Jonathan Gorham Email & Phone Number

Woodbridge, Ct, Us

Connecticut, Usa

In 2014 Healing Boxes® became a special application of Buzz Boxes®, a hands on engagement tool – nesting, origami boxes which people assemble and personalize.In January 2014 my wife learned she had a serious cancer. We spent 9 months with the staff at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven which helped her through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. While she was in chemo, we wondered what might be something simple that any patient could do that would help everyone heal? We took the BuzzBox® concept and applied it to this medical setting. We proposed the idea to the hospital staff. They embraced it, and together, we started the first Healing Boxes® program resulting in many delightful improvements to patients’ experiences. This program is now being used around the country in hospices, cancer and children’s hospitals, and to support frontline COVID workers. Altruism is the philosophy underlying this therapy program: when you help others heal, you begin to heal yourself.

Woodbridge, Connecticut, United States

The notion of nesting boxes came to me when I was looking for a project to keep our young kids entertained. I built many prototypes until I found one comfortable in the palm of the hand. I then created the turnkey graphic design, printing, production and shipping process. I integrated the QR-bar code so that these nesting boxes become powerful “web-enabled” devices. The QR bar code takes the holder to a designated web site ensuring a connection to the client organization.The box set consists of three nesting origami boxes printed on sustainable paper, and custom designed for a fundraising or awareness building event. They are hands-on, community-building, mementos for pre-and post-event brand building. They engage participants who make them, motivating a client’s advocates to raise more money and spread the word about an event, cause or educational campaign.I secured a federal trademark and the sold product to various environmental groups that used them to recruit candidates to rallies and fundraising events. Event fundraising is a multi-billion business. Non-profits are always looking for the next ice bucket challenge.

Marlboro, Massachusetts

Our goal was to develop and commercialize a revolutionary microbial process to turn non-food feedstocks into clean fuel for cars in this cellulosic ethanol, transportation fuel start up. As the original Marketing Manager and writer of the first business plan, I led a team to lobby the US Departments of Energy and Agriculture, eventually resulting in five contracts. We raised a total of $35 million through rounds A and B financing and grew the company from six to sixty employees.Understanding that this technology could disrupt the petroleum industry the global giants, British Petroleum and Valero became initial investors. Dr. Susan Leschine, the UMASS biologist who discovered this naturally occurring microbe received 11 patents for this process of making clean fuel from non-food feedstocks.

Branford, Ct

My Virtual Tour skills positioned me for the creation of web-based, audio visual DVDs for educational non-profits. We used the Virtual-Tour software to document the history of the Amistad slave ship, and the Charles W. Morgan, the last surviving wooden whaling ship moored at Mystic Seaport Museum in CT. We produced a comprehensive DVD to explain the history of whaling in the US. In 2006 I undertook a project to document the $21 Billion dollar IRS requirement to return those illegally collected telephone war taxes. With our videographers and web developers we built and launched an interactive website called Refunds for Good that demonstrated precisely how tax payers (individuals and companies) could file for a tax rebate. We enlisted such Hollywood luminaries as Martin Sheen, Ed Begley Jr. and Larry Hagman.

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

I catapulted the work we had done at the Yale Science Park incubator to the national level. As economic development consultants we had networked with other business incubators and tech parks to distill the lessons for success. I assembled a national team of experts to teach a 3-day course on how to design and jump start an entrepreneurial business incubator. I was asked by the National Business Incubation Association to shorten the course to one day. I became a single person road show teaching over 1,200 economic development professionals the lessons we had learned. Through this I became aware of the need to listen to and absorb a wide variety of questions from people of a widely different skill levels and degrees of understating of the entrepreneurial world. I was a rated by my “students” a 9.5 grade on a 10 point scale. I worked to help analyze incubators and science parks in New York City (at the Fashion Institute of Technology); in Ogden, UT; Fitchburg, MA; South Portland, ME, and other locations.

Woodbridge, Ct

Virtual tours of real estate are now commonplace. Shooting 360 degree photos (panos) is now a free app on a smart phone. Back in 1999 the idea of linking pano images with house floor plans was a science fiction concept. However, over two decades ago we developed this disruptive technology. In 1999 I assembled a team of expert CAD designers, digital photographers and an inventor from the US federal Construction Engineering Lab (CERL) in Champaign, Illinois. We produced a turnkey software program to create virtual tours. Our photographers became skilled a stitching multiple digital images together to create panos, then we integrated those images with easily generated CAD flour plans. The software then “published” all property images though spreadsheets, word docs and images to an HTML output which we recorded on CDs. This experience taught me the importance of partnering with potential larger organizations so that a startup idea can be turned over to a company with deep market outreach.

New Haven, Ct

I was hired to review the business support programs at Yale’s Science Park an ambitious economic development initiative located in an old rifle factory in one of the poorest areas of New Haven. The hope and promise were to have startups hire workers from the neighborhoods. This project was floundering when I began my work there. Upon graduation from the Yale School of Management a classmate and I raised funds and started our consulting business at Yale Science Park. Our firm had two focuses, 1) assist the resident startups, and 2) consult to other universities and economic development groups. In 1992 the US Health and Human Services ranked our program one of the top ten job creation programs in the nation. We also jump started program in Mexico and the PRC - Dalian, China. Accomplishments included over $2 B in venture capital invested in YSP companies, a tech spin off corridor from the Yale Medical School, new housing in the once impoverished neighborhood and a currently viable business incubation program.

Yarmouth, Maine, United States

Windows are a major source of heat loss in a building. Stopping heat is a great way to save energy and money. For these reasons I established a company to develop and commercialize four different types on innovative window treatments. At Cornerstones, my previous employer we had begun the design, testing and initial marketing of an innovative fabric covered interior shutter. I had raised the funds for that product and felt compelled to see the product through to launch. I also formed partnerships with a Fortune 200 corporation to market their window treatment as will with two other start up movable window Insulation companies. We succeeded in creating a national network of distributors. I secured the national Government Services Administration (GSA) certification for another. One of the products became a $400/million/year consumer window treatment. From this experience I learned the importance of trial and error, correcting early design mistakes and the need to partner with larger (more resources) companies in order to achieve commercial success.

Brunswick, Maine, United States

In the late 1970s President Jimmy Carter declared that the era of cheap energy was over and that America had to embark on a program of energy conservation and the development of solar and other renewable energy technologies. It was in this context that I partnered with my mentor, Dr. Charlie Wing an MIT PhD who had been a Bowdoin College physics professor. I helped recruit business professionals to capitalize on the market opportunities being presented. Together we established a successful owner builder school; developed the first successful utility energy audit program in the US, a model for the entire county; jump started the passive solar greenhouse industry and help advance the concept of energy saving window insulation products. Cornerstones was an engine for new product design and an incubator for teaching architects and homeowners how to build passive solar homes.

Falmouth, Maine, United States

In July 1976 the Maine Audubon Society opened its new solar heated headquarters building in Falmouth, ME. I was hired to develop and teach the core concepts of renewable energy to teachers, homeowners, bankers and contractors. I assembled a team of technologists, writers, scientists and educators to produce a curriculum for use in the vocational tech schools. That curriculum "Solar Concepts" was lauded by reviewers like Denis Hayes, a co-founder of Earth Day as one of the “Top Ten” solar books of its time. I taught courses on solar energy, give numerous lectures on the economics on energy conservation and presented at various state and national conferences. I started a community garden on the Audubon campus that is still under production today.

Mba, Marketing

Activities and Societies: Entrepreneurship and Environment Interest Groups, Whippets Softball Team, Graduate League Basketball Team.

Master Composter - Certificate

Ab, American Government

Activities and Societies: Director, Phillips Brooks House, Challenge Program, All- Ivy League Track