James Kelly

Founder and Director | FaithTech

James Kelly, the Founder and Director of FaithTech, is an entrepreneur turned pastor turned story-teller. With a unique background in business (co-founded a faith-based media company at 19 years of age, BComm and 7 years experience in professional recruitment) and church (MDiv and helped plant a church in 2012), he’s positioned to creatively bridge the gap between faith and tech. FaithTech, a growing movement pioneering new ways to advance the gospel in a new era driven by technology, started with an idea in late 2015 and has turned into a global ministry, with operations across North America in Silicon Valley, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, and Waterloo.  www.faithtech.com

James is married with two kids. His second, Anna, was born 3 months early weighing 2 pounds. It changed everything. Since, God has had James and his wife Karen on an incredible journey in and out of hospitals watching God’s miraculous hand at work in saving their baby girl. Their eldest is named Judah.

They live in Waterloo, Canada. James likes bacon, playing hockey and saying “eh” 😉

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Are Tech Wizards Revolutionizing Leadership?

 

Are Tech Wizards Revolutionizing Leadership?

Tech leaders have virtually unprecedented power to mold the future. The question is: how are they using it — and how will you?

In this post, James Kelly of FaithTech encourages leaders with the reminder of where some of today’s great technology leaders came from. He even reminds us of King David, a man after God’s own heart, who led from a place of faith to influence the world. We are reminded to pray for the influential leaders and realize “technology provides incredible opportunities to change minds, to change hearts, and to change the world — if leaders seize it.”

Jeff Rutt

Owner and CEO | Keystone Custom Homes

Jeff Rutt is Owner and CEO of Keystone Custom Homes, which has built over 6,000 homes in Pennsylvania and Maryland.   Keystone Custom Homes has been awarded Builder Magazine’s and the National Association of Homebuilders “America’s Best Home Builder Award,” and is the first three-time winner of this coveted award.  Keystone also won the ‘Business of the Year’ award given by central Penn Business Journal. Jeff has been recognized for his efforts as an outstanding builder with the Hearthstone Award, a lifetime service achievement award, which included a $200,000 grant to a charity of his choice.  Jeff has served as President of The Building Industry Association and has chaired many local boards and committees.

Jeff is also the Founder and Chairman of the Board of HOPE International, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.  HOPE is a Christ-centered micro-enterprise development organization and works in developing countries to provide small loans and biblically based business training to entrepreneurs, enabling them to start or expand small businesses. Jeff enjoys traveling to the front line with his family to serve and encourage in these areas whenever possible. HOPE’s goal is to provide permanent solutions to poverty while restoring dignity in families. HOPE now works in 15 countries, presently serves almost 1,000,000 clients and since its inception has loaned out over $590 million dollars.  When HOPE’s microfinance institutions reach financial sustainability, a portion of the profits they generate are used to grow local Christ-centered children’s ministries in addition to expanding the work in Christ-centered microfinance. Jeff was recently honored with the National Epoch Lifetime Achievement award for outstanding work in missions for his service to humanity.

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Created to Flourish Forward

 


Created to Flourish Forward


After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine faced a debilitating economic crisis, leaving many without enough food to eat or clothes to wear. Along with others in my church, I felt compelled to respond. There were people who were hungry, who needed shelter, who didn’t have the hope of Jesus Christ. As we read in Isaiah 58:7, God has a specific idea about how we should translate our faith into action:

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:7

We couldn’t turn away.



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Hope International – A US Entrepreneur making a huge Global Impact for the Kingdom


I will never forget the time when I first came to know about Hope International.  God had started to bless Bandwidth with more success, and I knew that I wanted to get more serious about giving.  I became fascinated with the concept of microfinance.  God had placed a passion in me for marketplace transformation and I knew that entrepreneurship could create great opportunity for poverty alleviation in the US, but especially overseas.   Mohammed Yunus’ Book, “Banker to the Poor” had just come out and I couldn’t get enough.  I read everything I could find on MFI and eventually came across a podcast from Kiva that shared the stories of their member partners and what they did with MFI and where they did it.


John Drexler

healthcare analyst | Sovereign’s Capital

After joining Sovereign’s Capital in 2014 as a healthcare analyst, John has taken on a number of other roles at the fund focused on due diligence, financial modeling, and fund operations.

Before joining Sovereign’s Capital, John studied economics at Covenant College, served as a Management Associate at Siloam Hospitals (IDX:SILO), and as Marketing Manager on Summit Healthcare’s founding team in Jakarta. 

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John Elliott

Chief Operating Officer | FarmAfield

John’s calling in life is to help leaders, teams, and organizations realize their God-given potential.

Currently, he does so as Chief Operating Officer of FarmAfield, an agriculture tech company that is using software to create new connections between farmers and investors. Prior to joining FarmAfield, he expressed this calling as a pastor at Christ Community Church, a consultant with Untapt Consulting, an educator with Teach for America, and a point guard on his high school basketball team.

John and his wife Janell have three biological children and one foster child. They are active members of Christ Community in Urbana, IL, an Acts 29 church they helped plant back in 2011.

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John Kim

Founder | The Ally

John’s career has taken him across a diverse range of operating and investing environments from early stage startups to fortune 500 companies. For the last decade before founding cross border venture capital firm Amasia, John focused in finance, serving as Senior Vice President at Mercuria Energy Group, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs and Portfolio Manager at Korean National Investments. While in these roles he managed trading and investment strategies across a diverse set of asset classes and including commodities, public and private equity, fixed income and derivatives.

John started his career as an entrepreneur, founding music internet and e-consulting businesses before joining Merck & Co as a System Specialist. He left Merck to start his third company, a Delaware incorporated rock band called The Ally. John toured across America and recorded with top artists most notably receiving a platinum record for his album contribution with Grammy award winner Brandy.

He is a Kauffman Fellow, a Member of the Young Presidents Organization and a Member of the Young Leaders Circle at the Milken Insitute. John serves on various corporate and non-profit boards including those of Dialpad, Kairos Society Asean and the Choson Exchange, a non-profit focused on teaching female entrepreneurs in North Korea. John attended the Jerome Fisher Dual Degree Program in Management and Technology at The University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the School of Engineering.

Life:

John is married to doctor/entrepreneur/love of his life, Elaine Kim, and they have three boys aged 7, 5 and 2. They attend church at Solomon’s Porch Singapore, where John and Elaine serve in various capacities.

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Please Bless My Business: Company Ferraris and God in your Startup

 


Please Bless My Business: Company Ferraris and God in your Startup


When I first started Amasia, I prayed hard that God would grow our firm to become a great success. I told him that I’d go anywhere, meet anyone, do anything… whatever it took I’d do it. But instead of giving me a tactic or a strategy, he gave me a picture.


Johnny Shiu

litigation attorney

Johnny has been litigation attorney for more than 15 years.  He is drawn to the drama likely from his acting days. He has represented many clients across different industries.  Among his clients are Apple, Pepsi, and Oracle. Johnny also counsels emerging companies like Tesla on occupational injuries and risk.  While he became the youngest named partner at his old firm, he was called to walk away from it. And he did. Johnny experienced a shift and began to serve more in ministry. While he still practices law today, he spends a fair amount of time mentoring younger associates.  In his office, you can be sure to find either a quote or “verse of the week” on his gigantic whiteboard. In 2018, he preached his first sermon. Hopefully, it won’t be the last. Johnny is somewhat of a polymath. Learning is an addiction, and that’s why he’s kind of a jack of all trades, and master of none.  

Johnny graduated Magna Cum Laude from U.C. Berkeley.  He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from UCLA School of Law.  

Johnny is married to his wife, Jennie, of 16 years. Together they have three awesome children: Christian, Andrew and Zoe. They call Fremont Community Church their home church.

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