Tom Horton is a seasoned social entrepreneur, manager, developer, and financier. He has raised more than $100mm in early stage capital for multiple social enterprises, ranging from clean energy, organic/local food production, sustainable tourism, and durable medical devices over a 25-year period of time. Broadly speaking, Tom divides his professional time between his real estate activities, which he performs through Canopy Development and his social enterprise services, which he performs through Sustainable Resources, Inc.
Tom founded Canopy Development (www.canopydevelopment.com) in 2004 and brings more than 20 years of community-focused real estate development and project finance experience to the company. Canopy was for a period of three years majority owned by Steve Case and his venture fund Revolution. Through this and other experiences, Tom has developed a large and diverse database of important contacts from which he draws from to build, finance and support early stage development teams with innovative social businesses.
For the ten years prior to founding Canopy Development, Tom served as US ManagingDirector of the Trust for Sustainable Development (www.tsd.ca) and VP Corporate Development of the Loreto Bay Company (www.loretobay.com), a TSD affiliate company. The Villages of Loreto Bay, a series of seaside villages planned for 6,000 homes and a 5,000-acre natural preserve in Baja California, Mexico, is the largest sustainable resort community under development in North America. Tom managed the initial financing for the 2.6 billion dollar project and also served as the first Sustainability Officer for Loreto Bay, helping establish the Loreto Bay Foundation and drafting the aggressive sustainability standards for the project.
Prior to his work for TSD and Loreto Bay, Tom worked as a Program Director for the Rodale Institute (www.rodale.org ) a non-profit organization that works with people worldwide to achieve a regenerative food system that renews and improves environmental and human health.
Tom also formed and continues to run Sustainable Resources Inc., a company that develops and finances businesses that can make fundamental change in the way people live their lives. One of SRI’s projects is Icon Wheelchairs Inc., which recently closed on its seed financing and anticipates initiating manufacturing its unique modular and adjustable wheelchair in Holyoke MA within the next several months. Tom lives with his wife and three children in Northampton, MA.
