As a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Geoff Rogers entered the hi-tech corporate world at IBM. In just 7 years’ time, Geoff rose quickly to the rank of Vice President at IBM while running a North American software division. Geoff was the recipient of numerous distinctive awards during his 13 years at IBM, including enlistment into the exclusive “Next-Gen” program, with 40 participants selected from IBM’s global employee population of over 300,000. “Next-Gen” was created to identify and develop the future senior leaders of the IBM company.
As Geoff’s career continued to grow, his global division at IBM was acquired by French software giant, Dassault Systemes. Geoff was given leadership of the entire North American business partner channel where he utilized extensive partnership and collaboration skills as a Vice President at Dassault. But as his corporate climb continued, the call of God was drawing him closer to ministry, and as he puts it, each rung on the corporate ladder became more and more hollow.
After 15 years in the corporate world, Geoff left to begin his focus on non-profit ministry in 2011. Since then, Geoff and his wife Kerri have run the Ships of Tarshish, a non-profit, Christian production company in Tampa, FL, with a mission to wake up Christians across America on critical social issues that The Church needs to address. Their first production, Surrender the Secret, was a post-abortion healing and recovery Christian reality TV series. The series aired first on the Internet in 2013 and received national recognition by major media including Fox National News, the Mike Huckabee Show, Moody radio, CBN, the 700 Club, and many other regional and local news outlets. The series was then picked up by national Christian television networks and shown in over 65 million homes. Shortly after, the global Christian network, Inspiration, aired the show quarterly for nearly two years, distributing it into over 125 million homes worldwide.
Following Surrender the Secret, Geoff and Kerri were introduced to the problem of sex trafficking in America. This led to their latest project, Blind Eyes Opened, a nationwide Christian documentary about the truth of sex trafficking in America. With over 5 years of dedicated effort on the film, it is expected to be released in theaters throughout the country in 2019. What they thought would be a short-term project turned into recognition of God’s calling on their lives to commit themselves to the fight against sex trafficking in America.
As a result, Geoff & Kerri co-founded the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking with Kevin Malone. Geoff serves as the CEO of the organization, applying his vast business skills to the ministry. He feels honored to see first-hand how business and ministry can be aligned and come together for a greater Kingdom cause, with the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking quickly becoming one of the major anti-trafficking organizations in America.
Geoff and Kerri have been married for 20 years. They place tremendous value on their family and enjoy spending time with their three amazing boys. Since entering ministry, Isaiah 60 has been the foundational scripture for their family.
