The Catalysts Who Will Frame Our Days
We use the word “catalysts” for the people who open each day because their job is to spark the conversation, not deliver a lecture.
Jessica Norwood, founder and CEO of RUNWAY, opens Day One. Jessica has built one of the most important reparative finance institutions in the country. Her concept of “Believe-in-You Money” has reshaped how restorative capital flows into Black communities, and she will help us look at what it takes to design capital instruments that center liberation and community resilience.
Following Jessica, Liz Gamboa of New Mexico Community Capital and Alexis Bunten-Naficy of JumpScale lead a session on Indigenous wisdom and local resilience. Liz brings deep experience in finance and technology supporting Native entrepreneurs. Alexis works at the intersection of Indigenous economics and decolonization, building regenerative enterprises that honor land and reciprocity. Both have spent years building businesses and capital flows rooted in heritage and community.
Day Two opens with an experience led by Vincent Ferguson, the Brooklyn-based artist, educator, and founder of Amplify the Human, whose work blends music, technology, and social-emotional learning. Then Gina Schaefer takes the stage. Gina built a $55 million employee-owned business of thirteen Ace Hardware stores and three hundred teammates while creating workplaces that offer second chances. Her book, Recovery Hardware, lays out how community revitalization and profit are not in opposition. Her session digs into what scaling with social impact actually looks like in practice.
Later that morning, Vanessa Roanhorse joins Liz Gamboa for a session on catalytic investments and alternative lending through the lens of Indigenous matriarchs. Vanessa, a Diné entrepreneur and CEO of Roanhorse Consulting, has spent her career building capital strategies that align investment with community priorities. The session draws on decades of experience spanning Wall Street and grassroots venture building, and it offers concrete tools for moving restorative capital at scale.
Day Three brings Brian Hardgroove, bassist for Public Enemy, Grammy-winning producer, and founder of the Santa Fe-based FREEDOM Band. Brian has spent decades using music as a vehicle for social change, and he will speak to how to build a business legacy that prioritizes human impact and authenticity. Closing out the speakers, Henry Jake Foreman, an Absentee Shawnee technologist and program director at NMCC, will lead us through how Indigenous values can shape the future of AI and emerging tech. Reciprocity, data sovereignty, and shared ownership are not abstract concepts in his work. They are design principles.
The Shape of the Three Days
Each day starts with a Wellness Wake-Up of yoga and meditation for those who want it. Conversation Catalysts and group talks anchor each morning. Afternoons open up. On Day Two, members choose between two pathways: Conversation Circles to dig into the questions on their minds, or Enchanted Enterprises, a tour of thriving local social enterprises around Santa Fe to see “people-first” principles in action. Day Three closes with the Marketplace of Ideas, where everyone gets a minute to pitch a bold idea, a project, or a call for collaboration. The room becomes a clearing house for what happens next.
Throughout the gathering, the YouthWorks Cafe and Lounge will be open for coffee and connection, and the Marketplace Expo on Thursday and Friday gives members a chance to engage with the partners and innovations fueling the New Mexico economy and beyond.
Why Santa Fe
We chose Santa Fe deliberately. The Railyard district is a fifty-acre transformation of an old industrial site into a living demonstration of how sustainable design and cultural preservation can amplify each other. The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Pavilion, where we are meeting, sits at the heart of it. New Mexico’s entrepreneurs (like the GreenMoney Journal) and community leaders are joining us as fellow participants, not hosts. Evenings are for the Sky Railway at sunset, free concerts at the Railyard, and the kind of dinners where the real work often gets done.
If you have been thinking about coming, this is the year. The community that shaped my early years as an entrepreneur is still doing the same thing for new generations of founders. Registration is open at svngathering.org.
Article by Article by Josh Knauer has spent 30 years founding companies at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and social impact, including two acquired by publicly traded firms.
He is a co-founder of ReSeed, a co-founder and general partner at JumpScale, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, an entrepreneur-in-residence for Columbia University Ventures/NYSERDA, and a former advisor to President Obama on science and technology. He serves on the board of the Social Venture Network. Learn more at KnauerNever.com and register for the SVN Global Gathering at svn.org/gathering-2026.
