The Disgrace of Karen “Supertrader” Bruton (Part 2)

Today I continue with my transcript of the Karen Bruton “Distinguished Alumni” award video by Wake Forest University in 2014 (before filing of SEC complaint).

To protect the innocent, I am rescinding most of the participant names (you already know about Tom Sosnoff). The shock value here is how wrong these people were about their hero, Karen Bruton, much like I (and so many others!) have been duped throughout history by public heroes that none of us really know.

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BT: At face value, just looking at Karen you see professionalism. She exudes a confidence and an inner strength. You might, if you knew that she was an accountant, a CPA, form an opinion or a picture of her that couldn’t be more inaccurate [emphasis mine].

Tom Sosnoff: Here’s… another nice person, ridiculously smart, that really wants to learn… she’s serious and very true-to-form. She’s very professional but she does not take herself too seriously.

JC: I mean she’s a CFO, right? She’s a financial personality and she’s a CPA. She’s a little bit reserved and conservative in her approach but frankly that’s part of the charm and I think that’s a strong component of her success whether it’s investing, whether it’s philanthrophy in a conservative manner… she’s able to utilize those skills and enjoy success because of that.

BT: Any and all success that Just Hope has seen is attributable to Karen Bruton. Prior to 2013, Karen was Just Hope. What you had was a sole proprietorship, basically. Karen said, “I’m stepping away from my professional career. I’m giving my life to this work. I’m going and I’m gonna carry out these acts of service.”

RH: Now this is a major undertaking: building the organization, engaging the people to help her, taking full responsibility for financing her efforts…

JH: She came to me to explain her wanting to start a not-for-profit called Just Hope International (JHI). That was a dream she had and I didn’t know that dream. She asked me to serve on her board… and I’ve been so happy to watch it grow.

RH: After having visited other places, she decided on Sierra Leone—one of the most remote and hostile areas in the world… determined to improve the quality of life for the people living there.

JC: The fact that she’s over in places like Thailand, Sierra Leone—where nothing works the way that it should… and she’s not accepting that. She’s saying “I’m going to go make a difference. I’m going to go provide opportunity to places and to people that have not had opportunities before.”

RH: They’re raising… pineapple… 100 acres and they will eventually have one million pineapple plants and the prospects of this continuing for a long time—hopefully indefinitely—are very real.

BT: She has an enormous heart. But it’s not just a tug at the heart: it’s a plan in the head. She applies business skills and principles to serving the poor in the world today. Part of the systemic issue that we’re dealing with in some of these areas is the fact that the handout model simply does not work and the whole concept behind JHI and what Karen is trying to do is… to give people a hand up not a hand out.

RH: Together with that sharing she started an orphanage in the same area bringing a much better life to the children… giving them a better opportunity to have a better future, to have hope for the future…

BT: When going in and working with some of the poorest people in the world, it is very easy to do things that make us feel good. The hard part is going in and doing work that is really about the people you’re serving. Plant seeds, growing those trees–you don’t intend to sit in the shade.

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I will conclude next time.