Brad Ludden is known as one of the top whitewater kayakers in the world. Over the course of his 15 year career, he has been named one of the top 10 adventure athletes in the world by Outside magazine and featured in such places as USA Today, The TODAY Show, Cosmopolitan Magazine, the cover of Outside Magazine, Men's Journal, Warren Miller Films and many more. He kayaked over 100 first descents on rivers in over 40 countries. When he was 19 he founded First Descents, an organization that provides free outdoor adventure therapy to young adults with cancer.
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Joel has been an entrepreneur and business manager most of his life. After attending Claremont McKenna College and Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Joel worked at the Quaker Oats Company for 8 years. He then founded Orange Glo International, the inventors of Orange Glo, OxiClean, and Kaboom, with his parents. Joel and his family sold Orange Glo to Church & Dwight/Arm & Hammer in 2006. A year later Joel co-founded FullBar and Brainetics, two consumer products companies that distribute their products through retailers across north America. Joel took over as Executive Director of First Descents in April, 2010. Joel has two kids, loves the outdoors, and has tremendous passion for personal and spiritual growth.
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Before coming to First Descents in 2000, Corey trained and raced whitewater slalom
kayaks at the national and international level. Having earned two national championship medals in wildwater
and slalom, he dedicated his life to pursuing his passion of excellence in whitewater kayaking. A major highlight
in his athletic career came in 1996, when he served as the head coach for the Republic of Panama in the Summer
Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. After retiring from paddling, Corey targeted the multi-sport discipline of
adventure racing as a medium to continue to push himself in his life. He raced for one of the top teams in
the United States in such races as the Eco-Challenge, Four Square Challenge, and the Adventure Extreme Series.
As a result of his life experiences in both whitewater and adventure racing, Corey founded the Nielsen Training
Group (NTG), a leadership and sales training-based company specializing in professional skills training.
Recently, Corey has utilized his community influence and passion and has begun work with a grassroots
environmental organization striving to designate numerous rivers near his hometown of Durango, Colorado
as Wild and Scenic River status. Corey not only brings his unbridled enthusiasm and energy to First Descents,
but also a vision to touch as many lives as possible in an attempt to maximize the quality of life for
fellow humans surviving cancer. Corey's first job; "Helping my dad clean up a housing project (that he
"invested in") and using a fire hose to clean out sewers. It was a humbling experience at age 13 and
every job from then on was a walk in the park!" His inspiration, he says, "without a doubt is the
participants of First Descents' programs over the years who have taught me the true "meaning of life"
- to laugh and to love. For this, I am eternally grateful."
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Brent Goldstein is a principal and co-founder of Avanti Capital LLC, a Rockville, Maryland-based company that structures, organizes and raises private equity and debt for real estate acquisitions and venture capital investments. Brent is a 1989 graduate of Colgate University and a 1993 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. Brent lives in Rockville, Maryland with his wife Lisa, three daughters, Daryn (15), Arlyn (11) and Bailey (8), a black lab named Everest and a Lhasa-Poo named Simba. He is an avid biker (road and mountain), golfer, hockey player, hiker and skier.
In September, 2006, Brent was challenged by the late First Descents Executive Director, Allan Goldberg, to compete in the Leadville Trail 100 mountain-bike race (recently won by Lance Armstrong). The Leadville 100 is a one-day, 104 mile endurance mountain-bike race starting in Leadville, Colorado at 10,200 feet of altitude with aggregate ascents of nearly 14,000 feet. As Allan was about to compete in his own version of the Leadville 100 in the form of chemo and radiation treatments for cancer, Brent accepted the challenge, enlisted some fellow bikers and turned the event into a fundraiser for First Descents. In August, 2007, Brent battled exhaustion and severe cramping to complete his first Leadville 100 in just over 11 hours. More importantly, he and his “Team First Descents” buddies succeeded in using the race to raise over $80,000 for First Descents. Since then, he has completed the Leadville 100 in 2008 and 2009 in times of 10:35 and 9:56 and has used the race to raise an additional $195,000 for First Descents. Brent is thrilled that the Leadville team fundraising effort has become the blueprint for the current Team First Descents concept. Brent is hoping to break the magic 9-hour mark in Leadville in 2010.
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After graduating from Stanford University, Amanda started her career in the electronic brokerage world as a Marketing Manager at Charles Schwab & Co. in San Francisco. After 3 ½ years building the Schwab.com brand, Amanda was recruited to work for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as Senior Marketing Manager. There she spearheaded several extensive marketing campaigns to rename and reinvigorate the Discover Brokerage brand and ultimately create the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online web trading brand. Amanda relocated to Denver in late 2000, and worked as the Director of Marketing for Prima Capital, a company providing web based institutional quality research to financial advisors. After September 11th, Amanda decided to get out of the online trading world and accepted a position at the Humane Society as the Event Manager where she managed all major fund raising events including the largest dog/humane run/walk in the US! Ultimately, Amanda went back to school and received a Master’s in Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver. Fixer-uppers and property management have since become her new career.
In addition to pursuits in real estate, Amanda is now pursuing more philanthropic endeavors. In addition to First Descents, Amanda is on the board of Habitat for Humanity of Eagle & Lake Counties. Amanda is also involved in various capacities with the Vail Valley Foundation, The Eagle Valley Land Trust, and the Gore Range Natural Science School among others.
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Brad Reiss has 25 years experience in real estate and real estate transactions. He is the Chairman & CEO of Ark Investment Partners and Ark Real Estate Partners, which are the principal owners, operators and capital investors in various real estate interests throughout the United States and Canada. He is also the Chairman of Willow Hotels a full-service management company specializing in boutique and lifestyle hotel properties. Brad serves on the boards of Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York and First Descents.
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Pete is a 25 year veteran of the Athletic and Outdoor Footwear Industries, having worked for such brands as Saucony, Reebok and K-Swiss. He is currently President of both the Teva and Simple Brands, owned by Deckers Outdoor Corporation in Goleta, CA. A former college soccer player and one-time Boston Marathon finisher, Pete’s athletic pursuits now include road and mountain bike riding, hiking and whitewater rafting. Pete resides in Thousand Oaks, CA with his wife and two children.
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