Co-Founder and Creative Development Director, Keneh Ventures 

Aspen High Class of 2003

By the time he moved back to Aspen shortly before his 30th birthday, Brough already had a varied and successful career. He worked in sales and marketing for a major action sports content producer in LA and started his own production company in Miami, executive producing award-winning documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America. Following the film’s success—and having helped the late Bradley curate his brand—Brough became an in-demand creative consultant, helping corporations and lifestyle brands create culture-related content.

But he always missed Aspen, where he and his mother had moved when he was an infant. He yearned for the outdoor lifestyle and the mountain wilderness—to which he’d been introduced by his Big Buddy as a teenager—and the relationships, especially.

Brough had his aha moment one day in Miami, driving the hour-and-a-half home from the rock-climbing gym he frequented. “Why am I driving three hours to climb inside when I could be doing this outside in Aspen all the time?” he realized.

At the same time, he wanted to get into the cannabis industry. Marijuana had helped him tremendously as an epileptic, so when a friend who was opening Native Roots in Aspen asked Brough to help out, he leapt at the chance and spent the next couple of years studying consumer behavior around cannabis while working as a budtender.

During that time, Brough reaffirmed his knack for helping people and companies build brands and set them on a path to success. When some friends approached him about opening a dispensary, he convinced them to start a cannabis private equity firm instead.

Now, says the 33-year-old, he spends his professional time vetting companies and researching cultural trends in the cannabis space. “It’s about doing things that are interesting, helping entrepreneurs, and helping people’s dreams come true,” he says.

Ironically, while he’s found a career that enables him to stay in Aspen, Brough frequently travels for meetings and events. But, he says, “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I plan on living here as long as I can."