Peter Thum is CEO and co-founder of Fonderie47, a social venture addressing assault rifle proliferation in Africa.   He is also founder of Ethos Water and of Giving Water.

In 2001, while in South Africa, Peter observed the effect of that county’s water crisis on everyday people. Peter saw that those lacking access to clean water were exposed to direct health problems like water-borne illness, and other related heath risks.  Gathering, carrying and purifying water took an enormous amount of people’s daily time and acted as a serious impediment to economic development, especially in rural areas.

Water, Peter realized, was at the core of so many problems in the developing world at large.  He wrote down his original idea on a napkin: launch a company that would provide water and raise money for clean water programs in the developing world.  In 2002, he set to implementing that vision.  Peter left his job at McKinsey & Company and founded Ethos and became President of Ethos Brands, LLC.

Over the next six years, Peter led Ethos to become a national brand in the US and to raise more than $6 million in humanitarian water grants and helped over 420,000 people worldwide.  Ethos was acquired by Starbucks in 2005, and Peter stayed on through to 2008, managing Ethos and serving as a Director of the Starbucks Foundation.

In 2008, Peter founded givingwater.org to extend his work toward solving the world water crisis.  The organization is now serving over 1,000 schoolchildren at schools in Kenya.   While visiting water programs in Kenya Peter was struck by the insecurity created by the presence of assault rifles, which spurred him to start his current venture; Fonderie47.

Peter also serves on the boards for several companies and organizations focused on service, including: The Global Fund for Human Rights; The Center for Human Rights Leadership at Claremont McKenna College; The Dean’s Council of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Impossible to Possible Ultra-Athletic Adventures.

He is a regular public speaker in the US and abroad.

Peter holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts in government from Claremont McKenna College.