Title:Brewing Success

Georgetown alumni are reshaping the coffee industry—from farm to cup

For millions around the world, the morning cup of coffee is a simple, if necessary, ritual to start their day. But for a group of Georgetown alumni, that daily brew represents something far more—it’s a calling that has defined their careers and driven their commitment to social justice.

From Central America to Chicago, these Hoyas are working to reshape an industry, making it more just, more sustainable, and more connected to the communities where the beans originate.

The scale of this challenge is immense. The global coffee industry generates over $100 billion annually—supporting nearly 2.2 million U.S. jobs and adding more than $343 billion to the U.S. economy every year—yet many of the 12 million families who grow coffee worldwide struggle to earn a living wage.

These alumni have made it their mission to change this reality, working at different points along the supply chain to improve both coffee quality and the lives of those who produce it—guided by principles instilled through their Georgetown education.

Despite their diverse career paths, the alumni share two common threads: a connection to the Hilltop and the belief that coffee can be a force for good in the world.

Martin Mayorga (B’97) on building a different coffee business model

Martín Mayorga’s path to building his successful coffee company Mayorga Coffee began long before he arrived at the Hilltop in 1994. Born in Guatemala to a Nicaraguan father and Peruvian mother, he was raised in Nicaragua until his family fled during the revolution, spending time in Peru, Costa Rica, and Miami before settling in Washington, DC. These early experiences would later fuel his entrepreneurial vision.

At Georgetown, where he followed in his older brothers’ footsteps to study international business and finance, Mayorga launched his first venture—selling cigars as an undergraduate.

But a few classes short of graduating, he made the decision to return to Nicaragua, driven by a strong desire to address the deep inequities he saw in the country of his youth.

“I did nothing special to be born in the house where I was born. If I’d been born even 100 feet away, I’d be the kid picking up sticks to make a dollar a day, and not the kid who had the opportunities I had,” he says.

Witnessing agricultural supply chain inequities firsthand in Nicaragua’s tobacco valleys, Mayorga became frustrated by the conditions the farmers faced.

“There are people who dedicate their entire lives to growing coffee, and nobody knows or cares. They are not valued, their work is invisible.”

By 2000, after selling his cigar brand to JR Cigars, Mayorga committed wholeheartedly to improving conditions for coffee growers, determined to forge a different path as the “anti-industry guy.” Rather than following traditional industry practices, he built his company around direct relationships with small organic family farms and equitable trade practices, maintaining staff in six Latin American countries and paying producers premium prices.

His approach extends to company culture—about 90% of his staff are Latine, and the company provides benefits such as financial education and first-time homebuyer programs. Though his profit margins are smaller, he’s focused on building a business at scale where more people can prosper.

His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is direct.

“The truth is I can’t really teach entrepreneurship, because the hustle is almost crazy—you’ve got to believe in what you are doing to the point that you are willing to lose everything. It’s that kind of grit and tenacity. You have to want it to your core.”

Today, Mayorga Coffee processes millions of pounds annually for retailers like Costco, Whole Foods, and Amazon while maintaining organic certification and direct trade relationships. Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, Mayorga has expanded into quinoa, chia seeds, and black beans, but has resisted selling his company to larger buyers.

“The first thing any big company that buys me out is going to do is slash what they pay producers, and this goes against everything we stand for,” he says.

Instead, he’s focused on building something lasting that reflects his values and heritage.

“I want to leave behind something that creates impact—something that will continue beyond me, and that can be a vehicle for people in Latin America to have hope,” he says.

Kevin Marinacci (C’89) on going from a year of transition to a 36-year mission

Kevin Marinacci could never have foreseen that one year of service would lead to a lifetime devoted to coffee communities. After earning a degree in American Studies, and without a clear post-graduation plan, Marinacci joined the Georgetown Student Volunteers in Latin America program, led by legendary theology professor Otto Hentz, S.J.

In Nicaragua, Marinacci worked alongside Rev. Rafael María Fabretto, a revered Italian missionary known throughout the country for strengthening education in poor rural communities. Just months after Marinacci’s arrival in Nicaragua’s coffee-growing highlands in 1990, Fabretto passed away unexpectedly, leaving a significant void.

Marinacci called his parents in Illinois to share his thinking: “I said, ’I think I need to stay another year to help in this period of transition.’”

That was 36 years ago. What followed was a life neither Marinacci nor his parents could have anticipated. He made Nicaragua his home, met his wife, and started a family while building the Fabretto Children’s Foundation from the ground up as chief executive officer. Marinacci’s father, who was originally opposed to his son’s decision to stay in Nicaragua, became deeply involved with the foundation.

Though Marinacci returned to the U.S. briefly to complete an MBA, Nicaragua remained his base as he worked to sustain and grow Fabretto’s legacy into a thriving educational organization employing more than 200 people.

However, political upheaval in Nicaragua would eventually disrupt the organization, forcing the foundation’s closure in 2022, and prompting Marinacci’s family’s move to Guatemala. The foundation now operates in Guatemala and Honduras, continuing its mission in rural communities, many in coffee-producing areas.

Because of the foundation’s efforts in these coffee-growing regions, Marinacci has witnessed firsthand a critical challenge facing the industry: coffee farmers are aging without a new generation ready to take up farming. The foundation responds with innovative curricula geared toward young people—teaching life sciences through composting and mathematics through garden management. Students learn to geo-reference farms using technology—skills increasingly vital as European Union legislation requires proof that coffee doesn’t come from deforested areas.

“If we can engage young people by incorporating technology or marketing, and by them being able to tell their story in their own way, the prospect then becomes more attractive,” Marinacci explains. “Their small farm of a couple of acres could be very profitable, but young people have to want to do this.”

His confidence stems from witnessing education’s lasting power across generations.

“Education is something you can never take away from somebody. There are generations of folks who have been educated and trained over the years through the foundation, and I’m optimistic that people who have access to quality education and opportunity will forge ahead,” he adds.

Michael Sheridan (SFS’94) on finding a calling in a Nicaraguan coffee town

After graduating with a degree in international politics, Michael Sheridan found himself working grueling and unsatisfying hours at a New York City law firm while volunteering in his limited spare time distributing food to homeless encampments. In letters to his former professor Hentz, Sheridan relayed how much he enjoyed his volunteer efforts—and disliked his 80 hours weekly of paid legal work.

Hentz invited Sheridan to walk a different path, encouraging him to move to Nicaragua to join the Georgetown Student Volunteers in Latin America program.

“That really was the inflection point that put me on this path,” Sheridan says. “Within a few weeks of being in Nicaragua, I knew I was in the right place.”

Sheridan spent his time volunteering in an orphanage run by the Fabretto Foundation in San José de Cusmapa, a coffee-producing town just a few miles from the Honduran border.

Through his work in Cusmapa and travels throughout the country, Sheridan saw both the physical beauty and harsh realities of coffee production. On one visit to a large estate, he was struck by the inequities and often hazardous labor conditions—migrant workers sleeping in converted stables, dealing with respiratory illnesses and machete wounds.

The early experience in Nicaragua was a touchstone for Sheridan over the years.

“It was my first brush with the supply side of coffee,” he says. “That’s resonated with me ever since in my work with growers at origin.”

After leaving Cusmapa, Sheridan was a newspaper reporter in Latin America for a few years before returning to the U.S. for graduate school. Yet his connection to coffee—and the farmers, communities, and landscapes that sustain it—proved enduring. He went on to work for more than two decades at Catholic Relief Services, leading coffee projects throughout Latin America.

It was during this time that he reconnected with Marinacci—the two had overlapped in Nicaragua years earlier through the Fabretto Foundation. Together they secured funding to support a link between the Cinco de Junio cooperative with Counter Culture Coffee, a partnership that continues more than 15 years later.

In 2016, Sheridan shifted to the buyer’s side of the equation, joining Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee as sourcing director. There he worked with growers across Africa and the Americas on direct-trade partnerships “with an eye to how to create more value for the people who produce the coffee, and how to reduce their risk and increase their reward,” he says.

Today, he is CEO of the Coffee Quality Institute, which aims to improve coffee quality and the lives of coffee producers. Sheridan says the nonprofit’s mission feels particularly urgent as climate change, political unrest, and economic shocks expose deep fissures in the global coffee system.

“We have a cultural love affair when it comes to coffee— it’s such an important part of our lives and our routine,” he says. “But the future of coffee is not inevitable. We have a system in which the biggest risks are borne by the people who are least equipped to bear them, and this is not tenable.”

Looking back, Sheridan credits his initial “false path” in Manhattan for reconnecting him with Hentz, taking him to Cusmapa, and setting the direction for his entire career.

“What started almost as an accident then became very much by design. Now I can’t imagine what else I would do,” he says.

Gally Mayer (B’92) on the healing power of soil

When Gally Mayer moved from Manhattan to Costa Rica 15 years ago with her husband and children, the family was seeking a deeper connection to nature and community.

Several years later, Mayer began searching for quality Costa Rican coffee for Tutto Il Giorno, the New York-based Italian restaurant group she and her husband co-own with partners. What she discovered instead was a coffee industry facing serious challenges—and an opportunity to be part of the solution.

Today, she’s the co-founder of Buena Vida Specialty Coffee, working to transform how Costa Rican coffee is grown and traded.

Born in Argentina and raised in Israel from age four, Mayer arrived at Georgetown’s business school uncertain about her career direction. A transformative course with Rabbi Harold White taught her that “you can be whatever religion you want to be—just be a good person with a strong value system.”

This lesson would guide her for years to come. After graduating with a degree in international business and finance, Mayer spent nearly a decade on Wall Street and in banking—but always felt pulled toward more mission-driven endeavors, inspired by her father’s generous and altruistic spirit.

This instinct soon found its focus. When she began looking into the coffee industry in Costa Rica, what she found shocked her.

“Eighty percent of farmers live on the poverty line, 95% of soil is degraded from agrochemicals, and people drink coffee without understanding where it comes from,” she says. “Farming coffee doesn’t provide prosperity for most, and much of the time products labeled ’fair trade’ are anything but fair.”

For Mayer, this wasn’t just a business problem—it was a call to action that connected directly to her values. Five years ago, she co-founded Buena Vida as an organic coffee company. Over the past three years, it has evolved into something more ambitious: a comprehensive regenerative agriculture initiative that goes beyond avoiding chemicals to actively healing damaged land.

Unlike traditional organic farming, regenerative agriculture emphasizes rebuilding soil health, promoting biodiversity, and creating self-sustaining ecosystems. Methods include gentle soil management, crop rotation, maintaining plant cover year-round, and growing coffee alongside trees to naturally improve soil health and help farms withstand drought and disease.

“Soil health is one of the most accelerated paths to a healthy planet and farmer prosperity,” Mayer says. “Without healthy soil, you cannot have healthy plants. Without healthy plants, you cannot have healthy food. Without healthy food, you cannot have healthy humans. The soil is what heals us.”

The urgency is real: Costa Rica has lost nearly half its coffee farms in the past decade, and according to the Interamerican Development Bank, global coffee production could be cut in half by 2050 due to climate change and other factors.

Mayer’s commitment to values-driven business has come full circle through her role on the board of the Baratta Center for Global Business Education at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.

She encourages students and alumni to “find your passion that drives you to make the world a better place, whatever that may be.” And most of all, she says, stay close to your mentors and supporters.

“Find the people with value systems you admire who will hold your feet to the fire when push comes to shove. That’s where the magic is.”

Al Liu (SFS’95) on moving from the Peace Corps to coffee diplomacy

When Al Liu graduated from Georgetown with a degree in Science, Technology and International Affairs, a career in business wasn’t exactly what he had envisioned for himself—he was drawn more toward global environmental policy and diplomacy. Three decades later, he has discovered that commerce can drive meaningful international impact—though not in the way he originally expected.

Liu’s introduction to coffee began during his senior year at Georgetown, when he served as one of the first shift managers at The Corp’s brand-new Uncommon Grounds coffee cart in the Leavey Center.

Following graduation and graduate school at Tufts University, where he earned a master’s in urban and environmental policy, and a brief stint at the World Wildlife Fund in DC, he joined the Peace Corps in Bolivia to help develop a regional ecotourism infrastructure. The Jesuit values he learned attending Marquette University High School in Milwaukee and at Georgetown had instilled in him a desire to help the less fortunate, he says, making the Peace Corps a natural fit.

The experience proved transformative, unknowingly connecting him to the region that would later define his career.

“My time in the Peace Corps, specifically in Bolivia, put me on a path that I never would have imagined for myself,” Liu says. “Not only did I learn a new language, but I gained the incredible experience of living and working in a coffee-growing country.”

Back home in Milwaukee, Liu took what he thought would be a temporary job at Alterra Coffee Roasters (now Colectivo Coffee), planning to use it as a bridge before returning to Washington to pursue international development. But as he became more immersed in the global nature of the coffee business—connecting farmers in remote regions to consumers thousands of miles away— he recalibrated his plans.

Over the following years, Liu built extensive experience across the industry. He became involved in the specialty coffee movement, serving on the Specialty Coffee Association of America board from 2008 to 2012. As a trader with Seattle-based Atlas Coffee Importers, he worked with fair trade cooperatives in remote coffee-growing regions across Latin America and Southeast Asia. These roles increasingly revealed that the coffee trade required similar diplomatic skills to what he’d dreamed of at Georgetown.

His work has required navigating complex political situations, from operating in Indonesia’s post-conflict Aceh province—where a decades-long separatist movement had left highland coffee communities caught between opposing forces—to facilitating dialogue between stakeholders with vastly different power dynamics across the global coffee value chain.

“Coffee doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s inextricably tied to the history, the government, and the economy of these origin countries,” Liu says.

This realization led him to his current role as director of Let’s Talk Coffee, an initiative of the specialty coffee importer Sustainable Harvest that brings together industry leaders to tackle challenges ranging from market volatility to supply chain equity. Through this role, Liu has found that his SFS education prepared him well for navigating the complexities of global coffee trade.

Coffee as a way to expand the greater good

For these five alumni, coffee is not merely a commodity to be traded. It is a bridge between cultures, a potential pathway to prosperity for rural communities, and a reminder that our most routine choices as consumers can have profound human consequences.

Working in the industry can be a way to live out the Jesuit principles that shaped their Georgetown education—a commitment to being people for others.

As Marinacci reflects on his Jesuit formation, which began in high school at the Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois: “My high school experience was defining in terms of thinking of service and contemplation and action, and that was reinforced throughout my time at Georgetown.”

These alumni have intentionally shaped their career paths, demonstrating how the coffee business can be a way to expand the greater good when guided by purpose and connection.

As Mayorga puts it: “For me, coffee is almost spiritual— it’s my connection to where I’m from. I personally know the people who grow it and I know the communities it comes from.”