Clean Water on and Above the Earth

Evan Thomas F23 is an expert in clean water. With a PhD in aerospace engineering sciences, he began his career at NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he worked on water recycling systems for astronauts in space.

While at NASA, Thomas founded a social enterprise working on water security programs globally. 

“We developed a social enterprise that could scale water treatment in communities in Africa using climate finance markets,” said Thomas. 

A Pivot into Public Health

Between his work at NASA and in east Africa, Thomas had a finely tuned understanding of the engineering behind water purification. In 2010, the water filter company LifeStraw contracted the team to apply Thomas’s model to the company’s technology in Kenya. Thomas left NASA to pursue initiatives in global public health full-time. 

The move was fortuitous. Over the ensuing years, the methodologies and practical programs Thomas created helped provide six million people with clean water. While he was scaling the company, Thomas joined the faculty at Portland State University.

“At the time, I was an aerospace engineer working in public health,” said Thomas. “So when I was on faculty at PSU, I also pursued a master's in public health.”

Thomas’s research portfolio centered around public health interventions, whether developing technology, business and program innovations or employing aerospace engineering technology like remote sensing to address inequities around water, sanitation, energy and infrastructure. Quickly, he found studying public health helped him accelerate his career. 

Studying Global Business to Scale Up

Today, Thomas is a professor of environmental engineering and aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he also directs the Mortensen Center in Global Engineering and Resilience. The center trains engineers to work in global development and global health, and they run research and training programs in 20 countries around the world focused on food security, water security, sanitation and infrastructure.

In addition to his professor role, he’s the founder and CEO of Virridy, a company that works to implement these projects. To date, they’ve provided half a million people with clean water services in Rwanda, Kenya, Madagascar, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. They aim to reach 3 million people by 2030. As Virridy began to grow, however, Thomas found himself in a similar position to one he’d been in years ago. 

“I was trying to scale the company, solicit investment and venture capital, and I was running into a situation where people would say, ‘Hey, aren't you just an academic? Do you know how to run a company?’”

Thomas thought he needed the credibility of a business degree, but when he researched traditional MBA programs, he didn’t find a program that met his needs.

“I had two full-time jobs and was running a company and a research center at the university,” said Thomas. “My first kid was born right when I was starting the program.” 

“The Master of Global Business Administration program comes with Fletcher’s credibility in international relations,” said Thomas. “It really fit my career path as a researcher and entrepreneur working in the global development sector.”

A Cohort with a Powerful Network

Thomas completed the GBA program while continuing in his post at the University of Colorado. The flexibility allowed him to apply what he learned in his classes directly to his daily business operations. 

“For my capstone, I did an independent study with Josephine Wolff around Virridy, which helped me with my business and allowed me to tailor the program to what I needed,” said Thomas. “The GBA wasn't just the credential – it helped me advance in my business goals.”

Thomas’s capstone was adapted into a Deloitte-sponsored article in the Wall Street Journal. The cohort model was particularly invaluable to Thomas, introducing him to Elise Zoli F22, a partner at a leading environmental law firm in Boston who now represents Virridy.

“Elise helped me get introduced to major banks and investors,” said Thomas. “She and her firm have added a lot of credibility to our company and to our board, and it's a huge asset to have her on our team.” 

Thomas started seeing the returns on his investment in his business education soon after graduating. Virridy has brought in $15 million in grant funding and private sector investment, which they’ve used to scale their programs and develop more powerful sensor technologies.  

“The GBA taught me the vocabulary and skills that could back up what I had learned autodidactically,” he said. “That let me speak a language with other people in the sector that demonstrated my credibility.”

Read more about Fletcher’s Master of Global Business Administration degree program.