GHF in the News - 2006 News Archives

Start-up Preserves Global Heritage. P.A. Man's Non-Profit Helps Save Treasures

June 2006

By S.L. WYKES
Mercury News - June 13, 2004

Jeff Morgan was hiking around Santa Cruz Island when a friend, a former director of the California Nature Conservancy, got him thinking: ‘‘Jeff, you’ve sure got a lot of energy. Why don’t you do something to help the world out?’‘

So three years ago, this Stanford MBA, surfer and treehouse-building father of three left a successful career in software sales to build his own start-up, the Global Heritage Fund.

From a small Palo Alto office, Morgan, 41, has rallied a big name cast of board members, philanthropic partners and high-powered volunteers to save archaeological treasures on four continents. Their projects include an ancient town in China, royal tombs in Pakistan and a pre-Columbian community in Peru.

As his 7-year-old son puts it, ‘‘My dad saves the world.’‘

This week, Morgan is in Jordan, trying to kick-start another major project. He is attempting to stop thieves with pickup trucks and chain saws from swiping priceless Iraqi archaeological treasures.

By the time he leaves Jordan, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and State Board of Antiquities, with the help of Morgan’s organization and others, should have a detailed master plan to inspire local participation and excite outside donors. The World Bank; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Brown University and other experts are also helping the Iraqi ministry.

Bill Draper is one of the outside donors the group is trying to reach. The business acumen Morgan brought to Global Heritage Fund convinced Draper to join the cause. Director of the Draper Richards Foundation, Draper was one of Silicon Valley’s earliest venture capitalists and headed the world’s largest source of multilateral development grant assistance, the United Nations Development Program.

Draper likes Morgan’s style. He’s ‘‘hard-charging, dynamic, full of energy, a driving force,’’ Draper said. And Draper’s practical business savvy makes him appreciate the standards by which Global Heritage Fund judges potential projects.

Protecting major sites like the 600,000-acre Mirador Basin in Guatemala, a center of early Mayan civilization in the middle of one of Central America’s last rain forests, is easy to justify on history alone. Morgan and others reason that well-planned eco-tourism can sustain a local economy that is environmentally safe.

‘‘His attitude is that we have to do this in a way that preserves these places and helps the indigenous population build up their skill set and get to take advantage of the tourism, so it’s not always the first-world investors who are there reaping the benefit of this,’’ said donor Marj Charlier.

Part of the challenge for Morgan is convincing locals that preserving their heritage will eventually help them with more than jobs cleaning hotel rooms.

There are other considerations, too: Is the timing right? War does not work around archaeology.

‘‘I didn’t realize all these things when I started,’’ Morgan said.

Awareness of others’ needs—and doing something about it—is a strong family tradition for Morgan. His mother, former state Sen. Rebecca Morgan, has served on the boards of several non-profits and as CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a non-profit co-founded in 1992 by her husband, Jim, that supports economic and educational development.

She is now president of the Morgan Family Foundation.

Jim Morgan retired last year as chief executive of chip equipment maker Applied Materials, where he made philanthropic giving a part of company culture.

Jeff Morgan, who grew up in a Midtown Palo Alto Eichler house, attended Cornell University, like his parents, and studied city planning. But as a young man, he chose the higher salary that high tech offered.

Through his career and travel, he has learned fluent Spanish and French, and a working knowledge of Japanese and Chinese. He also has a personality that his friends say make him perfect for this job.

He has the stamina to travel for one month out of every three, especially important because he’s going to places where smooth roads and air-conditioned hotel rooms are not the norm, friends say.

‘‘He takes risks with everyone and will speak to them as if he’s speaking to a friend,’’ said Firth Griffith, a friend of almost 20 years who now volunteers his business experience and fluency in Chinese to Global Heritage Fund. ‘‘He’s able to immerse himself in a setting in a way that endears him to people.’‘

Another quality is his strong memory. Morgan remembers names of people, places and historic events. ‘‘He just absorbs everything,’’ said his wife, Valerie.

Morgan takes the big-picture view. ‘‘My job is getting people with a vision together.’‘