Mike Laverty (ZLOG 2008) has been featured in Ozy digital magazine

Our Middleman in Havana

Everyone on the commuter ferry to the tiny coastal village of Gezaulole in Tanzania recognized Michael Laverty. Not only was he one of a few foreigners living in the rural settlement, but Laverty’s thrill-seeking demeanor had caught people’s attention too. He had taught himself to ride a motorbike on the streets in full view of the community. “I was probably the only person in Tanzania with a Japanese motorcycle,” he says.

Laverty, a die-hard adventurer, has spent close to a decade launching and managing businesses at the farthest edges of the investment universe. In Dar es Salaam, Laverty designed a research study to help antimalarial medicines reach the country’s outermost villages. And in the midst of a civil war in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, he ran a logistics business and oversaw a downstream petroleum company with $5 million a week in turnover. His next challenge: fraught, difficult Cuba.

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