In this episode, Jeff, Jeff, Alan, and David discuss: 

• Devoting time to God even in the midst of our busy lives. 
• David’s journey to living and serving in Asia. 
• Serving with a business mindset. 
• Ministering both secularly and spiritually. 

Key Takeaways: 

• If you put God first in your life, He will take care of you. 
• You can’t ignore humanity in favor of only the spiritual to those who don’t have the basics of living. 
• On your own, you can only help so many people. But if you build scale and help people to help those in their communities, you will be able to serve and lift exponentially more people. 
• There are ways to bridge the gap between secular and spiritual donors if it is approached properly to serve those in impoverished communities. 

"God called us to get people out of physical poverty, but he also called us to get people out of spiritual poverty." —  David Sutherland

About David Sutherland: David Sutherland is the Chair of the Board for International Care Ministries, a charity that serves the ultra-poor in the Philippines through 16,000 local indigenous churches. ICM has designed a four-month anti-poverty training program called Transform. At the end of this four-month program, ultra-poor participants experience a 107% increase in income, a 27% reduction in illness, and a 46% increase in an index of Hope. ICM has graduated 1.7 million Filipino family members from the four-month Transform program. ICM is now one of the largest charities in the Philippines, and recently expanded to serve in Uganda and Guatemala.

Until early 2013, David was Morgan Stanley's Chief Financial Officer in Asia Pacific, responsible for the company's financial affairs in countries from China to India, from Korea to Australia. Before his role as CFO, David spent more than a decade as a Morgan Stanley Managing Director, overseeing its tax department in Asia.

Since 2013, David has been full-time with ICM. But he has also held two other part-time roles as Chief Operating Officer of Pacific Andes (one of the largest fishing companies in the world) and Senior Advisor to FountainVest (a US$4 billion private equity fund that invests in China).

Prior to Asia, David worked for Arthur Andersen; Cadwallader, Wickersham & Taft; Caplin & Drysdale; and the U.S. Department of Treasury where he was the Associate International Tax Counsel. In the later capacity, he represented the U.S. Government regarding tax issues with most countries in Asia, including successful tax treaty negotiations with Thailand and Indonesia.

In addition to his role with ICM, David also serves as the board chair of Asian Charity Services (which provides pro bono management consulting services to hundreds of other charities), Friends of Hong Kong Charities (which processed nearly $100m of donations from US citizens living in Hong Kong to benefit dozens of Hong Kong charities) and the Lion King Project (which assists street children in North Bali, Indonesia).

David has a law degree from the University of Virginia, a Master of Taxation from the American University, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Louisville. David was the national intercollegiate debate champion in the United States in 1982.

David and his wife, Deanna, have three adult children who grew up in Hong Kong and are now working and living in the United States.  

Connect with David Sutherland:

ICM Website: https://www.caremin.com/

David’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sutherland-3827a963/

ICM’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-care-ministries/

ICM’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/internationalcareministries

Connect with Jeff Thomas: 

Website: https://www.arkosglobal.com/

Book: https://www.arkosglobal.com/trading-up

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArkosGlobalAdv 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arkosglobal/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arkosglobaladvisors

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkosglobaladvisors/