Steve has been fortunate enough to serve on the Village Focus International board since 2016, drawn to the organization’s mission and belief that lasting change in Laos starts at the village level.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Steve has called Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands home for over thirty years. His path began on the island of Tinian in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where he taught 6th and 7th grade Reading, English, and P.E. shortly after graduating from Oregon State University. From there he lived and worked across Saipan, Guam, the Philippines, and Vientiane, Laos, where he spent several formative years from 2012 to 2016 — the period during which he joined VFI’s board.

Steve has spent his career building businesses across the region, from co-founding one of the CNMI’s first internet service providers to leading telecom and business development teams in Guam and the Philippines. In Laos, he ran a private equity office evaluating investment opportunities in the country’s emerging frontier market, and he later returned to the Philippines as a founding team member and Chief Operating Officer of a SaaS technology company.

Steve is also a co-founder of Team Audrey Advocates, a national advocacy group for Persons With Disabilities, and in 2024 he and his daughter became the first-ever father/daughter team with a disability to complete a World Triathlon event in Asia. He holds two bachelor’s degrees from Oregon State University, in English Literature and Political Science.

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