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About Steamboat

History


Co-Founder Peer T. Pedersen Jr. and Executive Director Emily Ryan.

Steamboat Foundation was originally envisioned and created in 2003 by Peer T. Pedersen Jr. and Andrew C. Walter (now a Principal at Select Equity Group, Inc.), the co-founders of Blue Orchid Capital, LLC, a money management organization based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Steamboat Foundation's Executive Director is Emily Ryan, a 2004 Steamboat Scholar out of Boston College and former front office employee for The New York Football Giants.

Steamboat Foundation was born out of a simple idea that mirrored Blue Orchid Capital's investment philosophy: to invest in extraordinary talent. The philanthropic premise of Blue Orchid Capital was, at its creation, to simultaneously build a non-profit organization, unique as to its mission, that would be funded by a fixed percentage of the firm's fee income each year as its seed capital. 

In 2004, Steamboat launched its Summer Scholar Program by providing the first class of Steamboat Scholars with the opportunity to live and learn together, while experiencing internship experiences hosted by six Grant Partners. Since its inception, Steamboat has made grants to 86 Steamboat Scholars and continues to evolve each year, bringing together more University and Grant Partners in New York and Boston.

Steamboat made its first Special Grant in 2004 to the Sport for Peace Foundation, an HIV and sports education program in Rwanda overseen by Right To Play. A second Special Grant was given to Partners In Health in 2008 in support of its efforts to treat and prevent child malnutrition using locally grown therapeutic foods in rural Haiti. In 2009, Steamboat gave its first Special Grant to an alumnus, Ben Nwachukwu, to perform a needs assessment at the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Nigeria. Steamboat also made a multi-year grant to Starfish Greathearts Foundation in 2009, for a program that gives resources to children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Steamboat gave its second Special Grant to an Alumnus, Prem Thomas, for his work as a Kiva Fellow in Manila, Philippines.

In the years to come, Steamboat will continue to grow its programs and extend its investments in pioneering leaders, in the United States and internationally. 

2004 Steamboat scholars

Five of the first class of Steamboat Scholars gather at the 2nd Annual Forbes Reception in June 2005.