Sager Family

Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Photographer, Author & Traveler

Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Photographer, Author & Traveler

“I’m not a do-gooder. I’m a doer who has figured out that hands-on, eyeball to eyeball making a difference is a way to live a very full life. Be selfish, go help someone.”
-Bobby Sager

Few people cut a more colorful, dynamic swath of impact across the globe than entrepreneur-turned- philanthropist Bobby Sager.

In the words of Sting, Bobby’s frequent travelmate since they met several years back, Bobby is “a big brash guy from Boston ... flamboyant, eccentric, inexhaustible world traveler, and practical philanthropist.”

A tough-minded businessman who made a fortune by seeing opportunity where others haven’t, Sager has spent the last decade of his life traveling around the globe using his entrepreneurial skills and street smarts to make the biggest difference he can – in some of the most difficult areas on the planet.

Bobby Sager was a driving force behind the growth of Gordon Brothers Group, an advisory, restructuring and investment firm specializing in the retail, consumer products, industrial and real estate sectors. Bobby joined Gordon Brothers Group in 1986 when it was a small Boston-based jewelry business. Five years later, through Bobby’s leadership, innovation and creative dealmaking, less than 10% of the business was related to jewelry and more than half involved the strategic repositioning of other businesses. Gordon Brothers Group is now a preeminent global financial services business that buys, lends against or invests in billions of dollars of inventory, brands, machinery & equipment and real estate worldwide every year, with 20 offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

After achieving success as an entrepreneur, Bobby decided to refocus his dealmaking abilities to the philanthropic world. In 2000 Bobby founded the Sager Family Traveling Foundation & Roadshow and has committed most of his time to philanthropy ever since. The foundation began when Bobby, his wife Elaine, daughter Tess and son Shane traveled in the developing world for over a year to engage in what Bobby describes as, “hands-on, eyeball-to-eyeball philanthropy.” Working together with his family, Bobby has applied his entrepreneurial skills and Rolodex to make an impact in areas of conflict and crisis, including Rwanda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Zimbabwe, and Palestine. They travel as a family several times a year to do the hands-on work of their foundation.

The Sager Family Traveling Foundation & Roadshow (teamsager.org) focuses on empowering leaders in these countries. The Sagers think of leaders as people who have the ability to impact many others. The foundation’s initiatives include providing marketing and product design support to women’s handicraft cooperatives in Palestine and Rwanda (handsupnothandouts.org), teaching Western science to Tibetan Buddhist monks who will lead their exiled community in India (scienceformonks.org), and creating opportunity through microenterprise for Rwandan women.

Bobby’s philosophy is that using yourself as the "currency" (i.e. contributing your time, energy and unique talents, rather than just your checkbook) is the best way to maximize the return on investment you get from philanthropy. As he writes in his book The Power of the Invisible Sun, "My family and I live close to the ground so that we truly understand what’s going on and so that I can use my entrepreneurial ability, instincts, and tenacity to get really tough stuff done. Money certainly matters, but when we make ourselves the currency, it matters even more."

Bobby believes that his family’s hands-on work to help others is selfish, not selfless, and he is not ashamed to say it. “By being on the ground, face-to-face with the people we are trying to help, my family and I get to live amazing life moments, learning, feeling, and accomplishing. That’s what I mean by being selfish ... As a result of serving my self-interest, I end up giving much more. Talk about win-win.”

As part of his philanthropic efforts, Bobby has been instrumental in catalyzing Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) as a platform to make a difference. YPO is a global network of 18,000 business leaders in 110 countries whose companies‘ aggregate sales are equivalent to the world’s third largest economy in terms of GDP. Bobby is a founding chairman of the YPO Peace Action Network, which convenes business leaders from different sides of conflicts. These business leaders work together to create insights and actions that impact the conflict. Bobby is moderator of the India-Pakistan Action Forum and the American Arab Action Forum. For this work Bobby became the first ever recipient of the YPO Global Humanitarian Award (2002). Bobby also founded YPO Presidents’ Action Net, a philanthropic matching service that enables business leaders to maximize their individual impact by connecting them with peers who can help with advice, contacts and best practices.

In 2009 Gordon Brothers Group formed PLR IP Holdings, LCC, a joint venture with Hilco Consumer Capital to manage and license the Polaroid® brand, which as Bobby says, “is the first thing that has gotten my attention from the business world in the past ten years.” Bobby was so excited by the potential of working with the Polaroid brand that he has been named chairman of the board of directors.

In addition to his philanthropic and business endeavors, Bobby was an executive producer for “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” (2006) winner of the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize. Bobby was also the inspiration for the NBC primetime show “The Philanthropist” (2009).

Bobby is the author of The Power of the Invisible Sun (2009) a book published by Chronicle Books about the power of hope, thankfulness, and Bobby’s approach to making a difference by making oneself the currency. The book features the remarkable photographs that Bobby has taken of children he met in war- torn areas such as Afghanistan, Rwanda, Pakistan and Palestine. Chronicle Books wrote about Bobby’s book: “In war-torn countries around the world, philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager has discovered the transcendent power of hope through the eyes of children. Despite unthinkable violence and destruction, his portraits reveal joy, innocence, and strength.” The Power of the Invisible Sun was featured on NBC’s The Today Show, and Bobby was featured as ABC World News’ “Person of the Week” for his work.

Bobby received a bachelor of arts in economics at Brandeis University and a master’s degree in management from Yale University. Bobby currently serves as the honorary consul general for Nepal and Rwanda in Boston. Bobby has been an active public speaker, speaking at such venues as the United Nations General Assembly Hall, Sydney Opera House, Grand Mosque in Oman, and Aiwan-e-Sadr, residence of the President of Pakistan.

SPEAKING TOPICS
Bobby talks with groups of leaders with the goal of inspiring them to use their own unique skills and gifts to make a difference. Bobby can customize a talk incorporating a combination of these themes depending on the audience.

1. How to apply your entrepreneurial skill set to make a difference (for business leaders)
Bobby believes that business leaders have the ability to make a powerful difference in the world, but not by using their checkbooks. He believes that the entrepreuneur’s skill set -- the ability to do deals, to tap into a Rolodex of influential contacts, to see opportunities, and to get things done – can make a unique impact.    Bobby talks about his own experience as a successful entrepreneur who decided to refocus his skill set on making a difference.
He encourages other entrepreneurs to use themselves as the "currency" – to contribute their time, energy and talents rather than just their money to maximize the return on investment they get from philanthropy. He offers examples from his foundation of using business as an agent of social change though microcredit and social enterprise initiatives.

2. How to use Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) as a platform to maximize the impact of your efforts to make a difference (for members of YPO)
Bobby has a particularly powerful message to the 18,000 business leaders in 110 countries who belong to Young Presidents’ Organization: that YPO’s unique combination of intimacy among members, entrepreneurial skills and global network makes it a platform to do tremendous good in the world. Bobby talks about strategies for YPO members to maximize the impact of their individual efforts to make a difference by leveraging YPO as a platform. He offers the example of YPO Peace Action Network, which convenes business leaders from different sides of conflicts into confidential forums that generate insights and shared solutions to impact the conflict.

3. Themes from The Power of the Invisible Sun
Bobby often presents the images and messages of his book The Power of the Invisible Sun to groups of leaders.
Hope is a Game-Changer    Bobby presents the remarkable photographs that he has taken of children he met in war-torn areas such as Afghanistan, Rwanda, Pakistan and Palestine. These images, seen by over 4 million people on the 2007-8 The Police reunion tour during their song “Invisible Sun,” show the transcendent power of hope in the eyes of children. “Hope is the most important thing that people need to move forward. The slightest ray of hope can ignite the human spirit’s ability to overcome: the power of the invisible sun ... Hope isn’t just nice, it’s a game-changer.”

Eyeball-to-Eyeball Philanthropy “Far from the tradition of writing a check and going to the annual dinner, being hands-on, looking people in their eyes, feeling their humanity, and letting them feel yours isn’t just helping, it’s a way to live life to the fullest. And that’s the best return on investment I’ve ever gotten by a long shot.”

Be Selfish, Go Help Someone “By being on the ground, face-to-face with the people we are trying to help, my family and I get to live amazing life moments, learning, feeling and accomplishing. That’s what I mean by being selfish.”

4. Living Life Beyond Your Bubble: How stripping away filters, tuning in, and being thankful leads to a fuller life
Bobby hopes that by sharing his family’s experiences traveling around the world to make a difference, he will offer audiences some insights into living the fullest possible life.    In 1999, Bobby and his wife Elaine, along with daughter Tess and son Shane, made the decision to pack up their things and venture out into some of the most dangerous places on the planet to make a difference. Bobby hopes that his stories will inspire audiences in ways that impact their own lives and that make an impact on others.

Living Life Beyond Your Bubble The Sagers have found a path to fullness in their lives by going outside their bubbles – by exposing themselves to people and circumstances outside their comfort zones. Their experiences include traveling extensively in Palestine as a Jewish family, living as a family in tents in refugee camps in Pakistan, and doing hands-on philanthropy in post-genocide Rwanda. Through these experiences, they have learned the importance of stripping away the filters that people use to see the world (e.g. Jew vs. Muslim, wealthy vs. poor, white vs. black). Their message to other families is that they don’t need to travel to Palestine, Pakistan or Rwanda to go outside their bubbles. Other families can have similar experiences just around the corner from their homes by spending time with people completely different from themselves – by spending time at a hospice, by taking time to talk with taxi drivers, or by talking with musicians if you’re an engineer.

Tuning in  The Sagers’ experiences travelling as a family have given them a sense of how quickly life passes. In response they feel compelled to extract value out of everything, not to waste a drop. The way the Sagers have learned to do this is by tuning in to the little things and the everyday. They have become very sensitized to how much they had taken for granted and how much they had missed the details of things. Life goes by so fast and the point is to be tuned in so you don’t waste it – every second must be savored. Tune into friendships and emotion. Tune into “the In-Between” – those often overlooked moments in between the special events we all look forward to.

Being thankful By tuning in to the details of everyday life and “the In-Between,” the Sagers have developed a much deeper feeling of thankfulness. That thankfulness has resulted in a fullness in their lives in the broadest and deepest sense.

Bobby often talks with groups about how helping people who are the total opposite of you can be an incredibly rich experience. For example, he talks with Jewish groups about his experiences helping Muslim people, and with groups of Americans about helping people in Afghanistan.

SELECTED PAST SPEAKING APPEARANCES

United Nations General Assembly Hall, Concert for Pakistan
Sydney Opera House,
Young Presidents’ Organization Global Leadership Summit Young Presidents’ Organization, various including Presidents’ Universities and Global Leadership Conferences
Harvard University, Harvard Business School
Brandeis University, Heller School of Social Policy and Management
Oxford University
Celebration of Entrepreneurship, Dubai
Jewish Communal Appeal, Sydney
The One Planet, Dubai
The Paley Center, New York
Tribeca Film Festival, New York
Grand Mosque, Oman
Aiwan-e-Sadr, Residence of the President of Pakistan
Global Action Forum, Los Angeles
International Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas

ARTICLES, FEATURE STORIES, TELEVISION AND RADIO APPEARANCES

Articles about Bobby, his entrepreneurship, philanthropy, photography and the Sager Foundation have appeared in countless publications, syndicated newspapers, television and radio shows in the United States and internationally. Here is just a small sampling of press received:

The Boston Globe
Malibu Magazine
ABC News Person of the Week
BBC World News Radio
British Airways Magazine
The Today Show
The Washington Post
Vanity Fair
Rolling Stone
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Men’s Journal
American Way Magazine
Finch’s Quarterly Review
Wall Street Journal