Episode 18: A Conversation with Operation Snow Leopard

This is a very special episode of Goalmakers – well, all episodes of Goalmakers are special, of course, because of the incredible people we get to interview – yet this one stands apart. 

Let me explain. This session chronicles a very important chapter in our history books because it narrates the heroic efforts of a team of passionate individuals that came together to conquer a huge challenge – how to get key persons out of Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in the summer of 2021. 

For this episode, I was privileged to be able to sit with the founders of Operation Snow Leopard, and an organizational consultant and veteran who are also part of the OSL team. 

This is a story of David and Goliath, goliath being the incredible challenge of how to extricate persons from the grips of the Taliban state.  

Data, paperwork, physical extraction routes, safehouses, secrecy, resettlement, more data, more paperwork, more challenges of where to settle persons... 

This is a story of passion and perseverance. This is a story about the love of freedom and doing what’s right. 

This is also a narrative of how myriads of disparate data needs were centralized and a professional-grade manifest database was created by Salesforce and Google to set a new standard that can be used for future evacuation efforts for a variety of situations. 

And OSL’s mission is not complete, and they need more partnerships and support.  

And I was very happy to hear how their membership with Global Washington helped facilitate several important connections and collaborations. 

I hope you enjoy hearing about Operation Snow Leopard as much as I enjoyed interviewing this diverse, warm, smart, and welcoming group.

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