entrepreneur

Darin Leroy Owen was born on July 15, 1961 in Durban. He has been an entrepreneur for most of his life, covering a diverse range of companies and industries.

His business interests range from import/ export, clothing manufacturing and distribution, IT, homeware, property investment and development and labour brokering.

He thrives on his international relationships and finds himself challenged,rebuked and encouraged from other like-minded people around the world with the same kingdom principles, to meet and share ideas and strategies.

Darin’s heart is for Orphans and the uplifting of people in general. He sits on the board of Summerhill House and JAB Network. Both of these organisations are based in the North Coast and are registered NPOs, PBOs and Section 21 companies. Summerhill and JAB have been running successfully for 7 years and have been a great source of joy as he has witnessed the uplifting and enrichment of others.

Darin lives in Durban, South Africa on the coast with his wonderful wife Paula and 3 magnificent children, namely Savannah, Joshua and Kristin.

Senior Partner Manager | Pinterest

Dave Coles is a Senior Partner Manager at Pinterest.  He is on the Field Sales Team focusing on specialty retail accounts. Prior to this he was the Vertical Lead for Home Furnishings at AdRoll and on the sales team at Zenefits. Dave started off his career in finance as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York and an investment associate at Hercules Capital in Silicon Valley.

Dave attended the University of Virginia and received a BA in Economics.

Dave lives with his wife Sarah and one year old daughter Quinn in San Francisco, enjoys good food and music and is actively involved in Reality church.

LINKS

• LinkedIn

Partner | Greenwood Hospitality Group

David is a Partner at Greenwood Hospitality Group, a company he helped found in 2009 that has over 4,400 hotel rooms under ownership and management. Through 2017, David was responsible for Greenwood’s business development, underwriting of investment opportunities, and sourcing of debt and equity capital. From 2015 through 2017, David was also president of PRD Inc., his family’s real estate development company in Houston. Before Greenwood, David worked for a variety of ventures focused on real estate investing and development, and also spent a number of years in investment banking.

David has had the privilege of serving on HOPE International’s Board of Trustees and is still involved in supporting the work of HOPE. He is a member of the Christian Economic Forum and has enjoyed participating in and contributing to other work and faith communities around the United States.

David grew up in Houston, attended Harvard University, and later received an MBA from Stanford University.

David has been married to Jean for eleven years and they have three boys. The Parks lived in Los Angeles, then Houston, and are now in an Airstream somewhere in the U.S. Next summer, they are planning to move overseas.

David used to love basketball, but now loves golf since he can still get better at it. Nothing beats a date night with Jean, but a close second is playing with the boys and meeting up with old friends.

LINKS

• LinkedIn

Fintech Consultant at Thrivent Financial

Chris Melendez has been on an amazing journey with God. He grew up privileged to be a pastor’s kid, so he can’t remember a time he didn’t know the Lord. Married at 19 and with three kids by 23, Chris and his wife Julie learned early in life the need to be completely dependent on Christ while working diligently to make things happen. He discovered God feeds the birds . . . but He doesn’t drop the worm in the nest.

Chris spent 10 years at American Express and then five years building a fintech startup. After selling the company, he was introduced to the folks at Thrivent Financial where he is currently building out a philosophy and system to help Christians steward their finances well. His three kids are all married and live in the Atlanta area. He has one grandchild and one on the way.

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. Jessica Kim shared what it was like coming out of a period of grief and being reminded that God had been with her the whole time.

So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10 NIV

I know that in deep pain or suffering, that even when I feel like I ask and cry out and say, why is this happening, that as I was coming out of deep grief, I realized that God was carrying me through that. 

And so I want to use that as an encouragement. You know, there are probably many people listening right now that are in a deep part of pain or something that is going through, whether it’s a lost job or a loss of a family member. That’s it could be so easy for us to say why and where are you?

And I think it ties to actually my verse of just Isaiah 41:10 where, you know, it says, “Do not fear I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.“ 

And I always think about that very well-known image of the single footsteps in the sand and how people say, Where are you? And he’s like, I have you in my righteous hand. I have been carrying you. And sometimes when you’re being carried, you don’t know who’s carrying you because you can’t see it. But he is. 

I hold on to that during any times of crisis or pain or suffering. And that’s the word of encouragement I give especially to the caregivers on our app and people in our community.

We continue to count down the Top 100 Books for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs with…

Start

by Jon Acuff

There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives readers practical, honest, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

It’s time to punch fear in the face, escape average, and do work that matters.

It’s time to Start.

Click on the book cover to check out the Reviews and Purchase at Amazon