Finding Purpose, Solving Problems

Looking back, Sean Davis ’92 can count many fellow Exonians who have played a role at pivotal moments in his career. The pattern started
with one of his first jobs, at Advent International, the Boston-based private equity firm founded by Peter Brooke ’48.

After nearly a decade working in finance in the U.S. and Latin America, Davis moved to Florida to be closer to his young daughter. He saw the move as a chance to switch gears and find more meaning in his work. Drawing on his experience as an Exeter alumni volunteer, Davis launched himself into development and fundraising work with various nonprofits, including The Salvation Army and The Lord’s Place, a social impact organization working to support homeless people in West Palm Beach.

“I had a front-row seat to see how terrible our country was in terms of poverty, homelessness, foster care, just across the board,” Davis says. “When you lifted the hood, it was horrific.”

Then in 2010, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and more of the world’s wealthiest individuals committed to giving away at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes in their lifetime or in their wills. It was a bold pledge, and one that gave Davis his next life-changing idea. “I remember thinking — here’s a massive amount of philanthropy that we could put to work,” Davis says.

In 2015, Davis founded Merton Capital Partners with the mission to help deploy large-scale philanthropy to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the United States, including the lack of affordable housing. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the nation is experiencing a shortage of more than 7 million affordable and available rental homes.
Davis partners with local philanthropists, developers and community leaders through the Merton Community Housing Project to address the workforce housing crisis in West Palm Beach and provide permanently affordable rents for the community’s essential workers, such as police officers, teachers and civil servants.

In his efforts, Davis has enlisted advice and support from a number of Exonians including Chuck Harris ’69, who founded the philanthropic organization Blue Meridian Partners, and Gil Kemp ’68, a dedicated philanthropist who is now a senior adviser for the Merton Community Housing Project.

Davis has also turned to a younger generation of Exonians eager to pair real-world work experience in the private equity world with a sense of giving back. Each summer, Exeter pairs current Exonians with alumni and parent mentors in the workplace in a wide range of fields, including marketing, fashion, finance and ophthalmology. The program, managed by Exeter’s Global Initiatives Program, was expanded over the past few years thanks to the efforts of Instructor in Science Anne Rankin ’92, a former Bates-Russell Distinguished Faculty Professor.

Davis has employed several current Exeter students and recent graduates as research interns through the program. Last summer’s interns, Lake Zhou ’27 and Minnie Kim ’27, met regularly with Davis via Zoom to gain insight about his career and about Merton’s work. They also connected with past interns, as well as Kemp and other members of Merton’s advisory team.

“Working at Merton showed me it is possible to do meaningful and interesting work while also working for a good cause,” Zhou says. “It showed me that non sibi is not something we do after we have a successful career — it’s something that can be integrated into a career to make it successful.”

In serving as a mentor, Davis also appreciates the opportunity to help younger Exonians find the type of rewarding career he has created for himself.

“Young people’s hearts are naturally attached to this kind of work,” Davis says. “They’re just geared toward finding impact. These problems of homelessness and housing, they’re very hard to solve, and very few people have solutions. So when we say, ‘Hey, we have a solution,’ that inspires kids.”