Tessema Dosho Shifferaw is the inventor of the exercise machine Bowflex. Mr. Shifferaw was born in Ethiopia circa 1957. His father was a prominent general in the army of the late Emperor Haile Sellassie. Coming from a well to do family, Mr. Shifferaw was well positioned for a career in the political arena when he came to the United States prior to the Socialist Revolution in Ethiopia in 1974. At the time of the revolution, Mr. Shifferaw was a teenager attending college in California when military troops ousted former Emperor Haile Selassie from his Imperial throne. Mr. Shifferaw’s father, mother and brother were jailed, and his father was ultimately executed.  

When Mr. Shifferaw came to America he was virtually penniless, having only $500 in his pockets. He moved to San Francisco and drove a taxicab to earn his way through San Francisco City College, where he studied industrial design. While working on a student project, he came up with the idea for the Bowflex exercise machine. He patented the concept and eventually marketed the product directly to consumers in the early 1980s. He led his company to a successful IPO, forming a public company called Direct Focus, Inc. with a market cap of over $1 billion. Millions of Bowflex units have been sold in the United States and abroad, and the brand is now owned and marketed by the Nautilus Group. Mr. Shifferaw has 14 patents and 4 pending patents worldwide. There is no doubt he is a quintessential example of someone who has achieved the American dream.

More importantly, Mr. Shifferaw also realizes the importance and significance of giving back to the community. In his native Ethiopia.  Mr. Shifferaw has adopted a village about 20 miles from Addis Ababa. The population of the village is around 10,000 and they used to have a pump built by Italians to service the whole village, which was not properly maintained, and functioning when he adopted the village. Mr. Shifferaw wanted to install a new pump but the permitting agency insisted he repair the existing pump, which he has done by importing the parts from Italy.

People in the village now pay a nominal fee for gas and maintenance and have access to drinking water because of Mr. Shifferaw’s benevolent deed. Mr. Shifferaw has also planted 100,000 trees using a local workforce on one gasha of land. Out of the 100,000 trees; 60,000 trees have grown. Mr. Shifferaw has also planted the seed of education by putting two kids through college in Langano where he also has a farm. Mr. Shifferaw contributes money to eradicate famine and has been helping an elderly man of 74 years old in opening and marketing a successful business. 

Mr. Shifferaw is also the recipient of the National Director’s Award for Entrepreneurial Innovation, awarded by the US Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and we are very honored to have him with us today as a recipient of the prestigious SEED award.

SEED Salutes Mr. Shiferraw as the founder, President and CEO of Dosho Design Inc., and for his inspiring entrepreneurial leadership, as a role model to the Diaspora Ethiopians, in recognition of his academic excellence and as a distinguished inventor, in appreciation of his support to improve the lives of fellow Ethiopians by providing employment to plant trees and improve the environment in Ethiopia and in acknowledgment of his community services.