I want to first start by thanking the team that has helped make this book a reality. I am deeply grateful to Wendy Paris for collaborating with me on this journey and to Leigh Flayton for identifying Wendy as a strong partner for this project. Wendy’s extraordinary talent for crafting a compelling narrative inspired me and made the research and writing process exciting. I am thankful for her friendship and leadership throughout the book’s development. I also want to thank my editors for their support. When I met Sara Carder, I was certain she shared my vision for the book and immediately connected with her passion for social change. Similarly, a huge thanks to Joanna Ng for her insightful feedback on the manuscript. I am over the moon to be a part of the Penguin Random House family and couldn’t imagine a better home for this book than TarcherPerigee. I also want to thank my literary agent, Kirsten Neuhaus of Foundry, for believing in this project and taking on a new author. I look forward to many more projects together. Finally, to Ann Sardini and Anna Worrall for planting the seed that I should write this book.
Outside of my book collaborators, I have many people to thank for so much unconditional love. I am a product of an extraordinary support network and want to attempt to acknowledge, albeit inadequately, what others have given to me.
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my best friend and husband, Nate. He has tolerated my building a venture-backed business while writing a book without ever complaining about my challenging schedule. He has steadfastly supported me at each stage of the writing process and his work ethic and vision for his own career have inspired me to think and do even bigger things with my life than I ever thought possible. I am in constant awe of everything he has created and can’t imagine spending my time on this planet with anyone else.
Similarly, I cannot express sufficient appreciation to my loving parents, Catherine and Rob. They modeled for me a life of service to others and taught me how to love and value everyone. They also instilled in me the confidence to unapologetically be myself and to pay little, if any, attention to what others thought of me. They also modeled how to live their faith and I am grateful to them for helping me be deeply grounded in my beliefs. I also so appreciate my broader family, including my hilarious and exceptionally bright siblings, Peter and Meredith. I feel so lucky to have grown up in a household with so much laughter and kindness. Similarly, my extended family, especially my fabulous godmother and aunt, Kathi, my cousin/little brother, Bayly, and my second cousin/business champion, Clint. Thank you to my grandparents, Marion, Ray, Bob, and my namesake, Jane.
I also want to thank my dearest friends for helping support me throughout my career and for offering nothing but endless encouragement at each stage. This includes, but is in no way limited to, Annie, Becky, Jamie, Jen, Jessica, Kelly, Kirsty, LeAnne, Leyla, Lindsey, Liz, Maggie, and Rachel. Thank you for always asking how you can help make my dreams a reality and never demonstrating anything but loyalty and love. I am also grateful for my colleagues from my days at the Office of Counterterrorism (particularly my Regional’s crew!), the Office of Global Women’s Issues, and the McCain Institute. Each community helped me grow and I know how fortunate I am to have developed such deep friendships in each location.
I was blessed with extraordinary teachers throughout my schooling as well, especially Zach Goodyear, Leigh Dingwall, and Sylvia Bartz.
Last, I want to give thanks for every single person who has helped build To the Market. Without the leap of faith that To the Market’s team, advisory board members, investors, the Target + Techstars community, clients, and suppliers took by partnering with me, To the Market would not be what it has become today. In particular, I want to extend my deep gratitude to the heroic To the Market team, especially Jill and Danielle. Thank you for working nights, weekends, and even through vacations to build a thriving business and make positive change in the world. Your belief in me means more than I can ever articulate.
—Jane Mosbacher Morris
I am so grateful to Jane Mosbacher Morris for inviting me to be part of this book. It’s been an incredibly educational, uplifting, and deeply satisfying project that has taught me a great deal about looking behind systemic problems to see root causes, the worlds of fashion and retail, and the role business can play in economic and social development. It also gave me a chance to see, firsthand, how coffee and chocolate are grown and produced, something I’d never witnessed, despite my total dependence on and abiding love for these two staples. Thanks to Alejandro Keller, vice president of AnaCafé, and Arnoldo Melgar, executive director of Funcafé, for help meeting some of Guatemala’s best coffee growers, and Rob Everts at Equal Exchange. Thanks also to everyone who helped with coffee background, including: Greg D’Alesandre of Dandelion Chocolate; Kim Elena Ionescu, chief sustainability officer at the Specialty Coffee Association; Raina Lang and Jenny Parker McCloskey at Conservation International; Peter Longo, owner of Porto Rico Importing Company; Joan Harper of Fair Trade LA; and Carol at Kishe Coffee.
Callie Murphy, Annie Holschuh, and Bridget Tishler at BVK and the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism provided assistance in the Dominican Republic. Thanks also to those who helped on-island and on background, including José Locandro of Risek, Jaime Gomez of Conocado, and Bernardo Padilla; Finca Elvesia’s Isidro Castillo, and Emily Stone of Uncommon Cacao.
I had a lot of support during what was a very compressed writing schedule. Thanks to my cousins Mark and Shari Sokol for being my Atlanta family and putting me up during the final writing deadline week. Thanks to Laura Rich for keeping me company at the Miami Airport, which seemed briefly my second home. Thanks to my mom, Joy Paris, for babysitting while I was in Guatemala, and to my son, Alexander Paris-Callahan, for being a consummate good sport about having a writer for a mother and enthusiastically doing “late nights” along with me.
—Wendy Paris