Omari Bowers

Like many boys, the ambition of the young Omari Bowers was to play professional football for his favourite team, Liverpool FC. Still a keen supporter of Liverpool and an enthusiastic amateur player, Bowers concentrated on his academic career and graduated from the University of North London before embarking on a career that began in the world of finance. Setting up his own IT firm, OMBO Computing Ltd, Bowers provided IT support and consultancy services to both JP Morgan and the Bank of New York. As a side project, he began to invest in real estate ‘do-er uppers’, purchasing properties in need of renovation and refurbishing them before selling on at a profit. This side-line soon became successful enough for him to concentrate on as his main career, and Bowers left the finance arena to focus on property development, eventually creating three separate real estate development companies focused on different sectors of the market.

Omari Bowers enjoyed much success in real estate and forged an extensive network of contacts that included Andrew Skeene, another independent property developer. During the credit crunch in the UK that saw an ebb in the housing market, Bowers and Skeene began to seek out other business opportunities. Keen on environmentally conscious and ethical opportunities, the two researched sustainable investments in emerging markets across the globe for six months, finally settling on teak plantations in north-east Brazil and founding Global Forestry.

Global Forestry offered clients consulting services related to investing in sustainable teak tree harvesting and the reforestation of Brazil. Plantations of teak trees offered investors ethical opportunities in the forestry space, and in line with its green values, Global Forestry also planted one tree for each to be harvested for timber. In addition to being environmentally conscious, Global Forestry sought to be socially conscious as well. Not only did Global Forestry employ several skilled local agricultural workers, but during their research period, Omari and Andrew were also impacted by the poverty of many of the local communities and wanted to give something back. For this reason, a percentage of the profits made by Global Forestry wend back into helping the community.