Biodynamic student - Ben Bingham
Posted on Tue, Jun 23, 2009
Those of you who remember me from 1970 and the Biodynamic Agriculture Course would never imagine me as I am today. Remember Jenny Carr? In 1973 she took a chance and flew with Gareth our son to join me farming in Connecticut. We married and 36 years later are happier than ever as empty nesters with four sons and a daughter and four granddaughters!
We were self sufficient farmers for two years trying to build an "island of culture" as Mr. Edmunds used to call it, then joined Camphill to learn more about the logistics of community building. We loved the festivals and fullness of life and after three years joined a burgeoning effort to begin a new community which survives today as Triform Camphill Community. It was here for seven years that I learned to raise money and put my inheritance alongside so that when we decided to move on at the end of 1984, we left with nothing in our pockets and five young ones in tow.
To keep our children in Waldorf Schools I did some teaching and design-built the manual arts building at Pine Hill in New Hampshire, and later taught the first 7th and 8th Grades in North Carolina. Jenny always kept up her social work skills, working with Lukas and taking on boarders, with special needs and emotional problems, not to mention counseling me. For a few years I sold insurance, delivered newspapers and tutored children while Jenny catered and waitressed to get by. We were steeped in what is now called "poverty mentality."
This all changed when in 1993 my brother Tony, who died last year, sent me a list of wealthy investors with social intention and asked if I would help him raise money for his socially responsible venture fund. I helped launch two technology companies in the next seven years. In my 50th year I took some time to think how I should spend the last active part of my life. I went to Peru and experienced the magic of ritual, I went to Stuttgart and studied at the Priest Seminary, but in the end realized my work was all about the meaning of money and I needed to remain engaged. So in 2000, I launched my real vocation which is working with the transformation of money through investments.
Later, Jenny picked up the connection with the seminary and went for a year to Chicago, and upon returning got her Masters in Social Work (I still have no degree!). Her focus is hospice work and the support for home funerals and green burial. I have established my own investment firm (www.benchmarkam.com) and have become a thought leader of sorts in this space, advocating for investment only in positive initiatives, from micro-finance to great companies with real solutions. We are now managing close to $200M and growing with a wonderful team in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and my daughter, Candor, doing social and environmental research in North Carolina. We still live simply and only just bought a home next to our daughter to fix up and plant gardens for the future.