they’ve recently received a patent on the technology.

Nesbitt started out as a fine arts student who wanted to express himself using motorcycles, a concept his professors didn’t understand. He met Chambers when they both worked at Confederate Motorcycles, specializing mainly in big, fully custom V-twin machines. The two got along, and Nesbitt sold Chambers on his vision of motorcycle symmetry. After five years of hard work, Curtiss brought the vision to life, but Chambers is taking symmetry a few steps further.

Chambers declares that aligning everything around a central shaft gives a noticeably better riding experience, but he’s aiming to make it not just your best ride but the only one you’ll ever want.

“What we want to build is an heirloom,” he says. “Something you can pass to the next generation because the bike can change with the times and with what you want even years after you buy one.” That process starts with a unique frame carved from a single block of hyper-solid billet aluminum. Every frame is hand built, and they’re unique because they have to be to support Curtiss’ axis-centered technology. Chambers explains that they’re ‘over building’ this way to make sure the bike’s core will last for decades.

After that, Chambers says all the bike’s key aspects are adjustable. That covers the handlebars and pegs, sure, but deep core stuff like the suspen-

sion’s rake and trail. Rake refers to the tilt angle of the bike’s forks (think of how different a sport bike’s fork angle is to that of a 70’s-style chopper, for example). Trail is a little harder to understand, but if you drop a straight edge from the steering head to the ground and then drop another from the axle’s centerline, then the trail is the distance between those two points. A bike’s rake and trail dictate everything from the riding position to what kind of riding the bike is best suited for.

Chambers says that because Curtiss can adjust both of those aspects on The 1, he’ll be able to give each customer exactly the right bike for them. And not just at the time of purchase but also as their needs and wants change down the road. “We don’t just have control over how you sit on

the bike, we can adjust its quickness, stability, and even how fast it turns. So you can go for sport, comfort, or anywhere in between exactly as you please.”

The bike’s lifespan will span even more ground because all the key components are modular. “We work with Yasa because we think they’re the best in the battery and EV business. They worked with us to build a motor that supports our symmetrical design. We fully immerse the battery in coolant fluid so it can’t overheat, and we finned it inside and out, so it’s a big damn radiator, too.” But when EV technology improves, Curtiss can simply pop out the entire battery assembly and replace it with an updated version. Similarly, other bike parts can be replaced, too, as Curtiss’ invents new designs, which Chambers says is the company’s primary focus.

“We’re not interested in building a utilitarian product,” he says. “This is a red carpet bike, and we want to keep it that way. We don’t want to waste time focusing on things like battery technology. We’ve got Yasa for that and they’re the best in the business. We want to focus on refinement.” And that refinement will cost you. The 1 starts at $120,000, which isn’t unique in the new EV motorcycle market.

Arc V and ZiggyMoto are two UK companies that are both chasing a similar vision, both also using EV technology. Arc, a builder located near Coventry, mainly comprises ex-Triumph engineers with goals similar to Curtiss’. They want to build the most advanced motorcycle in the world, and they unveiled it back in 2018. That bike is called the Arc Vector, and it, too, sports a starting price tag of around $120,000. Arc had some trouble getting the bike into production. It ran out of investor funds, which forced the company to file for bankruptcy in 2019. Arc says it’s got that under control though. It resumed operations only a year after it filed, and it brought the Vector into production in 2020.

While the Vector isn’t as modular as Curtiss’ The 1, it’s supposed to be a bit faster and has a longer range. But Arc has also re-designed the motorcycle’s frame around what it calls a monocoque design, which makes the battery case a structural component rather than an add-on. It sports other neat technology like a motorcycle jacket bonded with each bike to provide “haptic feedback” to the rider as well as a custom helmet with a headsup display (HUD).

ZiggyMoto brings up the rear of this radical trio, not because its vision is anything less than that of Arc or Curtiss, but because, for now, it’s just that: a vision. You’ll have to jump through some hoops and crack your wallet wide open to sitting on The 1 or the Vector, but you can’t sit on ZiggyMoto’s bike because it doesn’t exist yet outside of a CAD drawing.

But that CAD drawing shows one very cool-looking motorcycle that again has so much style oomph you’ll barely notice that it’s electric. How much it’ll cost and when it’ll be available or even what its formal name will be are all mysteries, but the company promises to make a splash when all those things solidify, so you won’t miss it.

All-in, EV bikes are definitely the way of the future. They’re better for the planet, and they’re also really fun to ride. And they’ll be moreso when their range and charging times improve, which all the moto-pundits say should happen in the next three to five years. But that’s not why I enjoyed talking with Matt Chambers so much.

It’s because his genuine enthusiasm about what Curtiss is doing was obvious, and that’s not something I’ve encountered much in the 25 years I’ve been talking to different kinds of product makers and innovators. If Arc and ZiggyMoto put even a tenth of that same enthusiasm into their offerings, then “red carpet” will be only part of their appeal. What these companies are building isn’t just where motorcycling is going, in many ways, it’s where it should have been all along, and that’s one powerful draw.

Opportunity ABOUNDS

> 70-acre waterfront site

> Beautiful downtown Charleston, SC

> Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

Summer in the City: New York

If you know where to go and where not to go, the summer can be the best time to visit NYC.

Visiting New York City in the summer may not seem as appealing as the Cape or the coast of Maine, but consider this—many city dwellers are out of town for most of the summer months, and—except for Times Square--New York is quieter. In some ways, it feels like a different city or, perhaps, a more authentic version of itself as those who hustle take their busyness to the Hamptons or upstate. Suddenly, you can get a reservation at that restaurant that books 30 days out, and you don’t have to see the latest exhibit at The Whitney with crowds of other people.

Summer is the best time to explore neighborhoods. Even if you live in New York, you’ll never see everything in this city. To walk it, especially when it’s quiet, is a way to surprise. There are gardens on the Lower East Side to explore, tiny neighborhood dives to drop into for a cold drink, and rooftop dance parties.

Here are a few ways to stay cool while enjoying a hot summer in NYC.

THINGS TO DO, EAT, AND DRINK

CENTRAL PARK SUMMERSTAGE

From Indigo Girls and Larkin Poe to The Metropolitan Opera, the place to see live music in the summer is Central Park. Pack a gourmet picnic and hang out on the lawn for a few hours, or take advantage of the vastly improved food and drink offerings available at the show, which you can order on-site via a QR code to make the ordering/pick-up process easy.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Catch Van Gogh’s “Cypresses” at The Met between May 22 and August 27, an exhibit focusing on trees and featuring some of Van Gogh’s most remarkable works like Starry Night and Wheat Field With Cypresses. On Friday and Saturday evenings, you can end your visit with cocktails in the roof garden, which overlooks Central Park. Open 11am - 8pm.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

On exhibit at MoMA through August 12 is “Georgia O’Keefe: To See Takes Time”, which displays more than 120 pieces of work created by the artist in various forms—charcoal, watercolor, pastels—mediums that she experimented with in an earlier period of her life. MoMa also has two excellent all-day dining cafes on site and The Modern, a Michelin-starred restaurant with an award-winning wine program and seasonal menu. Take your visit up a level with dinner at The Kitchen Table, a table for 4 in The Modern’s kitchen that offers an enhanced tasting menu and a front-row seat to what happens behind the scenes.

MEATPACKING DISTRICT

Step away from 5th Avenue and head downtown to the Meatpacking District, a neighborhood

that fuses grit and glam, home to great restaurants and chic boutiques laid out on quaint cobblestone streets. Grab a coffee at Chelsea Market—it opens as early as 7 am on weekdays, and 8 am on weekends—and wander through small boutiques, pop-up stores, and the everfascinating Artists & Fleas. The Hermès store on Gansevoort is also a treat—even if you’re just browsing, their art galleryworthy scarves are a delight to behold. Speaking of art galleries, no trip to the Meatpacking District would be complete without a stop at The Whitney, which relocated from the Upper East Side to its downtown location in 2015. With 50,000 ft. of indoor gallery space, a ground-floor cafe, and rooftop bar, you can make your way through works by Edward Hopper, Jean Michel Basquiat, Georgia O’Keefe, Nick Cave, Alexander Calder, and more. Cap off your visit with dinner at RH Rooftop Restaurant. Located on the 6th floor of Restoration Hardware New York’s 90,000 sq ft design gallery, the elevated residential environment feels like dining at your friend’s fabulous New York apartment.

ENJOY THE WATERFRONT

When warm weather arrives, New Yorkers are outside as much as possible. And while finding a patch of grass in Central Park to sit on with a gourmet picnic is enjoyable, the thrill of drinking and dining outdoors by the water should not be underestimated. Stroll along the pier at Hudson River Park, four miles of unobstructed waterfront, where you’ll find everything from outdoor concerts and festivals to beach volleyball, mini golf, and kayaking in the river. At sunset, grab a glass of rosé and some oysters at Grand Banks, a bar and restaurant located on a historic wooden schooner anchored on the Hudson.

WHERE TO STAY

AMAN NEW YORK

After you’ve clocked your 10,000 steps and wandered through Manhattan from uptown to downtown and back again, retreat into the calm sanctuary of Aman New York. Located in the iconic Crown Building at 57th Street and 5th Avenue, the building is one of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the U.S. and was the first home of the Museum of Modern Art. It’s been transformed into a luxurious space of serene beauty inspired by Japanese minimalism. It’s not until you reach the soaring atrium on the 14th floor and step out onto the terrace with views of Central Park and the Plaza that you remember you’re in the heart of New York City.

Each guest room is nested deep within the hotel. It features working fireplaces, smart tablet-enabled controls, soaking tubs, pivoting partition walls that enable guests to choose their preferred layout between bedroom and bath, and a floor concierge to assist with anything you might need during your stay.

As a nod to its deep connection to the arts community, the hotel offers cultural experiences like private tours of museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Whitney and walking gallery tours of Chelsea and Brooklyn. Aman also features a 25,000 sq. ft spa with wellness programs that focus on longevity, regeneration, performance, and recovery—and they will design a multi-day immersion program for guests who have the time and the means to invest.

Once you’ve had a chance to rest and rejuvenate, hit the Jazz Club at the Aman. Hotel guests can access the club via an industrial entrance shared by hotel staff (giving it a speakeasy vibe) and enjoy performances by musical icons and up-and-coming performers in a room that boasts a revolutionary sound system, ensuring a natural acoustic experience in every seat. Without a doubt, a very cool way to spend a hot evening in New York City.

Groundbreaking Women 2023

Each Groundbreaking Woman on our 2023 list has impressed and inspired us with her dedication, brilliance, and accomplishments.

Every year at Worth Magazine, we celebrate women from across every business sector who are making an impact, whether it’s an industry-specific innovation, moving the needle forward for other women, or addressing a difficult challenge that affects the world around us. You may know some women on our list this year, but you may not be familiar with all the ways she makes a difference. And others you may not recognize yet, but we assure you they are worth knowing about. In a world where women continue to face discrimination and inequality, it’s important to recognize those who have broken through barriers and achieved great success.

Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams is a trailblazer in American politics, known for her tireless advocacy for voting rights and social justice. In 2010, she became the first Black woman to serve as the minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives. In 2018, she ran for governor of Georgia, coming within a few percentage points of victory in a highly contested race. Since then, Abrams has dedicated herself to promoting fair and equitable access to the ballot box. She founded Fair Fight, which protects voting rights and aims to ensure fair elections nationwide. And in 2020, she played a crucial role in turning Georgia blue in the presidential election and the subsequent Senate runoff races. Abrams remains an inspiration to millions of Americans.

HELPING WOMEN BUILD CONFIDENCE THROUGH SPORT

Ramla Ali

Ramla Ali is no stranger to adversity. She and her family fled word-torn Somalia after her eldest brother was killed by a grenade, eventually finding refuge in London. She discovered boxing while trying to find a way to fit in as a teenager, initially to her parents’ dismay. She became the first Muslim woman to win an English boxing title and, in 2022, broke barriers by winning Saudi Arabia’s first-ever female boxing match. Outside the ring, Ali uses her platform to promote inclusion and gender equality in sports. She has been recognized for her advocacy work by organizations UNICEF, the Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation, and her nonprofit Sisters Club.

THE POLITICAL TRAILBLAZER WHO ENSURES EVERYONE HAS A VOICE

Ruth E. Carter

Ruth E. Carter is a renowned costume designer who has worked on some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history. She is the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, which she earned for her work on the groundbreaking film, “Black Panther.” Throughout her career, Carter has used her creative talent and artistic vision to create some of the most iconic looks in film, including “Malcolm X” and “Do The Right Thing”. In 2020, she collaborated with H&M on a capsule collection that reflected 80s streetwear, a nod to her onscreen aesthetic.

Dominique Crenn

An innovative and progressive chef who grew up in France and made a name for herself in San Francisco, Dominique Crenn is the first female chef in the United States to earn three Michelin stars, an honor that recognizes the highest level of culinary excellence and one that only eight women have received. When Crenn moved to San Francisco to work at the prestigious Campton Place Hotel in 1988, she quickly made a name for herself in the city’s culinary scene. In 2011, Crenn opened her restaurant, Atelier Crenn, in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood. Crenn has developed a unique and highly personalized style of cooking that blends her French roots with her love of California’s local ingredients. Beyond her cooking, Crenn is also a passionate advocate for sustainability and social justice. She has spoken out about the need for chefs to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their restaurants, and she works to support organizations that promote food justice and equality.

Crenn will open her highly anticipated restaurant, Golden Poppy, this summer in Paris, her first in the city of lights.

MAKING FERTILITY CARE MORE ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE FOR EVERY WOMAN

Gina Bartasi

Gina Bartasi had always dreamed of starting her own business. After years of working in the healthcare industry, she saw a need for a better way to provide women with access to affordable, quality reproductive care. So, she founded Progyny, a company specializing in fertility and family-building benefits for employers and individuals. Despite facing numerous challenges and setbacks along the way, Bartasi remained steadfast in her vision, determined to make a difference in the lives of others. After founding Progyny, she heard employers’ desire to purchase fertility benefits directly from providers, resulting in millions in savings. Based on employers’ feedback and industry insights, Bartasi launched Kindbody in August 2018 with a team of experienced healthcare and industry veterans.

THE FIRST FEMALE CHEF IN THE U.S. TO EARN THREE MICHELIN STARS

2023 Groundbreaking Women

CHANGING THE RATIO FOR WOMEN IN HOLLYWOOD Geena Davis

When Geena Davis began watching children’s television shows with her young daughter in the early 2000s, she noticed few female characters. This led her to sponsor a research project that grew into the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. This organization researches the representation of women and girls in film and television. Through its advocacy work, the institute has helped to bring attention to the issue of gender bias in media and has inspired change in the industry. The institute’s dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion in entertainment has earned it widespread recognition and respect, and its impact continues to grow. She has received both an honorary Emmy and an honorary Oscar for her work.

THE FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD A MAJOR WALL STREET BANK

Jane Fraser

Jane Fraser, the first female CEO in Citibank’s history, took over the bank during what many have called a ‘turnaround time’. Her strategic vision and innovative approach to business have earned her widespread recognition, and she has been named one of Forbes’ “Most Powerful Women in Business” multiple times. As CEO, Fraser is committed to driving growth and innovation, and her commitment to diversity and inclusion within the organization and the industry is critical to her success. She has said that empathy is one of the key drivers behind her approach— building relationships with clients and providing solutions that genuinely impact their lives.

BRINGING CLIMATE JUSTICE TO THE MAINSTREAM

Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru

Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru believes that to solve the climate crisis, everyone must be involved. She has dedicated herself to making the message of the climate movement more relevant and accessible, with the goal of converting ‘unlikely’ environmentalists towards action. Her advocacy work focuses on environmental justice and the intersectionality of race, class, and the environment and she has been recognized for her dedication and leadership in promoting sustainability and environmental justice. She has earned numerous accolades, such as the Truman Scholarship, and the Udall Scholarship. She is also the first Rhodes Scholar in the history of the Connecticut public university school system.

A CHAMPION FOR CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

THE FIRST FEMALE CEO TO LEAD A GLOBAL STOCK EXCHANGE

Adena Friedman

Adena Friedman was always drawn to the world of finance. Growing up, she spent time around T. Rowe Price, where her father worked. So it was no surprise when she pursued a career in finance, eventually rising to become the CEO of Nasdaq, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges. Known for her innovative technological approach, Friedman pushed Nasdaq to embrace new platforms and expand into new markets. Under her leadership, the company’s revenue grew from $3.4 billion to over $5 billion in just five years. She’s a champion of diversity and inclusion and, in 2020, asked the SEC to require companies to publish board diversity data.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and climate policy expert who has dedicated her life to protecting the oceans and the communities that depend on them. From a young age, Johnson was drawn to the sea and its inhabitants, and she went on to earn a Ph.D. in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Throughout her career, Johnson has worked to bridge the gap between science and policy, advocating for sustainable practices and policies that protect marine life and coastal communities. Her tireless efforts have earned her numerous awards and recognition, including being named a National Geographic Explorer and a TED Fellow. Johnson is known for bringing more voices into the climate conversation through the All We Can Save Project. Her research has shown that saving the oceans is as critical as protecting the rainforests, elevating this often overlooked issue.

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2023

Groundbreaking Women

THE FIRST LATINO WOMAN TO

Ada Limón, Poet Laureate

SELF-MADE FEMALE BILLIONAIRE

Jenny Just

Jenny Just is a visionary, powerhouse, and one of the few self-made female billionaires in the United States. From the days of cutting her teeth on the trading floor in Chicago to running a fintech empire, she has started and turned around more than 15 companies and has made hundreds of private investments. This passion led her to launch Poker Power in 2020, a woman-led company that teaches poker to all who identify as female. By extension, it teaches women strategic thinking, capital allocation, and decisionmaking skills to help them in the boardroom and beyond. She believes that the fundamentals of poker are the same in business. Poker can be a gateway for all women to be more confident with risk-taking and money—the game allows you to practice taking risks with imperfect information. Every hand is a negotiation just like in a boardroom. Claiming a seat at the poker table helps women grow their careers and move into higher positions where they can create more room for their female peers, which contributes to closing gender-based financial gaps and more. Poker Power is across 30 countries, working with more than 150 corporate partners and educational institutions, and has seen the transformational effect it can have on everyone from teenagers to CEOs.

Ada Limón is the 24th Poet laureate of the United States and is one of those rare individuals who makes a living from her poetry. Her work is known for its vivid imagery, emotional intensity, and themes of identity, nature, and the human experience. She often draws inspiration from her rural upbringing in Sonoma and her experiences as a Mexican-American woman. Her work is praised for its accessibility and ability to connect with a range of readers. She has said that she often reads her poetry aloud when writing because she believes that it’s a medium that should be performed.

Her sixth and most recent book is The Hurting Kind, which is about connection and the delight of being in the world and was listed as one of the best books of the year by NPR.

SERVE AS POET LAUREATE

THE HIGHEST RANKING FEMALE CEO IN THE FORTUNE 500

Karen Lynch

Karen Lynch was no stranger to the healthcare industry when she took the helm as CEO of CVS in February, 2021. With over 30 years of experience in healthcare, Lynch had previously served as the President of Aetna, where she played a crucial role in the company’s merger with CVS. Lynch has continued to prioritize healthcare innovation and accessibility by spearheading initiatives to expand the company’s virtual care offerings, providing customers with easy access to telehealth services. She has also championed initiatives to improve healthcare affordability and reduce disparities in healthcare access.

Elizabeth McCall

Elizabeth McCall is the Master Distiller at Woodford Reserve, a leading bourbon distillery in Kentucky. With a family history in the bourbon industry, McCall developed a deep passion for distilling. She pursued a degree in chemical engineering to help her master the technical side of the process. She worked her way up the ranks at Woodford Reserve, learning every aspect of the distilling process and honing her skills as a taster and blender. Today, McCall is a leading voice in the industry, working to innovate and push the boundaries of what’s possible in bourbon production. Her dedication and expertise have earned her numerous accolades, including being named Whisky Advocate’s “Innovator of the Year” in 2018.

THE WOMAN BEHIND CHATGPT

Mira Murati

Mira Murati is the CTO behind the most advanced AI chatbot ever deployed to a mass audience. Her interest in AI began when she was working at Tesla in 2013 while working on early versions of its Autopilot application. Since then, she has led product & engineering at Leap Motion, where she worked on an augmented reality system to replace keyboards. At OpenAI, she’s focused on how humans will interact with AI and believes in public testing. She’s also in favor of regulation for AI and includes a diverse set of voices to answer questions about the technology’s impact on society.

THE MYTH OF “HAVING IT ALL”

Reshma Saujani

Reshma Saujani is an American lawyer, activist, and author who has dedicated her career to promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls through education and technology. She founded Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization that teaches girls computer science skills and encourages gender diversity in the tech industry. Her work has earned her numerous accolades, including recognition as one of Fortune’s “World’s Greatest Leaders” and being named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People.” her bestselling book, Pay UP: The Future of Women and Work confronts the “big lie” of corporate feminism and presents a bold plan to address the burnout and inequity harming America’s working women.

Ayisha Siddiqa is a 24-yearold Pakistani human rights and climate defender who co-founded Polluters Out, a global youth activist coalition, and Fossil Free University, an activism training course. She has felt the effects of climate change throughout her entire life—from the death of her grandparents due to polluted water in their community to the impact of floods in Pakistan in 2012. Her work focuses on uplifting the rights of marginalized communities while holding polluting companies accountable at the international level. She is currently a research scholar at NYU School of Law. Siddiqa was recently named a Time Magazine Woman of the Year.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FEMALE SKIER IN ALPINE WORLD HISTORY

Mikaela Shiffrin

Mikaela Shiffrin, the most decorated female skier of all time, has won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals, including gold in slalom at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. She also is known for her fierce determination and unparalleled technical ability on the slopes. In 2020, her father died in an accident, and she has been open about her struggles in the wake of his loss and what it took for her to get back on the slopes. She is an advocate for mental health, and her resilience and determination in the face of adversity have earned her widespread admiration.

In 2018 Breen Sullivan, an in-house tech lawyer, noticed something: her male colleagues were angel investing and serving on advisory and governing boards of startups (and getting promoted!), and her female colleagues weren’t. When she tried to find similar opportunities for herself, there was no obvious place to go. Sullivan also knew many startups don’t take advantage of advisory boards or fill all their board seats, which meant fewer opportunities than needed. Since then, she’s launched the Pay It Forward Initiative, which aims to enlist thousands of companies between now and 2025 to pledge to close the gender wealth and funding gap by diversifying boardrooms and cap tables. They aim to get 75,000 women onto for-profit boards by the end of 2025.

BREAKING BARRIERS FOR WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF ASIAN DESCENT Michelle Yeoh

By now, you have probably seen the photo of Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis that went viral when Yeoh won an Oscar. It’s a visual representation of her status as one of the most incredible action heroines of all time and her work throughout her career fighting for representation, diversity, and women’s empowerment. Yeoh has also worked to promote gender equality and environmental causes with the United Nations Development Program. Her commitment to using her platform to impact the world positively has earned her widespread admiration and respect.

City 3.0

Lake Nona is the Business-Friendly Community of the Future—Right Now

The “smartest” hotel in the world, housed in an AI-informed glass building designed to resemble a wavelength of energy and serviced by a robot named Rosie…

The largest autonomous shuttle network anywhere, available to ride for free and created to please down to the curvature of its chairs and the “slip factor” of its seat materials… An open air entertainment park so eco-conscious it’s built entirely from repurposed shipping containers…

Sound futuristic, even fantastical?

Welcome to Lake Nona, a “city within the city” adjacent to Orlando International Airport where such perks are available to all or, if not, in the process of being tested by its “living lab” community.

Tens of thousands of residents and employees for on-site companies including Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, and the U.S. Tennis Association already inhabit this 17 square-mile master designed development—and those joining now, including Disney, understand why. Cisco chose it as its first

domestic Smart+Connected city because of its capacity for innovation. The Global Wellness Institute has called it “the most sophisticated example in the world of what master planning for wellness can accomplish.” And no less than Deepak Chopra - whose first Mind-Body Zone and Spa is on the premises - has said, “I feel that Lake Nona is going to…create a movement for what I’ve longed for all my life: a critical mass of people who will engage in personal and total transformation for a more peaceful, just…healthy and enjoyable world.”

How does the neo-urban community do it? A finely calibrated and collaborative relationship between an ever-growing cadre of top businesses which are encouraged to test new products among residents, and residents who are eager for such collaboration is key.

Of course to attract both, Lake Nona has had to be cutting edge from the get-go. Among the perks currently offered, and continually informed by and updated according to residents’ desires: Gigabit internet, which gives inhabitants 100 times faster connectivity than standard setups, and 5G mobile service offered in collaboration with Verizon. The aforementioned autonomous shuttles, courtesy of industry-leader Beep (headquartered in Lake Nona) are also available - and will soon be joined by the nation’s first vertiport, a mobility hub designed for aircraft that takes off and lands vertically, and that will ultimately provide transport to any major metro area in Florida in less than an hour. Lake Nona has buildings equipped with View Smart Windows that keep inhabitants at optimal temperatures and protect them from sun damage without the need for blinds; easy access to on-site businesses like the Tony Robbins-founded Fountain Life, which specializes in AI-informed tests to enable early detection of cancer and other diseases; and a wealth of expertly-planned nature trails and a sculpture garden featuring works by artists including Henry Moore and Fernando Botero…It goes on.

Business to business collaboration is also emphasized in Lake Nona. Verizon, in addition to providing 5G for the community, has one of its seven Innovation Hubs there, allowing other businesses to test its super-fast network and brainstorm about how 5G can best be employed by them. (Among current trials: a collaboration with Beep that would further perfect the shuttles’ capabilities.) Startups taking part in the Lake Nona leAD Sports and Health Tech Accelerator, which incubates companies from around the globe, also work with the larger businesses - and benefit from introductions to the latters’ clients. Explains Juan Santos, the Senior Vice President of Brand Experience and Innovation at Tavistock, the development company behind Lake Nona, “Whenever Verizon is bringing a prospective customer to show them their different technologies, if it’s appropriate, we take twenty minutes to bring one of the startups in and educate them about possible collaboration.” Quite often, it leads to deals.

Another iteration of B2B collaboration - and resident interaction - is encouraged by the “Wellness Home built on Innovation and Technology”, aka WHIT, that stands in the middle of one of Lake Nona’s many neighborhoods. The house acts as a sort of “lab” allowing companies to test products in a

real life setting, and in some cases offering residents exclusive access to test and implement the latest and greatest technology - and businesses to see what their commercial neighbors are up to. In addition to circadian lighting to maximize sleep ease, a six-stage air filtration system, a “Serenity Cove” for meditation, and more, WHIT currently features “immersive windows” by View which double as ultra-vivid displays for everything from FaceTime calls to TV screens. Santos says a company like Fountain Life, which is continually looking for new ways to monitor health within homes, loves it - and hopes to test products of its own there in the future.

One might wonder if all of this cutting-edge technology allows for a true sense of human connection among residents and professionals. Locals point to the 1,000 community events held annually, which range from the Impact Forum - a multi-day “conversation” about wellness featuring speakers like Bill Clinton and Sanjay Gupta - to the Oh, What Fun! holiday festival fostering a sense of belonging. One can be sure Lake Nona’s self-selecting community of “citizen scientists,” as they’re sometimes called, also has a sense of camaraderie from taking part in things like the Lake Nona Life Project wellness study, a longitudinal study in partnership with the University of Central Florida, which looks at the relationship between lifestyle and health, together.

Santos points out that Lake Nona actually offers extra comfort in our fast-changing culture. “Change is not something that’s easy for humans,” he says, noting that it’s happening regardless of where people live. “But because Lake Nona is a community of people who have both each others’ support and that of our business partners when it comes to pushing the wheel forward, it’s a little bit of an easier environment” in which to adapt. Santos adds that, while change isn’t made for its own sake in Lake Nona, it is made with great speed - and as a result it’s an ideal home for businesses who want to test and perfect their products in such a streamlined “living lab.”

“There’s a lot of places that [claim to be] of the future,” Santos sums up. “I know not to say, ‘Hey, we have a plan for 2030’ because if the 2030 that we imagined is different than the one that actually arrives - which it will be, guaranteed - we’ll be too far down the path of something else” to change course. Instead, he says, Lake Nona is remaining open to possibilities yet ready and at the cutting edge - and ensuring that its future will be as set up for success as its present.

For more information on joining Lake Nona’s business community - and collaborating with its “living lab” of residents—visit: https://www.lakenona.com/ work/

PARADISE FOUND: Our Ultimate Beach Bucket List

Worth scoured the planet to find 10 unique beaches to hit this summer.

I’ll never forget the first time I set foot on the island of Mo’orea in French Polynesia. Turquoise waters, palm trees swaying in balmy breezes, and dark green volcanic mountains set against a clear blue sky—it was a travel magazine story brought to life. I was in Tahiti on a work trip, and whenever I had a free afternoon, I hopped on the ferry for the short ride from Papeete to Mo’orea to explore on bike or foot, relishing in the laid-back atmosphere that was a quiet alternative to the main island. I couldn’t believe such places really existed, and the technicolor dream that is Mo’orea lives happily in my memory.

Beach vacations are something we all dream of, yet the type of beach experience we want can vary wildly. In Mo’orea, I was not content to lie on the beach all day sipping Piña Coladas. I wanted to explore the island’s wilds so I could take in as much as possible, knowing that it was unlikely I would return. The list of great beaches to visit is long—we are lucky to live in a world with extraordinarily beautiful places and could spend our lives on a quest to find the best beach in the world.

To make this list, we found beaches that offer something unique, whether you want to relax under an umbrella with a book and a drink in your hand or spend all of your time in the water learning about marine life. Pick the one that best suits your interests, but know none will disappoint.

Bathsheba Beach

BARBADOS

Bathsheba Beach, located on the east coast of Barbados, is a rugged and picturesque beach known for its impressive rock formations, pounding waves, and natural tide pools. The beach is popular among surfers due to its consistent swells and challenging breaks but also attracts those seeking a peaceful escape from the more crowded beaches on the west coast. Legend has it that the waters of Bathsheba are rich in minerals and possess health-giving value. One way to reap the benefits of the island is to take in the stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean while relaxing in the natural pools formed by the coral reef while sipping on the local specialty— signature Bajan rum drinks.

Cable Beach

NASSAU, BAHAMAS

Sometimes you really need a beach getaway but just don’t have the time or the energy to go far. Enter Nassau, Bahamas, known for its short-flight proximity to the U.S., but also its large-scale resorts and potential for crowds. We have a solution: the newly opened Goldwynn Resort at Cable Beach. Chic, private, with a heated infinity pool that overlooks the beach so you can hop between the resort and shoreline as often as you like without mingling with the beachgoing public. This is a beach vacation for those short on time but searching for a modern, comfortable sanctuary.

Cannon Beach

OREGON

Located on the northwestern coast of Oregon, Cannon Beach is known for its stunning beaches that stretch for miles. It’s popular among surfers, but also for people who want a change of pace in their beach vacation— something a little more moody, perhaps, with towering cliffs and the iconic Haystack Rock, a 235-foot-tall sea stack rising from the Pacific Ocean. The beach offers many opportunities for action—a fat bike route along the coast or hiking in nearby Ecola State Park or Neahkahnie Mountain. And the quaint town is filled with chef-owned restaurants, local breweries, and wineries to refuel in when you’ve had your fill of outdoor activities.

Les Calanques de Cassis, Provence

FRANCE

Cassis is a fishing village on a picturesque bay surrounded by towering limestone cliffs. It also happens to have a vibrant beach scene, with activities that range from sunbathing to boating to cliff jumping and—perhaps most importantly— wine tasting. Cassis is also home to some of the region’s best wineries, and here, you can combine your passions. Spend the day visiting a few wineries, hang out on the beach, and as the day turns to evening, dine al fresco on fresh seafood. All you need is a good pair of shoes, a towel, a local bottle of Rosé, and you’re set for a perfect day.

St Catherine’s Beach ST. GEORGE’S, BERMUDA

With its crystal-clear turquoise waters, soft pink sand, and stunning sunsets, St. Catherine’s Beach is a quiet escape within walking distance of the center St. Georges a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here, you can not only enjoy the natural beauty of the surroundings but dive into the town’s history by wandering its quaint streets and visiting the fort. This fascinating historic landmark offers visitors a glimpse into the island’s past. Built in the early 1600s by the British, the fort was strategically located on the island’s eastern tip, overlooking the entrance to St. George’s Harbour. After sunbathing and exploring, indulge yourself in the champagne evening ritual at the St. Regis resort, conveniently located overlooking St. Catherine’s Beach.

Secret Beach at Secret Bay DOMINICA

The only way to get to Secret Beach is by boat, although intrepid swimmers could snorkel around the cliff face. It is truly private. Located in Dominica, Secret Bay is an award-winning resort with elegant, residentialstyle villas with private plunge pools and dedicated staff to handle your every need. To be at Secret Bay is to truly disconnect from everything and immerse yourself in one of the most stunning natural environments in the Caribbean. Dominica is one of the largest islands but also one of the least populated. It’s known as “Nature Island” and possesses 365 rivers, the second-largest boiling lake in the world, subterranean volcanoes, mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, and both black and white sand beaches. This beach vacation is for those who truly want to leave the world behind but don’t want to sacrifice luxury.

Hulopo’e Beach LANA’I, HAWAII

Hulopo’e Bay, located on the southeastern coast of Lana’i, which is Hawaii’s smallest inhabited island, is known for its incredible array of sea life. The bay is a protected marine preserve with crystal clear waters and coral reefs that are virtually undisturbed, providing visitors with some of the best snorkeling spots in Hawaii. You might see spinner dolphins playing in the Bay’s sparkling water, endangered green sea turtles, and in the winter months, the migration of humpback whales. The crescent-

shaped Hulopo’e Beach boasts powdery sand, clear water, and backs up to the Four Seasons Lanai, a resort that’s committed to protecting both the environment and culture of the island. Aside from the vast list of land and sea experiences offered, their Love Lanai Cultural Advisors lead guided hikes where guests can learn about the native history of the ancient Hawaiian village nearby and the legend of Pu’u Pehe. This striking rock formation juts out of the Pacific just 150 ft. off the coastline.

Praia Do Norte NAZARE, PORTUGAL

Let’s get right to it: one of the primary reasons to visit Praia do Norte is to see the worldfamous 100-ft waves with your own eyes. Located in Nazare, Praia do Norte is famous for its massive waves, making it one of the most challenging and exhilarating surf spots in the world. It also offers stunning views of the Atlantic, picturesque cliffs, and a charming fishing village. You can’t beat the seafood in Portugal. The best way to experience the beach in Nazare is dining at Taberna d’Adélia, which just received another Michelin Guide nomination. It is just steps from the beach, so you can enjoy your cataplana watching the surfers navigate the waves before you.

Wyndham Grand Rio Mar PUERTO

RICO

The best thing about the beach at the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar may not be the beach. Located on the North Shore of Puerto Rico, it has incredible views and turquoise waters, but its proximity to the El Yunque rainforest really sets it apart. El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. It is a paradise filled with towering trees, cascading waterfalls, natural swimming holes, and rare bird species. The beach is nestled in Rio Grande, a municipality known for its lavish hotels, championship-worthy golf courses, and iconic restaurants. Perfect for those seeking a beachfront locale and one of the world’s most biologically diverse rainforests.

VOMO Island FIJI

The farthest flung location on our list, VOMO is a leading ecopositive resort, which means that the resort’s environmental initiatives shepherd the continued preservation and safeguarding of Fiji’s delicate marine ecosystem. The property has a marine biologist on staff and is a PADI 5-Star Gold Palm Dive Resort. That means you can submerge yourself in vast schools of butterflyfish and oriental sweetlips or drift the channels with white tips, Giant Trevallies,

and Bluefin Kingfish. The property consists of two islands—VOMO, a 225-acre private island with 34 private residences and resort villas; and VOMO Lailai, a smaller island that you can book for your own Robinson Crusoe adventure, like a private picnic complete with sun loungers, beach towels, cold beverages, and a gourmet lunch. The hotel provides a two-way radio so you can call when you’re ready to be picked up or if you just run out of champagne.

HEADING SOUTH

Antarctica journeys always held adventure, but now the trip also comes with a surprising amount of luxury.

MEN WANTED

For hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success. Ernest Shackleton 4 Burlington St. (Shackleton ad seeking crew for the Antarctic expedition in 1900)

It was 6:00 am on our third day after leaving the port of Ushuaia, Argentina, bound for Antarctica, when Captain Etienne Garcia strode into the ship’s bridge in a bathrobe and sunglasses. We had arrived at Antarctica’s Crystal Sound and “the ice.” He was excited to be there, as was I. As he’s in charge of Le Commandant Charcot (LCC), Ponant cruise line’s ice-breaking flagship, he had seen this ice a hundred times. This was my first, but I saw his excitement was real. He commented in French-accented English, “We are here and what a smooth journey, no? The Drake [Passage] was like a lake.” I have 11 more days of adventure ahead. We will see how smooth those are.

For over forty years, the exploration of the Earth’s southernmost continent has fascinated me. The endurance of unimaginable hardships: bitter cold, total darkness, sensory deprivation, nutritional privation, and the real possibility of crippling illness and/or death, has jarred me out of my urban comfort zone. The organization, provisioning, ship handling, and navigation required for each journey south stimulated me to think about humanity’s relentless quest for progress in the most extreme climate on earth.

As I sail aboard LCC, I swim in her pool, enjoy the sauna and snow room, and get a massage. I eat in her Alain Ducasse restaurant, followed by an espresso in the observation lounge while watching ice floes, whales, penguins, and seals. I attend the daily naturalists’ lectures and excursion updates before retreating to my comfortable Scandinavian-style cabin outfitted with every amenity. With all these luxuries at my fingertips, contrasted by my knowledge of the historical hardships of this journey, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by the technical, social, and economic progress humankind has made.

It was established early on that Antarctic exploration, aside from harvesting whale oil and seal skins, would result in no economic value. The continent is an ice desert. Larger than the United States, the dominant feature is ice, ice,

and more ice. There are scores of different types of ice. Frazil, Nilas, and Pancake are just three. There is ice on mountains, ice on flatlands, rivers, valleys, volcanoes, and floating on the seas. Ice covers 99.6% of the surface, rising to the height of three miles in places. 70% of the world’s freshwater is locked up in that ice. Unlike the Arctic North Pole, which is a floating ice cap—a remnant of the glacial ice that once covered “snowball earth”— Antarctica has land underneath the ice. As one of the shipboard naturalists explained, “Antarctica was, 550 million years ago, part of the Earth’s one unified continent called Gondwana. Over eons, it migrated south

to the coldest part of the planet. The climate is always evolving. It’s hard to believe dinosaurs once walked here before it went south.”

The first to discover the rumored continent was British explorer James Cook in his 1772-75 voyage. He observed and sailed around the ice shelves, believed the land itself was impenetrable, and wrote, “The risk one runs in exploring a coast in these unknown and Icy Seas, is so very great, that I can be bold to say no man will ever venture farther than I have done…” Not a very promising call to later explorers. However, since his journals revealed wildlife in abundance, within a few decades, a century-long mad rush of whalers and sealers came to relentlessly kill everything that breathed.

Cook’s discovery set in motion an era of scientific exploration, as large expeditions, led by adventurers and scientists sailed in uncharted and perilous waters, mapping the continent’s shores and islands.

The next big wave of interest came in 1874 when astronomers studying the transit of Venus ventured south. This became the catalyst for inter-European rivalry, as countries sent scientists and explorers to Antarctica. Belgium, France, England, and Germany all competed to go the furthest south and winter over the longest. These were huge expeditions requiring years of plan-

ning, funding, and provisioning. Both national treasuries and private sponsorships were used. Temporary land bases were established and dashes to the pole were set in motion. Public buy-in was essential, so when the adventurers returned, they toured lecture halls and wrote countless newspaper accounts, emphasizing the hardships of life on the ice, their frozen bodies, the relentless darkness of winter, and the perils of migrating ice shelves. They enthralled audiences living in a world that was becoming urban and sedentary.

Sir Ernest Shackleton, however, stands in the English-speaking public’s mind as the most notable adventurist of all, probably because, by this

time (1914), mass communication was possible. As many know, Shackleton’s voyage on the Endurance (recently found almost intact after 106 years at the bottom of the Weddell Sea) ended in disaster. His ship was caught in the ice during the long winter and had to be abandoned. Using lifeboats, Shackleton led his 27 men to safety on Elephant Island. Then he and a few others underwent a harrowing voyage to South Georgia Island and eventual rescue. No other Antarctic explorer ever captured the public’s attention like he did, not even Robert Scott, who died on his Terra Nova expedition, or Roald Amundsen, who was the first to reach the pole and return alive.

As timelines go, Shackleton’s historic voyage 110 years ago is both distant and near. Distant in the sense that we have gone to the moon several times since then and have GPS on our cell phones. Technology has progressed so rapidly that the “modern” Antarctic explorers—Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen—seem closer to James Cook’s discovery of Antarctica in the late 18th century than to our routine visits to this ice-covered land today.

While the derring-do of the above remains in the imagination of those interested in polar adventure, it is a quieter man, a man primarily interested in science, that the Antarctic adventure ship I was on was named after—French doctor and explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot. His twentieth-century expeditions discovered and mapped over 600 miles of coastline which he explained in 18 volumes of scientific reports. Robert Scott called him “the polar gentleman.” Our voyage on LCC visited several islands and harbors named by or for him.

The South Pole explorers of yore were envelope pushers; they lived and died mapping and naming the vast continent’s features.

Ponant’s Antarctic adventurers will have a different experience than past ones. Here are some of the contrasts.

Scope of Exploration: Very few people going to Antarctica understand that they only see the Antarctic Peninsula. One of the LCC naturalists explained, “They’re seeing less than 1% of the land mass.” Fortunately, this peninsula is closest to the ports of embarkation (in Argentina and Chile), has most of the wildlife, and is the most accessible place to land. The other 99% is hard to access and far more monolithic in terms of visuals—often just a massive ice shelf. One, the Ross, is larger than France, a scale difficult to comprehend.

Other Cruise Liners Traveling to Antarctica

HURTIGRUTEN

A Norwegian expedition cruise line offering eco-friendly trips to Antarctica with educational lectures and polar exploration activities.

LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS

A pioneer of eco-tourism, Lindblad Expeditions provides expedition-style trips to Antarctica with a team of naturalists, historians, and photographers.

SILVERSEA

A luxury cruise line that offers all-inclusive trips to Antarctica with butler service, fine dining, and personal suites with private balconies.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS

A partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic, offering expedition-style trips to Antarctica with a team of experts and scientists.

AURORA EXPEDITIONS:

A small-ship expedition cruise line that offers trips to Antarctica with kayaking, camping, and mountaineering options for adventure enthusiasts.

OCEANWIDE EXPEDITIONS

A Dutch adventure cruise line that offers trips to Antarctica with a focus on wildlife encounters, hiking, and kayaking opportunities.

SEABOURN

A luxury cruise line that offers all-inclusive trips to Antarctica on its ultra-luxury ship Seabourn Quest, with gourmet dining and personalized service.

Weather: Another misconception is the weather. My friends asked me how cold it was. They imagined freezing, life-threatening, sub-zero readings with accompanying whiteouts. Unlike the real explorers, no cruise ships go to Antarctica in the polar winter. We sailed in the polar summer. Some days it was hot, in the 50s, with brilliant sunshine, 24 hours’ worth by the way. Most days it was in the 30s. Yes, there can be storms and high winds, but they are the exception, and modern forecasting prevents anyone from being caught out in life-threatening conditions.

Navigation: GPS is so accurate that a ship’s officer can pinpoint their location within a few feet on a chart. Depth, ocean bottom contour, water temperature, and even ice floes appear on computer screens. The LCC’s bridge never had less than three officers tracking and plotting our course. Thus, we could sail in the icy waters called The Gullet, a very narrow 11-mile channel. Just to be sure, our helicopter scouted the route before. It deemed it passable, a feat unimaginable to those in wooden ships taking occasional sun sights and using sounding lines to (hopefully) tell them where they were.

Propulsion: The LCC uses the most advanced propulsion systems. The famed Norwegian shipyard, Vard, built her with engines that can run on diesel, liquefied natural gas, or self-charged batteries. Two Azipod rotating propellers allow the ship to not only enter the icepack but back out of it. Using these Azipods, LCC can secure itself into the ice for passenger disembarkment. The days of relying on winds or coal-fired engines for propulsion are over. In an impressive feat of technology, LCC schedules its return hour to Ushuaia based on winds, tides, and ice with complete accuracy.

Communication: I have always been amazed that even though Shackleton set out in the 20th century, he could reach no one when he got caught in the ice. The world didn’t know the Endurance sank or that he left 22 men on Elephant Island when

Travel

he started the most incredible small boat journey ever undertaken—to South Georgia Island—to find help for his stranded crew. As we used our Instagram accounts to update everyone, let’s just say I wished Sir Ernest was watching.

Provisions: Scott and others ate pemmican (dehydrated ground meat mixed with fat). They often mixed in biscuits to prepare a dish called “hoosh.” When they ran out of that, they starved or went locavore by roasting penguins or when pushed…their dogs. Explorers’ diets were geared toward survival, not pleasure.

The legendary French chef Alain Ducasse is the culinary director for Ponant, and his imprimatur is on NUNA, one of LCC’s two restaurants. So, while viewing the ice, mountains, and wildlife from the picturesque windows in the dining rooms, one can sip vintage wine selected by the two sommeliers, eat foie gras and sweetbreads, or graze from the perpetual buffet on another deck. I did a few silent toasts to the pemmican eaters of yesteryear, imagining what they would think when our concern was about putting on weight, rather than rationing calories to last through the winter or consuming the vitamins necessary to prevent scurvy. As executive chef Florent Delfortrie explained, “Since everyone’s onboard for 12 days, our desire is to provide as varied and rich a culinary experience as possible, from a healthy vegetable-focused meal to a French fine dining one. Our chefs create traditional Indian meals too.”

The observation deck’s espresso/wine/snack bar was my go-to place. I luxuriated for hours in this beautifully decorated space, taking in my stunning surroundings.

Danger: Back then, it was understood adventurers might return with frostbite, snow blindness, or not at all. Now, save for a few very rare headlines, Antarctic travel is as safe as driving to your Auntie’s an hour away. All ships have rigid guidelines supervised by IAATO, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators. As an LCC engineer put it, “Theirs is the baseline for ship safety and environmental care. We go way beyond their requirements. For example, we custom-engineered our own lifeboats and ice shelf survival systems. Fortunately, we’ve never had to use them because this ship is Ice Class II, built to withstand anything that could be thrown her way.”

Captain Cook’s vision was limited to his primitive telescope’s capabilities. Often, our expedition leader, the soft-spoken and intensely focused outdoor guru Steve Moir, scouted our intended landing sites by helicopter, confirming they were feasible. Since LCC goes where other ships cannot, our destinations were bespoke. Other ships often must wait their turn to get onto the ice or the continent. As we were alone and further south, the itinerary demanded a higher level of planning. Steve said Ponant’s primary goal is, “Exploration beyond expedition,” which explains the captain’s desire to see bays and inlets for the first time.

Who’s Aboard: “Rugged men of adventure with nautical skills,” mechanics, riggers, and carpenters, plus dog handlers and cooks, were the crew on explorer ships of old. They had to be tough as nails to survive the harrowing environment. Dog handling is not required of today’s LCC passengers, who can be divided into three groups.

Cruise Aficionados. They have been everywhere else (like Alaska…. three times) and want to check off a new box on their bucket list. This group is very loyal to Ponant and so were excited to be aboard a new state-of-the-art luxury ice class ship. One couple I met who love to travel explained, “Of all the trips we have ever taken, this is by far the most adventuresome. We never take ‘beaten-path’ vacations.”

Photography Buffs. Every other neck had a few thousand dollars of digital SLRs dangling from it. Cameras mounted on tripods for penguin close-ups appeared on the ice like mushrooms after a rain. Sue Flood, an award-winning BBC photographer, and her business partner Ian Dawson were the ship’s

“photo ambassadors.” They offered tips, gave critiques, and held a photo contest for all the shutterbugs. Wildlife Lovers. I had no idea penguins could elicit the responses they did, maybe because I never saw the film “March of The Penguins.” We encountered four different types, often up close, including the majestic Emperor. These meetups really made people’s day. Excitement at the varied birdlife rippled through the wildlifeloving passengers as well. The Elephant Seals and their unconventional sexual mores were another story, evoking more curiosity than affection.

For the entire naturalist crew, the captain, his officers, and myself, the once-in-a-lifetime highlight was watching a line of 100 feeding humpback whales. The captain stopped the ship and for over an hour we watched them dive and surface, their blowholes creating geysers of spray. We were close enough to hear them communicate with each other.

The 19 explorer-naturalist guides won my head and heart. To meet and get to know youngish 27–40-year-olds devoting themselves to climatology, glaciology, geology, ornithology, and marine biology was, frankly, inspiring. When not working for Ponant, they live in remote places, cobble together gigs like kayak adventures in arctic Sweden, or work on nature documentaries. Each one was an expert. Their daily lectures were eagerly anticipated, as was the late afternoon debrief of what we experienced on the ice with accompanying professionally taken photos. Ponant strongly encouraged all passengers to “take an explorer/naturalist to dinner.” I did so several times and had stimulating conversations about the warming oceans, the geopolitics of Antarctica, and the habits of the wildlife. These guides were smart and inspirational, and not headed to investment banking. Instead, they helped us contort our bodies into survival suits for the kayak trips and led us safely into the Zodiacs for closeup interactions with the wondrous, sculpted wind-carved ice floes.

The LCC also always has visiting scientific researchers aboard who work in fully equipped wet and dry labs. In collaboration with international scientific bodies, they sample ocean waters, looking for microplastics, and study the health of the marine ecosystem starting with krill, the base of the ocean’s food chain.

Accommodations and Amenities: Smoky, stinky, dark, and fetid would be a fair description of Antarctic exploration before our modern era. Older expeditions often utilized dogs and, unwisely, horses, to take them onto the ice. In winter, the dogs shared the crew’s living quarters.

Entertainment was a necessary amenity on ships of old because one of the paramount shipboard concerns was madness. It was the captain’s responsibility to provide distractions.

There was no possibility of boredom-induced madness on our ship. We had so many scheduled activities that conflicting events necessitated making ranked choices. Should I go to yoga or the ice lecture? Go to the whiskey tasting or get a massage? The Daily Program updated us on our geographic goals, weather forecasts, and off-ship excursion possibilities. A chime alerting us to an announcement from the captain or cruise manager, Simone, sounded a few times a day. Like a medieval church bell 2.0, it told us to pay attention to some scheduled event or a wildlife sighting deemed worthy.

As in all great explorations, the captain played the central role. Etienne Garcia was informative, humorous, gracious, and reassuring. Clearly, Ponant’s double-digit billionaire owner Francois Pinault has given him a free hand to, as Garcia said, “go where nobody else can. I’m in touch with my vessel, and she loves being in the ice.” If you doubt this, track LCC on Ponant’s site and see where she has been. The geographic North Pole was her pre-commissioning shakedown cruise!

A word about Antarctic travel: There are more Antarctic adventure seekers every year. However, they represent 0.4 percent of all cruise passengers (100,000 vs. 25,000,000). Antarctic ships are highly regulated by the IAATO and must comply with The Antarctic Treaty, signed by 52 countries. Also, as mentioned before, the volume of the landmass visited is insignificant, so the continent remains untouched. Plus, no waste can be discharged, and all shore excursions follow strictly enforced protocols to protect wildlife.

The world’s oceans are warming at a record rate, and the seas surrounding the Antarctic Convergence are no exception, but this is from the world’s energy use, not from these few cruise ships. Many of the naturalists aboard saw Antarctic travel in a positive light. They hoped visitors would become “Antarctic ambassadors” and join the worldwide effort to keep it as pristine as it is. Ponant ships are all Clean Ship Super-Certified and earned a North American Green Alliance certificate. They have practiced responsible tourism for 30 years, partly by offsetting carbon emissions.

There is humility to an Antarctic voyage like this one. A sense of wonder about past adventurers like Shackleton and Charcot, who explored and reported on this vast icy continent and its surrounding frigid seas. The landscape is overwhelming; the ice glistening off craggy mountains and floating on the waters is unlike anywhere else. How humans built ships that now take us to this polar wonder in safety and luxury instills in me a sense of awe at the technological progress we have made in a tiny timespan.

And I was fortunate to be guided by authentic people following in the footsteps of those who sailed before. No adventure could ask for more.

HIKING THE

HIMALAYAS

On my third and last day visiting Chitwan National Park in Nepal, my regular guide there, Santosh Basnet, was pointing out some fresh scratch marks made on a tree by the apex predator of the park, the Bengal tiger.

Examining the trunk of the tree, he extracted a strand of tiger fur, left behind when the cat leaned its belly against the tree while clawing it. Santosh had already pointed out fresh tiger tracks on our walk through the forest. The only protection Santosh and his fellow guide, Asbin, had brought were wooden staffs about 5 feet long. It is a measure of the utter faith in my guides that I had developed that I was not worried about becoming a tiger’s meal. Indeed, my only concern was whether I was going to spot a big cat–alas, I did not.

In my three days at the park—a former royal hunting ground that became Nepal’s first national park in 1973 and was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984—I had gradually shed some of my 21stcentury urban habits and learned to experience the tropical surroundings with more acute hearing, vision, and smell. My guide had a startling ability to discern a distant and indistinct shape as the back of a greater one-horned

rhinoceros, or to spot a bird in flight and immediately peg it as a greater hornbill, or to I.D. a rustle in the bushes as a wild boar (which soon crossed our path). To be shown how to be a more perceptive wanderer in the forest was a great gift.

And I experienced similar gains in perception throughout my ten days in Nepal on a personalized tour arranged by &Beyond, the “experiential travel company” that offers “forward-thinking” travelers curated experiences at locations in Africa, South America, and south Asia. While the accommodations were all first rate, and the food delicious and plentiful, the experiences were sometimes challenging—physically, emotionally, and even philosophically. But it was the best kind of challenge, and the guides invariably were there to explain, to lead, to fan one’s curiosity. For the habitually curious person, this is travel at its best.

The trip featured Kathmandu as the home base, starting with two nights in Dwarika’s Hotel, followed by a three-night excursion north into the foothills of the Himalayas to stay at the Happy House, a small inn in the town of Phaplu, at an elevation just below 9,000 feet. Then a return to Kathmandu for a night, and on to Chitwan in the south to stay at the Taj Resort Meghauli Serai, and finally back to Kathmandu for more sightseeing before returning home.

What I did not know when I set out was how distinct each of the three areas were, each with their own topography, religious practices, local vocabulary, and ethnic stocks. Nepal is a country that ranges from the heights of Mt. Everest through the ancient trading routes across the Kathmandu Valley and down to the Terai plain where Chitwan National Park lies, nearly at sea level.

Dwarika’s is a story in itself—the eponymous founder became fascinated with the exquisite wood carving done by the Newars—the dominant ethnic group in the Kathmandu Valley—and in the 1950s started to salvage carved window- and door-frames from demolished buildings. By 1970 he was ready to start building. Today, the hotel has 80 rooms, with 40 more under construction. Although the hotel’s origin is recent, the look is in keeping with traditional Newari design, each room lovingly decorated with the work of local artisans—a pleasing meld of wood, terra cotta, stone, and fabric.

Soon after my arrival, I met Ramesh Acharya who was to be my guide that day in Kathmandu. We set out for a UNESCO heritage site called Pashupati. As the driver negotiated the traffic, Ramesh announced that our first stop there would be the ghats along the Bagmati river, where after death Hindus are bathed in water and milk and then cremated, a ritual cleansing to purify them for passage into the next life. We stood on one

side of the river while on the other side families, friends, and neighbors mourned and attendants tended the fires, occasionally adding wet rice straw to the top of a pyre to concentrate the heat. Ramesh explained that for poor families, the $150 cost of the pine logs could be a harsh expense—and that wealthier families, who undertook their ceremonies a bit upstream, might pay four times that to secure sweeter-burning sandalwood.

It was, for a traveler unmoored by jet lag, a challenging opening scene. But the gentle seriousness with which Ramesh explained the rites and their purposes overcame my initial discomfort as it became clear that if I meant to understand Nepal, I had to try to understand this.

Our next stop was one of Kathmandu’s most important Buddhist sites, the Boudhanath Stupa. A stupa is a hemispherical mound, usually containing some holy relic. The Boudhanath Stupa (another UNESCO site) is a bright white dome, surmounted by a golden spire. Visitors hoping to enhance their karma take buckets filled with water and saffron blossoms and fling the contents in a series of arcs across the white dome, creating a pattern like a lotus blossom, symbol of purity and spiritual awakening. The stupa is surrounded by a ring of brick buildings that have grown up around it over the centuries, now occupied by souvenir shops, guest houses, restaurants, and a Tibetan Buddhist temple in which monks were chanting solemnly to percussive accompaniment.

We moved from the sacred to the secular after that, driving to the nearby city of Bhaktapur, which along with Kathmandu and a third city, Patan, dominate the valley and hold great examples of the arts and crafts of the Newars. Each city has a Durbar (Royal) Square, where temples and a royal palace provide a focus for public life. In Bhaktapur, the palace is called the 55-window Palace, and displays the sort of exquisite wood carving that inspired Dwarika to build his hotel. Nearby Pottery Square displays samples of one of the distinctive crafts of the Newars, and along the way, local metalsmiths offer singing bowls.

The next day, I was to proceed to the Happy House.

HAPPY BY NAME, HAPPY BY NATURE

At Kathmandu airport I met Ang Tshering Lama, who would be host, guide, and interpreter of many things in the next three days in Phaplu, at the well-named Happy House. This guest house offers hikes of varying difficulties as well as wellness experiences, tasty meals around a common table, and the thinner, rarer air of the Himalayan foothills. Our trip to Phaplu was by a small helicopter. As we headed northwest from Kathmandu, we slipped in and out of clouds as we skirted the tops of ever-higher hills, many terraced to make room for small fields upon which grow millet, buckwheat, and other crops. After about 40 minutes in the air, we landed at Phaplu on a postage stamp of an airstrip a short walk from the Happy House.

Its name refers to time spent there and in the vicinity by Sir Edmund Hillary, who with his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay was the first to summit Everest (at least, the first we know of—some believe that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine did reach the summit in 1924 before their deaths, but there is no proof for this). Hillary’s fondness for the area and his gratitude to the Sherpa people led him to found both a school and a hospital nearby—Ang was born in that hospital.

But Ang’s family’s experience of the place has not been entirely happy. Between 1996 and 2006, Nepal was riven by a slow-burning civil war between Maoist rebels and the royal government of Nepal. In the fall of 2001, Maoist forces launched attacks on government assets in 42 provinces, and Ang’s father, who was mayor of the village, was targeted. A friend heard of the plot and sent a warning, and when the Maoists came, Ang’s parents hid under the floorboards of the main room of the Happy House. The next day they fled, eventually coming to the U.S., where they now live. In 2006 a negotiated settlement ended the war, and in 2007 the monarchy was abolished.

Ang, who attended college in New York, eventually returned to Phaplu and in 2017 began restoring the house, which opened to guests in 2018.

The rooms are uncluttered and of ample size, with delightfully comfortable beds, rendered even more comfy by the hot-water bottle one discovers between the sheets. I turned in that first night after a lovely afternoon—one shaped, but not dampened, by the rain that arrived not long after we landed in Phaplu. I indulged in a massage in a yurt in the backyard, warmed by a fire in the wood stove and serenaded by the rain thrumming on the canvas roof. At dinner, I found a wonderfully interesting assortment of other guests. As we were served local specialties we got acquainted and grew into a merry band, doubtless helped by the waitstaff, who ensured that no wine glass went unfilled.

The next day, after an alfresco breakfast, some of us were taken by 4WD truck up primitive roads to the Thupten Choeling monastery, an important place for the Buddhists who started coming to this part of Nepal from Tibet centuries ago, and who came in great numbers after the bloody Chinese crackdown on Tibet in 1959. We shed our shoes and entered a room in which dozens of monks and nuns were chanting. I sat down and tried to enter the spirit of the place. A young woman visitor seated next to me asked if I know how to meditate. I nodded. Then she said, “This is the most powerful place on earth.”

Soon they broke for lunch, and we headed downstairs to tour the kitchen. We were told there were about 500 monks and nuns there, and the kitchen contained a huge wood-fired stove with enormous pots in which the vegetarian meals are cooked. We hiked down from the monastery, through forest and farmland, beside a river, and to the town of Junbesi for a simple lunch. Then we returned to the Happy House, for an evening of more food (and for me, less wine—altitude must be respected).

Having acclimated to the height a bit, we were led the next day on a hike up to the Chiwong monastery. Ang went with us, as did a couple of staff folks to carry supplies and make sure we all arrived safely. (Later, I learned that the young man leading the line had summited Everest twice and has also climbed a number of other famous peaks; Ang himself, we learned, climbed Everest last year.)

Hiking up from Happy House we traversed small fields, crossed into woods filled with blooming rhododendron trees. I had heard that one of the Happy House dogs (there are many, who recline in contentment around the inn’s grounds) had scars from tangling with a local leopard. “What kind of leopard?” Ang was asked. “A common leopard.” Of course, this was to distinguish it from the famous snow leopard. But to a person hiking the trail with nothing better than a battered trekking pole to defend himself with, the notion that any kind of leopard could be called “common” here was unsettling. No leopards were spotted.

Arriving at the monastery, we learned it was founded by Ang’s great-greatgreat grandfather in 1923. It had suffered considerable damage in the 2015 earthquake, and signs of ongoing repairs were widespread. The walls are adorned with Buddhist art, and Ang patiently and passionately explains the stories and theology behind the symbolism of the paintings. When he finished, one member of the group said, “I learned more about Buddhism in the past half hour than I did in a full-semester course on the topic in college.”

THE NATURAL WORLD

The next morning it was back to Kathmandu, and then the following morning a short flight south to Chitwan National Park. At the Meghauli Serai resort we left frantic Nepali roads behind and entered a tranquil oasis where curving paths and thoughtful landscaping unfolded a variety of environments and accommodations. I was taken to my room, a River Villa. The villa is large, with indoor and outdoor showers, a bathtub, a huge, canopied bed, and a private swimming pool. Bed and pool overlook the Rapti River, where (across the stream) the next morning a mother and baby greater one-horned rhinoceros would be taking their morning constitutional.

But upon arrival, it was time for a quick lunch (the food sourced from local farms and rivers) and then to be briefed by Santosh on the history and wildlife of the park. The afternoon’s focus was on a boat ride along the river, where we saw crocodiles, cranes, langur monkeys, and one of the park’s stars, the severely endangered gharial, a toothy fish-eating crocodilian that can grow to nearly 20 feet in length.

That evening, in a small clearing on the property, guests were entertained by local musicians and dancers performing the music of the Kumal, an ethnic group famed for their pottery. The resort encourages strengthening local traditions and cultures by providing audiences and support for the groups.

The next morning, I joined Santosh for a three-hour drive through the park. There are three distinct environments in the park–grasslands (a favorite haunt of the rhinos), riverine forest, and the sal forest that makes up the great majority of the domain. The sal forest is named for the sal tree, which furnishes the lumber that so richly adorns the facades of royal palaces, and temples (and Dwarika’s Hotel). Spotted deer are common in the forests and are the favorite item in the diet of the tiger. At first I felt like a hopeless city slicker (which I doubtless am), as Santosh quickly sighted and identified all manner of bird and beast. I juggled camera and binoculars trying to keep up, and too often failed to spot the critter in question. But slowly, my senses sharpened, and by the end of the expedition, I was able to track his sightings of rhinos, birds, and other park denizens.

After the morning’s explorations, my sampling of the resort’s amenities continued with a lovely 90-minute massage, and then the “drive and dine” experience, which took me to lunch with Binny Sebastian, the resort’s general manager, by a river in the local “community forest”—a park borderland where local residents are allowed to gather items they formerly would have found inside the park. Lunch was followed by a drive through the forest where more deer, fantastically colored birds, and monkeys witnessed our progress.

On the next morning’s walking safari, Santosh pointed out, in addition to the tiger’s claw marks, the horizontal slash marks of the sloth bear (a true bear, with long claws like those of the sloth) on an embankment where the bear foraged for grubs, and later noted other scratch marks on a tree that showed where a spotted deer had rubbed the velvet off its horns to toughen them up.

In the afternoon, Santosh took me for a quick visit to a local Tharu village. The traditional Tharu dwellings have walls fashioned of upright stands of elephant grass, braced with horizontal bamboo poles, and cemented together

with a mortar of mud and dung. The homes are painted with traditional decorations, including commashaped patterns in alternating blue and pink, which Santosh noted were made by dipping the heel of a closed fist in paint and pressing it against the wall.

The last night in Meghauli Serai featured a dinner at another outdoor space on the property, with entertainment by an impressive ensemble of Tharu musicians and dancers. My trip ended back in Kathmandu with visits to more sights in Patan and the capital, and then the journey home.

Thanks to the care with which &Beyond had planned my itinerary and selected its guides, the experience of Nepal I had was far more intense and affecting than I had anticipated. I had traveled there expecting to see marvelous things, as I did. But I had not expected to be inspired to think as much or as seriously about local religious practices and beliefs, or to get such a visceral sense of the country’s recent history, or such an intimate immersion in its different ecosystems. I ended my trip feeling a bit tired, but it was the tiredness that comes from a worthwhile exertion, and savored more of achievement than of fatigue.

The morning I left the Happy House, in the middle of my trip, three of my new friends were setting off on a three-day hike (accompanied by guides and porters) that would take them to a summit with a glorious view of the highest part of the Himalayan chain, including Mt. Everest itself. On the last morning of my trip, back in Kathmandu, I ran into two of them at breakfast at Dwarika’s. They told me of their climb, its incidents and challenges, and showed me a photo taken at the summit of their climb, with vast white peaks shining in the distance.

I was sorry to have missed it, but it gives me ample reason to return. And maybe next time I will see a tiger, too.

Investing in the Future of Country Clubs

How Heritage Golf is providing clubs with the resources to modernize and attract future generations.

Many country clubs were struggling prior to the pandemic. Slowing membership was caused by a confluence of waning interest in the country club lifestyle from younger generations and the exodus of older members who typically resisted assessments to raise capital for club improvements.

Without adequate funding, courses become run-down, clubhouses get outdated, and amenities can become scarce. These factors can make private clubs less appealing to younger golfers, who have become accustomed to playing well-maintained public daily-fee courses. The lack of investment in amenities, which contributed to the

difficulty to attract new members, puts clubs into a downward spiral where they have a difficult time improving or even operating their facilities.

While the pandemic provided temporary relief as families looked for outdoor activities, no one knows how long until many revert to their past behavior. The recent influx of capital from new members has helped, but the long-term financial health of many clubs is still in question.

Founded in 2020, Heritage Golf provides a solution for clubs looking to invest in improvements while providing members with the full-service amenities they expect. Heritage owns and operates a portfolio that has recently begun to grow rapidly, adding 30 clubs within 3 years including the historic Knollwood Country Club, one of the oldest clubs in Westchester, NY where Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones reportedly conceived of the Augusta National Golf Club.

The Heritage management team brings decades of experience in operating properties. They are also backed by considerable capital from KSL Capital, which has a successful history in the golf, lifestyle, and destination resort industries. KSL has made over $12 billion of successful travel and leisure investments.

“We are building and fostering memorable and welcoming experiences that our members and guests will share with their friends, family, and business associates,” says Mark Burnett, President and CEO of Heritage Golf. “Our executive team is focused on inspiring our 3,000+ employees to develop best-inclass clubs that retain and attract current and future generations.”

Recognizing that successful partnerships require the support of existing members, Heritage involves them in the acquisition and improvement process. By engaging with both the Board of Directors and the membership, they are able to identify and build support for improvements. This approach can help ensure that investments are made in a way that benefits all members, regardless of age or demographic.

“Our members’ passion, coupled with the financial strength and private club operating experience of the Heritage Golf Group, is a strong platform for reinvention.” comments John Cavaliere, GM of Knollwood Country Club “Our rich history of golf, combined with the exciting improvement plans Heritage envisions provides the club with an amazing opportunity.”

While each club is unique with its own set of requirements, Heritage is universally investing in technology to become more appealing to a new generation of tech-savvy golfers. From GPS-enabled golf carts to mobile apps and online booking systems, Heritage knows that it will attract members with a more convenient and accessible golf experience. They are also

looking at amenities and family-friendly activities that appeal to younger members who might not be looking to join a traditional country club.

“We have a long-term growth strategy and are actively seeking to expand the portfolio of high-quality golf and lifestyle clubs throughout the United States. Says Scott McMartin, Heritage Golf’s Chief Acquisition Officer “We are committed to allocating significant capital for improvements in our new acquisitions as we position our portfolio for the next generation of families.”

In a time when many country clubs face financial challenges and struggle with attracting new members, Heritage Golf is providing clubs with the capital and expertise needed to operate and thrive. Members are an integral part of Heritage’s improvement process to ensure that capital is deployed in areas that make clubs more appealing to existing members as well as a broader range of golfers. Investments are made without assessments, eliminating a financial burden on the membership. Heritage Golf is truly helping to preserve the legacy of private golf clubs while also making them more accessible and appealing to younger generations.

Can Air Travel Ever Be Sustainable?

Flight is an especially tough form of transportation to clean up—but it may be possible.

Even miles out from an airport, the stink, noise, and sprawl attest to the heavy environmental toll that air travel imposes. Flight is carbon intensive and difficult to separate from dirty fuels. You can’t pack enough batteries into a plane to get it across even a U.S. state. And beyond CO2, other pollutants and those wispy exhaust contrails can potentially double heat trapping in the atmosphere.

That’s the bad news, but there is a surprising amount of good. Facing thin margins and fierce competition, airlines are obsessed with conserving energy. Fuel efficiency has improved about 80% since the 1950s, with at least 1.5% improvements continuing every year. There are also credible technologies—intermixed with some very optimistic predictions—to replace fossil fuels in both jet and piston engines. It will take clear thinking from engineers and judicious decisions by passengers to steer aviation toward sustainability.

Travel

LITTLE MEASURES ADD UP

Air travel is not the greatest transportation polluter at about 2.4% of global CO2 emissions. That would be road traffic, at about seven percent. And traveling hundreds of miles in a packed, newer airliner can be more efficient than driving in an empty SUV. “The most energy-efficient form of air transport is the highest density and least comfortable,” says Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory. (Packing lighter helps, too.) Although even roomy business and first class are smaller culprits than a spacious private jet, which can be from five to 14 times more polluting than an airliner.

But ingenuity—from small tweaks today to giant strides in coming decades—can slash the environmental impacts of flight, even on a Gulfstream. Flying on a newer airliner helps tremendously, with each generation boasting double-digit efficiency gains. Flying direct is less impactful because it requires fewer energy-intensive takeoffs and landings. Longer (direct) flights are easier to justify since they spread the cost of takeoff and landing over more miles. Some airlines are also more energy efficient in practices such as packing cargo, taxiing, and tweaking adjustments like wing flap angle.

These factors add up on a comparison service like Google Flights. For instance, nonstop trips from San Francisco to New York City— all lasting about five and a half hours—can vary from 21% below average CO2 emissions to 27% above. (Another option, at least for business travel, is to consider meeting online instead of in person.)

The Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen program, launched in 2004, continues to refine logistics. New technologies allow air controllers to pack planes closer together on takeoff. And satellite navigation lets planes fly straighter routes than zigzagging to check in with ground-based beacons. “Flight planning [is] a huge part of the fuel consumption of the airplane,” says Jeff Overton, policy fellow at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

But there’s only so much engineers can tweak about the fundamental model of aluminum tubes propelled by burning kerosene. “When we speak about typical commercial aircraft...let’s say we are close to an efficiency limit,” says Daniel Riefer, a former Lufthansa pilot and current partner at consulting firm McKinsey.

Modern planes already incorporate a lot of lightweight materials like carbon fiber, although additional retrofits might save a bit over one percent of fuel, he says. While bigger engines can be more efficient, there isn’t much room left under the wings. And with seats already crammed in coach, ripping out first and business class is about all that remains.

PROSPECTS FOR RADICAL CHANGE

Future planes could look quite different in order to continue saving energy. NASA and Boeing are collaborating on a new design sporting extra-long, thin wings held steady by giant struts. “It’ll inform the industry decisions all the way through the 2030s in what goes into new airliners,” says Overton. Farther out are “blended wing body” designs in which the plane resembles a giant wing.

But these redesigns don’t address the fundamental ecological flaw: pumping carbon out of the ground into an ever-warming atmosphere. And technologies that replace burning carbon don’t pack nearly as much energy. The realistic solution, say experts we spoke with, is to change where we get the carbon—extracting it, not from oil wells, but from plants, garbage, even thin air.

Today’s batteries pack only about one fortieth as much energy per pound as kerosene. Combined with hyper-efficient electric motors, they can displace gasoline for small, propellerdriven craft, such as islandhopping sea planes and urban “air taxis,” says Celina Mikolajczak. The veteran Tesla engineer led battery development for Uber’s failed air taxi venture and now heads battery tech for eco-focused materials science company Lyten. With new designs and materials, Mikolajczak is working to at least double battery capacity in five to ten years, which might be powerful enough for commuter or regional trips of a couple hundred miles.

The other carbon-free option, hydrogen, is appealing in theory: It packs about three times as much energy per pound as kerosene and leaves only water vapor in its wake. But it’s daunting in practice. Even liquified at negative 432 degrees Fahrenheit—which

“Redesigns don’t address the fundamental ecological flaw: pumping carbon out of the ground into an ever-warming atmosphere. The realistic solution, say experts we spoke with, is to change where we get the carbon.”

requires a whole new (energy intensive) fuel transport and storage infrastructure—hydrogen takes up ten times more space than kerosene. Today’s planes store fuel in the wings, but bulkier hydrogen tanks would likely have to go in the fuselage, robbing passenger and cargo space.

Nearly all industrial hydrogen today comes from natural gas, in a process that releases carbon. Green production requires harnessing far more renewable electricity than currently exists to instead liberate hydrogen from water molecules.

Hydrogen’s short-term bet might be in small propeller planes—using fuel cells to drive electric motors, says Carlos López de la Osa García, aviation technical manager at advocacy group Transport & Environment. Hydrogen-burning jets require entirely new designs, but Airbus promises

jets capable of flying about 1000 miles by 2035. Daniel Riefer calls that “an aggressive timeline.”

Airbus believes that new plane designs and fuel tech can bring hydrogen to the biggest airliners and longest routes—eventually. “Will we see that by 2035? No,” says Amanda Simpson, a veteran pilot and VP of Research and Technology for Airbus. “Will we see that by 2050? Hmm... Will we see it by 2070? Yeah, probably.”

GREENING JET FUEL

Kerosene is going to continue powering most flight for the foreseeable future. Getting its benefits sustainably will require producing the fuel from carbon that’s already in the environment, rather than oil in the ground. The product, called e-kerosene or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), is actually cleaner, producing fewer of the soot particles that water vapor crystalizes around to form heat-trapping contrails. But there’s fierce debate about what to make e-kerosene out of.

Converting farmland to grow biofuel crops like corn or palm oil could exacerbate soaring food prices and shortages. And clearing carbon-dense natural lands like forests and wetlands for fuel crops could produce up to three times more pollution than making it from petroleum. The European Union has banned aviation fuel made from food crops, and the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization has said that it can’t be part of its plan to cut CO2 emissions to zero by 2050.

The U.S. and Brazil already make a lot of ethanol from corn, soy, and sugarcane. And growing fuel may be sustainable on some level, in some places. The Department of Energy’s Billion-Ton Report of 2016 predicted that the U.S. might sustainably grow enough crops to displace about 20% of its petroleum use.

But the study also inventoried other sources—such as agricultural and forestry residues (corn stalks, bark), manure, municipal garbage, waste cooking oil, and others—that could more than double that output. “Its determination was we do have the resources to make enough sustainable aviation fuel for our domestic industry,” says Overton. On the global scale, Riefer co-led a study with the World Economic Forum, estimating that biofuels might sustainably cover 120% of projected 2030 jet fuel demand.

“It is on the optimistic side,” says Sola Zheng, aviation researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation. Other experts are

also skeptical. And jets aren’t the only machines demanding sustainable fuel. It would be hard-to-impossible for batteries to power giant cargo or cruise ships. And electricity isn’t great for producing the intense heat that steel mills and cement factories need.

There are other ways to scrounge fuel, including the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide spewing from those industrial facilities—which account for about one third of carbon emissions in the U.S. “Emissions from steel plants are unavoidable emissions. These are emissions that are made because of the chemistry of producing the steel,” says Johnathan Holladay, a Ph.D. chemist and VP of government programs of LanzaTech.

The company captures waste gasses and feeds them to microbes that make ethanol, which it combines with hydrogen to produce chemicals, plastics, detergents, and jet fuel. LanzaTech is capturing carbon at steel mills in China and Belgium, a refinery in India, and a trash incinerator in Japan. It’s also building a facility in Georgia slated to start making jet fuel by the end of the year. But sustainably providing the needed hydrogen, at scale, would require oodles of green power.

If all these fuel sources fall short, aviation may have to suck CO2 straight out of the air. “This is the pathway that offers the most promise to scale up because you’re taking the carbon from the entire atmosphere,” says López de la Osa García. “At the same time, it’s also more energy intensive because the carbon is more diluted.” Carbon dioxide makes up 0.04 percent of the atmosphere. Extracting it requires massive fans blowing air through systems that use chemicals and heat to separate the CO2, then passing it to compressors—all requiring renewable energy to do sustainably.

But it’s in the works. A company called Carbon Engineering, for instance, is partnering with Occidental Petroleum to build a plant in Texas designed to capture 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, starting in 2025. And they are planning for enough facilities to grab about 100 million tons by 2035 (about 0.28% of today’s global CO2 emissions). A lot will be pumped underground, paid for by companies that want to offset their CO2 emissions. But a lot will go to jet fuel. “Where we can be most effective is in the hardest-to-abate industries that don’t have a lot of alternatives,” says Carbon Engineering’s VP of business development, Anna Stukas.”And aviation is almost the poster child.” Another one is direct air capture itself. Carbon Engineering will initially burn natural gas for much of the power it requires, although it will capture the CO2 produced.

A LONG TRIP TO SUSTAINABILITY

The true challenge to sustainable aviation isn’t scientific feasibility but commercial viability. The 100 million tons of CO2 that Carbon Engineering may capture in 2035 could produce about 32 million tons of jet fuel, or about 11% of current global demand. Still, that’s a massive jump from the 380,000 tons produced in 2022—about 0.1% of demand.

That small amount of fuel has a big price—from two to five times higher than fossil kerosene. The European Union may try to narrow the gap by imposing a tax on kerosene, and may mandate that airlines use ever-greater amounts of e-kerosene in their fuel mix. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act increased tax credits for carbon capture facilities and added a credit for sustainable aviation fuel producers.

Passengers can help, too. Norwegian Airlines allows corporate customers to pay extra to subsidize e-kerosene. This is a better investment than so-called carbon offsets—funding carbon-trapping projects like tree planting or carbon capture from factories—says Sola Zheng. “It’s trying to outsource the problem, and we do need a lot of funding to pay for [sustainable fuel].”

Even luxury air travel can play a role subsidizing sustainable aviation technologies like e-kerosene and hydrogen. “The leading private jet companies in the world...are already looking into providing customers the option to decarbonize their flight,” says Riefer. “I think private aviation could take the role as a first mover and help scale sustainable aviation fuel, in a segment where customers probably have the means to pay.”

It all adds up—at least, that’s the hope. Today’s aviation’s is based on a straightforward model of converting petroleum into a kerosene for jets and gasoline for small planes. A sustainable future could require a mosaic of green energy sources: batteries, fuel cells, and ethanol for short hops; perhaps hydrogen for medium trips; and a great deal of ekerosene for long hauls. This will require scrounging carbon from wood scraps, garbage, French fry oil, steel mills, and even thin air—combined with staggering amounts of green electricity and hydrogen to produce fuel. If all those factors come together, as quickly as possible, sustainable aviation might just work.

“A sustainable future could require a mosaic of green energy sources: batteries, fuel cells, and ethanol for short hops...And a great deal of e-kerosene for long hauls.”

Gear Up!

Worth has identified 20 essential items for your next trip, whether it be near or far.

On a recent trip to Austin, my hotel room was located on the busiest corner of the block. It was also during South by Southwest, which made an active intersection even more raucous. Luckily, the hotel had placed a white noise machine beside the bed. Its soothing whirl kept me sleeping well during the entire stay. As soon as I got home, I searched for a portable white noise machine that I could purchase for my personal travel kit.

It’s no secret that having the right gear can make all the difference when traveling—whether you’re taking a weekend road trip or a romantic vacation to a far-flung destination. Below are 20 essential products that will not only make any journey smoother, but the stylish designs and cool features will also elevate your travel game.

Briggs & Riley Baseline Carry-On Expandable Spinner

$699

If you do carry-on, look no further than the Briggs & Riley Expandable Spinner. The one-touch expansion feature gives you the option of packing that extra pair of shoes, and the built-in tri-fold garment folder lets you pack your suit without worrying that it will be a wrinkled mess when you arrive. The shock-absorbing spinner wheels and ergonomic handle grip provide smooth maneuverability when rolling through the airport, and the speed-through pocket enables access to stored items at security— thoughtfully designed with an orange lining to inform you when the pocket is open so you don’t lose any essential items.

Hook & Albert Weekender Pro

$675

Let’s face it, there are a lot of directions you can go in with a weekender, from a backpack to a full-on roller bag. The Hook & Albert Weekender Pro has a little bit of all of it. This bag “stores like a duffel and performs like a garment bag,” but we really like the way it organizes your stuff. An exterior padded laptop pocket, cord organizing straps, key holder, and shoe pockets keep everything under control, and the garment section will keep your suit (or dress) crisply packed.

Rimowa Essential Check-In L Suitcase

$1,125

Not everyone wants to carry-on, especially if you have a long flight or multiple stops. Sometimes it’s just easier to drop your bag and forget about it. Rimowa’s Check-In L is strong and lightweight and is the world’s first suitcase made of polycarbonate. Its multi-wheel system makes it a breeze to roll through the airport, and with enough room for a 10-day trip, it’s stylish enough to accompany you on, say, a trip to Paris Fashion Week.

Everlane ReNew Transit Backpack

$95

We’ve long been fans of Everlane for its ethical approach to business and commitment to sustainability, but we also love their style. So it’s no surprise that our favorite backpack is an Everlane. The ReNew Transit Backpack is functional and modern. With an exterior laptop pocket for easy TSA access plus catch-all pockets for passports, tickets, and travel documents, it’s got the traveler in mind. Interior slip pockets hold notebooks, magazines, and other necessities, and the two water bottle holders, plus a strap to attach the backpack to rolling luggage, keep things accessible while you’re navigating the globe.

Gucci Ophidia Cosmetic Case

$770

There are several things to consider when choosing a cosmetic kit that will serve you well: it has to hold all of your items at the proper angle, and it needs to be able to sit on a bathroom shelf or sink counter no matter the size of the space. Even if you stay at the Ritz Carlton, bathroom shelf space can be limited, so you need a case that works in all scenarios. The upright shape of the Gucci Ophidia case allows you to store your bottles vertically or horizontally. The sturdy construction means the case won’t fold or fall over into the sink. Bonus: it’s glamorous enough to work as a small handbag.

Wolf British Racing Triple Watch Roll

$279

Gone are the days when you must choose between your everyday watch and your dress-to-impress timepiece. The Wolf British Racing Watch Roll is a personal accessory that can go wherever you do, with space for up to 3 watches, plus a hidden jewelry capsule inside of the watch roll with three compartments for cufflinks, rings, and other small valuables. Available in the elegantly chic shade of British Racing Green, it also looks good on your nightstand.

Slip Frequent Flyer Travel Pillow and Mask Set

$150

Every time I see a fellow traveler with a neck pillow around his or her neck, I immediately feel the discomfort that happens in an airplane seat. Enter Slip’s Black Frequent Flyer Travel Set, a chic travel pillow, eye mask, and face cover designed in black silk. Slip uses long fiber mulberry silk and non-toxic dyes, and the quality is comparable to cotton pillowcases with a 220-360 thread count.

Mejuri Travel Case

$78

There is nothing worse than unpacking your jewelry only to discover that all your necklaces have become entangled. A situation that then requires you (or a patient partner) to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to pull tiny, circular pieces apart so you can wear your favorite pieces to dinner. The Mejuri travel case is the stylish, packable solution to this travel problem. File under things that will undoubtedly make your life better.

DSPTCH Dopp Kit

$62

The sheer number of Dopp kits available is utterly overwhelming. This Dopp Kit from DSPTCH has all the desired features housed in a modest but stylish design. It has two compartments, both with elastic organizers and pockets to keep your items in place, but the thing that pushes it over the top is the removable valet tray that you can set on your hotel dresser or nightstand, just like at home.

Larq Bottle PureVis

$99

We all carry bottles of water around, so why not use one that cleans itself? The LARQ PurVis water bottle eliminates up to 99% of bio-contaminants such as E.coli and keeps your liquids hot or cold for up to 12 hours. Grab water from the tap or water fountain, press on the cap, give the bottle a shake, and voila! Clean water. The bottle also intelligently turns on every 2 hours to clean the water you put inside as well as the inside of the bottle. A low-maintenance way to stay hydrated and healthy on the go.

Monos Compressible Packing Cubes

$90

If you buy one thing away from this travel gear list, it should be packing cubes. Until recently, I had no idea how much they could improve the life of a traveler. Using a set of packing cubes in your luggage is almost like having a set of dresser drawers to help organize clothes and other items that go into your suitcase. This set from Monos is made with tear-resistant nylon twill and breathable mesh top panels that let you quickly see what’s inside without even unpacking. You might even find a way to pack more than you realize with these cubes. Seriously— life-changing.

Naked Cashmere Travel Blanket Set

$450

Upgrade your time on the plane or road with this 4-piece cashmere travel set, which includes a silk travel pillowcase, eye mask, a pair of cashmere socks, and a lightweight cashmere throw. Beautifully designed by Naked Cashmere, a luxury brand that uses fair trade, cruelty-free cashmere and works directly with herders and factories in Mongolia, eliminating the middleman to keep prices down. And their products are packaged in unique biodegradable bags meant to be repurposed for storage. Feeling good and doing good at the same time.

WHAT TO WEAR

Cuyana Terry Balloon Sleeve Sweatshirt and Sculpted Jogger Pant

SWEATSHIRT: $148, PANTS: $148

It’s taken a long time to get to the point where a tracksuit or sweatsuit can pass as stylish. Cuyana has perfected the design and has some great items to mix and match. Still, we love the combination of the balloon sleeve sweatshirt and sculpted jogger for a more sophisticated look—and like the Huckberry combo above, just throw a blazer on it, and you’re ready for dinner. Cuyana is also a luxury brand we love—we agree with their motto that we should own fewer, but better things. This travel set is an excellent place to start.

Bombas Compression Socks

START AT $28

In the episode of Succession after Logan Roy passes away on an airplane, we see his executive team donning compression socks on board another flight. It’s well known that compression socks boost circulation while decreasing swelling, which is a good thing for your body while on a flight. But they also keep your legs from getting tired and achy on long sightseeing days, bike tours, or enduring a flight delay. Bombas is another brand that practices business responsibly, and for every pair of socks you purchase, they donate a pair to a person in need.

Huckberry 72-House Merino T-Shirt and Passport Travel Pants

SHIRT: $98, PANTS: $97

A long sleeve t-shirt made of Merino wool that never itches and stays fresh all day combined with pants that are both weather resistant and stylish? Best travel outfit ever. Throw on a blazer, and you’re ready for a meeting or dinner as soon as you get through customs. Huckberry is known for its cool guy aesthetic and high-quality, durable men’s clothing, and this travel set will keep you comfortable and looking good whether your travel has you on a plane, train, automobile, or on foot.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

$279

Not only is this speaker portable and waterproof, but it’s also Zoom certified and features Alexa Voice Assistant. The Beosound has Bluetooth 5.1 technology for a fast, seamless connection. It can last up to 18 hours on a single charge. With sound quality that packs a punch, this compact speaker is the traveling office workhorse and entertainment system you need on your next trip.

EPICKA Universal Travel Adapter One International Wall Charger

$22.99

Need a way to charge your two phones, two watches, iPad, and a battery pack all at once? Look no further than the EPICKA travel charger. Even the prongs are long enough to engage a French socket, which helps to keep the charger from falling out of the wall. It’s compact, offers power-adapting in over 150 countries and regions, and features 4 USB + Type-C ports. This is the only travel adapter wall charger you’ll need, even if you don’t have multiple devices.

Leica Q3 Digital Camera

$TBD

Next in line for the Q family, is Leica’s Q3 camera. The Q3 is ultraportable and has been designed to meet today’s growing demands for image performance and file-sharing capabilities. The Q3 can connect to your iPhone or iPad to quickly share images or videos. Leica is known for its incredible engineering and unique user experience. Customers will tell you that a Leica is unlike any other camera. The Q3 is designed to be easy to use and empower anyone to capture any moment in breathtaking quality.

Bose 700 Noise Canceling Headphones

$379

The headphones you use daily can vary wildly between earbuds needed to make phone calls and over the ear cans that keep your co-workers from disturbing you, but when you’re traveling, certain things are non-negotiable. You can hear your favorite music or dialogue from the movie you’re watching over the roar of the airplane, for example. Packability is also critical. And thus, the Bose 700 Noise Canceling Headphones are the ones to beat. The 700 boasts adjustable noise cancellation with situational awareness and high-fidelity audio with adjustable EQ so you can tweak the settings to your liking. Their modern design makes them comfortable and lightweight for long listening sessions.

Designing with Nature

One of the largest owners and operators of private residential club and resort communities in the United States, South Street Partners is making a name for itself by developing beautiful properties in sync with nature.

Architect and planner Mark Permar, who has lived on Kiawah Island in South Carolina since the 70s, still remembers the moment he really experienced Kiawah’s beauty. It was 1974 and he was visiting the 10,000-acre barrier island, some 25 miles south of Charleston, for the first time with his wife Diana, a market researcher on Kiawah’s incoming development team. While the developers met to work on a master plan, Permar recalls, “they gave me the keys to an old Land Rover Discovery and said, ’Drive around. If you get lost, listen for the ocean. You can drive home from there.”

Permar did get lost, so he followed the advice and pulled over on a beach road to get his bearings. When he stepped out of the car, he was overwhelmed—the ocean, the beach and dunes, the birds overhead, the island’s majestic solitude.

“I’m going to tear up,” Permar says now, almost 50 years later. “It just took my breath away.”

Kiawah has changed since then, of course: The island now has several thousand homes and top-notch amenities such as seven outstanding golf courses, including two of the top private courses in the country at the center of the Kiawah Island Club. Still, you can’t visit the island without feeling immersed in nature—the lush trees and undergrowth, the Atlantic Ocean, unspoiled beaches and rivers, wetlands and marshes, all home to some 20 species of mammals, over 250 species of migratory and resident birds, and about 40 species of reptiles, according to the Kiawah Conservancy, a preservation group founded by residents.

Kiawah’s success stems from the long-term work of many committed stakeholders. For the past decade, much of it comes from the stewardship of a small private equity real estate investment firm called South Street Partners, which bought a sizeable part of the island in 2013. South Street is a low-key group that isn’t well-known in all circles yet. The places in which it’s invested, however, are very well-known: In South Carolina, Kiawah Island and Palmetto Bluff, on the coast between Charleston and Savannah, GA.; in North and South Carolina, The Cliffs, a collection of seven luxury private golf communities; in Middleburg, Va., Residences at Salamander, a community adjacent to the five-star resort; in northern Georgia, Barnsley Resort & Spa, a 3,000-acre retreat. These, and other South Street properties, are special places, and South Street is making them even more so.

Headquartered in Charleston, SC and Charlotte, NC, South Street was founded in 2009 by two long-time friends, Jordan Phillips, and Patrick Melton. A few years later two more friends, Chris Randolph and Will Culp joined them and the rest has been history. “We were all young at the time,” remembers Chris Randolph, a partner at South Street who joined shortly after it was launched. “But our strategy was that if we did good deals, we were going to attract capital.”

The plan was to focus on the Southeast. The region was growing, and there was opportunity. On the East Coast, private equity real estate investment typically extended from Boston to Washington and then picked up again in Atlanta. South Street thought it could fill the gaps. Plus, it was the

time of the Great Recession, which meant opportunities in distressed investment—properties where borrowers were struggling to repay loans and lenders were anxious to sell.

It wasn’t easy for South Street to cut through the noise of the financial crisis, but a break came in 2011, when the firm partnered with massive real estate investor Starwood Capital Group to buy hundreds of unsold units in North Beach Towers, a one million square foot condominium complex in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Then, about two years later, Kiawah quietly came on the market.

Privately owned since the colonial era, Kiawah had since 1950 been the property of a lumber magnate and real estate developer named Charles Clance Royal, who bought the island for $125,000. Royal used the island as a private resort; in 1974, a decade after he died, his heirs sold Kiawah for $17 million to the Kuwait Investment Group, a state-affiliated fund. The sale was controversial; many locals disapproved of Arabs buying an American treasure—U.S. relations with the Arab world were tense—and concerned about the environmental impact of development. The Kuwaitis treaded lightly on both counts, building homes, an inn and two golf courses, while conducting an extensive environmental survey that led to the protection of, among other things, the undisturbed hatching of loggerhead turtle eggs. “Three years after the inaugural of seaside life at this isolated stretch of white, sandy beach,” reported the Washington Post in 1979, “a success story is being written.”

In 1988 the Kuwaitis sold their holdings to Kiawah Resort Associates, an investor group, for $105 million. Three years later, the now legendary Ocean Course hosted the Ryder Cup golf tournament, and when the American team won on the last shot of the last hole, the course—and Kiawah—garnered global attention. The Kiawah Island Club, whose venerable Beach Club was designed by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern, opened in 1993. Kiawah was growing, but always guided by a commitment to preservation.

In late 2012, Patrick Melton heard a rumor that Kiawah Resort Associates was ready to sell. Again, the South Street team went into all-hands-on-deck mode. In just a couple of months, South Street had a deal. For a reported $350 million, the firm bought, among other things, developer Kiawah Partners, the Kiawah Island Club, which included two of the island’s private golf courses, and 500+ undeveloped lots.

South Street both inherited and amplified the island’s tradition of environmental stewardship; they call it “designing with nature.” The partners knew that Kiawah residents were intensely protective of the island. And they were inspired by the fact that the previous owners had chosen to build the Ocean Course on land that could easily have been sites for 50+ homes. But the iconic golf course, which had hosted the PGA Championship in 2012 and would again in 2021, had a halo effect that was proving far more valuable than the potential revenue from the sale of land plots. In 1979, you could buy a three-bedroom oceanfront townhouse on Kiawah for about $225,000. Today, a similar home costs

around $5 million. What was once considered a golf community is now a vibrant, thoughtfully modernized, highly coveted residential destination that has seen a huge increase in young members buying on the island.

South Street embraced the idea that conservation and amenities enhance value. In Ocean Park, for example, a Kiawah neighborhood with entitlements to develop 360 new properties, South Street committed to selling just 220 plots. Instead, they facilitated the creation of new parkland which is the first new island park developed since the late 1980s. “They are carrying the torch,” says Mark Permar.

And not just at Kiawah. South Street has exported the philosophy of designing with nature to subsequent properties, such as Palmetto Bluff and The Cliffs communities. Their first question, says Mark Permar, is, ‘How can we best understand the site in a way that we have as light a touch as possible?’”

Today, the firm is thinking about expanding west, to states like Colorado, Montana and Utah. Resorts there “would be very complimentary,” Randolph says. And in January 2023, South Street invested in Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch, a beloved Napa Valley restaurant on whose adjoining land lies the possibility of building a small hotel. “Napa might be the tightest hotel market in the country,” Randolph says. “There’s a ton of value there.”

The value, Mark Permar says, stems from designing with nature. He knows that not all developers feel the same, and he’s grateful. “It could have gone very differently,” he says.

RISING CITIES

These seven cities are innovating across industries. Learn what makes them attractive to residents and entrepreneurs, and why they’re poised for continued growth.

Boston

This is a story about Boston that begins in New York at a place called Peak, a restaurant and meeting space 101 stories above the ground in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards development. It was February, an d Meet Boston, the city’s destination and marketing agency, was hosting an event to kick off its new marketing campaign, “Boston Never Gets Old.” Not by chance, the room was filled with a strikingly young and racially diverse crowd. While Boston chefs cooked food for the guests, three Bostonarea artists were busy painting. A jazz group featuring students from Boston’s Berklee College of Music exited the stage before Martha Sheridan, the president and CEO of Meet Boston, addressed the crowd.

“This is our chance to tell you a different story than the one you might think you know about Boston,” Sheridan said. “There was a narrative about Boston that we’re all familiar with.”

Sheridan mentioned “Your Cousin from Boston,” the ad campaign by beermaker Sam Adams showcasing the moronic escapades of a drunk white guy with a thick Boston accent. “No disparagement to Sam Adams,” Sheridan said, “but that’s not really what Boston’s like anymore.”

The narrative that Sheridan was referring to is simple and painful: Boston is a racist city. It’s a reputation—and a reality—that has plagued Boston for decades. Ask people around the country and they’ll tell you: Boston is one of America’s most racist cities, a place where Black residents are marginalized, and Black visitors feel unwelcome. A place that loves to talk about its history as a birthplace of the American

Revolution, that glorious the fight for freedom—but doesn’t live up to those ideals.

There’s a complicated interplay between perception and reality when it comes to Boston and race. Still, a lot has happened in Boston to create that perception: the anti-bussing riots of the 1970s, or the 1989 murder case in which a white man named Charles Stuart shot and killed his pregnant wife before blaming a mysterious Black assailant for the crime. Only after police arrested a young Black man did Stuart’s story start to crumble.

Racism in Boston was systemic. In 2015, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston released a study called “The Color of Wealth in Boston.” The Fed found that the median net worth of white families in Boston was $247,500. What is the average net worth of Black families? Eight dollars. That isn’t a typo.

“The Fed study,” says local developer Richard Taylor, who is black, “was shocking. And people had to deal with it.”

Then, in 2017, the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team ran a landmark seven-part series on race in Boston. The Globe examined questions of race in neighborhoods, politics, medical care, colleges, athletics, and business. Its conclusion: While Boston was more diverse and equitable than it was given credit for, “we have deluded ourselves into believing that we have made more progress than we have.” Concluded the Globe, “Boston’s complacency with the status quo hobbles the city’s future.”

But give Boston credit: Those analyses, as well as the questions of racial justice prompted by the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer

of 2020, have sparked meaningful change in the city. By addressing economic inequity, reevaluating its history, and promoting more inclusive tourism, Boston is trying to improve.

It’s hard to say exactly when that change really began to gather momentum. Perhaps it was in June 2020 when Boston mayor Marty Walsh issued an executive order declaring racism a public health crisis. A major boost came in November 2022 when City Council member Michelle Wu was elected mayor. Wu, the first woman and the first person of color to be Boston’s mayor, came to office determined to address questions of social and economic justice.

But the truth is, change in Boston has become so widespread and is happening so quickly you are starting to see it everywhere.

In City Hall, Boston government looks different. Consider the example of Segun Idowu, a former activist who successfully pushed for Boston police officers to start wearing body cameras in 2019. Wu appointed Idowu the city’s chief of economic development, and one of his first acts was to rename the job, calling it “Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion.” For Black people in Boston, Idowu says, the words matter. “When you use the term ‘economic development,’ on the neighborhood level, people have a very visceral reaction. They think about million-dollar condos being built down the street from [them], but [their] neighbor is about to [have to] move because they can’t afford to live in Boston anymore.”

Now, Idowu says, “We’re going to make sure that Boston is a resilient city that builds generational wealth. And the only way we’re going to do that is by reprioritizing and refocusing on the people who historically never got a slice of the pie.” In 2022, Boston awarded $100 million in contracts to minority-owned businesses—triple the largest amount it had ever done previously.

Not far away, in Boston’s Old South Meeting House, historian Nat Sheidley is trying to enlarge visitors’ understanding of American colonial history so that we don’t only know the oft-told stories of Sam Adams and John Hancock. Sheidley, a professional historian, is the president and CEO of Revolutionary Spaces, a nonprofit that owns the Old South Meeting House—the home of pre-revolutionary protest meetings—and manages the nearby Old State House, the colonial-era seat of government. Both are iconic sites on Boston’s Freedom Trail, connecting historic attractions and shaping how hundreds of thousands of visitors understand American history annually.

“We all have this mythic narrative of what the Revolution was, and it’s hard for people to understand that it was so much more complex and there were so many participants,” Sheidley explains. “If we only achieve one thing when we send visitors out the doors of these buildings, it’s to be prepared when somebody says, “The founders thought…’ to respond with the question, ‘Which founders?’”

Down the street from the Old South Meeting House, visitors to Boston will see something new on the famed Boston Common: The Embrace, an abstract sculpture representing the love and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Formally dedicated in January,

The Embrace sparked controversy over its aesthetics. But long after that controversy fades, the larger point will remain: The Common, established in 1634 and the country’s oldest public park, had been profoundly enlarged.

Visitors to Boston may also find themselves strolling through neighborhoods that they might never have before, thanks to MeetBoston’s new emphasis on what it calls “inclusive tourism.” One example: Is a “Guide to Black Boston,” which sends an important message not just to visitors to Boston but to its locals.

This new emphasis doesn’t come at anyone’s expense, Sheridan emphasizes. “Boston is a diverse city, and we can’t dismiss any piece of that. We don’t want to offend the Irish white guy who loves the Red Sox and the Celtics.” But Meet Boston’s new campaign “is eye-opening to people. It shows them a side of Boston that maybe they haven’t thought of before.”

Another point on this updated freedom trail is the new Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport, which was financed in part by Black investors after the Massachusetts agency which owned the land required developers to include minority participation at every level of the project. Since the Seaport, a two-decade-old neighborhood, was developed with no consideration of racial equity, the Omni project marked a new effort to begin addressing the de facto segregation there. “A lot of people have come to this hotel just for what it represents,” Richard Taylor, one of those investors, told me recently. “People say, ‘Give me the name of that hotel again.’ It breaks me down emotionally.” And it has led to more such efforts to include people of color in these wealth-generating projects. “It’s transformative,” Taylor said. What’s happening in Boston is late, and it will surely be imperfect. But it’s a new chapter in the history of a venerable city, and a good one.

Charleston

The International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., is an unassuming structure, “a very quiet building,” according to its first proponent, former Charleston mayor Joe Riley. It lacks the dramatic visage of the National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C. It doesn’t hit you with the horrific power of 800 hanging, coffin-like steel monuments at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice—also known as the Lynching Memorial—in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead, it sneaks up on you.

The journey on which the IAAM takes visitors begins outdoors. Overlooking Charleston Harbor, its long, slender form rests on 18 13-foot-tall pillars. The land underneath the building is a sacred space: About 250 years ago, it was the site of an 840-foot pier known as Gadsden’s Wharf, named after a local merchant and slaveholder. Until the new country’s prohibition on the slave trade commenced in 1808, Gadsden’s Wharf was the unloading site for hundreds of slave ships. Figures vary, but 40 percent of all enslaved Africans in the American colonies landed in Charleston, and an estimated 45,000 Africans were transported to this wharf in just the five years before 1808.

Quietly, the museum reminds you of that tragedy. It begins with a series of “Kneeling Statues,” childlike figures representing Africans who died in the slave trade. Closer to the waterline is a “Tide Tribute,” a relief embedded in the ground representing human beings shackled in the interior of

slave ships. When the tide comes in, the water covers many of the figures. Not far away, visitors can process their emotions in an African Ancestors Memorial Garden, representing “hush harbors,” secret gardens where slaves would gather to share stories or practice their faith. The impact is powerful and heartbreaking.

Inside, the journey continues as the museum’s east side, pointing towards Africa, tells the story of how Africans were brought to American shores and what happened to them once they arrived. The west side explores the journeys of their descendants over the next centuries—not just their survival, but ultimately their success. A genealogy center will allow any visitor to research their ancestry. And on the top floor, in what is perhaps an unintentional metaphor for an ascent that has taken—is taking—centuries, is the office of Dr. Tonya Matthews, the museum’s president and CEO.

In the twenty years of planning for this museum, Matthews tells me, “The big question early on was, do you focus on a specific phenomenon, like slavery? Or do you do something more encyclopedic,” spanning the African American experience beyond slavery to the present day.

To understand the experiences of enslaved Africans, Matthews says, “you’ve got to go back,” to their lives before slavery, “But you also have to go forward. Which means that we’re going to use [slavery] to tell a much broader story.”

Over the past two decades, as American society struggles with questions of racial justice, dozens of outstanding institutions devoted to re-examining Black history have been founded in the United States, ranging from the museums and memorials in Washington and Alabama to places like the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville or the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville.

But the IAAM, scheduled to open on June 19—Juneteenth—of this year, carries a particular burden of expectation. Because if Gadsden’s Wharf was a point of disembarkation for African slaves in Charleston, then Charleston, it could be argued, was ground zero for American slavery. Not only were the numbers of Africans brought here—an estimated 200,000—staggering, but tens of thousands of the enslaved were kept in the state to work and die in the South Carolina Lowcountry’s lucrative rice fields. Their labor and agricultural expertise created much of the wealth on which modern-day Charleston is built.

The Civil War started at Fort Sumter in Charleston, and South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. Even now, the shadow of race hangs heavy over this city. Forty years ago, Charleston’s famed Peninsula— the area most tourists think of when they think of Charleston—was about two-thirds Black, one-third White. Thanks to gentrification and the rising cost of housing, that ratio is reversed.

Eight years ago, a young white man joined a Bible study class at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, a Black church founded in 1816, then shot nine parishioners to death. The shooting sparked a heartfelt effort on the part of many in the city to

address racism and its ongoing legacy there. One way was to talk about it.

“This museum started as a dream,” says Helen Hill, CEO of Explore Charleston, the city’s destination marketing organization. “How can we tell this very important story in a place where it needs to be told?”

Joe Riley, who led Charleston as mayor for an astonishing 40 years, first had the idea for the museum after reading Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball, a 1998 book that detailed Ball’s exploration of his slaveholding ancestors. Riley, mayor since 1975—he is now 80—grew up in Charleston and attended segregated schools all the way through college. In 1968, as a young state representative, he introduced legislation to establish a holiday in honor of Martin Luther King. (It failed.) Later, as mayor, he organized marches to protest the raising of the Confed-

erate flag over the South Carolina statehouse. Still, he later said, after reading Slaves in the Family, “I, for the first time, was really confronted with the enormous role that Charleston played in enslaved Africans coming to our country.”

Riley introduced the idea of a museum in a state-of-the-city speech in 2000, and a plan was adopted to raise $75 million from city, state, and donor funds to pay for a new museum. It has been a long journey. The budget would swell to over $100 million. The opening was repeatedly delayed ensuring that the building was ready. “There were a lot of nonbelievers,” says Keith Waring, a Black member of the city council who is on the museum board. “In both communities.” Two decades later, the dream is about to open its doors.

For Hill, the city represents a tangible extension of the museum’s emphasis on African

American culture and accomplishment. Visitors to IAAM learn, for example, about the enslaved Africans who created the ironwork that adorns buildings throughout the city— and then “they can go out into the community and see it there,” Hill says. The IAAM explores the Lowcountry rice culture, and visitors can see the legacy of that culture at the nearby Middleton Place plantation. “We’ll tell that story,” Hill says. “That’s where the victory is—that despite the horrors, these [achievements] have survived. The legacy is there.”

“There’s a certain pride when you walk around Charleston,” says Keith Waring, “all these examples of architecture built by slaves. They had no electric drills, no hydraulics, no cranes. And some of these structures have endured some of the worst hurricanes that ever hit the East Coast and still stand. It took a strong people to do that.”

WAYMO IS ROAD TESTING THE DRIVERLESS FUTURE IN PHOENIX, AZ.

During my second ride in one of Waymo’s autonomousdriving cars, there is a moment where I catch my breath and tense up.  Waymo’s driverless car turns left at an intersection on a twoway, four-lane street in downtown Phoenix. The steering wheel starts rotating by itself. As the car accelerates into the intersection, I hear the whir of the Jaguar I-Pace electric SUV that Waymo has modified with autonomous technology. At the same time, I see a pick-up truck coming from the opposite direction bearing down on us, aiming at the passenger door next to me. That is when a pedestrian steps off the curb and starts walking across the street we must turn into to avoid being pancaked by the oncoming truck.

It all takes maybe a second or so, yet in that time, I can’t help but wonder: Are we going to kill this woman? The Waymo, however, handles it perfectly.

The car pauses to let the woman cross the street, then accelerates quickly but smoothly through the intersection.

In 2016, Google renamed itself Alphabet and spun off the newly named Waymo—an acronym for “way forward in mobility”— as an independent subsidiary, ultimately funded by some five billion dollars in private investment. That same year, with the fervent support of Republican governor Doug Ducey, Waymo came to Phoenix.

Because of Ducey’s desire to attract Silicon Valley investment, jobs, and technology, Arizona was an early state to legalize ride sharing. Ducey wanted Waymo to make Phoenix its safe haven. “Over the past two years,” the New York Times reported in November, 2017, “Arizona has deliberately cultivated a rules-free environment for driverless cars, unlike dozens of other states that have enacted autonomous vehicle regulations over safety, taxes, and insurance. …The payoff for Arizona has been a tech boom.”

“When I see a Waymo gliding down the street, turning its own wheel, I think, ‘The future is Phoenix,’” Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego says now. To

stay economically competitive with other cities and states, “deploying new technology is something we must do, and we pride ourselves on that. The technology of tomorrow is tested in Phoenix today.”

It’s now been about five years since Waymo has let members of the public ride in its cars, and the results are remarkable. Waymo has racked up over 1,000,000 miles of driving on public roads without a single “vulnerable road user contact,” says Waymo’s Amanda Ventura. (“Vulnerable road user contact” is Waymo-speak for hitting a pedestrian, a cyclist, a motorcyclist, a dog, a deer—anything living, basically.) The technology is also being deployed with Waymo One in San Francisco, and on trucks traveling between Phoenix and Tucson, as well as between Houston and Dallas, Texas. (Highways pose fewer challenges for Waymo technology than city-driving, Ventura tells me—there are fewer scenarios for the technology to anticipate.)

Autonomous cars will change the world in ways we can’t anticipate. And that future will unfold in Phoenix, first.

Providence

With his slender frame and boyish haircut, Brett Smiley looks young to be the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. Still, the Illinois native has packed a lot of politics into the two decades since he graduated from DePaul University in Chicago. He ran a congressional campaign in Chicago, then moved to Rhode Island in 2006 to help run a gubernatorial campaign, helped elect and worked for Providence mayor Jorge Elorza in 2004, and served as then-governor Gina Raimundo’s chief of staff before running for mayor in 2022. Running a campaign short on lofty rhetoric and focused on constituent service, Smiley, who is married to real estate developer Jim DeRentis, won a threeway primary in September 2022 and, in this heavily Democratic city, won election unopposed in November. Smiley inherited a city with tre-

mendous assets—culture, heritage, diversity, and location—but also longterm challenges in public education and economic development. “I think Providence can be a world-class city, the envy of other cities around the country,” the new mayor announced after his election. We spoke with Smiley about how Providence can recover from COVID-19 to become that city.

What was the impact of COVID on the city?

We had a downtown that, like all downtowns, had far fewer workers going into the office. Our convention business had stopped. And the effect on our young people in terms of actual learning loss and the loss of socialization because of two years of remote or disjointed learning—that was really on the surface.

You have spoken of making Providence a “world-class city” and “ the best-run city in the country.” How do you get there?

When people who’ve never been here before come to Providence, many say, “Wow, this place is amazing, I had no idea.” I hear the phrase “a hidden gem” a lot. My goal is to make Providence no longer a hidden gem but a gem that everyone knows about. I look at our assets—historic architecture, world-class institutions—Brown, the Rhode Island School of Design—some of the best restaurants in the Northeast, if not the country. And then this strategic location between Boston and New York—you couldn’t have picked a better place. So what I mean by being world-class is being world known or nationally known as a destination or to live.

Let’s talk about economic development. Where are the opportunities for Providence?

Our secret sauce remains our vibrant cultural scene. The arts and culture create real economic opportunities for us. And we have real opportunities in the blue economy. There are over 20 wind energy businesses in Providence, and the south coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is going to be the source of construction, fabrication, and installation of all the wind farms from Rhode Island to the Gulf of Maine. We can and should be a talent hub for the higherskill white collars jobs that spin off from this industry.

One personal question—you happen to be the first mayor of Providence in 50 years who’s married. You are also the first gay and married mayor of Providence. How does that inform your leadership?

This is a hard job. The idea of going home alone and not having someone to kind of decompress with is hard. So, I’m very grateful to have a supportive husband who loves this city as much as I do. And though I am very focused on the nuts and bolts of this job, it’s not lost on me that a subtle act of activism happens every time the mayor introduces someone to his husband.

Richmond

Back in April, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin was delighted to appear on FOX News to talk about the big news in his state: LEGO, the beloved Danish toymaker, had just broken ground on a $1 billion factory in Chesterfield County near the state capital of Richmond. The arrival of the LEGO Group was a huge win for Richmond and Virginia. The factory will create about 1,760 jobs, and LEGO’s its decision to build near Richmond sends a message to other companies thinking about site location. While many consumers enjoy the creativity of LEGO’s building blocks, businesspeople admire LEGO for its technological sophistication. Each LEGO brick, for example, is precisely manufactured to within 1/10 of a hair’s width of its designated measurements. When a sophisticated and successful company—LEGO had global revenues of over $9 billion in 2022—chooses a small city as its manufacturing hub, other companies take note.

So Youngkin was happy to boast a little. LEGO’s arrival “is a big deal,” he told Fox’s Neal Cavuto. “LEGO had its choice of states… They chose to come to Virginia because, I believe, Virginia is the best place to locate a factory and to chart a future.”

But the full story is more complicated than Youngkin suggested. LEGO chose Richmond partly because economic development officials there committed to supporting its goals around environmental, social, and governance issues, issues which Youngkin has publicly opposed. The LEGO story shows the tension between politi-

cal culture wars and the need for economic development—and how Richmond-area development leaders navigated that tension.

Within the corporate world, it’s hard to find a company that doesn’t tout its commitment to ESG principles. Many companies “are using a community’s strength in ESG factors…in how they are scoring communities against one another,” wrote Jennifer Wakefield, president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Partnership, the regional economic development authority, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “We feel Richmond has a significant advantage here.”

A consulting firm called Wadley Donovan Guttshaw brought the LEGO project to the Greater Richmond Partnership (GRP) in late October 2021. Richmond had attracted the attention of “a very large, capital-intensive manufacturing project that was interested in Virginia because of the Virginia Clean Energy Act,” says Wakefield. That legislation, signed by Democratic governor Ralph Northam in 2020, mandates that Virginia’s two power companies, Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Electric Power, produce 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Any utility that didn’t meet the new standards would have to pay into a fund used to train members of historically disadvantaged communities for jobs in the clean energy sector.

Wadley Donovan Guttshaw sent a detailed questionnaire requesting information about different properties that might fit their client’s needs. One was that they wanted their new factory to be carbon-

neutral and would need help from a utility to achieve that goal. By January 2022, the still anonymous firm had narrowed its Virginia options to one site: Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County. Already home to, among other companies, an Amazon fulfillment center and a Capital One data center, Meadowville offered easy access to highways, railroads, and the Richmond Marine Terminal. In March, GRP was informed that the company was LEGO.

It didn’t take the development officials long to realize just how much ESG principles mattered to LEGO. The company does, after all, make toys primarily for children and has an interest in both growing its customer base and protecting a planet on which its customers can live. Back LEGO has invested over $500 million in wind farms to power its factories. In 2015 it launched a Sustainable Materials Center to find ways to eliminate single-use plastic in its products. And LEGO promotes an ethos of diversity and inclusion.

One example: It sells a LEGO “Every-

one is Awesome” set—the name is an homage to 2014’s The LEGO Movie— of Lego minifigures of all different colors against a rainbow-colored background.

In the spring and early summer of 2022, the GRP team worked to address LEGO’s needs. Dominion Energy could help the company build an on-site solar plant that would match its total energy requirement. A partnership with the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a state program that connects companies with community colleges in Virginia for workforce development, helped address LEGO’s personnel needs. Richmond, Wakefield pointed out, was also an excellent place to recruit a diverse workforce; it has a non-white population of about 40% and is home to two historically Black colleges.

About 18 months before, Wakefield had helped land a $460 million investment from CoStar, a real estate data research firm. CoStar had made no bones about its commitment to ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion. Wakefield, who suspected that the firm was

also considering North Carolina for its planned research and technology center, pointed out that North Carolina had passed a hugely divisive bill that restricted the public bathrooms trans people could use. It worked.

“Richmond is central to our DE&I efforts, which are a cornerstone of our operations and our CoStar Group’s ESG commitments,” a company spokesperson told Worth.”

But Virginia’s politics were changing. In 2021, Glenn Youngkin, a co-CEO of private equity firm Carlyle Group, won the governorship focusing his campaign on education—specifically, by attacking the teaching of critical race theory in public schools and expressing skepticism about the ways schools supported transgender students. After the campaign, he urged a repeal of the Clean Economy Act, saying that the law’s timelines were impossible to achieve.

Youngkin has always been probusiness, but in the past he as also strongly supported ESG policies. As late as December 2020, Youngkin

helped host Carlyle Group’s annual “Sustainability Workshop.” A company report on the event noted that Youngkin “kicked off the day by highlighting the rising importance of ESG themes such as climate change and diversity and inclusion…” Companies that “perform well on ESG issues material to their businesses financially outperform companies that don’t prioritize these issues,” the firm said. It was reasonable to think that the new governor, whatever his campaign rhetoric, was, overall, an ally.

In June 2022, LEGO went public with its decision to build in Meadowville. The new, solar-powered, carbon-neutral facility would help LEGO adapt to changing supply chain conditions and reduce shipping costs. In a subsequent statement, LEGO emphasized that it was “committed to providing safe, diverse, and inclusive workplaces where everyone feels welcome.” They would include “well-being areas,” parents’ facilities, and “multi-faith rooms.” The company would offer 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers and eight weeks for secondary caregivers—regardless of who the parents were. The average salary, LEGO said, would be about $60,000 a year.

Online, the company posted a statement addressing its tension with Youngkin. Despite the governor’s opposition to climate change measures, LEGO said, the company was confident it could “advance our ambitious sustainability agenda.” And while Youngkin was trying to ban critical race theory, LEGO said, “We stand against racism and inequality.”

A few weeks later, Glenn Youngkin joined LEGO for its groundbreaking ceremony. “Everything is awesome in the Commonwealth” of Virginia, he proclaimed. Standing next to LEGO officials, he lifted a shovel and posed for a picture.

Travel Savannah

It’s early spring, and an industrial revolution is taking place on about 3,000 acres of land in Bryan County, Georgia, just a few miles down the road from historic Savannah. What was once a green hegemony of Georgia pines now resembles a scene from a Mad Max movie, a post-apocalyptic mayhem of rubber, steel, dirt, and dust. In just a few short months, most of the site has been bulldozed; the rest won’t hold out long. Near the back of the site, furthest from the highway, workers have dug a retention pond that hits 45 feet deep and covers a massive 200-acre rectangle. Earthmovers race back and forth, picking up soil from one area and dumping it in another, trip after trip, hour after hour, their drivers racking up overtime. From a distance, a cluster of excavators looks practically primal, like a row of dinosaurs hunting. The sheer size of the thing is hard to process. Standing on one side of the perimeter, you can’t see its opposite. There’s only a brownflecked horizon.

By early 2025 or possibly sooner— remarkably fast for a project of this magnitude—this land will be home to an electric vehicle plant built by Hyundai Motor Company, the South Korean automaker best known for its ultra-reliable (and increasingly stylish) cars. There will also be an electric battery factory here, along with several other auto part suppliers. Though initially expected to manufacture some 300,000 vehicles annually, the plant will have the capacity to produce 500,000. Most of them will be Hyundais, and a substantial number will come from Genesis, which is Hyundai’s luxury division. Some will be Kias, of which Hyundai owns a portion. All of these fully electric vehicles will be sold in North America.

Welcome to the race for the future, a competition for market dominance in an arena where no legacy automaker dominates—Tesla now sells the most electric vehicles in the country—and consumers seem to feel little brand loyalty when leaving their gas engines behind. This plant represents a critical advance in that all-important competition for Hyundai, which sold 6.6 million vehicles in 2022 and is the world’s third-largest automaker.

Despite China’s growth, “the U.S. market is still the largest car market in the world,” says Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Every [auto] company is moving toward electrification, and they need to be located near their largest consumer market. To be manufactured in the U.S. and then sell into the U.S., you’re just cutting out the cost of moving those vehicles.” The Biden administration wants electric vehicles to make up half of U.S. car and truck sales by 2030, and is supporting the industry with consumer tax breaks— so long as the electric car consumers buy is mostly made in America.

The United States is huge for Hyundai. But for the four Georgia counties which partnered to buy and prepare the land for industrial use— Chatham, which includes Savannah, and the less-populated Bryan, Bullock, and Effingham counties—well, this plant might change everything. Hyundai is investing a $6 billion in the plant and estimates that it will create 8,100 jobs paying about $56,000 a year on average.

Hyundai suppliers will bring in several billion more investment dollars and thousands more jobs. “For the residents in Savannah and the region, the realization is just settling in of how big a deal this is,” says An-

gela Hendrix, senior vice president of marketing at the Savannah Economic Development Authority. “This is a transformative project.”

Many Americans think of Savannah as a small, charming, Southern city, a wonderful place to visit, and that’s all true. But beyond Savannah’s famous squares, there is more industry than most visitors realize: farm equipment manufacturer JCB, private aviation firm Gulfstream, and the Port of Savannah, the thirdlargest port in the country in terms of container volume. Hyundai’s arrival will boost Savannah to another level, redefining the city’s identity and expanding the realm of its ambitions. “It’s like winning ten Super Bowls,” says Trip Tollison, the president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA).

But it couldn’t have happened if all four of the counties hadn’t partnered with each other. That partnership began with Bryan County, the location of what everyone involved calls the “megasite.” Back in 2014, Volvo strongly considered putting a $500 million plant on then privately owned 2,000 acres but ultimately chose Berklee County in South Carolina.

“We learned that in order to really be competitive on a project like that, we needed to own and control the property, and we did not,” says Anna Chafin, CEO of the Development Authority of Bryan County. But Bryan County couldn’t afford to buy the megasite on its own, so Chafin forged a partnership with the economic development offices of the three neighboring counties—a “joint development authority.” The idea made more sense than to have neighboring counties compete against each other, Tollison says. “Economic development is a regional activity. Employers don’t care about county lines. They care that the workforce is good and shows up on time.”

With the strong (and financial) support of Georgia governor Brian Kemp and state economic officials,

in 2021, the JDA purchased the site. (Another 1,000 acres were added later. They prepped it for water, sewer, and power. They also conducted the required environmental assessments. These are things that, if not done beforehand, could slow a buyer down for years. On January 6, 2022, Hyundai came calling; the JDA received an RFI (request for information) for a large industrial site.

The JDA didn’t know who the potential manufacturer was; the request came from the consulting firm KPMG. In short order, on January 22nd, KPMG brought its still anonymous clients to tour the site. When JDA officials showed up at a private airport to greet them, they spotted a telling detail: One of the visitors was toting a backpack with a Hyundai logo. “I sort of gathered everybody together and said, ‘Look at the backpack…’,” says Tollison.

It belonged to a man named José Muñoz, who is originally from Spain but is now president and CEO of

Hyundai and Genesis Motor North America. Muñoz, who’d heard rumors that other companies were already hovering over the site, wanted the JDA to know that he represented a heavyweight—a global firm with enormous financial resources. “So I decided to show the logo on my backpack ‘by accident,’” Muñoz says now, laughing.

Already fast, the process only sped up. “All the questions about the site that you would consider the appropriate ones, [the JDA] had this all done. It was like a turnkey project.” The site had other advantages, Muñoz says. It enjoyed a good climate, generally hurricane-free and relatively unaffected by global warming. It was close to the Port, highways, and railroads. Thanks in part to workforce training programs developed by Gulfstream, Savannah had a supply of trained labor, even if Hyundai might have found cheaper labor in other states.

“We as a company are not interested in cheap labor,” Muñoz says. “We are interested in qualified labor.”

The nearby presence of Georgia TechSavannah also helped, and so did the appeal of Savannah; Muñoz points out that none of the company executives he’s asked to move there have said no. And, as is standard procedure for such deals, the state offered Hyundai about $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives.

“We got a good incentive package,” Muñoz admits. “We could have gotten a bigger incentive package somewhere else.” What mattered more, he says, when you’re building a plant meant to operate for decades is the people you’re partnering with. “This almost like a marriage,” he explains. “You know there are going to be issues, and you have to deal with them, so you have to trust all the parties.” The JDA representatives and the state officials worked so closely together, Muñoz said, he sometimes couldn’t tell which was which. “This gave us a lot of confidence.”

At 10:00 P.M. on April 25th, Chafin and Tollison were working in the SEDA offices when they got an email—a signed letter of intent from Hyundai. They and their colleagues went to the roof of the building and shook up a bottle of champagne. The next morning, they went back to work. Construction began in October. Cars are expected to roll off the production lines in Q1 2025.

The arrival of a global manufacturer and billions of dollars in a small Southern city brings change, of course, more change than anyone in the region can predict. Economic growth, globalization, a reshaped image, the cultural impact of several hundred Korean executives expected to relocate to the area… Savannah hasn’t exactly been sleepy for 20 or 30 years now, but it’s about to get hypercaffeinated. Says Tollison, “The stakes are so high in the electric vehicle industry and the fact that Hyundai, one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, decided to put their facility here… There are going to be a lot of eyes on this city.”

Sioux Falls

IN SOUTH DAKOTA’S BIGGEST CITY, A SMALL BIOTECH COMPANY THINKS THAT COWS CAN HELP CURE HUMAN DISEASE.

I’m standing in a barn in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, watching several dozen dairy cows chomp on hay. Outside, on this gusty April day, the flat farmland of southeastern South Dakota seems to roll on forever. The cows, big-eyed and content, occasionally pause from their feeding to sniff and snort in the general direction of their human visitors. They look cute. They also look exactly the same, which is because they are. These cows are genetically identical clones. Their spots differ a little because the size and placement of spots on a cow are not genetically determined. Their size and weight vary slightly. Their personalities have some quirks. But otherwise…yup. They’re the same.

Scientists at SAB Biotherapeutics, a small biotech company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, created these cows, which is a fascinating story on its own. Two scientists at U-Mass Amherst, Jim Roble and Steven Stice, first cloned cows (they named their creations George and Charlie) in 1998. Roble would become one of the intellectual drivers of SAB. Equally fascinating is what SAB is doing with the animals: Thanks to some groundbreaking genetic engineering, these transchromosomic (Google it) cows carry human immune cells. Their cow immune system is turned off; their human immune system is up and running. This means that, when vaccinated against human diseases such as COVID-19, influenza, and plague, these cows produce antibodies that can then be used to help humans fight those diseases. That’s the

theory, and there’s growing proof to support it. In mid-April, the company received both breakthrough and fast-track approval from the FDA for its influenza therapy. These two designations show that the FDA thinks the treatment is safe and effective enough to study as fast as possible.

Back in the SAB conference room, Eddie Sullivan, one of SAB’s cofounders and now its president and CEO, is happy to explain why SAB cows are so special. An instantly likable man with a quick and contagious laugh, Sullivan has surely given similar pitches hundreds of times to potential investors and other audiences since SAB was founded about two decades ago. It doesn’t seem to matter; his enthusiasm feels wholly genuine.

SAB cows, Sullivan explains, are raised with tender loving care; they’re well-fed, well-housed, and get better

medical care than most Americans.

(“If you come back as an animal in your next life,” says Joni Ekstrum, executive director of trade group South Dakota Biotech, “you want to be an SAB cow.”)

When the cows are about three years old, SAB vaccinates them against certain human diseases, against which the cows’ immune system produces antibodies. Then, up to three times a month, SAB harvests plasma from the animals—it’s essentially the same process used to draw plasma from humans—and the antibodies are purified from the plasma. These polyclonal antibodies—meaning that they’ll target multiple points of an antigen—can be used to fight human diseases, even viruses such as COVID-19 that frequently mutate. “Those animals that you just saw are a human ther-

apeutic-generation engine,” Sullivan says. “We are using the natural way that our bodies fight disease.”

I asked Sullivan how valuable the cows were. “Well, of course, there’s the cost of production,” he said, which he wouldn’t specify except that it was in the “tens of thousands” per cow. “But when you imagine that each one of these cows gives literally thousands of doses of human medicine every year, they’re priceless.” As if to absorb his own words, Sullivan paused. “They’re priceless,” he said again.

SAB’s story is one of science and entrepreneurship. It’s also a story about Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and why this small Midwestern city is such an amenable place for an entrepreneurial enterprise like an animal biotech firm. Sioux Falls, in the state’s southeastern corner, is

slightly different from the rest of South Dakota. With about 250,000 people, it’s the state’s biggest city. It’s also the most liberal—relatively speaking. While South Dakota went for Trump in 2016 and 2020 by almost a two-thirds margin, about 45% of voters in Sioux Falls vote Democratic. That equation may change as Sioux Falls attracts transplants from other states who cheered South Dakota governor Kristi Noem’s high-profile attacks on anti-Covid measures such as mask and vaccine mandates.

“The number one reason for our growth the last couple of years has been the way that our state handled the pandemic,” says Sioux Falls mayor Paul Tenhaken. “We’re attracting that kind of freedom-loving mentality.” (It doesn’t hurt that South Dakota has no personal or corporate income tax.) The relative political equilibrium in Sioux Falls means that folks here don’t talk politics much. Instead, they focus on building their city.

Forty years ago, Sioux Falls was a much smaller place; its population was around 80,000. Then, during the high inflation era of the 1980s, South Dakota became an unexpected hub of finance. At the time, credit card accounts were regulated by the states, limiting interest rates lower than the inflation rate. As a result, banks were losing money on their customers’ credit card debt. Then, in 1980, Citibank offered then-governor Bill Janklow a deal: If the economically depressed state eliminated its caps on credit card interest and fees, Citibank would move there. South Dakota did, and Citibank relocated its headquarters to Sioux Falls, soon followed by Wells Fargo, Capital One, and others. Today, if you’re paying 27% interest on credit card debt, you have a legit reason to be angry at South Dakota.

For Sioux Falls, however, the banking boom led to wealth creation and economic development. While agriculture and commodities—including

dairy and beef—are the state’s largest industries, in Sioux Falls, the biggest employers are two giant healthcare companies, Sanford Health, and Avera. Thanks to a nearby Dakota State University program, cybersecurity is growing. A company called Aerostar makes stratospheric balloons (think China’s spy balloon, but less obvious). An agricultural products company called POET is the world’s largest producer of biofuels. “We have a mile wide and an inch deep of industries,” says Jodi Schwan, the founder of a news website called South Dakota Business. “We don’t have all our eggs in one basket.”

Biotech is a small part of the Sioux Falls economy. Still, it’s growing: the potential financial rewards are great, it brings high-skilled labor to the state (and helps keep STEM graduates of state universities from leaving), and it’s not a drain on material resources. And in the even narrower niche of animal biotech, well, it doesn’t hurt to have a lot of cows around, along with people who know how to take care of them.

“SAB is a very quiet company,” says Mayor Tenhaken. “You don’t see them. You don’t hear from them. But there are some incredibly brilliant minds over there that could be doing a lot of different things in different markets. We lift them up a lot in terms of showing what innovation can look like right here in South Dakota.”

Anyway, Tenhaken adds, “SAB couldn’t be doing their work in Silicon Valley. They need to be here because of the bovines.”

SAB’s Eddie Sullivan points out some other reasons—the low taxes, the relatively light regulatory environment (“I don’t call it friendly,” he says, “but it’s reasonable”), the fact that Sioux Falls has some excellent restaurants and cultural attractions for a small city. But yes, ultimately, the bovines matter. As Sullivan explains, “If we want to make more antibodies, we just make more cows.”

Etéreo Offers the Perfect Escape, for Families and Couples

Etéreo, the luxurious beach resort on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, offers couples and families seclusion, spirituality, sun, magnificent cuisine… and a chance to slow down and savor life.

When was the last time you used “perfection” and “vacation” in the same sentence? If it’s been too long, consider Auberge Resorts Collection’s Mayan Riviera paradise, Etéreo. Spanish for “ethereal,” this uniquely Mexican resort is where perfection happens every day.

Auberge Resorts Collection, the world’s leading boutique hotel collection, ensures that each of its 26 properties worldwide is distinctive, not just from large, cookie-cutter luxury chains but also from one another. Etéreo looks and feels different even from its counterpart on the Western coast of Mexico, Susurros del Corazón.

Etéreo draws its inspiration from the breeze-kissed beaches of the Riviera Maya and a nearby lush green forest, both of which are visible from the floor-to-ceiling windows in each of the resort’s 75 rooms, ranging from studios to suites, most with stunning Caribbean Sea view. The small number of couples and families ensures the quiet, intimate experience that discerning travelers expect.

While the property is less than 40 minutes from the Cancun airport, it’s located in the gated, private, and luxury development of Kanai. From a spiritual perspective, therefore, Etéreo is a million miles away from the discount cruise atmosphere of Cancun and the chaotic party zone of Tulum.

The beach beckons with a stunning stretch of white sand set aside exclusively for the intimate number of Etéreo’s guests. You can snorkel, you can scuba jet, you can stand-up paddleboard, you can fish, or you can just stare into the water and let go of the tension that marks our harried, technologydriven lives.

The meals at Etéreo are unparalleled. Contemporary regional Mexican cuisine stands out at the resort’s signature and open-air restaurant, Itzam, with its emphasis on shared plates creating opportunities for memorable, communal dining experiences. The lauded executive chef Miguel Balthazar maintains strong relationships with nearby farmers, fishermen, and cheese makers, ensuring the best and freshest ingredients, all prepared with a mindset of showcasing the ingredients and flavors of Mexico’s diverse regions.

Che Che, an outdoor restaurant combining Japanese cooking techniques with ingredients from Mexico, overlooks the Caribbean Sea in a breezy, casual setting. Enjoy ever-changing offerings including such delicacies as Japanese tacos, raw oysters, and tiraditos.

At the beach, you will find El Changarro, Spanish for “small shop,” where you can enjoy, along with your margarita, the daily catch grilled to taste or prepared as ceviche or tacos, accompanied by fresh vegetables purchased that morning at a local market.

Auberge Resorts Collection is world-famous for the quality and beauty of its wellness programs and spas, including the spiritual and highly acclaimed SANA, an Auberge Spa at Etéreo. Classes and private sessions include therapeutic tarot card readings, aromatherapy and healing sound frequencies, vinyasa yoga, and TRX suspension training.

You can have one-of-a-kind experiences rooted in Mayan spirituality and Mexican hospitality including jewelry making, cacao ceremonies, reef excursions, and a Mexican Wine Club. Local shamans lead the cacao ceremonies, which celebrate that pre-Hispanic beverage of the gods.

You can also join a National Geographic Society archeologist for a one-hour flight over the Caribbean Sea to learn about the region’s prehistory. Your kids will joyously abandon their iPads for Chavito’s Kids Camp.

Etéreo, which opened last year, is sharing a rare and special offer for Worth readers. If you book a three or four night stay with the rate code WORTH, you’ll receive a complimentary additional night, plus an upgrade to a premium suite, based on availability. Enjoy a third night complimentary now until October 31 or fourth night complimentary starting November 1st. Some blackout dates apply.

FORECAST

In this issue’s Forecast section, our analysts dig into the latest economic numbers and reports. Turn the page to learn why the era of ultra-low interest rates and inflation is over, and head to page 102 for our breakdown of Warren Buffett’s annual letter to his shareholders. Lastly, if you are considering donating your art collection, there are a few things you need to be aware of. Go to page 108 to find out what.

The Era of Ultra-low Interest Rates and Inflation Is Over

Recession and Fed rate cuts unlikely this year

The market volatility that followed the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March reinforced consensus forecasts of a recession this year and caused markets to price in significant cuts in the Fed’s policy rate by yearend. Neither is likely to happen. Instead, the economy will probably exhibit resilience in the face of a historic tightening in monetary policy and continue to grow, albeit sluggishly. Inflation should remain on a downtrend but will end the year well above the Fed’s target of 2 percent. As a result, the Fed is not likely to cut rates this year.

Recession forecasts are not surprising considering the vast amount of policy tightening over the past year or so. The Fed hiked rates by 500 basis points, the most significant tightening in monetary policy in more than 40 years. Fiscal policy also tightened significantly due to the expiration of the COVID relief programs: the U.S. budget deficit fell from 15 percent of GDP in 2020—the biggest since WWII—to 5.4% last year. All of that would generally be more than enough to generate a recession.

But it hasn’t happened—and probably won’t anytime soon. COVID changed the economy in ways that are cushioning the effects of policy tightening:

Unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus significantly improved the health of household and business balance sheets, and this has allowed spending to hold up unusually well:

Fiscal stimulus amounted to a stunning 25% of GDP, roughly seven times what was applied during the financial crisis. At the same time, bond purchases by the Fed were also significantly more extensive and made over a much shorter period. This generated a surge in household wealth, savings, spending, and, of course, inflation. While all have come off the boil, they remain relatively healthy.

The pandemic also created a massive shortage of labor due to:

Excess deaths over 2020-22, which amounted to 1.6 million people, of which roughly half million were of prime working age.

A surge in early retirements due to the aging of the population as well as attractive packages offered early in the pandemic by service industries struggling to survive.

Immigration plunged by over a half million people in 2020-21.

An unusually large number of people were sick or caring for someone who was.

The labor shortage created a record 12 million job openings, which now stand just under 10 million compared with less than 6 million unemployed. This has allowed job growth to remain strong despite declining labor demand.

While a recession will occur at some point, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, barring an unforeseen catastrophe. Many aspects of a typical recession have already occurred or are just underway, but they are not all happening simultaneously. The net result is an extended period of sluggish growth instead of a sharp decline in overall economic activity.

The interest-rate-sensitive sectors that usually kick off recessions— housing and manufacturing—have already experienced recession-like declines and are now bottoming. Usually this would have spread quickly to the rest of the economy through employment declines that would lead to reductions in personal income and spending, but the job shortage prevented that. In addition, just as housing and the goods economy were crashing, the services economy began a strong recovery as people resumed traveling and going out to restaurants, gyms, and spas.

While a recession seems unlikely anytime soon, neither does a strong rebound. As housing and the goods sector are starting to bottom, weakness is spreading to service industries. The tech sector is in decline after over-extending during the COVID-fueled surge in demand. The financial sector is also in a downturn. The Wall Street growth engine is sputtering as deal-making has fallen sharply after a liquidity-fueled boom. Credit conditions are tightening: deposits are declining, banks are raising deposit rates to stem the outflow, and many have largely unrealized losses on their bond portfolios. This is translating into higher lending rates and more restrictive lending standards.

With weakness now spreading to services and the more cyclical, interest rate-sensitive sectors unlikely to rebound strongly due to the persistence of higher interest rates, the overall economy is likely to continue to slog along at a sluggish pace. GDP growth has already been averaging a measly 1% since the beginning of last year.

Without discussing inflation, no analysis of where the economy and Fed policy are headed would be complete. We believe it will continue to decline but will not return to the prepandemic pace of sub-2% anytime soon.

Inflation surged because of severe supply bottlenecks and massive policy stimulus. The acceleration was concentrated in the goods sector since many services were off limits, where most of the supply chain difficulties were. The first phase of the decline in inflation was the reverse of that process. As people re-engaged in services, the demand for goods subsided just as supply bottlenecks started easing, causing goods prices to fall back to earth. That phase now

seems to be winding down, so any further decline in inflation is likely to come from services, particularly shelter costs. They account for over 40% of core inflation and have been the largest source of upward pressure on inflation over the past year. But that is about to turn around. House prices and rents began to decline last summer after home sales collapsed, but this is just beginning to show up in the shelter component of official inflation indices because they use a 6-month average to measure monthly housing costs.

Inflation will probably settle in a 3-4% range by year-end, although a significant further decline would be difficult to achieve. Global trade— which played a key role in producing the low inflation environment—no longer expands as a percentage of world GDP.

U.S. relations with China—the world’s biggest goods exporter—continue deteriorating. Tariffs—which put upward pressure on inflation— have been maintained, and further technological space restrictions have been applied.

COVID has played a role here as well. Since the pandemic, businesses have been diversifying their supply chains and considering geopolitical and other risk factors when deciding where to produce and which countries to trade with, even if it costs more. Finally, the labor shortage has shifted bargaining power toward workers.

With recession forecasts abundant, markets are pricing in rate cuts as soon as this summer, amounting to as much as 75 basis points by yearend. If a recession is avoided and inflation remains well above target, the Fed will likely go on hold for an extended period, allowing the lagged effects of monetary tightening on the economy and inflation to play out.

There is a valid question as to whether the Fed would accept 3-4% inflation as the new normal or instead resume hiking rates. To get core inflation down to its 2% target, the Fed would probably have to tighten policy enough to crush the economy and generate a true recession. The cost would probably not be worth the effort.

There is nothing special about 2% inflation. It was chosen in 2012 because several other central banks chose that target before the Fed and because it is a low number but not too close to zero, which would risk deflation. When Fed Chair Volker left the Fed in August 1987, inflation was over 4%, and no one considered it a problem. Fed Chair Greenspan resisted setting an inflation target, believing it would cause more problems than it would solve. The key to inflation control is stability, not a specific level. Greenspan defined it as a state in which expected price changes do not alter household or business decisions. Nothing is inherently wrong with a 3-4% inflation as long as it’s relatively stable.

The COVID experience has resulted in higher interest rates and inflation, and the economy is coping relatively well. The markets and the Fed should get used to it.

Decoding Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter 2023

In what is the investment world’s equivalent of a Harry Potter book release, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett recently published his annual letter to shareholders. The letter has been required reading for decades among investors eager to pick the brain of one of the five richest people in the world.

In addition to company happenings, Buffett openly shares insights into the strategies that have contributed to his legendary investment success. This year’s letter has been particularly anticipated given the high uncertainty in the economy and stock market. His timeless messages may be more timely than ever.

So, let’s dig into Buffett’s letter and explore what’s different this year, as well as highlight some of his recurring yet profound themes.

COUNT ON THE “AMERICAN TAILWIND”

One major thing that’s different this year is the environment Buffett is writing in. Inflation is stubbornly

We dug into Warren Buffet’s annual letter so you don’t have to. Here is a breakdown of what’s different this year.

sticking to levels last seen in the 1980s. Interest rates haven’t been this high since the 2008 financial crisis. And the threat of a recession looms large.

Yet, Buffett remains steadfast in his confidence in the American economy, which is a major takeaway from the letter.

He observes that Berkshire is more broadly aligned with the country’s economic future than any other U.S. company. The conglomerate owns dozens of subsidiary businesses, including household names like GEICO, Duracell, and Kraft Heinz, along with being the majority shareholder in the likes of American Express, Coca-Cola, and Chevron.

Berkshire’s core strategy has been to identify and buy shares in quality businesses at a favorable price, then hold them for decades. As an investor, you may be worried about your portfolio right now, especially after the stock market dropped around 20% last year. In response to such worries, Buffett revisits one of his recurring themes, which is likely timely advice to follow today.

He writes: “We count on the American Tailwind and, though it has been becalmed from time to time, its propelling force has always returned. I have been investing for 80 years—more than one-third of our country’s lifetime. Despite our citizens’ penchant— almost enthusiasm—for selfcriticism and self-doubt, I have yet to see a time when it made sense to make a long-term bet against America. And I doubt very much that any reader of this letter will have a different experience in the future.”

What Buffett means by “American Tailwind” is that the innovation driving the U.S. economy will consistently deliver value over time. It’s a pillar of his investment strategy. He chooses quality companies that have shown their ability to survive dips in the economic cycle and have the financial resources to weather market downturns.

He knows those downturns will come, but with faith in the American Tailwind, he is equally confident that the market will eventually recover. Those who want to invest, like Warren Buffett, can build portfolios based on the certainty that the U.S. economy and demand will always grow. And, the market has historically gone up more than gone down.

BEWARE OF “IMAGINATIVE ACCOUNTING”

Have you been following headlines and earning reports to guide your investment decisions? Another important takeaway is that it’s better if you didn’t.

Even Berkshire was not immune to market fluctuations in 2022. The company earned a record $30.8 billion operating earnings, excluding its stock portfolio. Berkshire’s GAAP earnings, which include the value of its stock holdings, paint a different picture, showing a $22.8 billion loss last year.

Buffett, however, labels these GAAP earnings “100% misleading” and “their quarter-by-quarter gyrations, regularly and mindlessly headlined by media, totally misinform investors.”

Further, he warns: “Even the operating earnings figure that our favor can easily be manipulated by managers who wish to do so… ‘Bold imaginative accounting,’ as a CEO once described his deception to me, has become one of the shames of capitalism.”

In layperson’s terms, Buffett is saying numbers that constantly change, like earnings and stock prices, are often useless. You will never succeed as a long-term investor unless you learn to look past the erratic behavior of stocks.

As value investors, Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger invest in companies for longevity rather than immediate gratification because they believe that strong companies will deliver solid returns given enough time. They don’t buy based on stock price but rather on business value. They don’t bother with short-term trends, and they don’t gamble on startups and IPOs that are hyped as the next Apple or Amazon. They aren’t interested in what might happen but instead focus on what they know will happen with quality companies—they will grow.

“Charlie and I are not stock-pickers; we are business-pickers.”

In his letter, Buffett explains: “Our goal in both forms of ownership is to make meaningful investments in businesses with both long-lasting favorable economic characteristics and trustworthy managers. Please note particularly that we own publicly-traded stocks based on our expectations about their long-term business performance, not because we view them as vehicles for adroit purchases and sales. That point is crucial: Charlie and I are not stock-pickers; we are businesspickers.”

You could say it is also a crucial takeaway.

Again, Buffett and Munger buy shares in quality businesses they plan to stick with for years and even decades.

A famous Buffett-ism is “Our favorite holding period is forever.” True to his word, one of the oldest stocks in Berkshire’s portfolio is Coca-Cola, which he first purchased in 1988 and continues to hold today. Although Buffett will sell when it makes sense, as evidenced by Berkshire selling about 2.4 million shares of its Chevron holdings to bring its stake to about 163 million shares at the end of last year.

Applying that mentality to your strategy would entail buying mutual funds that you plan to hold for the long term rather than picking individual stocks or jumping in and out of the market. Research shows that investors who stick with their strategies are often rewarded.

Consider Berkshire’s 2022 report which shows that the company saw a 19.8 % compounded annual gain from 1965 to 2022, compared to 9.9 percent for the S&P 500 Index. During that time period, Berkshire saw an overall gain of 3,787,464 percent while the S&P rose 24,708 percent.

It’s unrealistic to expect the same results as Berkshire, but you can expect a positive return when you stay the course.

Buffett carries the reputation of a contrarian investor, famously saying: “Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” When everyone else flees a declining market, Buffett usually goes shopping.

For a recent example, as tech stocks flounder throughout most of last year, Buffett added to his stake in Apple, which is Berkshire’s largest position.

In what may be a key takeaway signaling that he sees stock buying opportunities are on the horizon, Buffett tells Berkshire shareholders in the letter that the company will always hold a “boatload of cash.”

You can be rewarded by keeping a portion of cash in your portfolio for buying investments at a discount during a market decline. Or, by simply continuing to contribute to your 401(k) account, even though it may be declining in value. After all, the goal of investing is to buy low and sell high, and the best chance of doing that only happens when prices are going down.

“secret sauce”: time.

He is essentially advising investors on the importance of patience, an important reminder during a time of heightened volatility and investor fear. Patience allows you to take advantage of the power of compounding.

For example, Buffett shares a story about Berkshire’s purchase of Coca-Cola and American Express shares at $1.3 billion apiece around 30 years ago. Today, the company’s investments in Coke and Amex are valued at $25 billion and $22 billion, respectively, while earning Berkshire more than $1 billion in dividends.

Buffett’s

“Secret Sauce” to Investing

Ultimately, investors scour Buffett’s annual letter for insight into his investment process in hopes of matching his longtime success. This year, Buffett dedicates an entire section of his letter to what he calls his

Dividends are likely a major piece of your portfolio returns, and you may not even know it. That’s because dividends are typically reinvested, which then compound over time. Consider that dividends have played a significant role in the returns investors have received during the past 50 years. Going back to 1960, 84 percent of the total return of the S&P 500 Index can be attributed to reinvested dividends and the power of compounding. From 1930–2021, dividend income’s contribution to the total return of the S&P 500 Index averaged 40 percent.

Forbes estimates that Buffett is worth $106 billion. Wildly, 99% of that sum was earned after his 50th birthday. This reflects Buffett’s belief that successful investing requires patience and a long-term perspective.

“The lesson for investors: The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom,” Buffett poetically writes. “Over time, it takes just a few winners to work wonders.”

“Dividends are likely a major piece of your portfolio returns, and you may not even know it.”

Three Do-It-Now Moves to Help Ensure UHNW Investors Have F.A.C.

In our eyes, a successful wealth plan achieves flexibility, access and control, or what we call F.A.C. And there are three do-it-now moves UNHWs can make to achieve FAC. But before we get to those moves, let’s begin with a question your advisor should be asking you: What do you want to accomplish with your wealth?

Do you want a tax friendly way to pass on your legacy?

Do you want to create an estate plan but fear you may lose access to those funds held in trust during your lifetime? Do you want to take advantage of strategies to “have your cake and eat it too”? Well, you can begin reaching those goals with these three do-it-now financial moves.

Do-It-Now

Move #1:

Beating the 2025 Deadline That Cuts in Half Untaxable Wealth Transfers

A report last year from data/analytics firm Cerulli Associates predicted that U.S. households will transfer $84.4 trillion of wealth in the next two decades. That’s trillion with a “t”.

And for those households, a critical wealth transfer deadline is looming, not in two decades, but in about two years due to existing tax law.

Current estate tax law allows individuals to transfer up to $12.92 million in assets with no gift tax implications. And couples can double that to nearly $26 million. But at the end of 2025, those amounts are scheduled to drop by roughly half!

And, while 2025 might seem a long way off, you can bet that when this already short window gets shorter and the deadline looms, there will be a crush of UHNWs rushing to beat it. When that happens, as one estate planning attorney told me, he and other lawyers will be so slammed with transfer requests they simply will not be able to address them all. So, yes, do it now.

Do-It-Now Move #2:

Guarantee F.A.C. with a Trust That Is Not Irrevocable

For UHNWs in midlife or younger, putting money in an irrevocable trust that denies them access to the funds has little appeal. Traditionally, assets transferred to an irrevocable trust are thereby removed from the estate, and thus, estate taxes. And this is terrific. Yet you lose access to those assets.

But, there is an alternative to this called a SLAT, or Spousal Lifetime Access Trust. And the reason SLATs have become one of the bedrocks of UHNW planning is they provide you all three F.A.C. benefits:

Flexibility because there is no minimal amount to fund one, and you can fund them over a number of years. Access since you can maintain access to these assets during your spouse’s lifetime. Which means, yes, you are in total control. So, creating a SLAT is definitely a do-it-now move as it provides FAC.

Do-It-Now

Move #3: Create a Trust That Offers a Discount

While irrevocable trusts have restrictions, they offer a quite attractive advantage compliments of tax law.

Let’s say you want to gift/transfer $1 million. Since that $1 million will sit in an irrevocable trust, the IRS concedes that, in the end, it may not be a $1 million gift. The IRS will allow you to discount its value. Meaning, you could potentially transfer, say, $1.4 million into the irrevocable trust, but it would only count it as a $1 million gift/transfer.

To sum up, implementing some or all of these do-it-now moves, not only helps you achieve F.A.C., it also gives you the most important thing of all: P.O.M. That is, peace of mind.

Disclaimer

This material and the opinions voiced are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or entity. To determine what is appropriate for you, please contact your Financial Professional. Information obtained from third-party sources are believed to be reliable but not guaranteed. The tax and legal references attached herein are designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered and are provided with the understanding that Navon Wealth Advisors is not engaged in rendering tax, legal, or actuarial services. If tax, legal, or actuarial advice is required, you should consult your accountant, attorney, or actuary Navon Wealth Advisors does not replace those advisors.

Fine Wine

Michael Dorf likes a challenge. At 23 years old, he started the popular Knitting Factory concert space in New York - and made the rustic ceiling cool by covering it with sweaters he purchased at Goodwill for $1 each. After selling his stake in 2002 in what had become that multimillion dollar enterprise, he had another dream: to create a bonded winery/concert venue/upscale restaurant in an urban environment that captured the conviviality of evenings usually only experienced in locales like Napa. In 2008 he opened just that: the first City Winery in Manhattan. The “custom crush” facility, as it’s been called, was a smash. Next came perhaps the biggest challenge and one that endures. How to make City Winery into a multi-location business - Dorf has expanded to fifteen venues in eight cities, with more on the way - without losing its soul?

One trick is to take advantage of the Winerys’ economies of scale, offering perks like state-of-the-art Meyer sound facilities and multi-locale contracts to artists, but never stop devoting attention to the details that make each Winery unique. “The last thing we want to be is the McDonald’s of live music,” he says.

To make sure each Winery is a fit for its locale, Dorf treats the choice of cities as an art. “I use a lot of gut instinct and conversation in decision-making, more than I do economic ‘heat maps’ and the empirical data,” he says. In addition to gauging an area’s quotient of wine enthusiasts, “the single most important conversation I have is with the music community.” The latter spans talking with local musicians - City Winery’s Pittsburgh location was inspired by a dinner party chat with late great jazz pianist Geri Allen - as well as agents and managers planning tours for acts like Neil Young and Suzanne Vega.

When it comes to choosing neighborhoods Dorf likes to go rogue a bit too, something he says he can do because of the destination-driven nature of concert venues (as opposed to, say, a restaurant which relies on established neighborhoods for things like walk-ins). City Winery Chicago, the second location, set this pattern in motion. “Every realtor and, frankly, several of the local investors suggested it be in a couple of neighborhoods that were traditional entertainment, easy-to-get-to-from-thesuburbs, blah blah blah. It just didn’t feel right. Instead, there

was an up and coming culinary area called the West Loop where there was no entertainment, no hotels, only sort of creative restauranteurs.” Dorf bought a former food distribution warehouse at a great price and transformed and updated it in a way that still featured its original red brick and wooden beams. “Those material choices from 100 years ago are almost impossible to recreate in the same ways and at the same quality level today,” he says. He’s employed similar “adaptive reuse” on older buildings in other cities as well. “In Atlanta, we’re in what used to be the Sears distribution center. In Detroit, we have a building that was an old Spanish restaurant from the ‘50s. In St. Louis, we’re literally in a 75 year old steel foundry.”

Coming in to a new city can be tricky when it comes to winning over locals. But Dorf says his businesses create a rising tide that lifts many boats - particularly in the up-and-coming districts where he’s located. Of City Winery’s newest location in St. Louis, Dorf says, “We’re bringing probably at least 100 new nights of music to the city that wouldn’t have happened in 2023. So we’re adding to the pie. And we feel very good about that.” Dorf also makes it a point to hire local warm up acts for concerts, and the restaurants’ “wine-inspired, globally-influenced” menus use locally sourced ingredients. Nonprofits are also often given free event space. When Emmylou Harris held a fundraiser in Nashville for her shelter for elderly and disabled dogs during Covid, Dorf transformed that city’s Winery parking lot into a pandemic-safe venue.

Original touches are part of each Winery, but Dorf notes that certain constants appeal nationwide. Among the things customers appreciate: City Winery’s commitment to making alcohol with as green a technique as possible. The locations make their own wine from grapes imported from California, Washington, and Oregon but, instead of transferring it to bottles, move it from barrels to stainless steel kegs and serve it on tap. As a result, bottle glass doesn’t need to be trucked in from far flung locales and carbon consumption is significantly reduced. There are exceptions. City Winery’s Grand Central Station location offers a grab and go mini-bottle option for commuters, but to counter the eco-effects Dorf created a program offering a $5 refund on a $15 bottle. Dorf describes it as “the first serious reuse bottle program in the country” and hopes other sellers follow suit.

Dorf says all of this detail work serves one goal: to impart a sense of intimacy to a night at City Winery. Particularly in a post-Covid world, Dorf, who is also the author of Indulge Your Senses: Scaling Intimacy in a Digital World, says, “The idea of having a connection with fellow humans - breathing the same air, touching the tables, drinking wine out of a real glass, doing cheers at a concert together …It’s an antidote for all the screens that are in our lives. And if each of those sensory components are working - there’s the magic of live music, good food, great wine and great visuals, it can be a very special moment. That’s what we aim to create.”

City Winerys are located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hudson Valley, St. Louis, Nashville, New York City, and Philadelphia.

City Winery opens in Pittsburgh June 7th. Columbus and Detroit locations are slated for early 2024.

Artful Considerations

Consider these factors before donating your private art collection.

Motivations for donating artwork are as varied as the hues of a Monet. For some, donating artwork is part of the collecting practice. For others, motivations can range from giving others the ability to view, enjoy, and learn from their collections to giving back to the community, to creating or continuing a family legacy around a specific artist or genre. Whatever the motivation may be, donating artwork and other collectibles is not a simple endeavor. Donors must consider whether selling the artwork and using the proceeds for charitable purposes is more advantageous than donating the artwork.

Understanding your philanthropic goals with respect to your artwork, advanced planning, and working with the right qualified public charity are essential before making any decisions. It is also critical to consult legal and tax professionals, as well as an art advisor during the decision-making process. There are lots of factors to consider but these key considerations should be top of mind for private collectors contemplating a donation of their art—philanthropic considerations, navigating tax regulations, and alignment with the recipient public charity. As we will explore, these considerations are not mutually exclusive, but rather, they are interdependent and should be considered in concert with one another.

PHILANTHROPIC CONSIDERATIONS

All decisions about philanthropy must start with your goals and objectives. It’s where you want to end up that informs where you start your philanthropic journey. This holds true whether you are deciding on the areas you want to support, the determination of the giving vehicle(s) you might use to facilitate your philanthropy, or how you will support your nonprofit partners. In the case of using artwork as a vehicle for helping others, there are two primary paths that you can take: 1) donating a piece or a collection and 2) selling the piece or a collection to donate the sales proceeds to charitable organizations. Your goals inform either pathway. If your goal is to have your artwork enjoyed by the public or used as a tool for the education of art conservation, selling the artwork to another individual that will enjoy the artwork among family and friends won’t accomplish this. If, on the other hand, the goal is to not only support arts organizations but

also other types of public charities in the community, then donating a piece or collection to a museum likely won’t accomplish that.

NAVIGATING TAX REGULATIONS

Philanthropic considerations cannot be the only type of consideration when contemplating a donation of artwork. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations are not as straightforward as you might expect. For example, if you are the creator, your artwork is usually treated as income-producing property by the IRS, and therefore no charitable tax deduction is available, nor is donating a viable option.

For collectors of artwork, a charitable tax deduction for the fair market value of the artwork, limited to 30% of the donor’s Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), may be available to the donor, and the donation may not be subject to capital gains tax if certain conditions are met by both the donor and the recipient public charity. The donor typically must have owned the artwork for more than one year before the donation and obtain a qualified appraisal, as defined and required by the IRS. The recipient public charity’s use of the artwork must be related to its tax-exempt purpose. For example, a donation of artwork to an art museum would likely satisfy the “related use” condition, whereas that same donation to an animal shelter most likely would not. The period of “related use” by the public charity depends on the value of the artwork; at least one year if the artwork is valued below $5,000 and three years if it is valued at $5,000 or above. Going back to the philanthropic goals, if support of animals is on your list of priorties, a donation of artwork is probably not the right gift for you or the animal shelter.

However, if your goal is to support animals, then selling the artwork and donating the proceeds may make a viable option, especially as prices for some pieces of art reach into the stratosphere. While tax

considerations may not be the driver when it comes to philanthropy, they typically are a driver and, therefore, should be taken into account. If the donor has owned the artwork for over a year, they may be required to pay capital gains tax on the sale. Donations of the cash proceeds to qualified public charities typically garner the donor a charitable tax deduction of up to 60% of AGI. Engaging a tax professional can help determine whether the additional charitable tax deduction for a cash donation exceeds the capital-gains tax on the sale of the artwork. If the philanthropic goal is to raise as much money as possible through the sale of the artwork, then the tax ramifications may not be a part of the equation.

ALIGNMENT WITH THE RECIPIENT PUBLIC CHARITY

Finding the right organization to accept a donated piece or collection and aligning on terms and conditions of the donation is critical. With more than 35,000 museums in the United States along with other public charities that accept donations of artworks, finding the public charity that fully aligns with your needs and wants as a donor requires a few simple steps.

A preexisting relationship with the receiving institution can help facilitate a seamless donation process, as museums rarely accept unsolicited donations of artworks. Engaging an art advisor can help in finding the right public charity for the donation, and legal counsel can help negotiate the terms of the donation. Major museums may be less inclined to accept a proposed gift of a complete

collection; less notable art institutions may have more flexibility and space when it comes to donations of artwork. Some museums may accept the artwork, choose to put it in storage rather than display it, or ultimately decide to sell it, decisions that may not sit well with the donor. Once the donor puts conditions around the donation of the artwork, for example, when and where the artwork must be displayed, museums may be less inclined to accept the donation. Donors may also consider additional funding for collections management, curatorial expertise, conservation and preservation, and exhibition and storage space. Having an open dialogue with the institution about your goals enables streamlined planning and ensures the donated artwork fits within existing collections or the institution’s plans. It’s also important that both parties agree and document how the donors wish to be acknowledged for the gift, ranging from the credit line accompanying the artwork when it’s exhibited to naming rights for a gallery or special exhibition.

Remember to bring key partners into the process, such as legal counsel, tax professionals, and art advisors who can provide tailored guidance, exercise negotiating expertise and document the transaction to ensure clear enforceable terms. While there is much to consider, advanced planning, including a clear vision of your philanthropic goals, understanding the regulatory landscape, and working closely with recipient organizations, can guide your decisions. Artwork, whether donated outright or donating the proceeds from its sale to a public charity, can be transformative for many institutions. Better yet, a gift of artwork can be priceless.

“If the donor has owned the artwork for over a year, they may be required to pay capital gains tax on the sale.”

Milken Institute Global Conference: LA’s Answer to Davos

From the economic downturn and energy transition Worth breaks down the key takeaways from this year’s iconic event.

The 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference convened 3,500 attendees and 900 speakers from around the world in Los Angeles this spring for its renowned conference, which many call “Davos of the West.” The heavy-hitting, star-studded lineup included speakers such as Governor Gavin Newsom, World Bank President David Malpass, musician Demi Lovato, and top executives from the largest companies in the world. The four-day event focused on the theme: “Advancing a Thriving World” and the depth and breadth of the conversations, both on stage and off, were profound.

Here’s what everyone was talking about:

The Economy—Is a recession on the horizon? Are we in one now? These questions seemed to echo through the marbled halls of the glamorous Beverly Hilton. In one session titled “US Overview: Advancing through Uncertainty,” panelists agreed they were bullish on the economy in the mid to long term but lacked confidence in the short term. Former Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, forecasted that interest rates are unlikely to decrease this year and argued the FDIC should increase the insurance limit to $25 million.

McKinsey Senior Managing Partner, Asutosh Padhi, said that despite a choppy near term, “there is no better time to be a CEO.” He says it is time for leaders to differentiate themselves from competitors by driving growth, building capacity, and focusing on financial resilience. Strategic actions today will result in significant advantages in three to five years.

The Energy Transition—Senator Joe Manchin and ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods spoke to a packed house about fueling the future. Manchin, who chairs the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, expressed discontent with the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and said increasing U.S. fossil fuel production is essential for energy security. Woods advocated for reducing emissions by leveraging market incentives and questionable carbon capture technology. The meager applause as they left the stage was deafening.

Conversations about innovation and funding the energy transition sparked more enthusiasm. Corporate leaders from across industries spoke about their environmental commitments and how impactful climate pledges can translate into profitable business decisions. Venture capitalists discussed the unique opportunities for returns in climate investing and the importance of backing scalable solutions.

Artificial Intelligence—Virtually everyone agreed on one point: AI is changing everything. “If you’re a company, and you’re sleeping on this, you’re probably going to be out of business,” said actor and investor Ashton Kutcher. “It’s easy to [see] that this is the most powerful technology of our times,” said Arati Prabhakar,

Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology. “And what we know about powerful technologies throughout all of human history is that they will be used for good, and they will be used for ill. The job for all of us is to manage that transition and make sure it comes out in a way that advances our future…to seize its benefits, we have to start by managing its risks.”

Health—As always, advances in health and wellness were a central theme at Milken. Experts discussed the benefits of functional medicine, which takes an individualized approach, optimizing diet, lifestyle, exercise habits, and emotional well-being to address the root cause of disease. Psychedelics and mental health were also hot topics at the event. Seth Rogan and Deepak Chopra had fun delving into the importance of purpose, connection, and mindfulness in increasing one’s “health span.” And another wellattended session posed the question: Is the microbiome the new disruptor in healthcare and disease treatment? Short answer— yes.

Hope—Many sessions explored heavy topics like the war in Ukraine, societal schisms, the decline in global health, and the increase in global poverty. But hope, resilience, and optimism were intentionally baked into the program. A Wellness Garden hosted yoga, meditation breaks, and even a puppy playpen where attendees delighted in soft snuggles with rescues.

The marathon four days closed with a raft of inspiring sessions. Comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Chris Tucker and producer Elle Key discussed the evolution of comedy and why laughter is the best medicine. Snoop Dogg bookended an impassioned invective about fair pay for artists with a “gin and juice” toast and jokes about a smoke-filled green room. Obama Foundation CEO Valarie Jarrett championed action as the antidote to apathy. Columnist and Harvard Kennedy School professor Arthur C. Brooks outlined the four happiness pillars one should attend to each day: faith, family, friends, and meaningful work. And the legendary Diana Ross was the final red chiffon cherry on top, gracing the stage for a closing concert with her signature elegance and joy.

TECHONOMY

Worth’s Techonomy is a 10-year old brand focused on the intersection of techonology, business, and human progress. In this issue, we are covering travel in the metaverse, big business’s new frontier, and investing in radical collaboration. To get weekly updates, sign up for our newsletter at techonomy.com/newsletters.

Traveling in the Virtual World: No Suitcase, Just Bandwidth

The promise of traveling in virtual worlds is becoming a reality, but it can still be lonely.

During the height of the pandemic, my 92-year-old mother fractured her pelvis. Her already shrunken world became even smaller. Even so, we visited Tokyo, Ann Frank’s house, went to an opera, and revisited the block where I grew up. We did it all with an Oculus Quest and the magic of virtual travel. Was it perfect? Far from it. Mom felt claustrophobic in her headgear, disoriented in her navigation, and tired after 10 minutes in the virtual world. Nonetheless, it quickly became apparent that virtual reality and the metaverse would significantly impact the world of travel and hospitality.

According to Market Data Forecast, The Global Virtual Tourism market was worth $385.75 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to over $847.95 billion by 2028. It can take many forms, from traveling to digitally imagined worlds to trekking the Himalayas from your living room couch. Booking, planning, and building like-minded travel communities are all part of the new virtual ecosystem. The pandemic saw a new generation hungry for experiences, armed with roundthe-clock connectivity, and fluent in moving between digital and physical worlds come of age. For them, traveling in virtual worlds will be one more choice to add to their travel palette.

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

Today, the most popular form of virtual tourism is a “try before you buy” model. Available before the pandemic but gaining momentum

with new audiences, services like DiscoverLive and Wozitude both offer 100% live, interactive, and immersive tours. Both companies use cadres of expert tour guides from all over the world. Armed with mobile phones and gimble in hand, these guides walk through the streets of Europe and the temples of India and interact with their audience as they guide.

“We cater to the culturally curious,” says Susan Black, the company’s co-founder, “both those who want to travel but can’t because of immobility or budget issues and those who are shopping for their next destination.”

Both companies use Zoom to spotlight the guide, but the guide can answer an audience question, detour into a local pastry shop, and interview people on the streets. The feeling of “live-ness” is palpable. Initially designed for the aged, differently-abled, or persons with

mobility issues, programs like these are now used for everything from celebrating multicultural heritages to corporate meetings and custom events.

“This is not like watching Youtube or a National Geographic documentary, said Tricia Norton, co-founder and CMO of DiscoverLive. “This is live, virtual travel with our tour guides worldwide. You are there with them, experiencing, interacting, and engaging.”

DEEPER IMMERSION

A deeper dive into virtual tourism involves a more immersive experience where you are surrounded by and can self-explore your environment. Sometimes tours like these require VR Headsets, but often they rely on a 360-degree camera view to give you a feeling of the natural world without the cumbersome headset. Meta’s Occulus-driven travel experiences include virtual tours of things like watching Notre Dame get rebuilt. Immersion VR uses a 360-degree immersive capture technique to let you visit locales and take a virtual tour. Sites like Visit Korea create a space for tourist wannabes. Renderverse and Avatour both use VR headsets to walk through everything from real-estate properties to travel destinations.

Travelworld offers a luscious group of VR and 360-degree tours, delivered however you want them: on your mobile device, your browser, or in a 3D environment with a headset. Wearing a headset gives you incredible immersion; you lose all sense of place but the world you’re in.

The 360-degree walkthroughs offer more immediate gratification. Wayaverse, still in beta, uses AI prompts to help you find locations. I prompted Wayaverse to “take me to a quiet place off the Las Vegas strip where I could relax.” It wasn’t perfect, but it’s a start at an AI-created travel experience.

Here’s the rub, says Charlie Fink, a professor and metaverse consultant. “The metaverse is about synchronicity. You want to enjoy it with your friends. For the moment, these immersive travel worlds tend to be a solo experience.” As Fink says, “You do it once, and you’re done.”

THE AUGMENTED ALTERNATIVE

An entirely different, super-practical type of virtual travel surrounds Augmented Reality (AR) because it’s so darn easy. All you need is your phone and you’re in business. In certain locations like New York City, Google Maps can provide added information about a building or site just by holding up your phone and pointing at the object. Niantic’s CEO, John Hanke, has been very vocal about using

AR to get you out of your chair and exploring the real world, using AR to provide additional layers of information. The British Museum in London, uses AR to add layers of animations to make you more knowledgeable about what you’re seeing. The City of Philadelphia has an AR-powered walking tour app called “Revolutionary Philadelphia” that takes visitors on a tour of historical sites related to the American Revolution, showing visitors how the city looked during the Revolutionary War, with 3D reconstructions of buildings and characters from the time.

METAVERSE WASTELAND

In 2020-2022, while we were all home-locked in various states of quarantine, places like Decentraland and The Sandbox

were built to be meccas for metaverse travels. The idea of buying a parcel of land, building a hotel or destination in a virtual world, and hanging up your “open shingle” was an enticing experiment. Marriott International launched an ambitious virtual reality travel platform called “VRoom Service” which allows guests to explore exotic locations and hotels from anywhere. Projects that looked big in November 2022, like Millenium Hotel’s lM Social in Decentraland, appear shuttered. Regal Hotels entered The Sandbox to develop an ESG (environmental, social, and governance) themed “green metropolis” with hotels, convention centers, and shopping. The results remain to be seen. The Leven Hotel Group is creating LevenVerse. It’s also non-existent.

REGAL HOTELS GREEN METROPOLIS

Experiments involving the use of purchased NFTs for luxury travel sprang to life. Elite owners of pricey Bored Ape NFTs could enjoy the reallife perks of the Lucky Ape Travel Club. Jeff Bordes, the founder of the club, believes that the NFT will be your ticket to travel destinations and that there will be a link between tokenized economies to real-world experiences.

Designed to be marketing and branding destinations to engage loyal customers, so far these experiments have been expensive busts. Destinations in Sandbox and Decentraland look like ghost towns where you are the only avatar hanging around, the graphics seem rudimentary, and there’s nothing much to do but wander aimlessly.

Plus, getting into these worlds is daunting. Onboarding requires having a cryptocurrency-filled wallet and good metaverse navigational skills. These cartoonish avatars lands fare better in sporting, concert, and business meeting events, especially in places like Fortnite and Roblox, where gamers are plentiful, but travelers are not yet showing up.

TURNING VIRTUAL TRAVEL INTO REAL DOLLARS

Marketers see the value in virtual travel to convert into real-like bookings. In Spain, the NH group offers 3D walkthroughs of all of its locations. Revfine, a site for the tourism industry, details how all the advanced technologies inspire travelers to “make it real.” Hotels are revamping their old sites, replacing them with immersive walkthroughs. Event planners, who often had to travel from city to city to scout for locations, are heading to virtual worlds more often, said Natasha Richards, Head of Industry Advocacy at Imex, a destination travel event. Matterport, a creator of virtual tours, reports a 14% increase in bookings when a virtual walkthrough is available.

Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, and Qantas are investing millions of dollars in metaverse experiences. Airlines in the metaverse will offer loyalty points to customers who visit their digital space and access various facilities. As points accumulate, so do upgrades and free flights.

FANTASY TRAVEL

Since the metaverse is comprised of digital bits and has laws of its own, travel does not have to be based on the real world at all. Gravity doesn’t exist. The ocean can be on the ceiling. You can walk through the painting and touch the paint. Jounee’s projects include a visit to the celestial world products in partnership with H&M. Roblox offers a travel simulator created by an entrepreneurial gamer, and a popular game lets you time travel in search of artifacts. Dressing your avatar and escaping into a fantasy destination will appeal to some travelers in search of a quick travel fix.

DIGITAL TWINS

Finally, a concept called Digital Twins, faithfully recreating the real world into virtual ones, can make the drudgery of travel better. Things like obtaining a visa and finding out about transportation become more seamless. Hykoomi, a project of the Qatar Government, put a number of services, including tourism, into the metaverse. Singapore’s ambitious project is cloning the entire country using a mixture of AI, and photorealistic renditions. Metaverse Seoul is opening its doors to long-term play where a digital twin facilitates everything from playing games to paying taxes.

Let the great travel experiment spin! For now, virtual tourism is changing the relationship between businesses and their customers, offering new experiences. Down the road, virtual travel will serve you in many ways, from an escapist flight into the metaverse to booking that reservation and finding your next bucket list destination.

Want to Thrive and Reduce Risk? Consider Investing in ‘Alts’

Why should you consider investing a portion of your hard-earned money into alternative investments, or “alts,” especially in light of the volatile times we are now experiencing? To answer that question, let’s start with a definition:

Alternative investments are defined as “supplemental strategies to traditional long-only positions such as stocks, bonds and cash.”

By nature, alts do not carry stock market risk, bond market risk or cash risk (which erodes in value due to inflation). As far as industries are concerned, an investor can find alts in almost every sector of the economy. That includes, but is not limited to, healthcare, energy, technology, finance, food and beverage, and agriculture.

As to investment categories for alts, they are included primarily in these five:

Hedge Funds:

We know about them. We have read about them, some good and some bad. But well-run hedge funds reward investors and can also protect you from market risks. The key things investors should look for in these funds are not only the type of hedges they provide, but their track record in both down and up markets. As their name implies, their goal is to “hedge” against risk while providing a potential out-sized return over time in non-traditional investments.

Private Capital:

Investing in private companies can be risky. However, when we read about companies the likes of Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others, we need to remember that they got started with, yes, private capital. While searching for the next “big” private capital idea can be daunting, investors can take several avenues to both mitigate risk and yet gain the potential of this robust investor sector. They include focusing on professionally managed funds that

specialize in this sector, as well as consulting with seasoned investment pros who can provide the proper analysis.

Natural Resources:

The opportunity here is normally to invest for tax reduction due to various tax bills that reward this sector, as well as the large income opportunity this alt category may provide. Some companies and/or strategies here provide an investor a turn-key opportunity with limited hassle, not to mention this category has many longterm track records of success.

Real Estate:

One can own real estate directly, or through an REIT (real estate investment trust). Promoters of real estate claim it has created more millionaires in American history than any other industry. And while we have always heard that the key to successful real estate investing is “location, location, location,” I would argue it is “Strategy, strategy, strategy.” That is, whether it is a personal strategy or picking the right manager to do it for you, real estate provides an alternative hedge against other markets and may

ABOUT THE ADVISOR

provide a steady and predictable income in your saving and retirement years.

Infrastructure:

Building out new niches or technologies requires capital and infrastructure. Think 5G wireless towers or cold storage facilities. Whatever the niche or need, obviously our society cannot function without infrastructure. Meaning, investors can take advantage of these hard assets to meet their financial objectives for income, tax reduction and potential growth.

Conclusion:

Investors should consider alternative investments for their non-correlation to traditional markets which can help you maintain your lifestyle, increase your income, and reduce your taxes. And alts may even experience an IPO or market exit at multiple times their initial investment.

Regardless of the reason an investor is attracted to alts, they certainly have good company. Powerful organizations such as pension funds and endowments are large buyers of alternative investments. What do these large investors know? Perhaps alts are a better path to riches while lowering volatility and risk.

trinitycapitalmanagement.net

morrisnutt@tcwealthadvisors.com

Morris Nutt is CEO and Owner of Trinity Capital Management with teams and strategic partners in Memphis, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, New York City and Tampa. A Fiduciary and Hybrid Registered Investment Advisor serving wealthy investors in forty-two States, Morris specializes in advanced portfolio management with an emphasis in tax reduction, income creation and estate protection. He accomplishes this by utilizing rare opportunities in structured insurance application, alternative strategies and high-level portfolio management. He also specialized in helping Business Owners with advanced business exit strategies. Advisory services offered through Kingswood Wealth Advisors (KWA) an SEC registered investment adviser. Securities services offered through Kingswood Capital Partners. LLC (KCP) member FINRA/SIPC. KWA and KCP are affiliated entities.

Disclaimer

Advisory services offered through Trinity Capital Management, LLC an SEC registered investment adviser. Investing involves risk. Kingswood and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Big Business’s New Frontier

To reach a more promising outcome for our energy sources and utilization, we must engage in thoughtful discussions devoid of vitriol.

Last March, I attended Worth’s Techonomy Climate 2023. I was inspired by speakers such as Bill Gross, Melanie Nakagawa, Ellen Jackowski, and Susan Kenniston. They impressed on me that the sustainable energy sector is vast and diverse. From renewable power generation to energy-efficient technologies, the possibilities are only limited by our imagination.

As business owners and entrepreneurs, we must recognize that economic growth and environmental stewardship can be mutually reinforcing. By adopting renewable sources, we safeguard our energy security, reducing our dependence on finite resources that may become scarce or politically unstable. Moreover, sustainable energy solutions empower local and global communities by fostering self-reliance and creating jobs in emerging sectors that promise long-term prosperity.

With the cost of clean energy continuing to drop, and the demand for sustainable products and services on the rise, businesses that invest in climate solutions are positioned to thrive in the years to come. However, moving away from fossil fuels won’t be easy.

One of the smartest and most thoughtful people I know, Bill Gross, explained why it is so hard to let go of fossil fuels. “Energy is such a big part of our humanity. It accounts for our comfort, convenience, productivity, safety, and dramatic growth in GDP…We have to stop burning stuff and use a renewable energy source to still have all the comforts and conveniences of our lives without adding more to that landfill up in the sky.”

As we learn to incorporate sustainable solutions into our energy infrastructure, we will run into problems. However, problems create space for the backbone of the American economy to thrive. Innovation, resilience, and entrepreneurship will rush to fill gaps, but we must give them the runway.

The key to this conversion is affordability. Gross pointed out that energy accounts for 10% of the $100 trillion global GDP. Making meaningful change in an industry of that size takes something big to push the needle. That thing is money. People rely on affordable access to energy. This is the next big business frontier.

And it’s not just businesses currently relying on fossil fuels that are poised to make an advantageous shift to sustainable innovation. Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer at Microsoft, took the stage to discuss how Microsoft is doubling down on its commitment to fight climate change and solving one of its biggest problems—transparency between partners. They recently launched their Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, a data hub that allows their customers and partners to view, record, and track their data through the lens of sustainability.

I recently got the opportunity to meet Brian Halligan, co-founder and executive chairman at HubSpot.

Brian recently co-founded Propeller VC, a venture capital fund targeting ocean-based solutions to battle climate change. Brian explained that the ocean stores 90% of the earth’s carbon dioxide and produces 50% of the oxygen we humans breathe. Propeller VC focuses on opportunities to conserve and enhance the ocean’s resources, and at 70% of our planet’s surface, there is endless innovation to explore in the science and technology sectors.

Last year, I shared how the venerable speakers at Worth’s Techonomy Climate 2022 changed my mind about the urgency of climate change. This year, I came away with the conviction that those who do not make this shift are missing out on the most prominent business opportunities of our lifetime. Renewable energy costs are dropping, demand for sustainable products and services is rising, and customers are increasingly seeking businesses committed to environmental stewardship. It’s time to adopt a more balanced, thoughtful approach that incents the right behaviors and welcomes the next frontier of business. For those still skeptical about this conversion, I ask you again: Why not?

When Your Life Changes, Remember Priorities Change Too

There is a big difference between predicting the future and anticipating it. The former has shown to be difficult, if not impossible. But anticipating future events is possible. We can also take the next step, considering our possible priorities, both personal and financial, before those anticipated things happen.

Mark Twain said, “To change your life, you need to change your priorities.” While Twain certainly had a point, often the reverse happens. Your life changes and you need to change your priorities. The catch? Life rarely gives you “a heads up” that it’s going to change. The best we can do is take a stab at anticipating what paths life will open up to us. So, how do you do that?

Start with thinking that the anticipating/prioritizing process is really peeking around the corner, a sort of structured game of “What if?” And history provides us many guideposts. For example, we’ve had a dozen recessions in the U.S. since WWII. The time between recessions varies from just a few years to almost a decade.

So, how do you anticipate a recession? You acknowledge that one will come. It may not be this year or next year, but one will come. And when it does, what will your priorities be if money tightens, both personal and financial?

And what about forces of change closer to home? What if you come into a windfall from business or inheritance? A friend once said, “It’s easy to plan for prosperity.” And while he may be right, you still have to plan for it. Or alternatively, your family experiences unexpected financial strain from a health crisis or something similar? Either circumstance requires a reshuffling of priorities.

Marriages, even happy ones, can end. So, what if yours does? Or alternatively, you find the love of your life, get married and start having kids? Again, either path requires multiple reprioritizations. And, of course, life ends for all of us, and as unpleasant as that is to think about, we need to. What if we die younger than expected? Or on the other hand, what if we live into our 90s, or even 100s? What then?

Not all priority adjustments are reactive. You may wake up one day and decide you want to rethink your philanthropy, or the way you share your legacy with those close to you, or you want to make sure your investments are environmentally friendly.

Whatever the changes, reactive or proactive, in most cases, they will trigger not only an emotional response, but will require a financial response as well. That’s where your advisor comes in. In my view,

whatever the change in priorities, there is an ideal solution, a bull’s eye, if you will, that an effective wealth manager should be aiming for. But since that bull’s eye is a moving target, how do they know when and how to offer that solution?

How? By being considered a participant in your life, not a bystander, and achieving that through a disciplined process of probing with openness and supportive questions. It takes work to be aware of and anticipate changes that will affect you and your family, both reactive and proactive changes, and make the necessary priority adjustments in your financial plan.

One might think of this approach as an advisor keeping the financial gears of your life moving, and they do need to shift, not just to keep up with change, but to anticipate it, too. As another friend has said, “Inertia during change is not a plan.”

THE ADVISOR

Thomas C. West, CLU, ChFC, AIF, a senior partner in SEIA’s Virginia office, has worked in investment management for over 25 years. He has a robust wealth management practice that emphasizes cash flow in all stages of retirement with an emphasis on planning and asset management for families facing the challenge of healthrelated dependency due to disability, illness, or death. Tom is the creator of Lifecare Affordability Plan®, a proprietary healthcare-driven financial planning tool from SEIA.

ABOUT seia.com | twest@seia.com $16.9 Billion assets managed as of 3/31/2023 SEIA & its affiliates WORTH.COM SUMMER 2023

Greed Works: Investing in Radical Collaboration

General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja was burned by the first climate tech investment boom, but he is doubling down for Climate Tech 2.0.

General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja was one of the first significant investors to participate in the first Climate Tech boom that started around 2006 and came crashing down in 2012. The experience, he admits, left him with some post-traumatic stress disorder. Nonetheless, he is back and more bullish on climate tech than ever. Teneja says the key to scaling climate tech solutions is radical collaboration across the tech, policy, and capital sectors. Teneja spoke at Techonomy Climate 2023 in Mountain View, California.

Dan Costa: You’ve been investing in climate tech for a while and have called the recent boom Climate Tech 2.0? What did you learn from the 1.0 cycle?

Hemant Teneja: I got into investing in climate in 2006. I was in Boston at that time. As a generalist investor, your job was to follow smart people. And at that time, half the faculty at the MIT campus was starting to work on climate and climate-related things. And many smart students wanted to start companies in that area. We decided we should follow them and started investing in the area. We put together a business plan. There were no entrepreneurs that knew how to do this. There needed to be policies that had been created that created market certainty. And indeed, we knew nothing about it. Around 2012 and 2013, a lot of that crumbled. Many of us invested in that area could have been more successful. There were very few companies that worked. And some that did have been very profound, as we know, like Tesla, but generally, there were a lot of learnings there.

Was it just too early? Was there just a need for more business expertise?

Market certainty is a big thing when you build a business. The way the policies were written then didn’t create a certain market certainty for us. I’ll give an example. We funded some companies that were working on cellulosic ethanol. The whole idea was to start blending ethanol into gasoline. And there was this entire renewable fuel standard that was created. And the penalty for not complying for oil companies was 25 cents a gallon. What did they do? They just passed out to the consumer and took the penalty. Wherever the policy design was poor, markets suffered. Compare that to solar, where you had the investment tax credit. You could see the infrastructure building. Look at where we are with

solar today. There were significant learnings on how you are going to end up. Is the ecosystem going to let you in as policymakers? Are you going to develop policies that create markets?

The second thing was these businesses are so complex. Many founders and entrepreneurs building US companies were academics who could have been more commercial in their thinking. They were like, ‘We’ll do the science innovation, we’ll build the first pilot plant, we’ll build a commercial plant, and we’re going to scale to billions of gallons or gigawatts.’ That is just that’s just not how you build businesses.

When you start compounding technology and market risks, things take longer, and the natural appetite for funding disappears. I have severe PTSD from doing that. Getting back into it now, I am the biggest detractor in the firm we have to get over because I was the one who dealt with all the failures the first time around.

How is the current landscape better?

I’m very encouraged by the entrepreneurs building companies this time around. They are amazing. Look at what Peter Reinhart is doing at Charm, Matt Rogers at Nest, or what the Stripe folks are doing with Stripe Climate Initiative and how they’re catalyzing the market. They are true systems engineers. That gives me hope.

The other thing is that a lot of innovation was about changing the supply infrastructure the first time around. This time we have two perspectives, both a demand and customer orientation. There’s a lot of pressure on corporations to be ESG-compliant, forcing them to think differently. The conviction in the general public is higher that this is a thing. This isn’t just a political viewpoint. Collectively, I feel like the world is moving towards the idea now is the time to act.

What do you look for when investing?

The Founder. Company-building is a big, big thing for me. The second thing is that the mindset of building these types of companies must be different from what we do in Silicon Valley. In software, you build $100 million business selling developer tools, your market leader, and it’ll be throwing money at you, and you can go public and do whatever you want. You sell $100 million of solar power; nobody cares.

Why? Because the markets are so large, your impact on the industry is insignificant at that scale. How do you think about radical collaboration within the ecosystem so that you can make a difference at scale? How do you defy physics and scale in a way that startups aren’t meant to? That has alot to do with surrounding yourself with ecosystems and building. That mindset is essential.

Silicon Valley understands the software model well, but many climate solutions are hardware solutions. Do investors have an appetite for the longer timeframes that hardware takes?

We have a thesis in our firm around just global resilience in general. Climate is a part of it, food, and even defense. In a world where politics is starting to trump business in certain parts of the economy, how will these supply chains reconfigure? That’s where your traditional venture model actually breaks. You can’t think on ten-year horizons; it is too short. We have an effort in the firm to transform the healthcare system. I’m ten years into it, and we have 150 companies we’re building. It will take another 20 years before we make a difference in the US health-

care system. Climate is an even more complex problem. And obviously, you need to solve it globally to work because we all share the same atmosphere. So the scope is even far, far more significant.

Are there any technologies or approaches that you’re a big fan of?

I haven’t thought that way, to be honest. There’s no silver bullet. You study fusion because of the discovery made, and you realize where it will take another 40 years. You deep dive into hydrogen and see some interesting use cases where it should be used. To me, it’s always about portfolio construction. There are applications and use cases that are all big enough segments that you can build companies bid a lot of these different technologies. What kind of a portfolio do I want to see in our firm ten years from now? I’d like to see the entire view, create a diverse portfolio, and take a shot and all the different directions.

You want to place all the bets…

…I don’t call them bets. You have to attempt all the technologies.

Okay, fair. That is why you’re an investor and I’m a journalist. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has come up a lot today. What does it mean for you as a climate tech investor?

When you start working on healthcare, climate, or food, those are regulated markets. If you’re really going to change those systems, you have no choice but to think about innovating at the intersection of technology, policy, and capital. That’s the only way it works. And so this idea that the government is going to solve it, or the private sector is going to solve it, I don’t believe that will work. Radical collaboration is going to solve it. Fear doesn’t work, greed works. I’m a big believer that, n the end, capitalism is the answer to climate change.

“I don’t call them bets. You have to attempt all the technologies.”

Rum Diaries

The Ethical Cellar heads to St. Lucia, the home of spiced rum in the Caribbean.

The Ethical Cellar was on vacation in St. Lucia, where grapes are not grown. Usually, we cover ethically made wine, but on this trip, our focus was rum and spices.

With each passing year, St. Lucia becomes hotter, not only from ubiquitous global warming but because travelers have finally discovered the joys to be found there. Until COVID, tourism increased annually and is strongly rebounding, resorts are being revamped and built, and the island continues to wear the crown as the #1 honeymoon destination.

During decades of vacationing in the Caribbean, we have visited over 20 islands, but for the last half dozen years have chosen to return to St. Lucia annually because of (in no particular order) the grace, charm, and humor of the Lucians, the jaw-dropping tropical vegetation, the mountains with their rain forests, the clear warm water, and the sense that there remain daily reminders of the “authentic” Caribbean. A minute off the main road are machete-wielding banana farmers in their muddy boots and cows lazily eating roadside grass while egrets rest on their backs. Each afternoon, groups of uniformclad, backpack-wearing schoolchildren buy freshly baked treats on their way home. As an aside, St. Lucia has an excellent educational system, with many graduates leaving the island for advanced studies. We know of two, one who is now a surgeon at Johns Hopkins, the other a geological engineer in Scandinavia. The island boasts two Nobel Laureates—Derek Walcott and Sir William Lewis.

Unfortunately, most visitors miss this. They’re in gated, allinclusive resorts. Not us. We rent an apartment, shop in the central farmer’s market and bakeries, and procure the local beverage, in this case, rum.

With abundant sugar cane, rum has ruled the Caribbean for centuries. But each island claims its distilling techniques that make their rums unique.

A brief reminder. The amber color of rum comes from either barrel aging or the addition of caramel. If the former, the alcohol leaches tannins and esters from the porous wood, creating both color and flavor.

Rum’s influence on St. Lucia is profound. However, because of the mountainous terrain, which limited the viability of the plantation (slave) economy relative to other Caribbean islands, St. Lucia didn’t grow much cane. Instead, they per-

fected the distilling process.

An artisanal offshoot of white rum is spiced rum. St. Lucians claim to have invented this brew, a product which, in its industrialized incarnation (think Captain Morgan), appears on U.S. mini-mart shelves.

Locals pride themselves on their homemade versions. Passions run deep on whose formula results in the best-spiced rum.

Intrigued by this spirit subculture, we asked a St. Lucian friend if he would introduce us to his favorite spiced rum mixologist. After work on Friday (payday), he took us to nearby Roseau, where Junior Louis prepared rum for that night’s sale.

Junior’s headquarters are in the kitchen of his home, located down a narrow alley lined with tiny houses, each a foot or two from its neighbor. The alley is lively. Residents have pulled chairs into the limited space for animated conversations. Children are running around, and Junior is hard at work. His kitchen has been usurped by the accoutrements of this business, primarily oversized bottles containing spiced rum in various stages of maturity.

Junior attributes his island-wide success (including a bar owner who drives 3-hours round-trip each week to have his spiced rum bottles refilled) to his proprietary selection and combination of hand-harvested barks (including mauby), herbs, and spices, many of which are unfamiliar to us. Along with cinnamon, star anise, fennel seed, and two types of bay leaves, he uses Kalkan, bois de bande (said to be an aphrodisiac), and nanny, the latter of which imparts a mild minty flavor to the beverage. Proof that this is a winning recipe, his brand, Monster Spice, garnered the top award at an island-wide competition judged by distillery professionals.

Junior uses Denros’ 160-proof rum, explaining that the high alcohol content is necessary to extract

flavors from the spices. After macerating all of the above for 5-7 days, he adds enough purified water to bring the alcohol down to that of most rums (40%) and then sweetens the mixture with passion fruit, mango, or ginger concentrate. Every business needs quality control, and his is no exception. Once a batch is ready, the first customers get a free sample in return for feedback. During our visit, the batch was too strong, so he remixed before allowing paying customers to partake at 5EC ($1.80) per “shot.”

Junior has competition. Because of the low barrier to entry (the Castries market sells packages of spices, as well as bottles with dried herbs ready for the addition of rum), spiced rum is available almost everywhere. For example, our roadside fruit vendor had shots for sale.

One of his rivals is another friend, Ishana, who sells spiced rum from her beachfront bar in Marigot Bay. Ishana uses many of the same spices as Junior, but her method is different and, we think, unique. She boils the herbs, including nutmeg, in homemade sugar syrup, refusing to rely on the sweetness in juice concentrates. We found her product surprisingly different and smoother from Junior’s, despite the similarity in ingredients.

If you can’t track down Junior or Ishana, all the grocery stores sell spiced rum made by St. Lucia Distillers, an umbrella corporation with numerous well-known brands, including Chairman’s Reserve and Bounty. At their tasting facility, we were fans of Chairman’s Reserve #1, a limited-edition spiced rum made with turmeric, ginger, and almonds. In general, commercial brands are for tourists and export.

Wanting to try our hand at the spiced rum alchemy, we brought home a package of ready-toimmerse spices and barks. Luckily, overproof rum is available in the U.S. Our batch is currently “aging.” We’ll let you know how it turns out.

“Rum has ruled the Caribbean for centuries. But each island claims its distilling techniques that make their rums unique.”

Must-Visit Travel Destinations for Watch Enthusiasts

From museums to monuments, here are some of the top experiences around the globe to help you take your love of watches from hobby to passion.

Most watch enthusiasts will make the obligatory pilgrimage to Switzerland, the Mecca of watchmaking, at some point in their lifetime. If you love a particular brand, you may plan a trip to tour the factory or visit the maker’s museum. But, what if you’re traveling to New Zealand, India, or Israel? What if you want to know the best watch destination right here in the States? Maybe you’re looking for something more interactive than a museum—like a hands-on experience building your own timepiece from scratch. There are loads of opportunities around the world for watch lovers to deepen their passion and knowledge beyond visiting brand museums. Here, we’ll explore seven unique travel destinations for watch enthusiasts.

ISRAEL: MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART

At first glance, you might consider something other than the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem to be a horological destination. However, it’s home to a selection of rare clocks and watches from one of the foremost horological collectors and historians of the twentieth century, Sir David Lionel Salomons. Salomons had a particular interest in complicated watches built on advanced mechanical principles, and his collection reflects that. Among the 200 items are a wide array of horological objects, including 55 watches and clocks from Abraham-Louis Breguet. Salomons was one of Breguet’s most prolific collectors, so much so that he wrote a book on the esteemed watchmaker’s life and work titled Breguet. Among the watches is perhaps one of the most significant pieces ever crafted by Breguet: watch No. 160 (WA 69), today known as the “Marie Antoinette.” This particular object took nearly 40 years to complete, featuring astonishing innovations, like a calendar complication that adjusts to leap years, a thermometer, and the equation of time, among others.

CZECH REPUBLIC: OLOMOUC ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK

While many will travel to Olomouc to visit the Holy Trinity Column, its secular counterpart is the original gothic building of the city hall, which dates back to the fourteenth century. The centerpiece of the city hall building is a 500-yearold astronomical clock that’s one of the only heliocentric clocks in the world. Originally built sometime between the mid-1400s and early-1500s, the Olomouc Astronomical Clock displays the Earth and planets revolving around the Sun at the center of the universe. At the time, this defied the popular belief of geocentrism, which placed Earth at the center. Over nearly 600 years, the Olomouc Astronomical Clock has been reconstructed several times, with the latest update occurring in the 1950s by the artist Karel Svolinský. Svolinský is responsible for introducing the folklore motif of the Ride of the Kings at the top of the recess alongside various portrayals depicting characteristic work for each month of the year.

FRANCE: ATELIER DU BRACELET PARISIEN

A more unconventional stop on your horological travels might include a bespoke maker like Atelier Du Bracelet Parisien. Just steps away from Place Vendôme in the heart of Paris, home to numerous watch boutiques and the Breguet Museum, you’ll find one of Europe’s premier custom strap makers. What initially appears as a modest workshop is home to every type of leather in every color you can imagine, including vegan options like cactus, grape, and pineapple. Atelier Du Bracelet Parisien is a small, family-owned company spanning two generations that has been operating for over two decades. It has been certified as a “Living Heritage Company” by the French state since its products are entirely handmade in the Paris outpost according to centuries-old techniques and traditions. Here, you can custom-build each and every element of your strap, from the thickness to the stitching and the tip shape to the keepers.

NEW ZEALAND: CLAPHAM CLOCK MUSEUM

Whangarei is New Zealand’s most northern city, made up mainly of rural land that gives way to the Bay of Islands. Thanks to its quaint charm and modest size, it’s the type of place where everyone knows your name, especially when you have a big personality like Archibald Clapham. Clapham moved from his home in Yorkshire, UK, to Whangarei in 1903. He quickly developed a reputation for his fun-loving personality and collection of over 400 horological objects, which included a vast range of timekeepers, from his bespoke pieces to more historically significant ones, like ancient water clocks. In 1961, Clapham sold his collection to the local Council, and a year later, they opened the Clapham Clock Museum in his honor. It’s now home to over 2100 clocks and timepieces, each carrying on Claphma’s quirky spirit, making it one of the largest collections of horological instruments in the Southern Hemisphere.

INDIA: JANTAR MANTAR

When you think of Jaipur, India, you might picture fine jewelry and luxury textiles. However, the Pink City is also home to a unique destination that attracts horological enthusiasts and architects, artists, and historians. Jantar Mantar comprises a collection of observatories, each with a specialized function for astronomical measurement, which date back to the beginning of the eighteenth century. The construction started in 1724 when Maharajah Sawaii Jai Singh II of Jaipur commissioned these five astronomical observatories to be built in northern India. At the time, most astronomical instruments were brass, but Maharajah Sawaii Jai Singh II wanted these structures to showcase locally sourced marble and stone. Among the observatories that make up Jantar Mantar is the world’s largest stone sundial, measuring over 88 feet. The Samrat Yantra or “Supreme Instrument’’ is not only aesthetically striking but also technically impressive. The dial can measure time with astounding precision, boasting an accuracy of two seconds.

UNITED STATES: HARVARD UNIVERSITY’S COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS

In 1948, Harvard University established its Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Today, it’s grown to contain over 20,000 objects, making it one of the three largest university collections of its kind. Among the array of horological and astronomical instruments is the largest collection of sundials in North America. This gift from David P. Wheatland, class of 1922, includes ivory pocket sundials made in Nuremberg, Germany between 1575 and 1645.

Still, the most remarkable of the horological items found in the collection is Boston clockmaker Joseph Pope’s grand orrery. In it, you see the planets and moons of the planets as they were known at the time moving around the sun, turned by an elaborate set of gears. In addition, the exte-

rior is decorated with wooden figures cast in brass by Paul Revere. The grand orrery is not just an incredible object within itself. It embodies the ambitions of scientists in the eighteenth century, and therefore, it is the perfect representation of what the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments has to offer.

SWITZERLAND: INITIUM

We’d be remiss not to include a stop in Switzerland on this watch enthusiast’s journey around the globe. However, instead of a more typical destination like a brand museum or factory, we’ve opted for a more unconventional one. At Initium, you have the opportunity to make your own Swiss watch alongside Master Watchmakers. Options are available for either a half-day or daylong experience. The daylong workshop is the most robust and immersive. It begins with coffee, croissants, and

an introduction to watchmaking that includes disassembling and reassembling the heart of the watch: the movement. After a lunch break, it’s time to build your bespoke timepiece. No experience is required to participate, and workshop sizes are kept small to maintain a warm atmosphere and to guarantee a personal experience. You also have the option to fully customize the timepiece you build, making it a true personal staple of your collection.

Mixed Media

The previous vehicles for Tucci’s voicey, wry blend of story and food—cookbooks, memoir, social media videos—all succeed in their own way to bring to the page and social scroll a compelling, hospitable presence. But Tucci is, first of all and after all, an actor of immense talent: the screen is as much home as his nonna’s cucina. Cameras rolling, Tucci transmits an ineluctable magnetism. In Searching, he’s ostensibly tracking the soul of a national cuisine, a task rendered delightfully impossible by the extraordinary diversity of geography, agriculture, marine life, terroir, identity, politics, and more. Tucci’s not just in on that joke, of course. He wrote it. Like all travelogues, the joy is in the journey, and some questions are more fun to ask than to answer.

BOOKS Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, HumanityCentered

TELEVISION

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Five years without Bourdain. Half a decade since he disappeared in the dead of summer, scattered among a hundred cities. Since: our collective wandering in search of another Moses. Who could chauffeur us like the chef, hype like the hedonist, evoke wonder like the wanderer? The answer’s been clear since the dark, cold day of his death: nobody.

To replace a genius takes a tribe, his facets distributed across a chosen few whose gifts collectively re-aggregate the once-in-a-generation unification of voice and gut and mind and skill. To backfill Moses, we need a herd of Joshuas. The combinatory power of a Samin Nosrat, Roy Choi, Romesh Ranganathan, and a growing cadre of similarly nuanced, international voices.

Until recently, Stanley Tucci may have been an unlikely addition to such a cohort. Yet there he is, striding coolly across Italian streets and sidetracks, as much at home with Michelin-star chefs as local historians and farmers and bistro camerieri in his short-lived travel documentary series “Searching for Italy.” Suddenly the long shadow of Chef Bourdain seems to stretch behind him.

Over two seasons and 14 episodes, Tucci’s virtues clearly exceed those of a smooth-mannered host and dancing troubadour. More than his charisma that’s often celebrated, it’s the set-piece set-up of the show, the conversational investigations, and the depth of focus on the dimensions and complexities of Italian culture and cuisine that create an undeniably Bourdanian experience. Like “Parts Unknown”, or “No Reservations”, Searching is persona-driven, place-based, and precision-penned. It’s seasoned differently thought—with Tucci’s admirable restraint, companionable wit, boyish delight, and oldsoul wisdom. Tucci is no raconteur, and nowhere here is the rebelliousness or knifesharp irony of Bourdain. Edges have been smoothed, and any tension found is shortly released—a scan of political upheaval here, a hat-tip to environmental concern there. But the adoration of individual and community remains, the beating heart of a series that’s less about food than the people who grow it, find it, make it, and share it.

Searching for Italy is searching for a new home, having been cut loose by the cash-concerned corporate types at CNN’s new parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. Rumors of its rescue by another streaming service abound. Will Tucci be allowed to finish his circumnavigation of Italy, tucking into a bowl of something beautiful in the many regions he has left to visit? It is a question still unanswered. One question’s been settled, though: he certainly ought to.

Retrospectives challenge even the most gifted of curators. Looking back is rarely as successful as hoped. U2’s “Songs of Surrender” is an unnecessary, indulgent gloss on a legacy that does not require it. The hagiographied Joan Didion’s Let Me Tell You What I Mean added nothing to the verve and dynamism of the original essays—a mere commercial repackaging. The gargantuan Guggenheim Alex Katz retrospective was harrowingly good at creating more detractors than devotees.

So what should we make of Don Norman’s latest work Design for a Better World:

Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Center? Is the sui generis thinker, who gave frame and language to a movement that has shaped much of our contemporary relationship with consumer products, engaging in regurgitation (at worst), retrospective (slightly better), or, dare we imagine it, revelation?

The question, though it does not sound like it, is a compliment. Looking back—and looking deeper—at one’s foundational work is a luxury afforded only to those whose dent in the universe was sufficiently deep to deserve a second or sixty-sixth glance.

Norman qualifies. His Design of Everyday Things, first published 25 years ago, was a seminal work of the now-ubiquitous concept of user-first design. His work is as likely to be evoked by transit designers and city planners as front-end developers, industrial creatives, automotive designers, and beyond. How to escape the gravity of such a profound accomplishment would be a puzzle for any artist. Norman seems to know this and thus doesn’t try. Instead, he keeps faith with his original premise while bringing new queries to his first principles. The result is a brave

An actor tours Italy in search of the soul of a nation, a design pioneer rethinks the nature of product design, and a photographer displays a knack for unsettling placemaking.

attempt to expand the scope of what one considers the possibility and responsibility of good design.

Such bravery is required, as the backdrop of this work is notably darker than that of his break-out thesis. Quite literally, the weather has changed. The tactics that Norman popularized seem quaint against planetary distress caused, at least in part, by the efficient application of his ideas. Can we design our way out of a problem we designed? The question requires multi-dimensional thinking and an unlikely blend of hubris and humility. Lucky for us, Norman is an endlessly curious polymath, and the book approaches its basic query with crossdisciplinary choreography. Diverging, then converging; zooming into the microscopic and back out to the cosmic; visiting crowd-sourced solutions before navigating the bureaucracy of cities and nations. Norman finds everywhere a common problem: artificiality, an approach to designing systems and products that jettisons meaning, disregards negative externalities, and, worst of all, masquerades as natural order. To rebel against the tyranny of the artificial requires messianic intervention by the Norman-esque ideal of a designer. As said, he keeps the faith.

In the broadened mandate for designers, Norman’s no longer interested in your teapot. He’s after the big structures that govern our hours and epochs: Work, Education, Healthcare, Politics, and Rewards. If Norman’s right, the next decades will introduce a set of liberating new approaches to living in society. If he’s wrong, we’ll have succeeded at designing our own effortless catastrophe.

PHOTOGRAPHY

This Is Where I Am

“Poetry,” Auden wrote, “makes nothing happen.” Or maybe it just takes its time. Five decades after Ethiopian poet Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin wrote his dagger of a poem, “This is Where I Am,” a fellow countrywoman takes his work as provocation for an arresting series of photographs that comprise Public Art Fund’s most globally-distributed installment to date. More than 300 bus stops across New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire showcase Aïda Muluneh’s vibrant, startling, transportive images.

In one photograph, two white-masked women sit in scarlet Van Gogh chairs on either side of a yellow obelisk that splits the photograph. Above them, a parade of redrobed women hoist brooms like militia during drills. In another, the locks of three women converge in the center of a photograph. Two frame-facing figures stand back-to-back in profile, symmetrically tilting red jebena, traditional Ethiopian coffee pots. In the foreground, a regal figure draped in red turns her head slightly toward the frame—and suddenly flashes her eyes back at the viewer. In accusation? Defense? Invitation?

The photographs unsettle. Muluneh’s visual voice is loud—marked by swaths of pronounced color, masked faces, floating eyes, and luscious chromatic backdrops—but crisp, without dissonance or vibrato. The effect is immediate and lasting, the iconography familiar enough to snap into an archetypal memory but fresh enough to demand a head tilt of curiosity.

To this temporary gallery, located in the dot of a transit map, a bus is coming. Or it’s going. And so are you. Locating Muluneh’s images in the flat box of the human holding pen lifts her work from photography to performance. Public art rarely strides so boldly into such truly public space. Muluneh’s project doesn’t climb atop a facade, project upon a multi-story wall, or dominate a public park. The human-sized, liminal arena of a bus stop is a metaphor for Muluneh’s experience of a refugee and immigrant, a life lived in movement—and not always of one’s choosing.

Of course, art in the age of mechanical reproduction ensures Muluneh is not in one place but many at one time, each installation instance linked by the standardized shape of a metro billboard. That her images replace adverts for mobile phones and perfume and tequila is an act of both delightful subversion and portal creation. One imagines each of her images tethered somehow to the next, opening like the magical doors of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, on the other side a fellow traveler.

If such displacement is her backdrop, place-making is her project. Evoked in each photograph is a sense of the fierce urgency of now. In the fragmented reality of war, famine, and migration, Muluneh is suggesting all one has is here and now. Look deeply, feel your feet on the ground. This is where you are.

Leadership: From Command & Control to Trust & Inspire

Stephen M.R. Covey outlines a leadership model that inspires employees by building trust, creating clear expectations, and holding them accountable.

The old leadership model of command and control in the workplace has broken down in the past few years. Luckily, Stephen M.R. Covey has a solution. Mr. Covey is a world-renowned keynote speaker and author, most known for his two books, Speed of Trust and Smart Trust. Covey’s newest book, Trust and Inspire, details a way of leading that starts with believing that people are creative, collaborative, and full of potential.

Jim McCann: How do we work to maintain a good and healthy culture for our company and for its people?

Stephen M.R. Covey: People long for human connection. You must be deliberate when you are bringing people together. And maybe that’s more frequent, maybe it’s not, it depends on the business and the context. But we must try to find ways—especially when we are virtual—to do the best we can to the equivalent of those watercooler talks.

How has the ESG dialogue changed? I’m going to guess that 10 years ago, it wasn’t something that you addressed a lot with the companies and CEOs that you coach.

I think that’s accurate. While there were a few that were kind of ahead of the game, it is a different discussion today. Of course, you have a whole range of people that say the words, but still mimic the old model of “shareholders only.” But there are also those who are saying, “Look, the world has changed, and we’ve got to change with it.” My big argument in this book is that the way you’re going to win in the marketplace, in the long run, is by first winning in the workplace with your own people, with your own team.

How is it that people who grow up living and working in a commandand-control structure, like those in the military, are such good participants in a trust and inspire environment?

That’s an interesting question and I have a couple of thoughts on it. First, at least in the United States, the military is our highest trusted institution. As for professions, nurses are maybe the highest trusted profession. But as an institution, the military remains more trusted than anything else. And while command control is kind of a military term, what’s interesting is, even within the military, it’s shifting to where there’s far more trust being extended. And the military—historically—is focused a lot on the credibility, the trustworthiness of people, their character, and their competence.

Trust is the secret sauce of the military. Even though they have historically been in a command and control mindset, or hierarchy, I would say that the mindset over the last decade or so has shifted—even within some hierarchal command control mechanisms, we are moving toward the mechanisim of trust and inspire.

How do you model how to “trust and then inspire” people?

Whenever you’re extending trust, whether that’s in a virtual setting or in person, you need to build an agreement together around the trust being extended and being given so that there are clear expectations. And there’s an agreed-upon process for accountability to those expectations. You’re really trying to shift the responsibility from me, as the boss hovering over the person, to the person taking ownership and responsibility. Then people feel like, “Hey, I’m really responsible, they really trust me, they’re not just saying that they trust me, they do trust me, and I’m accountable to this agreement and the results I’ve agreed to.”

When you build that relationship of trust first, and then build an agreement with expectations and accountability, where the person feels responsible for the agreement you built together, that tends to bring out the best in people to the point where they are actually more productive. If they feel inspired because they feel truly trusted, they perform better.

A study from Bain came out that showed inspired employees are 125% more productive than merely satisfied employees. So just being satisfied is not enough. Inspired employees were even 56% more productive than engaged employees. And we’ve been using engagement kind of as the holy grail right? And that’s a good thing, you won’t get the inspiration without going through engagement. So engagement is still necessary to go after.

But then there’s another frontier. If people feel inspired—and inspire means to breathe life into—then there’s another level of productivity that can be reached, as they then choose to give, they volunteer, they’re more creative, and they’re more innovative. And that’s what we’re trying to get to. And that’s why trust and inspire is where I think leadership is going.

When you worked with a completely virtual company, what about the leadership there did you really take note of? What did you notice about leadership that can be so effective in a completely virtual environment?

Their focus is on how to extend that trust with clear expectations and with agreed-upon accountability. By building an agreement together, almost by definition, they were saying “We trust you.” But they had not focused enough on clear expectations around the trust being given. So, they needed more help on building the agreement. I call it the stewardship agreement, trust being given with expectations and accountability. And it goes back even as far back as my father. When I was seven years old, he taught me how to take care of our lawn. He called it green and clean. He trained me over two weeks to take care of our lawn, but the whole point was, “It’s your job. We need green and clean.” That’s the result. How I did it was up to me. I could turn on the sprinklers, use a hose, or bucket, or spit all day long, but the result needed was green and clean. And then he built accountability into it, saying, “Hey, once a week, let’s walk around and tell me how you’re doing.” So, if it works with a seven-year-old, it’ll work with a 17-year-old, or a 27, 37, 57, or 77-year-old because these principles work.

What do you think about the idea of a year of service for our country, that people when they graduated from high school, would do a year of service of some kind or another

before they go on to their college education?

I think the principle of it is profound to serve and to have a mindset of service. “How can I best serve?” is a big idea especially since we live in a culture that tends to be the opposite. The mindset of serving, helping, caring, elevating, embracing, loving, and coming together—we need more of this in our society because we are fractured and divided too much and a service mentality would go a long way to begin to shift that, that’s the premise. Dr. Martin Luther King put it that everyone has the potential for greatness, not for fame, but for greatness, because greatness is determined by service. One of the fundamental beliefs of trust and inspire leadership is stewardship. The job of a leader is to put service above self-interest.

I was privileged to see your dad speak a couple of times. And in one session, I think at a convention in Las Vegas, he told half the room before he began his remarks: “So you have your pad, you have your pens, you’re going to be required at some point and step up and reteach this.” And the other half of the room was there just as participants and listeners. The scoring in terms of retention was remarkably higher than those who had the expectation to listen. They had to take notes differently to be prepared to present the material. now whenever we go into a meeting, I usually take a young person on the side and say, “At the end, I’m going to call on you to summarize where we were, what the action items were, and what did we learn from today’s meeting?” And it always puts them on the spot, but they participate so much more, they get so much more out of it, and in turn, get us more out of it.

The best way to learn is to teach and to see yourself as a teacher. It is a mindset, and trust and inspire begins with that mindset.

“If people feel inspired— and inspire means to breathe life into—then there’s another level of productivity that can be reached.”

JUNE

Tribeca Film Festival

JUNE 7-18, NEW YORK CITY

This internationally recognized annual spring showcase features diverse films, television, conversations, and more.

Diana Ross at the Britt Music & Arts Festival

JUNE 19, JACKSONVILLE, OREGON

Watch the iconic Diana Ross grace a stage that was built to celebrate her latest album— carefully curated to cultivate collective spirit and togetherness.

AUGUST

The Green Summit

JULY 15, NEW YORK CITY

Featuring the Founder of North Face and Kristy Drutman of Brown Girl Green, enjoy a day filled with 15 experts in business, finance, tech, energy, and sustainability, sharing their vision for a better future.

US Open

AUGUST 28-

SEPTEMBER 10, NEW YORK CITY

This year celebrate the 50th anniversary of equal prize money and champion of equality Billie Jean King.

2023 Ventures Summit— Climate Innovation

JUNE 22, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

Enjoy a day focused on missiondriven innovation and investing to improve human life and environmental health on a global scale.

Lallapalooza

AUGUST 3-6, CHICAGO

From headliners like Billie Eilish to Kendrick Lamar to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and everyone in between, this year promises to do nothing but deliver a memorable weekend.

World Finance Forum

JUNE 22-23, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Uncover new opportunities, discover emerging trends in the financial landscape, and understand what is needed to be a champion of change.

Newport Jazz Festival

AUGUST 4-6, NEWPORT, RI

Maybe Lallapalooza isn’t your ideal music festival, and we understand. The same weekend on the east coast, enjoy Diana Krall, Samara Joy, Jon Batiste, and more.

JULY

Festival of Arts

JULY 7, LAGUNA BEACH, CA

This internationally renowned art show is one of the nation’s oldest and most highly acclaimed. Enjoy a litany of mediums and the ability to purchase directly from the artists.

Fringe Festival

AUGUST 4-28, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival is the largest theater festival in the world. Enjoy original works and revivals from all around the world no matter your age.

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