2011 Tillman Scholar

Adam Potter

Marine Corps
Stanford University
MBA

Adam Potter was an active duty officer 2001-2010 in the United States Marine Corps serving in special operations at Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC). His ten-year Marine career encompassed multiple combat tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and humanitarian missions across the Pacific. As such, he is experienced in developing or rehabilitating public works infrastructure and organizing public solutions that can be managed to the capacity of the local government and set the foundation to relieve distressed populations and curtail sources of violence.  

Adam attended Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business graduating in 2012 and joined several entrepreneurial ventures afterward. 

SoFi saw a gap in how federal student loans offered the same pricing for high and low risk customers such that those who were responsible with their money were subsidizing those that were higher risk. It then built a market of financial products for newly emerging professionals. 

SimpleFi sought to help the high risk, low opportunity population get 0% interest financing by linking employers and municipalities with the population’s outcome. 

Puna Chocolate Company is a Hawaiian entity that converts emerging or failing farms into cacao production while also preserving the existing rain forest. It then sells the highest quality chocolate to high end US and Asian markets. 

Adam is grateful for the amazing professional fulfillment from his time in the Marines as well as the education at Stanford that allows him to pursue great causes. Opportunity and resources equals freedom and he hopes to return this to others.