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FROM BRANDEIS TO BASRA Lash founded the Target Companies during his senior year as a pre- med student at Brandeis University. He had planned to go to medical school like much of his family before him, but a junior year research fellowship working with young adult paraplegics and quadriplegics left him, “emotionally devastated,” and with the realization that he was pursuing the wrong field. “So, I decided to start a business that let me do the two things I love the most: sports and travel,” Lash says. Thus Target Ski Tours–a ski tour operation company–and Target Tennis–a company managing tennis courts at emerging condominium developments–were born. Over time he dropped the tennis operation and expanded the sport travel company, working his way to becoming the official tour operator for Florida State University. The experience opened his eyes to large, complex travel movements, like those required for the Olympic Games, where he organized white glove corporate travel for big companies.

in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador have forced thousands of Central Americans to flee their homes and seek asylum in the United States. In response to this, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), in collaboration with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), commissioned the country’s largest refugee camp in Dilley, Texas to house the asylum seekers while they are being processed. Lash and Target Logistics were hired to build the 2,400-person facility and operate its dining rooms, and provide all of its janitorial and maintenance needs. Ideally, it is meant to be a transitional facility with a constantly changing population as refugees get processed on their path to become US citizens–if they pass a background check–and make room for new asylum seekers. “I think the camp is a beta test [for how the US will handle large influxes of refugees],” says Lash. “It wasn’t inexpensive, but it’s a complete living, breathing city with four indoor basketball courts, three soccer fields, over 200,000 feet of education space, medical space, and court rooms.”

While Target Logistics was working on the camp in Dilley and pursuing similar refugee related contracts in the US, the Syrian refugee crisis was seriously impacting Europe. After the sale of Target Logistics, Lash became one of the largest stockholders in Algeco Scotsman, a modular space and secure storage provider based in London. In the summer of 2015, one of the partners called and asked Brian, “Can you come over here and take a look around? Let’s see if we can do in Europe what you did in Texas.” That is how Lash began working with the governments of European countries on efforts to accommodate millions of Syrian refugees as well as refugees from other countries. Lash’s experience provided him a unique understanding of the logistical planning and housing required to successfully manage the massive influx of people. Target Logistics landed their first contract in Germany to house a couple thousand refugees, and Lash met with officials from Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Belgium.Through these discussions, Lash quickly realized that the facility they created in Dilley would not be possible in Europe. “The Europeans, while opening their arms to the Syrian refugees, are really not tremendously excited about them being there, and they want their countries to spend as little as possible to get the refugees resettled. So, the budget that the US government approved for what I’m doing in Dilley, I don’t think will ever be approved in Europe. And I’m not saying that Europe is cheap and America is generous, but it’s that they are dealing with millions [of refugees], and we’re dealing with tens of thousands. It’s a tremendous crisis like never before seen in Europe,” states Lash. “I’ll give you an example: Austria, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark,

L-R: BASRA TRAINING FACILITY, IRAQ; DINING ROOM OF THE CHEECHAM LODGE IN NORTHERN ALBERTA; PECOS LODGE, TEXAS ENTRANCE AT DUSK. OPPOSITE: BRIAN LASH

Eventually, he switched from moving thousands of people to housing thousands of people, and what started as Target Ski Tours evolved into Target Logistics, the largest provider of temporary housing solutions in the United States. Target Logistics provided housing to U.S Government personnel during the extremely tense 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the first Olympics after 9/11. The U.S Government had more personnel at the games than ever before, andTarget Logistics successfully and efficiently housed the thousands of federal agents and security personnel. For Harley Davidson, Target built and operated Riders’ Ranch, housing over 10,000 Harley owners for the 100th anniversary celebration of Harley Davidson in 2003. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Target Logistics contributed to the disaster relief effort. With clearance from the Department of HomelandSecurity, they frequentlyworkeddeep into thenight–well past the New Orleans citywide curfew– to create an emergency, 700-person modular camp in East NewOrleans. For Tulane University, they brought in a cruise ship to house faculty, students and staff and built over 200 dorm rooms in a vacant parking lot to house displaced students. After selling control of the company in 2013, (Lash still serves as a consultant on business development initiatives), the successful businessman and savvy entrepreneur turned his attention to a new challenge: the world’s refugee crisis. Over the past few years, corrupt governments and murderous gangs

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