2020

For over 30 years, Sawyer Products has been dedicated to offering more effective and reliable products for outdoor protection. Using science and rigorous testing, we’ve developed the most advanced and easy to use solutions in water treatment, insect repellent, sunscreen, and first aid.

Adam W. Chase practices tax and transactional law at Hutchinson, Black and Cook in Boulder, CO, where he was raised. He is a freelance writer for PodiumRunner, Men’s Journal, Triathlete, Elevation Outdoors and many other outdoors and endurance publications and co-author of five trail running books. He also wrote the a book on Colorado sales and use tax law.

With a background in ultrarunning and adventure racing, Chase has been a sponsored athlete and team manager for a number of teams over the past few decades—although he is now more of a “participant” than “competitor.” He serves as the President of the American Trail Running Association. As a running shoe reviewer, Chase has an absurdly large collection of running shoes.

Jessica Carrillo Alatorre has been a part of Hike it Baby since the summer of 2014 when her friend Shanti Hodges invited her to go hiking with both of their babies. Growing up on the Oregon coast, Jessica spent a lot of her time in the outdoors, falling in love with nature. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Organizational Leadership from George Fox University, which has helped her to excel as first the Operations Manager and now as the Executive Director at Hike it Baby, overseeing operations and ensuring that as the organization grows, policy, procedure, and personnel are put in place to help the non-profit’s long-term success. Since its grass-roots beginning in 2014, Hike it Baby has reached more than 1 million people off and online. Social media has been an integral part of the organization, allowing Hike it Baby to connect with 275,000+ families through Facebook, nearly 30,000 families on Instagram and nearly 50,000 families a month through the Hike it Baby blog.

Jessica and her husband Chris enjoy hiking with their two girls, Natalie (born in 2014) and Elisabeth (born in 2017) around the Portland metro area they call home. Their favorite hikes often include waterfalls and wildflowers. Continually inspired by the passion and commitment of the volunteers who drive Hike it Baby along with the mission that has created the kind of community she wants her girls to be a part of, Jessica is proud to be raising a generation to love the outdoors.

Darrel Larson has been the International Director of Sawyer Products since 2015. In 2008 he founded, and still directs, Give Clean Water, a non-profit dedicated giving clean drinking water around the world. As part of Give Clean Water, Darrel was an AIDF Global Innovator of the Year Finalist in 2018.

Before that, Darrel was the Country Director for Mexico with Amor Ministries from 1998-2006. Amor has mobilized over 300,000 volunteers to build over 20,000 houses for the poor in Mexico, the US, and South Africa.

Todd has a strong and enduring passion to make an impact with his strengths, skills, and experience. He’s given the last eleven years of his life leading a mission to bring basic clean water access to an entire nation for the first time in history. Todd’s the Founder and President of The Last Well (www.thelastwell.org). They began their work in 2009 with an end date of December 31, 2020, cemented to the mission. They are less than a year away from completing it! They’ve received international attention for their history-making initiative, they have built ongoing and productive relationships with two presidents of Liberia, and the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) is working with their team to choose another country to take full advantage of the processes they’ve developed. Todd recently spoke at the Africa Union (AU) by invitation of the AU to share their work with the international leaders in water provision across the continent of Africa. As their mission in Liberia draws to a close, Todd will continue to serve on the leadership team of The Last Well but will also be considering consulting opportunities, focusing on projects with the greatest potential for lasting impact on a broad scale.

Tamara Pester is an attorney who has been in private practice for more than 20 years, focusing on trademark, copyright, and business law.  She also founded the online Learn Trademarks class to teach individuals how to register their own trademarks. When she is not working, you can find her on the slopes skiing or writing articles for snowgrrl.com.  Tamara launched her Denver business and trademark law firm in 2006, after working at Atlanta’s largest law firm, then as in-house legal counsel for several major corporations. A Denver native, Tamara understands the challenges and highlights experienced by individuals and companies involved with building and protecting a brand and business.

Ron’s foundation was molded after working as an outdoor educator and guide all across the country. From the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to the Grand Canyon, and from San Francisco Bay to the Anacostia River in Washington D.C., a vision in him came forward and sparked the passions and values he holds today.

He is extremely passionate about encouraging outdoor recreation at Historically Black Colleges/Universities through shared travel and outdoor adventure experiences. He’s helped increase participation rates of HBCU students in outdoor recreation and tackle health issues plaguing the black community.

His vision is to diversify the experiences of members of HBCUs Outside, create tomorrow’s stewards of the environment, help students become comfortable outside of their comfort zone, and ultimately diversifying the outdoors.

Through a collective impact framework with leading outdoor industry companies, he is enhancing the HBCU experience and adding to the rich tapestry of the outdoor industry.

Back in the 90’s Erik, was a firefighter with a ladder company. Eventually realizing that going into burning buildings when everyone is running out wasn’t the brightest choice, he built his first Internet tech startup in ’96. Over the last 25 years, Erik has: built 5 startups; led digital strategy for the 4th largest news media conglomerate in the US; worked for tech companies like Intel and Verizon; served as an advisor or board member to many outdoor companies; and has consulted on digital strategy for major brands like REI, Cabelas, DSW Shoes, American Eagle Outfitters, and Albertsons as well as countless emerging and challenger outdoor brands. The combination of consulting for outdoor brands and being an avid outsider himself, he saw an opportunity in the ecosystem to break away from the standard fare of a handful of experts creating outdoor reviews and create a review platform that rewarded participation and that spoke to outsiders because it’s powered by outsiders.

With that, Gearmunk was born—and prides itself on doing things differently. When everyone was competing with each other spending money on facebook and instagram ads, Gearmunk was engaging in Dark Social and building a community. When everyone else was building a “we talk, you listen” model, Gearmunk went the other direction and built community. When everyone thought email was dead Gearmunk broke new trail and grew an email list from 1,000 to 235,000 in less than 18 months.

Gearmunks first investor, and still active advisor, is Hap Klopp, the founder of The North face, so that’s pretty cool, we guess.

After spending nearly a decade as a reporter for The Indianapolis Star, Robert Annis finally broke free of the shackles of gainful employment and now freelances full time, specializing in cycling and outdoor-travel journalism.

Over the years, Robert’s byline has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Hemispheres, Lonely Planet, Afar, Bicycling, Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, the Chicago Tribune, and Adventure.com. He’s also the Biking editor at Strung and a contributing editor at Indianapolis Monthly. Although he’s a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Society of American Travel Writers, and the Adventure Travel Trade Association, please don’t hold that against those wonderful and formerly prestigious organizations.

If you’re looking for Robert, chances are you’ll find him either pedaling the backroads and trails of the Midwest on his bicycle or hunched over his laptop in an airport bar, frantically trying to make his next deadline. In the meantime, you can find examples of Robert’s work at https://robertannis.contently.com/ or check out his in-progress adventures on Instagram.