FMS Alumni Spotlight: John Arthur Colantonio
I often think about my experience as a participant of the Frontier Market Scouts (FMS) two-week immersive program in Monterey Winter 2014 and how it was a springboard to pursuing a passionate career in impact investing.
My inspiration for enrolling in FMS stemmed from my experience in social entrepreneurship in Nicaragua, and I realized I needed a deeper dive into this realm. Frontier Market Scouts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies stood out as the leading program in impact investing and social entrepreneurship and I was thrilled to be accepted. This was my first exposure to formal business education, and the focused content provided perspectives that I carry with me to this day.
In particular, the FMS workshops on Scaling High Impact Social Enterprises, Designing Innovative Business Models, and Social Impact Metrics were incredibly insightful. They helped me develop the skills, values, and mechanisms for exploring opportunities in emerging markets.
“The network of professionals and peers that I connected with through FMS, especially contacts and opportunities to engage with the annual SOCAP conference, has continued to be an invaluable resource for me in my work with NREL.”
After the program, I moved back to Colorado (from CT), began my MBA - Entrepreneurship degree, and left ESPN Sustainability to work for Tesla Motors. I’ve since found my way to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where I get to work in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center and develop programs that connect clean-tech startups, incubators, investors and various events/programs. Last year I helped launch an impact investing conference with USAID called Emerging Markets Day (EMD). Many of the ventures examined during FMS have engaged with EMD (May 8, 2019 in Denver, Colorado).
Those days in Monterey were celestial, and I’ve managed to take the experiences with me ever since. The network of professionals and peers that I connected with through FMS, especially contacts and opportunities to engage with the annual SOCAP conference, has continued to be an invaluable resource for me in my work with NREL.
The faculty has also provided priceless mentorship over the years, and their dedication to supporting the fellows is unmatched. Impact Investing and Social Entrepreneurship are bustling areas of innovation today, and I feel fortunate to be a part of this growing community. This experience has proved to be a pivotal moment in my career. I highly recommend Frontier Market Scouts to purpose-driven innovators looking to make a positive impact that generates valuable returns for all involved.