Before the mast 2009Thom Harris

• USCG licensed Captain/Master 50 tons, with endorsements for international work, sailing, and towing

• PADI certified Rescue Diver and Divemaster candidate

• Chef trained on the Côte d’Azur by a protégé of Alain Ducasse

Relevant Experience

• Crossed Atlantic on the first L’Esprit Libre (21’ Westerly) in 1978

The FIRST L'Esprit Libre, off the coast of Italy 2003

• Cruised every summer 1980-2005 throughout Western Mediterranean

• Gentil Organisateur (staff) in sailing at Club Med Morocco and Mexico, 1978-79  (that's me, back in 1978, second from left) -- in fact, I have taught sailing on the Atlantic, the Med, and the Pacific!

• Taught celestial navigation in English and French (I'd be glad to teach you the noonsite -- all you need to know -- in 90 minutes)

Club Med Mexico, December 1978, with Beatrice and friends

• Author of sailing guide to the Iles d’Hyères (Côte d’Azur)

• Interned as sous-chef on Porquerolles (island on the Côte d’Azur), in “prep and sauce” kitchen, making more ratatouille and BBQ sauce, peeling more kilos of garlic, roasting more peppers, making more confite de tomates (similar to sun-dried tomatoes), dressing more fish, making more fumet de poisson (base for fish sauces) than I care to remember, as well as dinner service in finishing kitchen

Not-so-relevant Experience

• Graduate of Johns Hopkins and Institute for International Management Development/IMD (Switzerland)

• Almost 40 years fund-raising and management consultant for international not-for-profits (25 of them based in Europe), e.g., Oxford, Harvard, Yale, University of the South Pacific, Johns Hopkins-SAIS/Bologna, Club of Rome, Insead and IMI/IMD and HEC, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Greenpeace, WWF

• Author of major professional reference work

Over cocktails, ask the Captain:

• How St. Peter's Lutheran Church (NYC) came to be rebuilt with the Citicorp Center over it

• How Mrs. Walt Disney came to be associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

• The origin of the “Big Mac (currency) index” used by The Economist

• The story of the “merger” of IMI and IMEDE to become the IMD

• About choreographing “Nights in White Satin” at Club Med

• How I came to leave Club Med

My Motivations Are Clear

 
I am going around the world - east to west, largely in the tropical equatorial band

• About ten days a month, I love seeing new friends arrive haggard and spaced out and leave fresh, light, happy. This is a calling I first found as a GO at Club Med 30 years ago.

• I love the sailing lifestyle and ALL that goes with it. And I no longer like the juices that the competitive rat-race produce in me.

• I have all the skills necessary, from sailor to diesel mechanic to diver to chef – and I enjoy using these skills.

..and this is how I support my lifestyle.

How did I come to leave a 35-year career in (international) fund raising, from Jermyn Street suits and Thos. Pink shirts, to khaki shorts and orange crocs onboard a boat at the mercy of the elements?