Emily Miller, cofounder and chief marketing officer (CMO), Rumi Spice
Military background: Three
veteran Army captains, all engineers (CEO Kimberly Jung, President Keith Alaniz, and CMO Emily Miller) launched Rumi Spice about two years ago. Miller worked as a cultural sup- port team member, assisting special operations forces by building rapport with the Afghan female population. She and Jung left the Army in 2013; Alaniz got out in 2015. The spark: “We came at this from serving in Afghanistan, falling in love with the people, and wanting to serve them. One thing we realized is that the country has had a tumultuous 30-plus years. It’s a war- and conflict- ravaged country, but the people are hopeful and resilient,” Miller says.
Business mission: Rumi Spice imports saffron directly from farmers in Afghanistan and sells it online at
www.rumispice.com. Without investment in agriculture, Afghan farmers have little prospects with shrinking land allotments, mak- ing them susceptible to the Taliban. The team launched Rumi Spice to empower the farming community. Achieving success: “An article came out on us on NPR, and it blew up sales,” Miller says. In the past year, Rumi Spice has captured 5 percent of Afghanistan’s saffron pro- duction. In 2015, the team created a $33,000 Kickstarter project to estab- lish a processing facility and employ Afghan women.
JUNE 2016 MILITARY OFFICER 71
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