Ajit George

Business leader, Change Agent, Connector, Entrepreneur, Event planner, Foodie, Idea generator, Marketer, Philanthropist, World traveler

Ajit Mathew George is a serial entrepreneur, opportunity maker, creative marketer, TEDx organizer emeritus, food & wine aficionado, philanthropist. He has over 40 years of experience in creative marketing, strategic planning, and business development in various arenas from broadcasting and events to non-profits and real estate development. Ajit is the founder of Second Chances Farm, LLC, (www.secondchancesfarm.com) an organization focused on hiring and giving turn key entrepreneurial opportunities to people returning from prison after serving their sentences through the creation of indoor, hydroponic vertical farms – or “plant factories.” Second Chances plans to produce organic produce, year-round, in local communities and minimize the carbon footprint of transporting produce. Through Magic Dust, LLC, he helps organizations and individuals build their dreams, accelerate their results, and create richer, more fulfilling lives through Life Coaching, strategic marketing and event planning. Over the years, Ajit has sprinkled his “magic dust” to create some magical events such as First Night Wilmington, Meals From the Masters Celebrity Chef’s Brunch, Evening With The Masters, Cellar Masters Wine Auction, Evening of Style, Black Tie Monopoly Tournament, Virgin Islands Winemakers Dinners, MidAtlantic Wine + Food Festival and TEDxWilmington. As the founder of TEDxWilmington (www.tedxwilmington.com) Ajit organized and produced 32 TEDx events between 2012 and 2018 including a very special TEDx Salon inside a prison in July 2015. These different TEDxWilmington events featured 490 speakers from around the world who gave 469 TEDx talks. As of July 4, 2019, the TEDx talks given at TEDxWilmington had over 21.2 million views on YouTube. Ajit was also the founder of the MidAtlantic Wine+ Food Festival, which in 2015 consisted of a series of 33 acclaimed food and wine events in 4 states over 4 days featuring 60 chefs plus 23 winemakers from 6 continents. He organized this annual Wine + Food Festival for 4 years. In 1989, Ajit became the Founding Chairman of Meals On Wheels Delaware. He launched the highly successful Meals From The Masters Culinary Weekend in Delaware starting with the Meals From The Masters Celebrity Brunch in 1998 and added The Evening With The Masters and Cellar Masters Wine Auction. When he retired from Meals On Wheels Delaware in 2007, these three events had raised more than $4.2 million for Meals On Wheels in Delaware to ensure that Delaware was one of the few states in the United States where senior citizens did not have to join a waiting list for home-delivered meals each weekday. Together with his wife, Dr. Sarah Brown, Ajit created “An Evening Of Style” for YWCA Delaware and co-chaired this event in 2006 and 2007. In addition, Ajit was actively involved in developing a $3.7 million project to double the capacity of the YWCAs Home Life Management Center, on the 700 block of Madison Street in West Center City, which assists homeless families achieve self-sufficiency. Ajit was also the Coordinating Chairman of First Night Delaware which attracted over 30,000 people at the inaugural New Year’ Eve celebration of the arts held at over 100 venues in downtown Wilmington. In 2006 and 2007, Ajit served as Chairman of the American Red Cross Delmarva Chapter's highly successful “Black Tie Monopoly Tournament.” He has served as Chairman of the Governor's Council on Family Services, General Convener of Delaware Futures, Co-Chairman of the first Delaware Mini-Grand Prix of the Arthritis Foundation, President of the Kiwanis Foundation and the Kiwanis Club of Wilmington. He is also a member of the Rotary Club of Wilmington, Delaware. Over the years, Ajit has been recognized for his many philanthropic activities. He received the prestigious 2007 Award for Outstanding Philanthropic Service from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Brandywine Chapter. Ajit also received from the Rotary Club of Tortola in 2006 the Paul Harris Award by Rotary International. In addition to being the recipient of the l994 Governor's Outstanding Volunteer Award in Delaware, Ajit was the recipient of the Jefferson Award in 2002 for his work with the YWCA and the Jefferson Award in 2003 for his work with Meals On Wheels. Ajit also received in 1999 the National Volunteer of the Year award from the Meals On Wheels Association of America. He attended the University of Delaware and received his undergraduate degree from Antioch College and a graduate degree in organization development from Antioch University. Born of Indian parents and brought up in Kuwait, Ajit moved to the United States in July 1970. Ajit is a passionate gardener who has planted over a 1,500 plants over the years at Sunset Watch in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands (www.sunsetwatch.com). Ajit is married to Dr. Sarah E. Brown and thy have a red standard poodle HRH Maharani.

Making a difference every day

Second Chances Farm’s mission is to nurture plants and people, and our planet, one green thumb at a time. We will provide returning citizens with mentorship programs and green collar jobs at hydroponic, indoor vertical farms in economically distressed communities. Our vision is two-fold: to reduce our carbon footprint by growing food locally 365 days a year, while replacing recidivism with compassionate capitalism and turning entrepreneurs-in-residence into Agri-preneurs. We plan to break the cycle of recidivism, while commercially growing local, pesticide and herbicide-free produce in economically depressed areas and converting old buildings into eco-friendly plant factories. Our innovative, cooperative corporate ownership structure offers a transformative, equitable, scalable, and game-changing solution to benefit returning citizens in underserved communities and Opportunity Zones across the U.S. Second Chances Farm is a for-profit answer to a non-profit problem. Our social enterprise solution supports alternatives to the revolving door in the criminal justice system, as well as protects our environment by growing food locally, eliminating the use of toxic chemicals, and utilizing less water than traditional soil-based farming. Second Chances Farm, LLC is a Qualified Opportunity Fund and a Delaware Public Benefit Limited Liability Company. HOW OUR MISSION WILL MAKE AN IMPACT PEOPLE Recidivism is the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend and it’s a revolving door, not just in Delaware, but nationwide. • The U.S. holds less than 5% of the world’s population, yet it has almost 25% of the entire world’s prison population with 2.3 Million in the prison system. • According to the Bureau of Justice, 76.6% of individuals released from prisons in the U.S. are re-arrested within five years. • Ex-prisoners fare poorly in the labor market. In the first year after their release, only 55% reported earnings, with the median earnings being $10,090. • It costs more than $43,000 per year to house a prisoner in Delaware, which translated in 2017, to over $282 million to keep prisoners incarcerated. • Economically distressed communities, most of which are in Opportunity Zones, are often food deserts and lack access to affordable, healthy and nutritious food. Second Chances Farm will help transform an epidemic of incarceration into a skilled workforce of “Agri-preneurs” with education, mentorship and employment experience. PLANTS Indoor, vertical farming is unaffected by weather and provides local, pesticide-free and herbicide-free produce to urban communities 365 days a year. LED-lit, stackable plant factories can produce 50-100 times more food per square footage than traditional outdoor farming. In the last decade, there have been 40 outbreaks of food-related illnesses traced to leafy greens. E. coli contamination, caused by organic fertilizers, has been a significant source. Hydroponic farming uses 70-95% less water than traditional, soil-based farming due to reduced evaporation and recycling water in a closed-loop. Second Chances Farms will grow (list the produce) PLANET We are outgrowing our green planet and need a new farming solution fast. • By 2050, the world population is estimated to reach 10 billion people, 80% of which will be living in urban areas. • This substantial growth will require 70% increase in crop production and 2.5 Billion new acres of farmland. • With 80% of suitable farmland already in use, the only way to grow is up! • Urban vertical farms can effectively reduce the impact of climate change by growing food locally and protecting the environment by eliminating the use of toxic chemicals. Natural disasters like drought, flooding, pollution and hurricanes are discrupting the food supply. Most produce is transported long distance — 1,500 miles on average - which adds to our carbon footprint FARM FINANCING WITH OPPORTUNITY FUNDS In addition to the environmental and social benefits of Second Chances Farms, there will be financial advantages for investors, making the a truly socially responsible enterprise.

Marketing, Strategic Planning, Thinking Outside the Box

I first heard about TED in the fall of 2009. I was living in London with my wife, Dr. Sarah Brown, who was assigned to the United Kingdom on a three-year work assignment as a managing director of Accenture, a global consulting company. Dr. Terry Babcock-Lumish and her husband, Brian Babcock-Lumish, had just moved to London from the United States, as Brian was doing his doctoral work at Kings College in London. Sarah and I met first met Terry and Brian at Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head, South Carolina, several years prior to their move to London. Terry and Brian are among the most erudite and well-connected people we know. Sarah and I were having dinner at our flat one evening in Westminster with Terry and Brian, having an intellectually stimulating discussion. As always, we were enlightened by the knowledge they shared about one subject after another, when Terry encouraged me to watch some TED talks on the subject material. She told me that most talks were 18 minutes or less, and that I might enjoy watching it. After I returned to Wilmington, Delaware from London in 2010 and retired as managing director of Nail Bay Resort in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, I became involved in several ventures, one of which involved Kristofer Younger. Sarah and I first met Kris after we became members of Christ Church Christiana Hundred in 2003. Kris was truly a renaissance man who, after getting a degree in computer science from Purdue University in 1984, became one of the first systems engineers at Sun Microsystem before working directly for Steve Jobs at NeXT Computer. He then went on to build Netscape Communications, one of the most important early internet companies, as vice president, systems engineering from 1994 to 2000. After Netscape was merged with AOL, Kris worked with Marc Andreessen on technology strategy as AOL’s new vice president of technology. I recruited Kris in December 2010 to work for one of my clients before he joined my wife’s new venture, BookOfYou.com, as its chief technology officer.Kris was a true fan of TED and TEDx talks and watched more TEDx talks than anyone I knew. In the summer of 2011, Kris suggested I apply for a license from TED to organize TEDxWilmington as a way to showcase ideas worth spreading in our city. Given his amazing background as a thought leader and a forward thinker, I agreed to apply without giving it much serious thought. On August 14, 2011, I got an email from Lara Stein, director of TEDx, approving my license to organize my first TEDxWilmington event. Each TEDxWilmington event required me to apply for a new license from TED. Between 2011 and 2018, I would be approved to do a total of 32 different TEDxWilmington events, all of which I will cover in some detail in Chapter Five of this book. By way of background, Wilmington is the largest city in the State of Delaware, with a population estimated by the United State Census Bureau to be 72,846 as of 2017. The population of Delaware was estimated to 967,171 people as of July 1, 2018. Wilmington is about half way between New York and Washington, D.C. in the middle Atlantic region. Philadelphia is only 27 miles north, while Baltimore is only 60 miles south. Our close proximity to these larger cities is one of our biggest secret advantages. Getting involved in TEDxWilmington was largely an accident of history, but it clearly changed my life in so many different ways that I can never fully fathom. I had no idea when I applied for my first license that I would end up showcasing 490 different speakers who gave a total of 469 TEDx talks at 32 TEDxWilmington events, (which I organized with the help of the TEDxWilmington tribe) that attracted 21,916,072 views worldwide on YouTube as of July, 2019. Not bad for a city with a population of 72,846 and a state with a population of 967,171. When I decided to retire from doing any more TEDxWilmington events to focus on creating Second Chances Farm, I was encouraged by several members of the TEDxWilmington tribe, especially Rhianon Hussman and Alessandra Nicole, to consider writing a book of my TEDx journey. Since so many people participated in helping me creat so many magical moments, I invited some of them to share their insight by writing some of the chapters in this book including Geoffrey Berwind, Jake Voorhees, Elissa Bn-Eli, Dana Dobson, Alessandra Nicole, Matt Urban, Evan Bartle and TED Resident Sheryl Winarick. In addition one hundred and thirty four past TEDxWilmington speakers gave feedback that was incorporated in this book. I am thrilled to share pearls of wisdom from ten TEDx organizers from around the world and ten members of the TEDxWilmington tribe. This book was truly a collaborative effort. Little did I know what it would take to write The Magic of The Red Carpet.

Gardening