Boundless Energy
Since graduating from the University of Southern California not much more than a decade ago, Anthony Kosturos has been a veritable whirlwind of entrepreneurship. From co-founding a renewable energy startup after college to overseeing the business portfolio of the Twenty-Nine Palms Band, Kosturos has never met a challenge he didn’t relish tackling.
Fresh out of college, Kosturos co-founded Versa Sorghum Solutions in Brazil in 2012. Collaborating with an innovative team of engineers, he oversaw the development and operations of a proprietary closed-loop bioenergy technology that used sorghum to produce renewable ethanol and power from biomass and bio-pellets on an industrial scale. His work was integral in having a study published by Imperial College of London in 2017 that validated sorghum as the most sustainable feedstock compared to other biomass alternatives.
And that was just a warmup. Two more startups would follow—COEUS Energy (2016) and Maui Land Holdings (2018)—where he also took a lead role in developing and integrating each company’s vision into a viable investment strategy as well as project development and financing, and managing daily operations.
When the opportunity at Twenty-Nine Palms arrived in 2019, Kosturos “dove right in,” learning all aspects of the band’s enterprises, including all the nitty gritty from compliance regulations to various technology integrations.
The band is on a shared-management model, meaning Kosturos is the CFO for the casino as well as the tribe. His desire to learn is boundless, as he seeks to “understand best practices” and ask, “what processes do we not have?” that would improve operations at the organization or help capture data.
During his tenure, employment at tribal enterprises has doubled, from 500 team members to over 1,100, resulting from customer service and management enhancements as well as several capital projects, including a gaming and amenity expansion at the tribe’s flagship casino, a 50,000-square-foot grow house and manufacturing facility that opened in November 2023, and a 59-pump travel center.
Future projects include a 250-room 4-star hotel scheduled to break ground in early 2025, a microgrid power station, and three smaller travel centers on the tribe’s high desert reservation. The tribe has also purchased 1,200 acres since 2020 and is developing master plans for this reservation land that will fuel its growth for decades and secure the tribe’s future.
Kosturos credits tribal Chairman Darrell Mike’s “big heart” and positive vision, stating, “He always gives the team what we need to succeed.” The band is also committed to the youth of the East Valley, donating to education and sports for the upcoming generation.
His message to other young professionals is, “Dive in headfirst and take on additional work and responsibility before asking for a promotion or raise. Good things will follow.”
