Chuck Slaughter: Founder and President

After earning his BA at Yale, Chuck worked as a Program Officer at Trickle Up, an economic development NGO. He then returned to school to earn his MBA from the Yale School of Management. After Yale, Chuck worked as a management consultant for Fortune 100 companies at Marakon Associates. In 1991, Chuck founded TravelSmith Outfitters, a direct marketer of travel clothing and gear. He built TravelSmith into the #1 brand in travel gear with over $100 million in sales before selling his business in 2004. Chuck then turned his energies back to his roots in social sector. As pro bono president, Chuck oversaw the turnaround of The HealthStore, an NGO-operated network of 65 franchised drug shops and clinics in Kenya. In 2007,Chuck was awarded a Draper Richards Fellowship to support the launch of Living Goods. He currently serves on the boards of Spiegel Brands, Living Goods, and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and is a member of the Initiative for Global Development and TechnoServe.

Joe Speicher: Vice President, Operations

Joe began his career in the banking and finance sectors, first with Deutsche Bank in New York and then Cambridge Associates in Washington, DC. He then spent three years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines managing a range of micro-enterprise projects, including the implementation of a World Bank-funded project to create environmentally sustainable, village-based businesses. Joe earned his Masters in development economics from Columbia University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and Management from Washington and Lee University. He has consulted for a number of international projects including the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Microscope on Microfinance” report, TechnoServe, Tanzania’s coffee sector project, and Google.org’s East Africa business plan competition.

Molly Christiansen:  Director of Research & Development

Molly brings over ten years of experience in public health, international development, and social enterprise to her work at Living Goods. She developed social impact assessments for Vision Spring and Hindustan Lever Limited’s Project Shakti while living in India, and conducted diligence on Acumen Fund’s health and water investments. Before graduate school, she directed community development programs for ProWorld in Peru and managed a rural sanitation program in Mexico. Molly earned an MBA and MPH from the University of Michigan, where she focused on market-based solutions for poverty alleviation and global health.  She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University with a BA in Community Health.

Chris Murphy:  Director of Marketing & Development

Chris is an accomplished marketing strategist with over ten years experience designing powerful brand strategies for Fortune 50 companies (Citibank), national non-profits (PBS), and global causes (PRODUCT)RED. Chris’ brand insights provided the strategic backbone for some of the most powerful marketing campaigns of the past decade winning awards for both creativity (two Emmys) and effectiveness (five EFFIEs). After directing research and strategy on a project for The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chris caught the global health bug. Upon that project’s completion, he left his cushy advertising career to move to Kenya to develop a strategic communications capacity for Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest HIV/AIDS control program. Chris earned his BS in Marketing from the University of Minnesota and attended graduate school at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Armando Huerta:  East Africa Business Officer

Armando brings a breadth of global operations experience to Living Goods. He worked with the American International Group, first in New York City, then in Venezuela with a local subsidiary. He continued his career with WorldCare International, managing and expanding their operations throughout Latin America, Eastern Europe and South Asia, while based in Boston, Rio de Janeiro, Athens, Manila and Bangkok. After several years with WorldCare, he returned to New York City and the American International Group as part of their international operations team, overseeing operations in over 130 countries.  Armando obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and holds a Bachelor of Arts with a dual-major in International Studies and French from Emory University.

Stella Ikila:  Uganda Business Manager

Stella oversees Living Goods’ company-owned branches in Uganda. She has over 10 years experience in the private sector in Uganda. Stella worked in sales and marketing at DHL where she drove a 100% increase in sales to the NGO sector. She also worked at DFCU Bank in product development and supported opening of new branches. Prior to her corporate experience, Stella was an entrepreneur herself.  She co-owned and operated a supermarket  that sold many of the same consumer staples as Living Goods. Stella holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration (marketing major) and has just finished her Masters Degree in NGO Management. 

Ronald Musana :  Senior Business Officer

Ronald comes to Living Goods from MTN Uganda where he was a field team leader for a Grameen Foundation funded project of Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) in eastern Uganda.   Ronald managed 65 CKWs who used mobile phones to empower communities to get health, business and agricultural information. Ronald began his career with local government as an intern with Lira district fisheries department educating fishermen on modern fishing methods and helping to form fish landing management units. He then proceeded to work as a volunteer with “Samaritan purse” an NGO distributing relief items to internally displaced people in northern Uganda. Upon finishing university, Ronald served as Project Officer for KOKA on a UNICEF/Belgium Survival Fund funded project to mainstream nutrition among vulnerable populations with particular emphasis on people living with HIV/AIDS. Ronald earned a Post Graduate Diploma in project planning and management, a Bachelors of Arts in Organizational Studies, a Diploma in Education, a Certificate in Health Service Management, a Certificate in Rural Disaster Preparedness, a Certificate in Mainstreaming Nutrition and other certificates in business and local governance.  He is currently pursing a Masters in Management Studies.

Michael Rusoke: Health Training Officer

Michael joined Living Goods in February 2009 from the UK founded organization Mildmay International – an NGO that deals with the care, training and education of HIV infected and affected people. At Mildmay, Michael was a Health Training Officer focused on training staff and caregivers on how to effectively communicate with HIV infected and affected people with special attention given to disclosing HIV status to children and adolescents. Before Mildmay, Michael was a Child Development Officer with Compassion International, an organization helping orphans and vulnerable children in partnership with the Gaba Community Church.

Cailey Gibson: Research and Administrative Associate

A graduate of Carleton College in Minnesota, Cailey received her bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Environmental Studies, and was awarded a national Morris K. Udall scholarship for environmental leadership. After graduation, Cailey worked for the William J. Clinton Foundation’s Climate Change Initiative on their building retrofit program. Eager to understand the challenges of global sustainable development firsthand, Cailey spent a year living and working in Mali as a Microfinance Technical Support Officer with Project Muso, a community development organization integrating microfinance, health, and education programs, before moving to San Francisco and joining the Living Goods team.