Matt Hangen

CEO

I'm President and CEO of Water4.org, a role that was "thrust upon me" by Water4's founders back in 2016, initially as organizational lead in a COO position. I started as a trainer/well driller wild man who was traveling to a dozen countries a year, living in tents there, intensely, intentionally. The knowledge I gained from 11 years of field work and life in Africa equipped me to serve a unique founder-like role inside an org with a strong set of incredible founders. I have learned a lot in the role of CEO working with, supported and coached by amazing people. From 2017 we dialed in on our strategy with the "mars shot" true north of profitable, faith driven water businesses, serving rural markets in the most economically challenging areas of Sub Saharan Africa. That meant innovating and designing new technologies, running business models, rebranding our organization (website, logo, messaging), inventing an international brand for franchises, and then learning how to message and mobilize the approach to donors and financial partners here. We've built IT and management systems to manage and monitor complex systems and processes across borders, now with 50% of our US staff out of state and the nearly complete majority of the employees supported in the areas we work. The last 3 years we went from $5.5million to $10.5million in gross revenue between funds generated in Africa and the US from our combined non-profit/for-profit approach. And the big hairy audacious goal is a noble one. We've created 650 jobs and shared the gospel with over 260,000 people over the course of 7600 water projects. We are a lean water providing, business scaling machine. I've had the great gift of seeing a lot of change and I'm committed to seeing more of it through for the betterment of the world I'm so grateful to be a part of.