J.T. Ross Jackson

[1] Later, Jackson began focusing more on international finance, consulting around the world in investment strategies for banks, insurance companies, and mutual fund providers.

Ross Jackson has described his awakening in the book, Kali Yuga Odyssey: A Spiritual Journey (San Francisco, Robert D. Reed, 2000).

In 1987 he integrated his spiritual insights with his business and environmental interests by forming Gaia Trust, a charitable Danish entity with the mandate to support people and projects that are moving the planet towards sustainability through grants and proactive initiatives.

[3] "As a thinker, entrepreneur, author, activist and chair of a Danish foundation that supports renewable energy and sustainable living, Ross Jackson is trying to steer humanity on a different, more nature-oriented way of life."

The next major NGO project initiated by Gaia Trust evolved out of GEN in 1998 and was largely inspired by Ross Jackson's wife Hildur.

… While it is not uncommon for successful entrepreneurs who create large personal fortunes to eventually turn their attention to philanthropy, Ross is distinctive in that he established GaiaCorp for the primary explicit purpose of generating profits to finance progressive social change.”[8]Gaia Trust has always been self-funded by earnings from its very successful daughter company Gaiacorp, a foreign currency manager and advisory firm.

Ross Jackson’s professional career, he continues to take an active part in companies with a double purpose, sustainability, and financial viability.

The company was early out (1972) as a major Scandinavian organic foods wholesaler, but was continually in financial difficulties and close to bankruptcy.

Ross personally, along with Gaia Trust, took over 2/3 of the company in 1995, brought in a professional management team, and turned it around over the next 20 years with a net turnover of almost DKK 400 million.

I am happy together with Gaia Trust to have contributed to the success of a sound and profitable green company in Denmark"[12]For many years, Ross hoped that some traditional developers would discover the potential in ecovillages and bring a professional approach to the concept, so ecovillages could become mainstream and not take 8–10 years for a small group of amateurs to get from concept to actually move in.

His father was a flying instructor and psychologist, working for the Canadian Defense Department, later as secretary to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Ross won a scholarship to pursue a master's degree at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management in Lafayette, Indiana.

He completed his PhD in financial engineering in 1964, his focus was on the virgin area of stock options, 10 years before the CBOE existed.

[16] Ross has written articles and books on a variety of topics, including his personal transformation from businessman to environmental activist, on economics, on politics, on his spiritual journey, and a "documented novel" on the incredible life of Francis Bacon as the author of the Shakespeare works and the son of Queen Elizabeth I.