Frank Hicks
Co-founder
Frank Hicks is a co-founder of TerraFirma Advisors and a co-founder and now a strategic advisor to Nature for Justice, a nonprofit that promotes nature-based solutions to benefit local communities. He also advises organizations on sustainable rural development and finance, environmental conservation and impact investing.
Frank has held senior management positions at Bio-Logical Capital, Forest Trends' Business Development Facility, Rainforest Alliance's Sustainable Agriculture Program and Organic Commodity Products, all based in Costa Rica. Earlier, he worked for TechnoServe in Ghana, the Biodiversity Conservation Network in Asia and the Pacific (based in the Philippines), and the Ford Foundation in Nigeria and New York City.
Frank is a board member of Root Capital and serves on the impact committees of Clarmondial's Food Securities Fund and EcoEnterprises Fund. He is a former board member of Nature for Justice, EcoEnterprises Fund and Los Aliados, a conservation and development organization in Ecuador. He holds a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor's degree in Human Biology from Stanford University. He has lived in Costa Rica for many years.
Steve Sellers
Co-founder
Steve Sellers is a co-founder of TerraFirma Advisors and the founder of ATL Advisory, a consulting firm that helps companies and organizations adopt new technologies and improve their performance. His clients have focused on environmentally sustainable manufacturing and agriculture, transparent supply chains, and investment in Black- and Latinx-owned businesses.
Steve has worked for more than 30 years in strategic and financial roles in for-profit companies, nonprofits and government, and has lived and worked on five continents. He served as CEO of SFMade and 150 Hooper, COO and CFO of NatureServe, and COO of Fair Trade USA. Earlier, he founded and led SourceTrace Systems, an enterprise software company serving developing economies, and founded two Internet companies: The Big Network (sold to eUniverse) and Archetype Interactive (sold to The 3DO Company). He began his career as a Foreign Service Officer for the US Department of State, with postings in Nigeria, Austria, Egypt and Washington, DC.
Steve has served on the boards of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, The Wright Institute, Kyaro (a nonprofit that makes disability devices in Tanzania) and the World Hunger Education Service. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.