Zahlen Titcomb

Entrepreneur at Five Bamboo, Five Ultimate LLC

My experience and deep interests:

• Community & Ecosystem Building

I am based in: Seattle

 I was referred to THNK by Viviana Cadavid.

I have founded and have run, together with my four younger siblings, Five Ultimate, the leading Ultimate Frisbee apparel company in the world. Five Ultimate continues to grow as a global sport with a very strong foundation based on an inclusive community and unique elements of self-officiation.  Five Ultimate has been a consistent and driving force in the advancement of the sport through the unique passion that my siblings have injected into their work.

My siblings also run Five Bamboo, a second apparel company that uses a unique sustainable production method to make casual and active clothing out of bamboo. My roles in the companies focus on strategy and marketing, I also run the materials design and production arm of the businesses. Prior to my work on Five Ultimate and Five Bamboo, I worked in Beijing for Chinese companies in Finance and Healthcare Consulting.

I sit on the board of two foundations with my work focusing primarily on sustainable forestry and ecosystem services.

Outside these formal roles, you''ll typically find me in a ''whiteboard session'' tackling business challenges for startups or social enterprises I run into, or backcountry skiing and kiteboarding. My favorite buzzwords are ''value-creation'' and ''momentum'', and I am always looking for ways to improve systems.  I grew up half of each year in Seattle and half in northern Italy.  I graduated from the University of Chicago in Economics, Italian Literature, and International Studies.