Our Team

The most essential members of our team are the hundreds of artisans in remote villages who harvest and hand spin the JungleVine® Fiber and then craft it into bags, purses, hats, and other environmentally friendly products. Learn more about the artisans here.

Project Founders

William Newbrough, Co-Founder

Bill Newbrough temporarily is serving as Managing Director of the JVF. He was a co-founder of the NatureBag Khmu/Lao Poverty Reduction Project, which was the social enterprise doing much of the work now carried out by the Foundation. Previously, he was a journalist including serving as executive editor of The Daily Iowan, a radio/television presenter, a management executive with AT&T in New York USA, a global organizational management consultant, a real estate developer in Denver, Colorado, USA, a rural mail carrier in Iowa, USA and an entrepreneur. He earned a B.A. in political science and journalism with Honors and High Distinction and an M.A. in mass communications from the University of Iowa. He lives in Luang Prabang, Laos; Yangon, Myanmar, and Des Moines, Iowa, USA. In 2018, his commuting exceeded 200,000 miles. He also serves as a Special Consultant to the Lao social enterprise through which the Foundation does its work in that country.

Bon Sou Keoamphone, Co-Founder Emeritus

Bon Sou worked with the project for several years before deciding to break away to pursue other adventures. He no longer works with the Nature Bag project or the JungleVine Foundation.