*PIONEER, OPEN THOUGHT SOLUTIONS      FOUNDER, SANE LIVING MOVEMENT

Aubrey at EVO 3 Sculpture at Sane Living in Ojai

Welcome sign on Sane Living door: Socrates: 430 BC
“I am the wisest man on earth because I know that I know nothing”
Aubrey, born in S. Africa, where he lived for 25 yrs. In 1968 he emigrated to the U.S

Education

B.A. in Economics (Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg) S. Africa
Certified Public Accountant (CPA), S. Africa
MBA, (honors) Columbia University, NY
PH.D studies in Urban Planning and Design, New York University, NY

Business Background

1969-1972/management consultant, Arthur Young, Manhattan, NY
1972-2003/founding partner, Frankfurt Balkind, strategic design and advertising  HQ. in Manhattan, NY, offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco
1984-present, TED member
1996 named Entrepreneur of the Year, by Ernst and Young
2002-2003/appointed to Board with Mikhail Gorbachov, De Klerk, Tony Blair & Ehud Barak
2003-2014/founding partner, Bemis Balkind, Los Angeles
2003-present/ founded, global strategic think tank company, Strat B, NY/Ojai CA
2015-present/founder, Sane Farm, a regenerative and retreat farm; and
Sane Living 2019-present- Self 2 Heal, both nature lifestyle companies

WHAT AND WHO INFLUENCED ME?

1. During age 4-8, I almost died from Typhoid but instead learnt how to self-heal through the way I ate and exercised. To this day I have not consumed any refined sugars, caffeine, sodas, dairy, alcohol, and my blood pressure has remained far better than what’s normal for my age.
2. S. Africa’s amazing, extensive, ancient, untouched, game and nature reserves through which we walked with their tribal cultures helped me feel and appreciate man’s closeness to being part of Nature.

3. Two of my S. African cousins had very positive influences on my life. I spent time starting in 1963 with my cousin Jonathan Balkind and his S. African born step father Sydney Brenner. Sydney ran the Cambridge Lab of Molecular Biology during the time Watson and Crick  invented the DNA helix for which they were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize. Sydney remained head of biology at the Cambridge Lab and was an influencer in biology in the U.S & Singapore until he died in 2019. My time with my step uncle Sydney Brenner, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Pysiology & Medicine, planted the seeds for my emerging understanding of the world and the power that humans, nature and DNA could play in the universe.
   My cousin, Moira Forjaz, an artist in S. Africa, was closely associated with civil rights and the Nelson Mandela group during their apartheid trial and lifetime conviction in 1964. Amazingly 30 years later, Mandela was elected President of S. Africa in a one person one vote peaceful election.
4. In 1966, Robert F. Kennedy’s speeches in S. African about civil rights deeply influenced me to emigrate to the  USA, which I did in June 1968 a few days after he was murdered and 5 months before he was about to possibly be elected President.
5. In 1972, with my very talented design partner Phil Gips, we founded my first company, the strategic design and advertising firm, Gips Balkind in New York, which soon changed its name to Frankfurt Balkind and became one of the most visionary and respected firms in the country. We specialized in the entertainment, technology, and finance industries where, through branding and communications, helped those industries leverage the digital/internet era.
6. Advertising Hall of Famer, Steve Frankfurt had just left his position as President of global advertising agency Young and Rubicam where his role there elevated him as an icon of the famous 1967 BBC Mad Men TV series.

7. My broad, deep understanding of economics, finance, new communication design and technology, helped me team closely with ex Federal Reserve member, Dr. Henry Kaufman of Salomon Brothers help create Wall Street as a world financial center.
8. Frankfurt Balkind was successful for 30 years primarily because of the breadth and depth of our principals. Unlike our competitors, most of Frankfurt Balkind’s relationships with our clients was at the strategic CEO and C level and included helping change corporate cultures and business lifestyles. Our work in the entertainment industry, help launch companies CNN, ESPN, HBO, MTV, and help merge the cultures of Time and Warner and my design work for them was selected into the collection of the NY Museum of Modern Art. Frankfurt Balkind launched about 3,000 movies, including “pray for Rosemary’s baby”, All that Jazz, Alien with our tag line “in space no one can hear you scream”, and we titled movies like “Fatal Attraction”.
9. In 1984, I was accepted as one of the first members of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and have attended their annual conferences for about 30 years and gave one early TED talk.
10. In 1990, Frankfurt Balkind hired Philip Durbrow, ex head of global Landor Branding, who opened our San Francisco office and we soon landed the Adobe marketing account and, created the name, branding and launch of internet technology “Acrobat” which helped explode the internet. Also, my sophisticated graphic design also set the stage for the 90’s visual style for Wired Magazine when it launched.

ALIEN

ROSEMARY’S BABY

STARTUP.COM

TITANIC

ALL THAT JAZZ

FORREST GUMP

11. In 2003, I sold Frankfurt Balkind to global advertising, communications agency Interpublic; and formed Bemis Balkind with my  creative partner Peter Bemis which we sold to InSync.
12. In 2003, I founded a new global strategic think tank company called Strat B. Before that, I was appointed to the Board of the Strategic Peace Dialogue Center in Tel Aviv (joining a number of world leaders including prior prime ministers Ehud Barak, Mikael Gorbachev, F.W de Klerk, and Tony Blair).
13. I sold the firms because I believe work similar to what Frankfurt Balkind did to leverage the digital/internet era, is now needed to help create S a n e n e s s  in people’s health lifestyles.
14. In 2014, myself and my living partner Carol, who is from an 11th generation farmer family, bought a farm in Ojai, CA., an important center of Nature in America, which we, in day one began converting into a permaculture, regenerative, biodynamic, live food, retreat farm – named Sane Living Farm
15. Later that year with my partner and metaphysician, Carol Cilliers Blaschke and prescient son Devin Balkind, founded Sane Living and bought a building in central downtown Ojai which we rebuilt and named the Sane Living Center.
16. In 2016, Sane Living acquired a partnership interest  in Hip Vgn, Ojai’s #1 vegetarian restaurant for 6 years in a row and I work with its founders Ben and Marisa Dichiacchio. We located it in the Sane Living Center. Now it functions as “food is delicious medicine”.
17. The rest of the Sane Living Center houses an Auditorium for Live Events, Retreats, Workshops, Entertainment and also functions as a film production studio. SaneLiving.com will also distribute health education online.
18. As designer/ author, I conceived, created and built in partnership with local artist Ray Cirino, a large 1,600 cu ft stainless steel sculpture. I named the Evolution Sculpture “E V O 3” which is comprised of Nature with (WE  BIO), Sapiens with (ME  EGO), and A.I. with (GO  ALGO). The sculpture is partly influenced by famous historian and author, Yuval Harari, today one of the world’s most important and listened to speakers. Our donated Public Art Sculpture now stands as a large East–West ? question mark on Sane Living Center’s front lawn.
19. Today, about 75% of US deaths are from chronic diseases that are preventable, but not properly recognized as such by the medical industry. They are caused by the food, agriculture, pharma and medical industries who follow profit incentives plus people they have addicted by food, sugar lifestyles which cause inflammation leading to chronic diseases such as Heart, Stroke, Cancers, Diabetes, Dementia and Alzheimer’s.

NATURE IN S. AFRICA

WORLD S. AFRICANS

Mahatma Gandhi lived in S. Africa for 21 years and said “I was born in India but I was made in S. Africa”. That is where he launched his first non- violent campaign.

Nelson Mandela: In 1964, the Apartheid SA government put him in jail for life but 30 years later was released and elected President in 1994 in a peaceful one man, one vote election.

Sydney Brenner: Aubrey’s step uncle, and 2002  Nobel Biologist, (c.Elegans) led Lab of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England and then partnered with Francis Crick, discoverer of the DNA helix.

Elon Musk was born and lived in SA until he emigrated to Canada, & the USA. Founder: PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla (longest CEO), SolarCity, Hyperloop, Open AI, Neuralink, The Boring Co.

Dr Patrick Soon Shiong: transplant surgeon, born and educated in SA & USA – health, cancer pharma developer, technologist & media. Emigrated to USA in 1984. 2010 bought part of LA Lakers & in 2018 he bought the L.A Times. Recently his NantEnergy developed the power zinc air battery.

Trevor Noah is a S. African comedian, political commentator, and current host of The Daily Show. Time mag named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He recently said  “US is not just dealing with a deadly strain of coronavirus but also with stupidity”