Creating sustainable rural communities through training the next generation of farmers

Board of Directors
JF Bierlein, Board President, Senior Associate, Coley GCS, San Antonio, TX

Andrew DeCilles, Board Vice President, The Barrett Group, Senior Consultant, Client Selection, Batesville, IN

Scott Quertinmont, Board Secretary-Treasurer, PEO Benefits Advisor, Rippling, Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Amit Sen, Professor of Economics, Xavier University (OH)

Mark Finlan, Director of Major Gifts, Malvern Preparatory School (PA)

Advisory Board

Mark McVay, DOD Liaison at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability (CA)
Bryan Hughes, VP of Strategy & Innovation, Resolvit, Cincinnati, OH

Rosa Vargas, Operational Excellence Process Fitness Lead at Citi Group, Irving, TX

Board Members Emeritus
Joshua DeVincenzo, Adjunct Professor at Earth Institute, Columbia University (NY)

Ronald Vieira, Urbana Coffee, Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Javier Pérez Lafont, Professor of Agricultural Economics at University of Puerto Rico - Utuado

Alma Diaz Carrion, CDBG Program Director, Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR

Our History

Monte Azul Foundation was founded in 2018 as a response to the urgent needs post-Hurricane Maria to produce more local food and decentralize the electrical grid for rural and isolated communities. Monte Azul’s Founder Andrew Hermann has been working in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2011 in isolated rural communities in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador. Learning from experiences in these rural communities, Andrew landed in Puerto Rico in 2018 to develop an agricultural resource center with a farmer-to-farmer training element to assist current farmers with various operational challenges and equip new farmers with the skills and techniques needed to farm sustainably. At the heart of Monte Azul is serving Puerto Rico’s most rural and isolated communities and incubating sustainable farmers and decentralized renewable energy systems that promote long-term economic development for rural areas.

Our Supporters

Monte Azul is humbled to receive financial support from a number of private and public entities including the following:

• Puerto Rico Farm Credit,

• FirstBank of Puerto Rico,

• Titín Foundation,

• ConPRmetidos,

• PRxPR,

• Donativos Legislativos,

• Cáritas (Catholic Charities) de Puerto Rico,

• The Posner Foundation,

• Third Generation Buffalo,

• Peter Alfond Foundation,

• Futura Fund PR,

• NutriendoPR,

• USDA Rural Development,

• USDA Healthy Food Financing Initiative,

• Grupo Guayacan,

• Clean Energy Group