As an intrepid international investor, Marshall has travelled the globe from Cyprus to Estonia, Botswana to Burma, Chile to North Korea. He lived in Cairo during the Arab Spring, dodged an embassy attack in Yemen, survived a barrage of Molotov cocktails in Athens, and nearly died from a rare pneumonia in Mandalay.

And that is just his day job. 

On his time off, Marshall has been a volunteer firefighter, EMT, and equestrian – even winning Egypt’s national polo championship. He authored a memoir of his escapades as an adventure capitalist which is used by universities to teach global business.  Today, Marshall can be found circuiting a racetrack at 140 mph as a nationally ranked Formula Enterprise race car driver. 

Where are you from and where did you go to school?

I am from Brownsburg, Indiana, a small town of 6,000 people, about 10 minutes from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I attended Culver Military Academy for high school and went to Cornell University twice, first for an Engineering degree and then an MBA degree. I also have a PHD in economics from Universidad Francisco Marroquin.... and along the way I earned two-year associates degree in Firefighting; so I’ve got 4 sheepskins hanging on the wall.

Describe what you do for a living?

I make investments in countries where I think Economic freedom is increasing. I travel all over the world looking for countries that are changing their policies to encourage growth. In order to predict how countries will be changing their economies, it means I have to be there, in the country, collecting insight. It’s not the work of a desk jockey and so I have broken the chains of a desk job.  

How many countries have you been to or visited longer than a
day?

I’ve been to about 87 countries. I can only approximate the number because some don’t even exist anymore! Yemen is a questionable state of existence and Myanmar is in civil war. The list includes Switzerland and Austria along with Egypt and North Korea. I still have a few bucket-list places to visit. I expect to get to 100 countries soon.

What do you feel like you’ve learned from this life as a world-traveling investor?

I’ve learned a ton about investing in the right country, rather than the right company. No one is going to find the best countries to invest in next before I find them, if they find them at all. They are all
chasing the latest company craze and not finding the right COUNTRIES to make investments in. I’ve seen it many times. They find the first-class cabin on a sinking ship.  

Research into emerging market countries is a solitary path but that’s what makes it rewarding. You’re the first one to turn over the stones. Most people go through life with a safety blanket without questioning it; they believe what they’ve been told, like “It’s a stock-pickers market” and “you need to choose stocks, not countries”. I learned that I love doing things differently from everyone else, and that it works really well.

What is one of your most unique accomplishments?

I played on the polo team that won the Egyptian National Polo championship in 2011. Backing up a bit, both of my parents worked as engineers during my childhood. When summer break came, they sent me to summer camp at Culver Military Academy where I learned how to ride horses and how to play polo.  I went on to high school at Culver and played on their nationally ranked team.  While I was living in Egypt, I decided to play polo again and joined a polo club there. It was surreal, completely unique. We played at the base of some pyramids and defeated the Egyptian Police Polo team for the championship! You take off your boots, put down the mallet, and say “Wow, this is really something. It’s like something out of a novel.”

What is your interest in racing the SCCA Formula
Enterprise series?

My wife once asked me why I like to race cars, especially when I already have a stressful day job. Investing other people’s money is very stressful. It’s a big responsibility. So, why race? It’s stressful too. It’s simple. Any kind of polo, firefighting, racing or adrenaline-filled activity completely crowds anything else from my mind. The stress goes away, and I forget about everything else. Adrenaline brings relief from the stresses of life.

Is it intense racing the Formula Enterprise cars?

When I’m driving it's sensory overload while needing to think several seconds ahead. It’s switching between survival mode and strategy mode, race craft, only split seconds apart. It forces you to also move on from any mistakes you make on track. There is just no time for that. It’s even more intense as these are sprint races with no pit stops. Then when I come off track, we are constantly looking at data, exploring new ideas for car setup and how I can drive the car faster.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Take every opportunity that comes your way. Just say ‘yes’ to anything you’re invited to do. Get invited to lecture in Yemen? Say yes even if you’ve never been to the Middle East. Then become the target of an attack on the embassy in Yemen?  Say yes to staying there and giving that lecture. I wouldn’t change the path I went down for a minute. I could have stayed and worked my way up through the corporate ladder, most all of my peers did, but I wouldn’t have had the experiences, the stories to go along with it: winning a national polo championship, living through a revolution in Egypt, visiting nearly 100 different countries, saving two lives as a firefighter, and now an amateur career racing cars.