News Article

(SPOKANE, Wash.) – John Sage, co-founder of Pura Vida Coffee, will discuss his company’s business model with Gonzaga University Comprehensive Leadership Program students at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 5 in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium.

The title of Sage’s talk is “Compassionate Capitalism.” The event is not open to the public but media are welcome to attend the CLP biannual Fish Bowl presentation. Sage will discuss how Pura Vida’s business model is driven by good not greed, and how that fits into his life and leadership.

Sage took his professional experiences at high-tech companies such as Microsoft and Starwave, and developed Pura Vida with the goal of building a profit-based “funding engine” to empower the poor in coffee-growing regions of the world. Operated for charitable benefit, Pura Vida’s mission “is to create good by using capitalism to empower producers, motivate consumers, inspire business leaders, and ultimately serve the poor,” Sage said. Pura Vida aims to utilize every facet of its business – capital structure, governance, employee recruitment, product sourcing, marketing and sales – to achieve positive social outcomes.

Stories about Sage’s model of social entrepreneurship and unique investment strategies have appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review and numerous publications such as The New York Times, Business Week, U.S. News & World Report, and The Seattle Times. CLP Director Josh Armstrong, Ph.D., said he is fortunate to host such a notable leader and social entrepreneur.

“Sage’s leadership principles of ‘compassionate capitalism’ are a great fit for Gonzaga’s mission to inspire leaders for the common good,” Armstrong said.

Established in 2002, the CLP is a three-year program designed to offer students curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities to develop knowledge and skills for leadership. The CLP Fish Bowl is a leadership conversation with regional and national leaders who share their expertise and insight with undergraduate students in the CLP.

For more information, call Armstrong at (509) 323-6493, Katie Herzog at 323-3579 or visit the program’s Web site.