Matt Scanlan

Founder and CEO, Naadam Cashmere

Matt Scanlan started Naadam Cashmere in 2012 after he quit his job at a venture capital firm in New York and traveled to Mongolia with his business partner, Diederik Rijsemus. The duo hired guides who took them on a 20-hour trek to the middle of the Gobi desert. Following three weeks in the country, Matt and Diederik then put together a business plan to support the nomadic lifestyle of the herders that would become Naadam.