Our mission is to explore and promote ways for governments to achieve important public goals—like reducing poverty—without the unintended negative consequences that often come with traditional programs.
Our focus is on practical, thoughtful solutions that align with human behavior and improve outcomes for society as a whole.
Our process is to examine why well-intentioned policies can sometimes create inefficiencies or harmful incentives.
For example, many anti-poverty programs rely on “means-testing,” which can unintentionally discourage work or destabilize family structures. Natural Governance Corporation seeks to rethink these approaches, aiming to design systems that are both compassionate and effective—supporting those in need while preserving the values that contribute to a productive, stable society.
Marshall has spent over fifteen years conceiving and refining the Natural Governance philosophy. His business career, which included employing large numbers minimum wage employees and managing subsidized apartment projects, gives him a unique insight into many of the problems Natural Governance seeks to resolve.
From 1964 to 1978 Marshall was a principal of several affiliated corporations which performed service contracts with the Departments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy; the General Services Administration; other large corporations; and with State of North Carolina, which contracts required unusually intense standards of integrity and financial capability. During its 12 years of operation, the company’s employees numbered at times between 1,000 and 2,000, and over 200 contracts were successfully completed. Many of the employees were minimum wage, giving Marshall a unique opportunity to understand the needs of lower income workers.
Subsequent to his successful work in the government service contract industry, Marshall became involved in the development, management and syndication of affordable housing projects. He was an owner and Chairman of the Board of Phoenix Development Associates. From 1980 to 1992, the company, and its successor MB Corporation, constructed approximately 50 apartment complexes in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. During the same time, Phoenix Management Services, the property management arm, managed over 7,000 apartment units. Phoenix was sold in 1992.
Along with many excellent properties, Phoenix managed a number of troubled inner-city properties that were exceedingly difficult to manage, and did so with mixed results. One of these was Clifton Terrace Apartments, a drug ravaged 285-unit property in Northwest Washington, D.C. During a year when inner-city Washington was known as the “Murder Capital of the World,” Clifton Terrace experienced 7 separate murders, 1% of the total in Washington. In an attempt to better understand the human circumstances affecting the property, Marshall spent a noisy Saturday night in one of the vacant units on the property. After managing the property for 13 years, and receiving criticism from HUD, Marshall determined the property to be unmanageable and voluntarily gave it back to HUD. The HUD involvement, following his experience as an employer of minimum-wage workers, contributed to Marshall’s determination and qualifications to formulate Natural Governance.
Marshall, and/or his affiliated entities, is a managing general partner in roughly 70 partnerships owning rental apartments developed primarily by a related entity. He continues to be president and majority stockholder of One Management, Inc., a company that manages housing subsidized by HUD under its Section 8 program.
He has developed and owned a small number of retail properties. These included land and an existing shopping center adjacent to Raleigh’s Crabtree Valley Mall, as well as a 45,000-square foot Circuit City store on 6.7 acres of land whose development had been successfully blocked by adjacent neighbors for over 5 years. Marshall, by working with those same neighbors and addressing their concerns, obtained their approval and completed the development. Circuit City later filed for bankruptcy, after which Marshall sold the property at a profit.
Marshall served on the Parks, Recreation, and Greenways Advisory Board in Raleigh, North Carolina, a branch of the Raleigh City Council. The Advisory Board provided advice for the development of the remarkable Capital Area Greenway System. During his tenure, Marshall successfully advocated connecting separate segments of the Greenway, which now has over 100 miles of trails.
In 2012, Marshall donated Marshall Park (marshallparknc.com), which connected two critical segments of the Greenway system. The Park is dedicated to Marshall’s father, who was KIA during World War II. Marshall sold land contiguous to the Park for apartments now known as Marshall Park Apartments (359 units), and participated in the entitlement process.
Marshall resides in Ft Lauderdale, FL. He has one son who, as of 2017, is a sophomore at CU Boulder CO.