Kirk Jowers is the CEO of dōTERRA. This transcript comes from Kirk’s remarks at the 2024 Breakfast of Humanitarians, which took place on World Water Day. Read more about the Breakfast event in the blog recap or listen to the recording. The transcript has been edited for clarity.
This is a huge honor for me. I love CHOICE. I first got to know CHOICE through James Mayfield. He is the man. He knows this, because I've told him: he was my favorite professor I ever had at the University of Utah. 1991 is when I first met Professor Mayfield, and he taught me a lot of principles that I have carried my entire life.
We came back together in 2005 when I returned from Washington, D.C., to work at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, as well as some other things. We started some programs at the Hinckley Institute together where we were doing internships—not just with members of Congress and the governor and all those kinds of more traditional internships—but started doing humanitarian internships and ended up doing them in 69 different countries, and CHOICE was a massive, massive part of that. I remember Professor Mayfield in my office talking about his plans for Nepal, which seemed breathtaking, and it was.
So, when they said there was this Breakfast of Humanitarians event for CHOICE, my first question was: is Professor Mayfield going to be there? Because I will take every chance I get to say hi to a man who changed my life and has changed hundreds of thousands of lives. And so thank you, it's such an honor.
dōTERRA's time with CHOICE started in 2014, which corresponds with the first time I met anyone who was from dōTERRA. The only person I knew before that was Tim Valentiner, who had come up through the University of Utah and has been so integral to CHOICE. Tim is really the co-impact sourcing story here at dōTERRA. We have a company full of people who want to help heal the world, to change the world, to make impacts. Tim actually knows how to do it, and he's been teaching us and bringing us along, and we’re grateful for him.
When I was thinking about making the move from my D.C. law firm and the University of Utah, giving that all up for this essential oil company, I met with Tim for about three hours. I thought co-impact sourcing was probably phenomenal marketing. I worked with politicians most of my life, so I know a good marketing story when I see it, and I thought it probably impossible that it was real. But there's no one more sincere and authentic than Tim. He told me about it, and I believed him because I asked him questions and pushed him for three hours about what's really going on. That was a huge part of my decision to start at dōTERRA, to give up my old life and come here. I felt like we could make a massive difference.
Then I got to see that firsthand not long after I started, when I went to Guatemala and brought my wife and a lot of my family. We went there with Tim and our then CEO and founder, David Stirling, and I saw firsthand the incredible impact that dōTERRA plus CHOICE could make on some wonderful, beautiful people who still impact me from there.
Speaking of Nepal, we source our wintergreen there. We've been able to change a lot of lives, mostly women's lives, through what we do there. When the devastating earthquakes hit, because we have those relationships—because we're on the ground, we know CHOICE, and we know the people from Nepal—we were the first private company in after those devastating earthquakes.
I could go on forever about CHOICE and Professor Mayfield, Tim Valentiner, and so many of you. It's been fun to see so many people that I've known and met throughout my career. I'm grateful for each of you. You're willing to devote so much of your life and your resources to change other people's lives. That's not common. It's not as common, I think, as it used to be. To have this as a centralizing point for your desire to help people who need help—not just to give them that one fish, but to teach them how to fish. To spend your time with them. To let your heart go there so that it's not a one-time deal or a few bucks before Christmas when you're feeling a little more guilty or sensitive or whatever it is.
All of that's good, but for you to have this sustained commitment is what changes the world. dōTERRA is committed to keeping that sustained commitment as well. We are grateful for an amazing partner like CHOICE who is so single-minded. We have to have a few minds at dōTERRA to succeed on all different levels, and CHOICE has been an invaluable partner since 2014 in helping us never lose that focus of what's most important.
I'm grateful now to turn our time over to Misty Bond, our VP of Corporate Relations and Philanthropy. I've been able to work closely with Misty since she started here, which is unique for me because I wasn't with dōTERRA for the last two years. She is someone I just admire a lot, and it was absolutely the right decision to put her here. Her heart is amazing, and she will put a little more detail on the work we've been doing with CHOICE.