Westport resident Ted Huber, a partner at Deerfield Management, was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, though his mark on the world is felt far from the Midwest.
Huber headed west initially, attending college at the University of Colorado and went on to business school at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
“Since Tuck, I”™ve spent most of my career working in some different forms in the medical investment world,” said Huber. “For a while, I did that for a company out in California.”
In 1998 Huber traveled to Wall Street and began working as a sales side research analyst for a bank.
“Four years ago I joined what is called a buy-side investment firm called Deerfield Management,” said Huber. “We have a pool of capital and invest in healthcare companies. I specialize in medical technology investments for them.”
When Huber went to work for Deerfield he moved to Westport where he now lives with his wife, Selina and three children Katrina, Jack and Margaret.
“I”™ve always had an interest in developing-world nonprofits,” said Huber. “I got involved with Uganda and Busoga Trust while working in the U.K. before business school in the late ”™80s.”
While in the U.K., Huber befriended the Rev. Andrew Pearson who was then setting up an effort called Busoga Trust to bring water development to rural areas of Uganda. Busoga was the area of Uganda in which they began work.
“In 1987 he took a trip there and invited me to go along, so I went,” said Huber. “I spent about a week with him there bouncing around the bush in a Land Rover, going to see some places where they had put new wells in and places that they were going to; it was a very impressionable trip seeing that part of the world and seeing the impact that a new fresh water source has on communities that are there.”
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Huber stayed in contact with Pearson over the following 20 years though he wasn”™t involved with Busoga Trust, which became the preeminent water development organization in East Africa.
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“Finally it was the right time in my life, a couple years ago, where I had to get more involved,” said Huber. “We came up with the idea of starting an American charity whose focus would be on developing-world poverty and its initial effort would be to really help this existing organization, with at that point a 20 year track record in Uganda, expand into some new geography.”
In 2007, Huber founded Busoga Trust America Inc. along with Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ryan Jennings.
“What we saw just recently in Uganda is that there are a lot of abandoned efforts, a lot of people put up a well and then they leave,” said Huber. “The wells need maintenance and the people need education around it.”
Huber said the model uses durable pumps and piping in order to last a long time and is locally maintainable.
“You don”™t want stuff that”™s too high-tech that can”™t be maintained,” said Huber. “We train local bicycle mechanics to maintain our pumps.”
Huber said that Busoga Trust partners with the Ugandan villages, who are required to apply for the projects. Each well costs $6,000.
“We effectively provide the pump, knowhow and management, and the sanitation and hygiene training,” said Huber. “We require the villages to provide the raw materials like sand, brick and cement. They provide the land to dig it on and the labor. It really is a partnership.
“There is also a lot of sanitation development and hygiene education that goes along with it,” said Huber. “There was a time in our country when people didn”™t realize smoking cigarettes was bad for them and they had to be educated on that. A lot of these people don”™t fully understand that poor hygiene practices are necessarily bad for them.”
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According Huber whether $6 or $6,000 dollars are given, every donation is linked to a specific well project.
“Each one of our projects has its own page with data and testimonials,” said Huber. “In that way we provide physical and direct input for a donor to see and what happened because of their generosity.”
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Huber has recently started a program for donors to accompany Busoga Trust America on a trip to Uganda once a year.
“We”™re effectively providing a long-term source of water for a community that averages about 500 people,” said Huber. “Over 60 percent of those people are kids; it”™s a very young population. These people are born into an environment where they really don”™t have a chance unless they get a little help.”
According to Huber, Busoga has completed 17 wells in the last two years and is currently developing four sources of clean water, along with sanitation facilities and hygiene education in rural parts of Uganda.
“I think more than anything it provides perspective,” said Huber. “I”™m acutely aware of what a fortunate person I am, living in Fairfield County and doing work that I really enjoy, and being paid well for it. There are a lot of people that aren”™t given that kind of gift.”
