His published fiction takes place in both domestic and foreign settings, while much of his business career has been in the alternative energy industry.
In addition to the United States, Kuhns also has established companies and developed projects in Argentina, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, England, Honduras, India, Ireland, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Wales.
[13] Born in Lake Forest, Illinois to college professors, Kuhns spent his formative years in Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., where he was educated in the public schools.
During his summer between years at business school, he worked on the bond trading desk at the investment banking firm of Salomon Brothers in its Boston office.
[18] Under his direction, Kuhns Brothers has financed many companies, including the IPO for CalEnergy, one of the world's largest geothermal power corporations.
[28] In 1984 while CEO of Catalyst, Kuhns made his first visit to China, going to Chengdu to purchase hydroelectric generating equipment, and becoming the first American to do so in the process.
[37] In 2016 Kuhns established an organization now called Numa Numa Resources, Inc. to develop and invest in infrastructure and other business ventures in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, an island archipelago located in the South Pacific possessing billions in copper, gold, fisheries, exotic hardwoods, and other valuable natural resources.
It has been selected by the clans who own the Panguna Mine and the Autonomous Bougainville government to help redevelop and reconstruct the Panguna Mine, and is also involved in gold dealing, road building, mineral exploration, the redevelopment of a limestone quarry and lime calcination project, as well as a hydropower-based, fully integrated electric generation and distribution utility..[38] Kuhns first novel was loosely based on his hydroelectric business in China.
Jing Daily described it as a "vivid illustration" of "the opportunities and obstacles experienced by foreign businesspeople in the early days of China's sometimes uncomfortable embrace of capitalism…China Fortunes manages to tread the fine line between entertainment and education, never losing sight of the adventure and mind-expanding aspects of living and working in China as a foreigner.
"[40] The book received positive reviews with Terry McDonell, the former managing editor of Sports Illustrated, calling it, "a smart and stylish take on what business really is in modern China.
Once again the story line involves business, but the setting changes from China to South Florida, and this time protagonist Jack Davis needs help from some notable underworld figures.
Kuhns' third novel, South of the Clouds, a story about smuggling jade over the Sino-Burmese border in China's southwestern province of Yunnan, was published by Post Hill Press in 2018.