Mayu‘s owner, Kate Robertson, was invited recently to blog on the Thunderbird School of Management‘s website! Read more below…

Kate Robertson is currently in Peru working on the next collection for Mayu, her alpaca knitwear business. It is a fair trade company run from Peru, her home base in Chicago and Thunderbird.

I’ve just returned from a July 28th independence day celebration which, not surprisingly, turned out to be an entire family affair and a full day’s event. As the story usually goes, I stuffed my face with Pachamanca, sipped on sweet wine and watched dozens of Huayno videos. If you are familiar with Peru, you might have realized that this is a pretty typical afternoon in the Andes Mountains. Pachamanca is a traditional meal cooked with hot rocks in a handmade oven underground. My version, the vegetarian one, involves copious amounts of potatoes, sweet potatoes, yuka and corn – I passed on the chicken and guinea pig. Sweet wine is a Peruvian specialty; it is tough to find a dry wine in this country! And, Huayno music is traditional, folkloric music of the Andes, which I happen to enjoy (a lot). I might be an anomaly of sorts due to my odd obsession with the music…

Needless to say, after two years, I’m finally back in Peru, my home away from home and I couldn’t be more excited. Upon graduation from university, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a small community high in the Andes Mountains. During that time, I worked with a small group of talented knitters who I helped create a small business selling hand-knit sweaters, scarves, hats, and other accessories. We worked together to learn basic bookkeeping, marketing, and customer service, to name a few of the lessons learned. Because my experience in the Peace Corps was so positive (I LOVED almost every minute of it), I decided to continue supporting the Peruvian artisans once I returned to Chicago.

So here I am now, a T-Bird student and proud owner of Mayu (meaning river, in Quechua), a fair trade company that sells one-of-a-kind, hand-knit alpaca accessories that are knit by the women I met while in Peru. We use the highest quality, eco-friendly alpaca fiber and each item is knit with lots of love. Being a part of Mayu has given the artisans the opportunity to earn additional income and better provide for their families. As I visit Peru for the 3rd time since finishing the Peace Corps, I can’t help but think how much I adore this country and how eager I am to continue growing Mayu with the guidance of my professors and peers at Thunderbird.

For more on this project, read Mayu’s blog, become a fan on FB and follow them on Twitter.

Thanks, Thunderbird, for being a gracious host!!