The Hilton Hotel New York
It's up to you. Three days of inspiration, education and skills development for sustainability leaders
The William J. Clinton Foundation launched the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) to create and advance solutions to the core issues driving climate change. CCI takes a holistic approach, addressing the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions and the people, policies, and practices that impact them. Working with governments and businesses around the world, CCI focuses on three strategic program areas: reducing emissions in cities, catalyzing the large-scale supply of clean energy, and working to stop deforestation.
…and many more to be announced!
Murat serves as Senior Advisor to the Carbon War Room and Operation Lead for its Energy Efficiency Operation, the Green Capital Global Challenge. He conceived of and played a key role in launching the Challenge during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. In 2011, he formed the PACE Commercial Consortium which includes Barclays, Hannover Re, Lockheed Martin, Energi, and Ygrene. Prior to joining the War Room, Murat was a founding partner of the clean technology hedge fund, Atlas Capital Investments, LP. Murat’s prior work showcases his entrepreneurial spirit, both with the creation of GlobaLearn in 1993, the first K-12 eLearning website to help prepare our nation's children for global citizenship which was later acquired by Houghton Mifflin in 2001, as well as the development of Adina For Life, Inc., a fair-trade organic beverage company where Murat was both founding partner and Chief Operating Officer.
Murat has represented the education sector as a member of the U.S. delegation led by Vice President Gore to the G-7 Information Society Summit. During the 2004 presidential campaign, he served as Deputy Executive Officer to General Wesley K. Clark during his bid to become the Democratic Party's nominee. Murat is a member of the Social Venture Network, the Threshold Foundation, The Explorers Club, and is a Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. He has also served as a member of The Republic of Palau’s delegation to the United Nations Framework for the Convention on Climate Change. Murat graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan, has a black belt in karate, and speaks French and Mandarin.
As Vice President of Global Vehicles for FedEx Express, Dennis Beal is responsible for setting strategic direction and managing all aspects of the company’s global fleet of over 43,000 motorized vehicles. Under Beal’s leadership FedEx has taken a holistic approach to fleet management and fuel efficiency with a significant expansion in lower polluting, higher efficiency vehicles. Beal was instrumental in increasing the number of hybrid-electric and all-electric vehicles in service by 20% during 2011, and under his direction FedEx will integrate close to 4,000 new, fuel-efficient Sprinters during 2012. Beal’s scope of control includes four core teams responsible for all dimensions of the FedEx global fleet including capital planning, equipment purchase, equipment maintenance, technical training, financial analysis and safety and reliability research. FedEx is the world’s largest express transportation company using a global air-and-ground network to deliver more than 3.5 million packages a day to more than 220 countries and territories around the world.
Beal joined FedEx in 2001 and has over 40 years of experience in the transportation industry. Prior to assuming his current role, Beal served as Vice President of Physical Assets for FedEx Freight. Throughout his career he has held leadership positions in operations, engineering and fleet management. Before joining FedEx, Beal was with American Freightways where he served in a variety of corporate management positions including the Executive Committee.
A native of West Tennessee, Beal earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis. He is a former board member for Share & Care Food Bank and currently serves as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for the College of the Ozarks
Dr. Biddle started MBA over 19 years ago - literally from his garage. He has since grown his company to what is now the world’s leading multi-national company recovering plastics from end-of-life durable goods, such as computers, electronics, business equipment, appliances and automobiles. MBA is headquartered in Richmond, California and has over 300 million pounds per year of processing capacity in the US, Europe and China to turn waste into plastics for use right back into the same types of products from which they came. Some of the largest manufacturers in the world use MBA’s plastics to replace virgin plastics in their new products.
Mike worked for several large companies, namely General Electric, Cummins Engine Company and Dow Chemical, before striking out on his own in 1993. Mike received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, both with high honors. He was also a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, graduating with an MS in Management Science.
Mike and MBA have received numerous international awards. A few examples: MBA was named one of the top 100 CleanTech companies in the world in both 2009 and 2010 and one of the top 5 CleanTech companies in Europe in 2009, by two different organizations. Mike won the 2010 Economist Innovation Award for Energy and the Environment, the first Thomas Alva Edison Award for Innovation and the first Ascent Award for Entrepreneurship. MBA also won a 2006 Tech Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum and the 2006 Intel Tech Museum Environmental Award.
Mike’s TED talk has received positive comments from all over the world with over ½ million views and hundreds of positive comments across the Internet in the first few weeks of posting as it was picked up and hosted by over 50 different websites: http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_biddle.html
David Bragdon became New York City’s Director of Long-term Planning and Sustainability in September 2010. The office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability is responsible for developing and coordinating the city’s various initiatives to create a greater, greener New York, as embodied in PlaNYC. Prior to his appointment to his current post, David served nearly eight years as the elected President of the Metro Council in the region of Portland, Oregon. As Metro Council President, David led a metropolitan planning organization responsible for urban growth boundary management, transportation planning, solid waste disposal and recycling, management of the Oregon Zoo, Convention Center and other facilities, and natural areas acquisition and restoration. Prior to his election to public office, David spent most of his career in the international freight transportation industry, including with the Port of Portland authority, a shipping company, and as a logistics manager for Nike footwear in Asia. @PlaNYC
Patricia A. Calkins is the vice president of Environment, Health and Safety for Xerox Corporation. She is responsible for developing and implementing sustainability policies and strategies throughout Xerox that help save hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the company worldwide. She is dedicated to strengthening Xerox’s position as a pioneer in sustainability and is committed to smart environmental management that demonstrates that doing what’s right for the environment is not a cost of doing business, but an opportunity to benefit the world in which we work and live.
Calkins joined Xerox in 1993 as a manager of resource conservation, developing plans to help the company capture energy and materials savings through more sustainable and efficient processes, facilities and product design. Since then, she has assumed increasingly responsible management positions in quality, business process management and product design, enabling the company to remain at the forefront of driving environmental improvement throughout the value chain.
Before joining Xerox, Calkins began her career as a chemist for AT&T and then moved on to initiate many of the company’s sustainability initiatives. During her tenure, she focused on how changes in product and process design could eliminate many environmental challenges, including eradicating the use of toxic chemicals in the electronics manufacturing process. For her efforts, she was recognized for her engineering excellence. In 1992, she joined Abt Associates as a senior scientist where she worked directly with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in developing market based voluntary sustainability programs. She also provided consulting services to corporations developing environmental leadership strategies.
Morgan Clendaniel is the editor of Co.Exist, Fast Company's website focusing on worldchanging ideas and innovation. Before that, he was one of the original editors of the award-winning GOOD magazine.
Bio coming soon!
Brad Copithorne is the Energy and Financial Policy Specialist for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Brad is focused on creating markets to finance energy efficiency and renewable generation projects. Recently, he has been working to create a statewide on-bill repayment program in California using third party capital. Brad has 20 years’ experience in investment banking at Salomon Brothers/Citi and Morgan Stanley. Most recently, he worked in the Menlo Park office of Morgan Stanley covering the enterprise hardware and technology supply chain industries.
After a successful business career and serving as Minister of State, José María Figueres was elected President of Costa Rica at the age of 39. As President he created a comprehensive national development strategy based on the tenets of sustainability: sound economics, investment in human development, and a strong alliance with nature. He pioneered the linkage between sustainable development and technology, work which he continued after leaving government by helping create and then leading the United Nations ICT Task Force as its first Chairperson. He was the first person to become CEO of the World Economic Forum, where he strengthened global corporate ties to social and governmental sectors. Later he was named CEO of Concordia 21, dedicated to supporting organizations that promote development and democratic values around the world.
President Figueres is currently Chairman of the Carbon War Room, which implements entrepreneurial market-driven solutions to reduce carbon emissions at the gigaton level and mitigate climate change. He holds an Engineering Degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Melissa Fisher joined Friends of the High Line in 2008 where, in her previous position as Director of Horticulture & Park Operations, she put people and systems in place to successfully run the High Line in its opening phases. She was recently named Chief Operating Officer and is now responsible for overseeing daily operations for the non-profit. Melissa began her career at Dartmouth, where she helped create the Dartmouth Organic Farm. There she discovered “the profound connection between people and plants,” which inspired her to spend her senior year at Sterling College in rural Vermont. Following graduation, she transitioned to urban horticulture by working at the Austin Community Gardens. Melissa served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Tanzania from 2001 – 2003, where she led initiatives in natural resource conservation and women’s empowerment. Still feeling compelled by questions of urban sustainability, she returned to the United States in 2004 to study at New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture where she graduated at the top of her class. Melissa is fluent in Swahili, drives a motorcycle, and recently completed a brownstone renovation with her husband and friends in Brooklyn. She and her husband now live in Chelsea.
Robert Hammond is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Friends of the High Line, the non-profit conservancy that manages the High Line, a public park built atop an abandoned, elevated rail line on the west side of Manhattan. Robert co-founded Friends of the High Line with Joshua David in 1999. Together they worked with the City of New York to save the High Line from demolition. Friends of the High Line has raised over $170 million in public and private funding and manages the park in partnership with New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation. Before the High Line, Robert helped start several businesses and consulted with non-profit organizations. In 2010, Robert was awarded a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, as well as the Rockefeller Foundation’s Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. He is a self-taught artist, and served as an ex-officio member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees. Robert graduated from Princeton University in 1993.
Susan Arnot Heaney joined Avon Products, Inc. in June 1997 with the goal of working for a company committed to corporate citizenship and empowering women. She has worked for both the Avon Foundation (a public charity) and Avon Products, Inc., serving since 2006 as Director of Corporate Responsibility for the company.
Heaney is responsible for developing and implementing strategic global communications, mobilization and fundraising programs in support of Avon’s corporate responsibility agenda, with a particular focus on the Hello Green Tomorrow environmental program. Among her responsibilities are the company’s biannual Corporate Responsibility Report and reporting to stakeholders and rating organizations on Avon’s goals, metrics and performance.
Heaney has helped Avon achieve #16 of the “Best 100 Corporate Citizens,” #28 on the “Corporate Social Responsibility Index Top 50” and placement on the Newsweek “Green Ranking,” and as well as a 2010 Ladies Home Journal Do Good Award and a 2011 Halo Award for Cause Marketing. In addition to Hello Green Tomorrow, Heaney has played a leadership role in award-winning programs such as the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, Speak Out Against Domestic Violence, Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, Avon Running, the Global Forum for Women and Justice, and more.
Prior to joining Avon, Heaney was Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communications for the global cosmetic company Elizabeth Arden, and spent over a decade in the business side of publishing, including two years at USA Today during the newspaper’s initial rollout.
Heaney is a member of the Executive Forum of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, the Chief Responsibility Officer Association and the Board of the Cosmetic Executive Women Foundation, as well as a current member and former Chairperson of the Public Affairs Committee of the Personal Care Products Council, the national trade organization of the US personal care industry.
Heaney is a graduate of the College of William & Mary in Virginia. She and her husband divide their time between historic homes in New York City and Greenport, Long Island, where they are able to live without ever having owned a car.
Heather Henriksen is the Director of the Office for Sustainability at Harvard University. She holds a Master's in Public Administration with a focus on energy and environment from the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). While a student at HKS, Heather was a member of the Harvard University Task Force on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, commissioned by President Drew Faust to recommend a GHG reduction goal for the University. Heather is also a partner of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a national community of business people lobbying for environmental policies which protect the environment while building economic prosperity. Heather’s work with E2, since 2002, has brought her into closer partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Before graduate school, Heather was Director of Corporate Marketing & Business Development at Time Warner. Prior to her nine year tenure at Time Warner she was an Assistant Director of Development at Stanford University Law School. She serves on Secretary Napolitano’s Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force, Department of Homeland Security and she supports Harvard University with the Boston Green Ribbon Commission. Heather also serves on the Board of Trustees of Phillips Brooks House Association, the undergraduate social service and social action organization at Harvard College.
Graham Hill (@GHill) founded the eco-blog and vlog TreeHugger.com, to help, as he says, "push sustainability into the mainstream," with a design-forward style and an international, wide-ranging team committed to transforming complex issues into everyday concepts. It's been called "the Green CNN." The TreeHugger team was even asked to join the Discovery Communications network as a part of their Planet Green initiative, and Hill now makes appearances on the green-oriented cable channel.
Before Treehugger, Hill studied architecture and design (his side business is making those cool ceramic Greek cups). His other company, ExceptionLab, is devoted to creating sustainable prototypes -- think lamps made from recycled blinds and ultra-mod planters that are also air filters.
John Killey is a managing director in Citi’s Corporate Realty Services group with responsibility for Building Operations across the bank’s global portfolio. Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. In this role John has responsibility for the delivery of Critical Facilities and Facilities Management Services along with the development and implementation of the sustainability agenda in the Banks operating portfolio of over 75 million SF of space in over 12,000 locations.
John has played a key role in embedding sustainability into the corporate real estate function and has contributed to Citi being voted Energy Star Partner of the Year in 2011 and the highest ranked US bank in the Newsweek 2010 Green Rankings. John was also a prime driving force behind Citi constructing the world’s first LEED platinum data centre in Frankfurt. John’s work in the area of sustainability in corporate real estate was recognised in 2011 with his award of Corporate Real Estate Executive of the Year by Corenet UK.
In addition to his Global responsibilities John manages Citi’s portfolio of 9.7 million SF in Europe Middle East and Africa. John is a Chartered Building services engineer and prior to the bank has worked in both engineering consultancy and contracting organisations as well as for the Australian Government.
Kathy Loftus coordinates sustainability programs, including overall company impact reporting, as well as directs engineering, energy management and maintenance best practices and green building and strategic energy procurement efforts for Whole Foods Market and has been in this role for six years. She sits on the Steering Committee for the U.S. DOE’s Commercial Buildings Energy Alliance and coordinates EPA Program partnerships. In addition to roles as Director of Business Development for a start-up energy technology firm and roles at an electric utility company, Kathy also spent eight years as Director of Energy & Environmental Management for Shaw's Supermarkets and was a past chairperson of FMI’s Energy & Technical Services Committee. She was a participant on the 2005 New England Roundtable on Federal Renewable Energy Policy and is a participant currently on the State Energy Efficiency Action Network’s Utility Motivation Working Group. Kathy has also served as an advisor for the Grocery sector for the USGBC’s LEED program.
Kathy holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She recently served eight years on the Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and now serves on the State’s Large Scale Retail Development Solar, Energy Efficiency & Smart Buildings Committees and is appointed to her town’s Renewable Energy Commission. She is also Chair of the Board of Directors of Clean Air-Cool Planet.
Peter Malik is the Director of the Center for Market Innovation at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Peter came to NRDC after a career in investment banking, specifically with Credit Suisse and JPMorgan where he focused on emerging markets debt instruments. He received his BA from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and MA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. As a Director of CMI he oversees the group’s initiatives spanning energy efficiency, renewables and ecosystem services. The approach is designed with a business mindset, ensuring that the outcomes of CMI’s initiatives are not only environmentally but also commercially sustainable. @
Anthony E. Malkin received a B.A. degree cum laude from Harvard College in 1985. That year, Mr. Malkin joined Chemical Venture Partners, L.P., a recently formed venture capital and leveraged buyout affiliate of Chemical Bank (now CCMP Capital). In 1989, Mr. Malkin joined Malkin Holdings. He is now president of this firm and of its affiliates, including W & H Properties. Altogether, these firms comprise the real estate acquisition, management, construction and marketing arm of the Malkin family, which has been active in real estate for four generations. Mr. Malkin’s grandfather, Lawrence A. Wien started the family in the real estate business in 1929 and in 1934 created the concept of real estate syndication. Mr. Malkin works with his father and Chairman Peter L. Malkin. Through his real estate business, Mr. Malkin has been a leader in existing building energy efficiency retrofits through coordinating the team of the Clinton Climate Initiative, Johnson Controls, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute in a groundbreaking project at the Empire State Building (www.esbnyc.com). Mr. Malkin also leads the Malkin family office in additional investments in the United States and internationally. Mr. Malkin is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Real Estate Roundtable and Chair of its Sustainability Policy Advisory Committee, the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York and a board member of the sustainable forestry management company Greenwood Resources, advisory board member of MissionPoint Capital Partners, member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, member of the Advisory Council of the NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Mr. Malkin guest lectures on real estate and family businesses at the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Michael E. Mann is a member of the Penn State University faculty, holding joint positions in the Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences, and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system.
Dr. Mann was a Lead Author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001 and was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003. He has received a number of honors and awards including NOAA's outstanding publication award in 2002 and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC authors in 2007. In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union.
Dr. Mann is author of more than 140 peer-reviewed and edited publications, and has published two books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming in 2008 and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, due out in early 2012. He is also a co-founder and avid contributor to the award-winning science website RealClimate.org.
Roger McClendon is Chief Global Sustainability Officer for Yum! Brands, Inc. Yum! is the world’s largest restaurant company, with approximately 38,000 restaurants and more than 1.4 million employees in over 110 countries. Yum! is the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC. Roger reports to the Chairman & CEO and is responsible for setting the strategy behind the Company’s global sustainability framework. Prior to his current role, Roger served as Senior Director of Yum! Brands Global Engineering and Facilities with a focus on energy. Additionally, Roger had previously served as Senior Project Engineering Manager for Yum! Restaurants International (YRI), where he supervised KFC Global Engineering initiatives in Australia, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Roger was also the Director of Global Engineering for Long John Silver’s and A&W Multi-branding. Responsible for Engineering, New Product Development and Quality Assurance, Roger has been at the forefront of several technical innovations that have not only proven to be cost-effective but also have tremendously advanced the cause for a safe working environment.
Andrew McKeon is founder of BusinessClimate, a provider of consulting services that help clients use a systems perspective to increase their global competitiveness and profitability while fostering sustainability.
He is the founder and organizer of the annual BusinessClimate conference in New York City, where global leaders in sustainability gather to map out the building of a resource efficient low-carbon economy.
Andrew has been invited to speak at NASA, the United Nations, the Deming Biennial, PICMET, and the Agrion Energy Conference. He is an advisor to the UN-GAID and is a member of the Board of Directors of TransitCenter. His article “A Moore’s Law for Renewable Energy” was recently featured in strategy+business magazine. Andrew holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, both from Columbia University.
Summer Rayne Oakes is a model-activist, author of bestselling style guide Style, Naturally, and Co-founder/Chief Creative Officer of Source4Style, a B2B online marketplace that allows designers to discover and source more sustainable materials from a network of global suppliers. She has developed more environmentally-preferable collections with a variety of brands, including Payless ShoeSource's zoe&zac line, Aveeno, Portico Home, and her latest collaboration - two collections of eyewear with MODO eco. Oakes is Editor-at-Large for Above Magazine and has recently written-produced her first film – an environmental art short called eXtinction, which will debut in 2012. She is also active in sustainable development and design projects through Mezimbite, a forest center headquartered in Mozambique. Vanity Fair has named Oakes a "Global Citizen," Outside called her one of the "Top Environmental Activists," CNBC called her one of the “Top 10 Green Entrepreneurs of 2010,” and NY Enterprise Report called her one of 2011's Game Changers in Business. Summer Rayne is a graduate of Cornell University with degrees in Environmental Science and Entomology and is a Udall environmental scholar, PERC Environmental Fellow, and National Wildlife Federation.
Christina Page is Global Director of Energy & Sustainability Strategy for Yahoo!, where she is responsible for the company’s sustainability strategy, energy efficiency and clean tech initiatives, as well as for monitoring and reducing the companies’ global carbon footprint. In 2010, Yahoo! was named one of Newsweek’s top 10 Green U.S. Companies.
Prior to joining Yahoo!, Chris worked as a senior consultant on the Energy and Resources Team at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a Colorado-based “think-and-do tank” founded by energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins. While at RMI, Chris advised commercial and industrial clients on energy efficiency opportunities. Chris has also been a field instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School and a writer/editor for NPR’s environmental news program "Living on Earth.”
While living in Colorado, Chris was a member of the all-volunteer Mountain Rescue Aspen team, providing aid to lost and injured parties in the Rocky Mountains. She has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Religious Studies from Brown University and a Masters in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Bio coming soon!
Bill Peacock joined Cleveland Clinic in 2005 as Executive Director of Facilities Construction and Real Estate. In 2008, he became Executive Director of Operational Support Services and in 2009, Chief of Operations.
During his tenure at Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Peacock has developed strategies and tactics for integrating 2,200 employees across Cleveland Clinic’s domestic and international operations. He created more than $1.6 million in savings by developing a single storefront for facilities services. He delivered 3.3 million square feet of new healthcare projects at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, including a state-of-the-art Heart & Vascular Institute, on time and on budget. He led the planning and design coordination efforts for Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and he developed the team and processes to manage more than $1.2 billion in capital project execution and $265 million in annual operating funds for Cleveland Clinic’s Operational Support Services.
Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Peacock served as Commanding Officer at the US Navy Public Works Center in Yokosuka, Japan; Deputy Division Director, Seabee Readiness Division, Chief of Naval Operations Staff in Washington DC; Chief of Staff, 20th Naval Construction Regiment in Gulfport, Miss.; and Commanding Officer, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion SEVENTY FOUR in Gulfport, Miss. Mr. Peacock has an MS in electrical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and a BS in electrical engineering from the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. He also completed the Advanced Executive Program at the Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Evanston, Ill.
Mr. Peacock is a member of the American Society of Healthcare Executives and the American Society of Healthcare Engineers, and is a board member of the Presidents’ Council, Cleveland. He earned a Legion of Merit award and Meritorious Service Medal from the US Department of Defense.
Matt Petersen has served as president and CEO of Global Green USA since its inception in 1994. Petersen is a social entrepreneur who has been a driving force for sustainable design, solar power, and green communities while improving the lives of those in need. Among Petersen’s many success stories is his successful vision for the green rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Petersen’s passion and tireless efforts led to greening of schools and housing, as well as the New Orleans Sustainable Design Competition created with Brad Pitt. The competition resulted in Petersen deciding to construct the winning design—with 23 units of housing and a community center—into the Holy Cross Project, a LEED Platinum sustainable village in the Lower 9th Ward. Petersen is also an instrumental force in connecting the power of Hollywood to bring attention to climate change. Working shoulder to shoulder with Pitt, James Cameron, Edward Norton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Salma Hayek, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rosario Dawson, Mark Ruffalo, and others, Petersen has helped bring critical attention to environmental causes ranging from the impact of climate change to the importance of greening America’s schools. In June 2008, Petersen was appointed as the Inaugural Hillary Senior Fellow of the Hillary Institute. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Clinton Global Initiative, and serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity-Los Angeles.
Curtis Ravenel leads Bloomberg’s global sustainability initiative, a Chairman’s Office effort and the result of his 2006 Bloomberg Global Leadership Forum proposal. The program aggressively integrates sustainability considerations into all firm operations and leverages the Bloomberg Professional Service to evaluate sustainability-related investment risks and opportunities for its 300,000 customers.
Curtis has worked for Bloomberg in multiple roles. He was the Financial Controller for Asia managing accounting, tax, treasury and audit services for 23 legal entities with combined annual revenues exceeding $1 billion USD. This was preceded by various roles in the Capital Planning and Financial Analysis Groups.
Prior to his work with Bloomberg, L.P., Curtis co-managed a small real estate development group, founded a micro-brewery and worked with the Recycling Advisory Council in Washington, DC conducting Full Cost Accounting and Life Cycle Analysis work.
Curtis earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in History from Davidson College.
Dana Schneider leads Jones Lang LaSalle’s Energy and Sustainability Services (ESS) in a region anchored by New York City, Boston and Washington DC. Her focus is on energy optimization as well as the development and implementation of energy and sustainability programs for new and existing clients. Additionally, she specializes in energy and sustainability performance and LEED certification for new and existing buildings and portfolios as well as commercial interiors.
Ms. Schneider currently leads the team implementing a whole-building energy retrofit of the Empire State Building. This major initiative uses a groundbreaking analytical model for maximizing energy and environmental value per dollar spent, which she was instrumental in developing. Ms. Schneider is now replicating this energy optimization process in over thirty buildings across the U.S. In addition to her work at the Empire State Building, she manages energy and sustainability aspects of mission critical facilities across the country and has led energy and sustainability assignments which include over 24 million square feet of properties in the Northeast.
Mark Smith is the vehicle technologies deployment manager for the Department of Energy's (DOE) national Clean Cities program. His responsibilities include developing outreach strategies for implementing new national partnerships between industry and the Clean Cities program to successfully deploy new vehicle technologies. In addition, he develops and maintains relationships with key stakeholders—including vehicle manufacturers, fuel suppliers, educational institutions, environmental groups, nonprofit associations, government agencies, and other related organizations—to expand the use of alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies.
Before joining DOE, Smith was an alternative fuel vehicle consultant to American Honda. In this position, he promoted the use of Honda's alternative fuel vehicles to public and private fleet managers and implemented programs to increase deployment of these vehicles. Smith also understands that alternative fuel vehicle deployment hinges upon the development of refueling infrastructure. From his previous positions with FuelMaker and Clean Energy, he has provided alternative refueling solutions ranging from home refueling of a single vehicle to some of the largest commercial, airport, and transit fueling stations in the United States.
Trudie Styler is an actress, film producer, director, human rights activist, environmentalist, organic farmer and UNICEF Ambassador. Trudie’s charitable works have been awarded by many organizations, including the Rainforest Action Network in 1994; Amnesty International in 2000; and Oceana in 2008, who honoured Trudie alongside husband Sting and Former US President Bill Clinton for her outstanding contribution to protecting and conserving our environment.
As an Ambassador for UNICEF, Trudie has been responsible for raising $5million for their projects all over the world. For example, money she raised built new schools for children who live and work on the dumpsites of Ecuador, providing them with education, regular meals and support for their families. She also initiated a clean water project in Ecuador, combining the efforts of the Rainforest Fund, UNICEF Ecuador and the Amazon Defense Fund to install filtration tanks in rainforest communities whose land and water have been polluted by international oil producers for over four decades. Since the 1990s Trudie has been an organic farmer at her homes in England and Italy. In 1999, the Lake House Cook Book was published. She is Vice-President of the Soil Association, and in 2010 launched the Lake House Table food brand as well as three wines produced on the family’s Tuscan estate.
Her film company, Xingu Films, produces award-winning documentary and feature films, including MOVING THE MOUNTAIN (1995); Guy Ritchie’s first two films LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS (1998) and SNATCH (2000); the double Sundance Award-winning A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS (2006) by Dito Montiel; and the BAFTA-winning MOON, by first-time director Duncan Jones. Trudie’s recent acting credits include EMPIRE (2004); LOVE SOUP (2005); LIVING PROOF (2008); PARIS CONNECTIONS (2010); and Paul Haggis’s THE NEXT THREE DAYS (2011).
As CEO of Serious Energy, Kevin Surace is responsible for driving results across all business units. Mr. Surace has a proven executive management track record spanning 25 years delivering innovative high technology products and services. Kevin was Inc Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009, was listed as one of the top 15 innovators of this decade by CNBC, nominated as Innovator of the Year by PlanetForward, and awarded Tech Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Before joining Serious Energy in 2002, Mr. Surace held executive and technical positions with Perfect Commerce, General Magic, Air Communications, National Semiconductor, and Seiko-Epson. He received his degree in electrical engineering technology from Rochester Institute of Technology where he serves on the Board of Trustees, and he has been awarded 13 patents. Mr. Surace also serves on the boards of Array Converter, and Zeta Communities.
Brad Tomm is the Director of Sustainability for MGM Resorts International’s Energy and Environmental Services Division. In this capacity, Brad is responsible for the implementation of the company’s strategic environmental projects and initiatives in the areas of energy management, green building, sustainable supply chain and outreach and education. Brad is a leader in developing the company’s waste management and recycling programs, and has been a driving force behind the increase in MGM Resorts’ recycling rate from 9.8% in 2007 to over 33% in 2010. Brad also specializes in statistical and financial modeling of the company’s energy, water and waste footprint.
Drew Torbin is Vice President of Renewable Energy for Prologis, a leading global provider of distribution facilities with more than 600 million square feet of industrial space. Mr. Torbin founded the renewable energy group in late 2008 after spending over two years focused on a variety of corporate responsibility initiatives. Since that time, he has overseen 75+ megawatts of rooftop solar projects in North America and Europe and spearheaded the formation of a $2.4 billion project finance facility. Mr. Torbin is a graduate of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Energy Executive Leadership Program and serves on the board of directors for Blue Oak Energy.
Prior to joining Prologis in 2006, Mr. Torbin worked for Litchfield Capital Management, LLC, a U.S. equity long/short hedge fund based in Connecticut where he specialized in the consumer cyclical sector. Mr. Torbin received his M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh, his B.S. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has completed post-graduate studies at Stanford.
Wood Turner is the VP of Sustainability Innovation for organic yogurt pioneer Stonyfield Farm and is the company’s lead advocate, facilitator and educator on sustainability issues. He is responsible for catalyzing efforts that fulfill Stonyfield’s mission of not only minimizing negative environmental impact in all areas of its operations but also advancing innovative impact-reduction solutions. Prior to joining Stonyfield, he was the founding executive director of Climate Counts, a non-profit that scores companies annually on their measurable climate actions and has appeared many of the world's leading media outlets, among them the New York Times, NPR, The Economist, BBC, and the Harvard Business Review. At Climate Counts, Wood built a voluntary benchmarking program called Industry Innovators, attracting companies representing over $30B in revenues so far.
Wood holds degrees from Duke University and the University of Washington. He consulted to the Seattle mayor’s Green Ribbon Commission on Climate Protection, participated in the transportation/land use working group of the New Hampshire governor’s Climate Change Task Force, and has advised many high-profile projects, among them Newsweek Magazine's corporate green rankings.
Mike Wallace is the Director of the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Focal Point USA. GRI is a non-profit organization that promotes economic sustainability and provides all companies and organizations with a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework. GRI is the most widely used sustainability reporting framework in the world, with over 80% of the Global 250 using GRI when they report on sustainability. GRI’s Focal Point USA was officially launched in January 2011 at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and is responsible for supporting the growth and quality of sustainability reporting in the US.
Mike Wallace has almost 20-years of international experience advising corporations, non-profits and government agencies in the development and implementation of sustainability programs. He initially gained his sustainability expertise while working for ERM in Australia. This expertise was expanded during his time with BSR, and was refined while running his own advisory services firm in California. He started with GRI in the fall of 2009 at its Secretariat in Amsterdam. By the fall of 2010 he had established GRI’s Focal Point USA and relocated to New York.
He is a recognized expert in the field, with a unique specialization in the intersection of sustainability and corporate governance. In addition to speaking globally on the topic of sustainability, Mike has given expert testimony to the European Commission, the US Securities & Exchange Commission, and a range of business associations like the US Business Roundtable and the National Association of Corporate Directors. Mike has been recognized for his expertise in the field by his inclusion in the NACD’s 2011 Directorship 100, and in Trust Across America’s 2010 Top 100 Thought Leaders. He has authored numerous articles on the topic and was a contributor to Climate Change – a Guide to Carbon Law & Practice.
Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, is the author of Green Recovery, a strategic plan for using environmental thinking to survive hard economic times. He is also the co-author of Green to Gold, the best-selling guide to what works – and what doesn’t – when companies go green. Andrew is a globally recognized expert on green business, appearing regularly in major media such as The Wall Street Journal, Time, BusinessWeek, New York Times, and CNBC. Andrew is dedicated to helping companies both large and small use environmental strategy to grow, create enduring value, and build stronger relationships with employees, customers, and other stakeholders. His clients have included Bank of America, Bayer, Boeing, HP, IKEA, Johnson & Johnson, and Pepsi. Andrew also serves on the Sustainability Advisory Board of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the Executive Environmental Advisory Council for Hewlett-Packard (HP), and as a Sustainability Advisor to PwC.
