Opportunity Green Business Conference 2009 Speaker Bios

Speakers are listed in alphabetical order:

Chris Adams is an internationally recognized new media pioneer, entertainment industry executive and social entrepreneur with nearly twenty years of experience in creating partnerships, programming and relationships between and to the benefit of media, entertainment and online brands. As a media strategist, Chris works with clients to create and execute on initiatives that have deep impact and measurable outcomes. To achieve greatest possible success, Chris focuses on the intersection of media and audience - helping to bring brand visibility to consumers, reach the greatest constituency possible and create multi-platform programs that engage and inspire individuals. Clients range from Facebook.com, one of the fastest-growing internet companies on earth, for which he helped to create and Produced "Facebook Diaries," the first-ever hybrid user-generated video/reality TV show distributed on Facebook.com, Ziddio.com, Comcast VOD and the IFC Channel, to HBO to Comcast, the largest cable and broadband company in the US, to Glam.com, the number one site for women to film icons, to View2gether, a "social viewing" platform where he is CEO and President.

Dr. Aggarwala's office is charged with creating a long-term sustainability plan to ensure New York City's continued prosperity, growth, and health for the year 2030. On Earth Day, 2007 the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability released PlaNYC, 127 separate initiatives that include: housing an additional 1 million New Yorkers affordably; increasing access to parks, playgrounds and open spaces; reclaiming brownfields; developing critical backup systems for our aging water network to ensure reliability; providing additional reliable power sources and upgrading our existing power plants; and reducing water pollution so we can open our waterways for recreation.

Marc Alt is principal of Marc Alt + Partners, a consultancy that helps companies and organizations create value by aligning design, strategy and mission with environmental and social benefit. Marc was founding co-chair of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design and serves on multiple design industry and green business advisory boards. Marc is also partner in Opportunity Green Enterprises, a platform to advance clean technology investment, social entrepreneurship, and sustainable economic and community development through training, education, events and competitions. He has been a visiting lecturer and critic at School of Visual Arts and F.I.T and guest lectures frequently at corporations, trade associations, academic institutions and at numerous international design and business innovation summits.

Dr. Frances Arnold is the Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, where she has taught since 1986. Dr. Arnold's research focuses on engineering new biological systems by laboratory evolution. She is particularly interested in constructing new biocatalysts for production of renewable fuels and chemicals. Dr. Arnold is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2008), National Academy of Engineering (2000), and the Institute of Medicine (2004)-she is one of only 8 persons elected to all three branches of the National Academies, and the only woman awarded this distinction. She is co-founder of advanced biofuels compnay Gevo, Inc. (whose investors include Khosla Ventures and Virgin Fuels), and serves on the Science Advisory Boards of Codexis, Mascoma, Arzeda and Fluidigm. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California,Berkeley.

An experienced venture investor, John Babcock has been a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners since the firm's formation in 1999. He focuses on investment opportunities in clean technology, software, and advanced building materials. John currently sits on the boards of Foodlink Online, Leads360, Pentadyne, Serious Materials, and Transonic Combustion. John's previous investments include SiliconSystems (sold to Western Digital), HomeGain (sold to Classified Ventures), and Cyrano Sciences (sold to Smiths Group PLC). Before Rustic Canyon, John was general manager of online real estate for the Los Angeles Times. John received his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and his BA from Duke University. John began his career as a software programmer.

Dr. James Bassett earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology at UCLA in 1984. In 1988 he earned a Master's degree from the Ohio State University in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and went on to earn a Ph.D. at the same institution in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with a minor in International Business in 1991. After gaining five years of teaching experience and participating in a variety of consulting projects, Dr. Bassett joined the faculty of Cal Poly Pomona's College of Business. As a business economics professor he has taught courses in sustainable development at Cal Poly's Center for Regenerative Studies.
Dr. Bassett serves as a senior member of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce's Environmental Affairs Committee, an initiator of Santa Monica's Green Business Certification Program, a sustaining member of Santa Monica's Sustainable Quality Award committee, and a founding member of the Santa Monica Public Library's Green Prize for Sustainability Literature. He has worked on a number of projects with Santa Monica's Office of Sustainability and the Environment and served as the lead advisor on the development of the web support materials for the Annenberg/CPB educational series Race to Save the Planet.
He has also served as a board member for the nonprofit Food from the Hood- an inner-city youth entrepreneurship/college preparation program with an emphasis on environmental and social responsibility. As a founding director for Project Xela Aid - a medical aid/environmental aid organization, he has worked with indigenous communities in Guatemala and he currently serves on the board of District 15 of Professionals in Human Resources Association.

Yves Behar is the founder of the San Francisco design studio, fuseproject. Yves is focused on humanistic design and the "giving" element of his profession, with the goal of creating projects that are deeply in-tune with the needs of a sustainable future, connected with human emotions and enable self-expression.
For Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, fuseproject designed the world's first $100 "XO" laptop aimed at bringing education and technology to the world's poorest children. Yves' commercial projects set out to be equally impactful as exemplified by the Herman Miller LEAF Lamp, the Aliph Jawbone and, most recently, Y Water.
Yves' work has been the subject of two solo exhibitions and resides in the permanent collections of international museums worldwide, including the MOMA, the Musee d'Art Moderne/Pompidou Center, the Chicago Art Institute and the Munich Museum of Applied Arts.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Design Award for Industrial Design celebrating design as a 'vital humanistic tool shaping the world' - awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum. He has also received the INDEX: Design to Improve Life, "Community" award for his role in creating the "XO" laptop.
In addition to his responsibilities at fuseproject. Yves acts as Chairperson of the Industrial Design program at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco and he has taken on creative, business-partner roles at Aliph Jawbone and other client-companies

Fridolin Beisert is a practicing design professional who also conducts workshops and lectures for global corporations and executive education institutions. He received his Master's of Science in Industrial Design on the topic of Creative Strategies, which consists of a set of learning techniques that stimulate and liberate the creative potential of individuals to help them apply new conceptual thinking into their work. Currently, Fridolin is an associate professor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a focus on teaching creative problem solving, design thinking methodologies, cross-disciplinary team projects and sustainable design strategies. Prior to this role he worked in Tokyo developing futuristic game titles for Sony, formed an international concept design consultancy, played as an underground DJ in clubs on 3 continents, wrote a book on learning design using 3D software and also studied traditional papermaking from a Japanese national living treasure.

Mr. Bryant is a Vice President of Paladin Capital Group, a venture capital and private equity investment firm based in Washington, D. C., where he is actively involved in the firm's portfolio companies and principal investing activities. His investment experience includes a broad spectrum of different deal types, ranging from growth investments in early stage and late stage technology companies, to middle-market buyouts, to industrial project finance, to public company M&A. Mr. Bryant's industry-specific experience spans the renewable energy and clean technology sectors (including solar, biodiesel, ethanol, next-generation biofuels, bioplastics, feedstock production, batteries/energy storage, smart grid, etc.), as well as a number of other industries, such as IT security, enterprise software, networking technology, telecommunications, automotive, general manufacturing, and international agriculture, among others. Prior to joining Paladin in 2002, Mr. Bryant was a founding member of the Vigilant Investors Fund, a hedge fund based in Los Angeles, California . While at Vigilant, Mr. Bryant was part of a small team that built the fund from start-up and was responsible for originating and executing on new investment ideas, monitoring the fund's investments, as well as creating and maintaining the fund's proprietary in-house risk management system or 'black-box'. Mr. Bryant received his B.A. degree in Philosophy from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where he focused on Logic and Analytical Philosophy.

Jim Davis is Executive Director, Sustainability, Energy & Climate Impact Solutions with SAP, the world's leading business applications software company. Jim works at SAP Labs in Silicon Valley and provides internal and external thought leadership for SAP's rapidly growing portfolio of enterprise sustainability solutions. Jim also directs partnerships, alliances and business development to deliver SAP solutions to organizations of all sizes in private industry and government. Jim has over 27 years experience in power and energy industry consulting, R&D, and software solutions, beginning with technology transfer for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) environmental research programs in acid rain, emissions trading, competitive energy markets and climate change policy solutions. Following EPRI, Jim joined ICF Consulting as a business development executive delivering environmental and energy strategies to power and gas companies responding to California energy deregulation. Since 2001, Jim has leveraged his expertise in environment and energy regulation and policy to deliver best in-class software solutions to support environmental performance improvement and sustainable business management. Jim earned his BS with Distinction in Biology and Earth Sciences and his MS in Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.

Dr. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation (www.xprize.org), a non-profit focused on designing and launching large incentive prizes to drive radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. Best known for the $10,000,000 Ansari X PRIZE (www.xprize.org) for private spaceflight, the Foundation is now launching prizes in four groups: Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, and Education/Global Development. Today the X PRIZE has three active prizes: The $10M Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10M Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. Diamandis is also international leader in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector. Diamandis serves as co-Founder & Managing Director of Space Adventures (www.spaceadventures.com), the only company to have brokered the launches of private citizens to the International Space Station. He is co-Founder & CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation (www.gozerog.com) a commercial space company developing private, FAA-certified parabolic flight utilizing a Boeing 727-200 aircraft. He is the Chairman & co-founder of the Rocket Racing League (www.rocketracingleague.com). In 2008, he co-Founded the Singularity University (www.singularityU.org) where he serves as Vice-Chancellor and Chairman. In 1987, Diamandis co-founded the International Space University (ISU) (www.isunet.edu) where he served as the University's first managing director. Prior to ISU, Diamandis served as Chairman of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) an organization he founded at MIT in 1980. Dr. Diamandis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received his undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and graduate degree in aerospace engineering. After MIT he attended Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D. In 2005 he has was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University. He is the winner of the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Innovation, the 2006 (inaugural) Heinlein Award, the 2006 Lindbergh Award, the 2006 Wired RAVE Award, the 2006 Neil Armstrong Award for Aerospace Achievement and Leadership, the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, twice the winner of the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel, and the 2003 World Technology Award for Space. In 8th grade, while living in New York, Dr. Diamandis won first place in the Estes rocket design contest. Diamandis' mission is to open the space frontier for humanity. His personal motto is: The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!

Education: Master's Intellectual Property, Commerce, and Technology, Franklin Pierce Law Center, BS Mechanical Engineering, University of Rochester,

Areas of Expertise: Aerospace, Energy, Manufacturing, Materials, Mechanical engineering, Sensors and detectors, Patent law

Ms. Dix has 17 years of technology commercialization experience for corporate, government, and academic clients. She has managed RTI's commercialization activities for NASA, Kellogg Co., Kimberly-Clark, Whirlpool, Osram Sylvania, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, and the U.S. Department of Energy. She excels at open innovation support by collecting, organizing, and analyzing market intelligence for her clients for technology assessment, commercial opportunity analysis, marketing strategy development, and licensing efforts. Her efforts in identifying and securing licensees have resulted in more than 25 licenses, and Ms. Dix has won six national awards for her exceptional performance in technology commercialization (three from NASA for technology innovation and transfer, two from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for technology transfer, and one from the Society for Automotive Engineers for Environmental Excellence in Transportation). In addition to these activities, Ms. Dix has worked with industry associations to investigate applicable technology solutions for industry-based problems, including national associations and consortia of food processors, equipment manufacturers, energy groups, aerospace organizations, and others. She has published and presented on Open Innovation topics. Recently Ms. Dix has been involved in projects for commercial clients in understanding issues associated with going green and specific enabling technologies.

Jesse Dylan

CEO
Freeform
Jesse Dylan has been behind some of the most successful commercial campaigns in television, print, and interactive advertising. He has created award-winning commercials for clients including Nike, Nintendo, Motorola, American Express, NFL, and MTV. Much of Jesse's work is devoted to telling the stories of innovative projects, people, and organizations worldwide through his company FreeForm. His most recent projects include the Emmy Award-winning video YES WE CAN SONG, inspired by Barack Obama. Additionally, he creates media projects for a diverse group of organizations including (RED), the campaign to fight AIDS in Africa, and KIVA, a non-profit micro-lending organization dedicated to alleviating poverty. Current projects include a short film featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the topic of reconciliation, and a short film exploring innovation at Harvard Medical School. Most recently, he has served as director for the Entertainment Industry Foundation's national I Participate campaign, which encourages volunteerism.

Mark Fischetti is an editor at Scientific American magazine and oversees its energy and environmental coverage. He is a veteran journalist who has written freelance for The New York Times, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Fast Company and many other publications. He co-wrote Weaving the Web (HarperCollins, 1999) with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-wrote The New Killer Diseases (Crown, 2003) with Boston University microbiologist Elinor Levy (and since then finds himself washing his hands much more frequently). Mark has been the managing editor of IEEE Spectrum magazine, and was founding managing editor of Family Business magazine. His 2001 article, Drowning New Orleans, in Scientific American predicted the widespread disaster that a monster storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose, and described comprehensive projects that would save the city and the Mississippi delta. After Katrina hit in 2005 he appeared as an expert on CNN, NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert, the History Channel, NPR News, and international media. He published Protecting New Orleans in Scientific American's February 2006 issue, which presented engineering solutions to protect New Orleans and deltas worldwide from future storms. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College in Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. He lives in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he started, runs and plays in a county-wide Over-40 soccer league.

S. David Freeman is the Interim General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, formerly the Deputy Mayor of Energy and Environment and President of the Harbor Commission. Under his leadership, the boards of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach adopted the landmark San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action plan in November, 2005. The Clean Air Action Plan provides a comprehensive strategy for reducing air emissions from port operations by nearly 50 percent over a period of five years.
Mr. Freeman was the first person with an energy responsibility in the federal government, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. Mr. Freeman has a 30-year record as board member and manager of many of America's largest publicly owned businesses. President Jimmy Carter appointed him as chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1977, where he cut sulfur oxide emissions in half, stopped construction of eight large nuclear power plants and pioneered a massive energy conservation program. Mr. Freeman then served as general manager of large public power agencies for the next two decades, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power from 1997 to 2001.
Mr. Freeman holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech, and an L.L.B. from the University of Tennessee. Mr. Freeman served as a Merchant Marine in World War II, transporting gasoline across the North Atlantic. He authored Energy: The New Era in 1974, and Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How in 2007.

As fashion director of the most forward-thinking big store in the city, Julie Gilhart is responsible for feeding customers a constant diet of the new and lust-worthy. She does this by trekking to designers' studios and then championing those she thinks have the proper balance of real design skill and luxury. She's promoted Alber Elbaz (now a star at Lanvin after a rocky few years), Proenza Schouler, Olivier Theyskens, Goyard, and Project Alabama, to name a few. And with Barneys expanding across the country, Gilhart's effect is going national.

Sean is a physicist, political advisor and co-founder of the startup Younoodle. Originally from New Zealand, he has run for National elected office and helped start New Zealand's first nanotech company. Sean studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar where he recieved a PhD for his research on the mathematical patterns that underlie modern war. This research has taken him all over the world, from Government meetings in Iraq to addressing the United Nations in Vienna. This research was recognised with the award of a TED fellowship. Previously Sean worked at NASA designing self repairing nano-circuits and is a two time New Zealand track and field champion. He is now based in San Francisco where he heads up the the research and data division at Younoodle.

Sharon Greene is Managing Director of RISC International, a consumer behaviour and trends consultancy assisting global companies to design long term business strategies. She became Managing Director in 2006 and currently works with top global companies in multiple sectors putting consumer understanding at the heart of their business and product strategy. Sharon is a regular speaker at international conferences, offering original and thought provoking comment and advice on a wide variety of business relevant topics - from mobile technology trends to food purchasing changes through to corporate/ethical/green responsibility trends and the responsive action corporations should take today. Sharon strongly believes that RISC's competitive differentiation is the fact that they not only precisely quantify complex consumer behavioural information across the world, but can also anticipate the major changes that shape the consumer landscape thus helping clients to maintain their competitive advantage.

Chris Hacker leads all creative processes for brand identity, packaging design and brand imagery at J&J Consumer. The Global Strategic Design Office is based in New York City with branch offices globally, to further the application of strategic design thinking within the company and consists of Designers, Engineers and Technical Staff. Hacker's passion is bringing awareness to designers of their power in the business world to make sustainable design a key paradigm of design process and therefore make the products and materials produced lighter on the planet. Chris was Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Design for Aveda™ prior to joining Johnson & Johnson. In this capacity he had responsibility for overall strategic marketing leadership, new product development and promotion. Under his leadership, Aveda was awarded the 2004 National Design Award for Corporate Achievement from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Chris has over 30 years of experience in product and package design and creative development; having also worked for Warner Bros.Studios, Steuben Glass, Dansk International Design, GAF, JCPenney Company and Henry Dreyfuss Associates. Chris is formally trained as an industrial designer and received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati College of Design Architecture and Art. He is a recognized expert in package goods design and is a frequent national speaker on design, design sustainability and the creative process. Chris and his work for Johnson & Johnson as recently the subject of a cover story in I.D. Magazine and Business Week online. His work has also been featured in the Whitney Museum of Art and showcased in Industrial Design magazine.

Mr. Heaney is the Principle in Charge of AlterEcho, delivering leadership and inspiration to help clients develop and leverage their green capabilities for financial and environmental performance. He provides 20 years of experience in environmental management and sustainability programs, with technical and field expertise in waste minimization, pollution prevention and site characterization. Mr. Heaney has managed large environmental programs for the EPA and private sector, focusing on best practices, resource management, preservation and restoration of facilities throughout the United States. He also leads support efforts for the EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge program, partnering with the private sector to prioritize resource conservation, waste and chemical pollutant minimization, energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction benefits.

Buzztone is an agent of popular culture, raising the bar for next-generation product marketing. Clients include include Fox Television, Coca-Cola, Atlantic Records, Electronic Arts, and Warner Bros. Founder Liz Heller was one of the first Hollywood executives to employ the power of previously unexplored mediums such as the Internet, music video, and DVD. The inspiration for Buzztone was drawn from extensive experience in the music and film industries. As Executive Vice President at Capitol Records Ms. Heller forged early alliances with strategic partners including Microsoft, Macromedia, Liquid Audio and Apple. As an independent film producer she produced the feature film adaptation of Jim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This followed a period at Island Visual Arts and MCA Records where she launched the music video department and executive produced over 1,200 videos for artists such as Bobby Brown, Tom Petty and New Edition.

Michael S. Hopkins is Editor-in-Chief of the MIT Sloan Management Review, the leading print and web publication that brings ideas from the world of thinkers (scholars, researchers, management theoreticians) to the executives and managers who use those ideas to build businesses. Since joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Review in 2007, Hopkins has especially focused the publication on inquiries into collaborative innovation and the management implications of sustainability - two key drivers of organization model transformation and new practices in strategy and leadership. Hopkins's early career in media included the Wall Street Journal and Inc. Magazine, where he served as Executive Editor from 1991-2003 and then worked as its columnist and writer covering management, culture, and ideas. Later Hopkins led a collaboration between the Monitor Group and The Financial Times to create FutureMonitor.com-a website and self-organizing online community of thought leaders worldwide. FutureMonitor-a wisdom-of-crowds experiment-aimed to identify what business will need to know next: the trends in management, science, technology and culture that would most affect business decisions in the near future. Also with the Monitor Group, Hopkins developed the Strategic Leadership Agenda, a program for which he conceived and conducted numerous video interviews of Global Fortune 50 and leading non-profit CEOs/COOs around the world, seeking to understand evolving trends and changing management challenges. Hopkins has written widely, and his feature work has been anthologized in the book series, The Best Business Stories of the Year (Vintage). In 2004-2005 he toured the U.S. to give a seminar series on The Care and Feeding of the 21st Century CEO, an exploration of sustainable leadership behaviors and the organizational innovation practices they support. Hopkins graduated from Amherst College, Amherst, MA, and studied at the University of Cambridge.

Zem has been a contributing eco-editor at House & Garden, Domino, Architectural Digest and 7x7 Magazines. She received the 2009 Global Green Millennium Founder's Award for her contributions as a Global Green board member, Co-Chair of Global Green's San Francisco Committee, and Founder of Global Green's Successful Annual Fundraiser and Ecofashion event. Mentored by William McDonough, Zem is a certified BuildItGreen design and strategy consultant and Cradle to Cradle enthusiast who helps companies and individuals create beautiful, smart, sustainable spaces and practices. Zem is the eco luxury specialist for Planet Green's Alter Eco and regularly contributes to various media. Much of her penchant for superior design came from her years at splendora.com and living in Milan, Paris and London. Her love for the earth, however, can be traced back to her early upbringing on a Palo Alto commune. As a mother of two, Zem is committed to improving all families' health, education and access to well-vetted information. To that end, Zem is an active board member of Global Green, Healthy Child Healthy World, Teens Turning Green, and Architecture for Humanity.

Scott has over 20 years of management consulting experience, working with Andersen Consulting, Axiom Management Consulting and Cambridge Technology Partners. Scott's career has focused on business transformation through the optimization and innovation of processes, organizations, metrics and technologies. In developing transformation strategies, Scott has engaged stakeholders at all organization levels (CXOs, business unit leads, and line managers) - and in the deployment of these strategies, he has addressed a wide range of solutions, including operational continuous improvement, bio-fuel programs, fleet management, dashboard & reporting solutions, recycling programs, and Green IT/ server virtualization. Scott has worked across multiple industries from consumer packaged goods / manufacturing (e.g., Motorola, Levi Strauss & Co., Caterpillar, Honda, Textron, Red Bull), healthcare (e.g., Catholic Healthcare West, MD Anderson), Communications / IT (e.g., BT, Silicon Graphics, Cisco Systems, Dell and HP), and services organizations (e.g., SGS, California State Automobile Association, EPRI).

Chris Jordan is an internationally acclaimed artist and cultural activist whose work explores the frightening waste of our mass culture. His compelling, intricately detailed photographs reveal the staggering weight of statistics, inviting the viewer to see every detail as a metaphor for the role of the individual in our hypermodern society. Jordan's work is exhibited widely in the US and Europe, and has been featured in print, online, and in film and television all over the globe. He has exhibited and spoken about his work to more than fifty audiences in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

As UCLA's first Sustainability Coordinator, Nurit Katz is working to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments and further the goals and initiatives of the campus sustainability program. Before starting in this position she founded the UCLA Sustainable Resource Center in 2005 to provide resources for the community on sustainability. She then served as President of the Graduate Students Association and helped Dr. Charles Corbett to develop a new interdisciplinary graduate certificate program - Leaders in Sustainability. After graduation she helped launch the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance. She has worked on a variety of sustainability projects including a project for the City of Los Angeles that focused on transit-oriented development along the Expo Light Rail Line. Her essay on the topic was published in the UCLA Anderson Forecast's "Solutions for Our City." Nurit holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Masters in Public Policy from the UCLA School of Public Affairs. She is Chapter Leader of the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of Net Impact, a global network of leaders changing the world through business.

Clark Kellogg is a designer who has worked across the disciplines of architecture, graphic, product, communication and organization design. His most recent course at UC Berkeley - where he's taught about design for 10 years - is "What a Sustainable World Demands of Design(ers) and How We Can Respond." He is a partner in the San Francisco based social innovation firm, Collective Invention/Innovation for the Common Good™, which applies known art about innovation and design thinking to seemingly intractable problems crucial to us all: sustainability, education, and health.

After founding, building and selling Kellogg Design + Communications in NYC, Clark became the Creative Director of The Nature Company, the founder and director of State Street Global Advisors Innovation and Communication Lab and the Director of Brand Strategy at Pentagram in San Francisco.

Clark has two architecture degrees. He consults, writes, teaches, designs and sails boats. He and his wife of 30 years have raised two pretty-much grown children and live in Berkeley, California.

Mr. Kwasnik is a senior consultant at AlterEcho and an experienced executive with over 30 years of experience in the utility environmental and climate change arena. He developed the Climate Change Initiative for a major international utility which included the adoption of an 80% reduction of GHG emissions by 2050, development and implementation of carbon budgets across each of the untility's Lines of Business and linking of these budgets to management compensation. Mr. Kwasnik directed the management of the GHG inventory process for the entire scope of utility operations, lead communication of the Initiative to employees, investors, legislators and government policy makers and formed an internal team to drive necessary changes within the utility organization to achieve the adopted climate change targets. He also has managed air and water quality issues and permitting programs for utility generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure, operational environmental compliance activities (RCRA, TSCA, CERCLA, etc), waste site remediation of legacy utility manufactured gas plant, PCB and ash sites, and management of large environmental teams.

Joe Laur is Vice President of Content for Greenopolis, a web based social network, media and educational center, marketplace and playground fostering learning and collaborative action on green issues. Joe was a founding partner of SEED Systems, a consultancy dedicated to learning and action for sustainable enterprise, applying systems thinking, scientific frameworks and organizational learning to foster innovation in companies engaging with environmental and social issues In partnership with the Society for Organizational Learning, (SoL) (www.solonline.org) Mr. Laur along with colleagues Peter Senge and Sara Schley established the SoL Sustainability Consortium (www.solsustainability.org), an active group of industry leaders in learning and sustainability. He still serves as steward of this consortium, leading collaborative projects among the members as well as coaching individual member projects. This consortium includes members from BP, Ford, Coca Cola, Harley-Davidson, UTC, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Nike, 7th Generation, Waste Management and more. He is co-author of Learning for Sustainability, 2007, and the Doubleday book, The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World (June 2008) written with Peter Senge, Sara Schley and Brian Smith, and with Sara Schley, co author of The Sustainability Challenge, published in The Systems Thinker and Creating Sustainable Organizations published in the Pegasus' Innovations in Management Series. Mr. Laur is one of the designers and Facilitators of SoL's Sustainability Forum on Business Innovation for Sustainability in 2004 2007. He has spoken at numerous business gatherings including the Natural Step Conference, The Power of Systems Thinking Conference, and the Systems Thinking in Action conference on issues of sustainable business. Participants in his work in organizational learning and sustainable business have included: BP, BSR, Burlington Chemical, California EPA, CERES, Chrysler, City of Fitchburg, The Coca-Cola Company, College of Notre Dame, Detroit Edison, DTE, Ford Motor Company , Great Lakes Commission, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Hewlett Packard, Interface, Inc. , Missouri Botanical Gardens , New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Nike, Northeast Utilities, Open Society Institute, Plug Power, PV2, Schlumberger, Seventh Generation, Shell Oil, Strata-gems, Sustainability Institute, Sustainable Food Lab, Unilever, United Technologies, UTC, Visteon Corporation , World Bank, Xerox, and more.

Mr. Laur was the Executive Director of the Mankind Project (formerly New Warrior Network) from 1992-1996, expanding the organization into Canada and Europe, tripling training facilities, leadership capacity and revenues during his tenure. He has spent the last decade as a consultant to organizations in all sectors, focusing on organizational learning, personal effectiveness skills and sustainable development. He studied with Dr. Karl Henrik Robert of The Natural Step and has facilitated learning courses and conferences with Amory Lovins, Paul Hawken William McDonough, John Elkington, Janine Benyus and Michael Braungart, and others. Mr. Laur has worked with whole systems change for over 30 years and is a certified practitioner of Structural Integration, an applied physiology practice invoking whole systems change in human body structures. He received his BFA in 1975 from the University of Wisconsin. He is the father of 5 children.

Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world. Coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, a funder collaborative working for a sustainable and just world, Annie communicates worldwide about the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health. Annie's efforts over the past two decades to raise awareness about international sustainability and environmental health issues has included work with Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance, Health Care without Harm, Essential Information and Greenpeace International. She currently serves on the boards of GAIA, the International Forum for Globalization and the Environmental Health Fund. Previously she has served on the boards of the Grassroots Recycling Network, the Environmental Health Fund, Global Greengrants India and Greenpeace India. During the 1990s, Annie visited countries throughout Asia to track exported waste from the U.S. and Europe. She documented her findings in many articles and testified before the U.S. Congress in 1992 on the issue of international waste trafficking, in an effort to ban US waste exports to the Third World. Annie did her undergraduate studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and graduate work in city and regional planning at Cornell University, both in New York. She has traveled to over 30 countries, including Haiti, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Pakistan and South Africa, in her work investigating and promoting anti-pollution issues internationally. Annie currently resides in California with her daughter. Annie's most recent project, the Story of Stuff, explores the global materials economy and its impact on economy, environment and health.

Adam Lowry is the co-founder and Chief Greenskeeper of Method Products, Inc., the leading innovator in hip, healthy home care products. Adam believes that design is the most confusing word in the English language and that business is our greatest vehicle for positive social and environmental change. It is at the intersection of these beliefs that Adam has focused his work. As Chief Greenskeeper at Method, Adam's focus is bringing sustainable innovations to the Method business. He also directs the sustainability aspects of product design, sourcing, production, and marketing.

Prior to founding Method, Adam worked as a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institiution, developing software products for the modeling of climate change. That public sector experience, combined with his earlier experience designing environmentally preferred automotive products, formed the nucleus of his unique approach of commercial environmentalism.

Adam has been honored as one of Vanity Fair's Global Citizens and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) Man of the Year for his pioneering work on sustainable business and product design. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, and lives in San Francisco with his wife Mara and daughter Kenning. You can follow @adam_lowry on Twitter - twitter.com/adam_lowry

Alexis Madrigal is a leading energy writer. Since joining Wired.com as a staff writer in 2007, he has helped build Wired Science into the largest science blog in the world, with millions of visitors per month. Wired Science was nominated for best magazine blog by the MPA and best science website in the 2009 Webby Awards. He's hard at work on a book about the history of green technology, which is due out in Fall 2010 from Da Capo. Madrigal is a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley's Office for the History of Science and Technology. He's been invited to speak at South by Southwest, Berkeley Journalism School, Stanford Law School, E3, and Webvisions, and is a regular guest on NPR. Madrigal is the youngest staff member at WIRED, but maintains the institution's most unpredictable beard. Born in Mexico City, raised in Portland's exurbs, he now lives in San Francisco.

Alex MacDonald is a research faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as the senior economist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Northern California. His doctoral dissertation at the University of Oxford, The Remote Space Age: An Economic History of Space Exploration from Galileo to Gagarin, is the first long-run historical analysis of the economics of space exploration. At NASA, Alex has served as economic advisor on private and commercial space endeavors, such as the development of NASA's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research program. He has presented at the United Nations on asteroid impact mitigation and has worked on spacecraft mission designs for coral reef health monitoring, earthquake early-warning, urban development mapping, and asteroid rendezvous.

Tashion Macon acts as Senior Manager of Partnerships and Promotions for T-Mobile USA, Inc. Tashion has more than 12 years of leadership experience building marketing and promotions campaigns and strategic planning. In her role at T-Mobile, Tashion is responsible for driving brand strategy across all T-Mobile platforms, propriety products, partner products and services. Under Tashion's direction, T-Mobile launched its first integrated and televised promotion that over delivered by 100%. Prior to joining T-Mobile, Tashion held positions at Equity Marketing, Inc. and Davie-Brown Entertainment. While at Equity, Tashion developed entertainment partnerships for Burger King. During her time at Davie-Brown Entertainment Tashion planned strategic promotions for multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 brands. Some successes Tashion has seen in her career include the creation of the Burger King rewards program Crown Crowd while at Equity Marketing and the activation of AT&T Blue Room at Davie Brown Entertainment that generated a Return on Investment (ROI) of 50%+. Tashion is a co-author of a white paper with Dr. Frank Mulhern of Northwestern University titled Building Brands through the Power of Promotions. Tashion has been a recurring speaker at the International Marketing Conference: London, England; Marketing Opportunities in Entertainment.

A graphic designer and letterpress printer, Heidrun Mumper-Drumm is an associate professor and the Director of Sustainability Initiatives at Art Center College of Design. Since 2003, her focus has been on the incorporation of sustainability principles into design education and the design process. As a former environmental engineer for Bechtel and Parsons Engineering, her background includes nuclear, geothermal, solar and wind energy projects, as well as environmental management for NASA and the US Air Force. She has been applying this experience, as well as current thinking about sustainability, to reframing the design process to enable designers to create more sustainable products and services. This 'lifecycle design' approach expands the definition of design beyond form and function, to the goal of form, function and sustainability.

Leilani holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology specializing in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution from the University of California San Diego. While attending college she worked as a volunteer at a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center. She started racing cars in 2001 and quickly began making a name for herself in the racing world. In 2006 she set the record for the highest finish for a female driver in the history of Texas Motor Speedway when she finished fourth. In 2007 Leilani became the fourth woman in history to race in the Indy Pro Series, the developmental league of IndyCar. She qualified 5th for her open wheel debut in August 2007 and earned praise from many in the IndyCar community including four time Indy 500 Champion Rick Mears. Click here to read testimonials about Leilani from the racing community.

Her racing accomplishments have landed her on the pages of USA Today, Glamour, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Men's Journal, the Washington Post and ESPN. Esquire Magazine has called her A Woman We Love and Sports Illustrated named her in their list of the top ten female race car drivers in the world. Click here to see more of Leilani's media appearances.

Leilani adopts an acre of rainforest for every race she runs to offset her carbon footprint and has been a long time vegetarian and eco activist. She is also active politically in the legislative fight for the environment. She has twice made the journey to Capitol Hill to speak with members on Congress on behalf of the Climate Security Act. In June 2008 she spoke at a climate action rally in Washington DC alongside Senators Barbara Boxer, Joe Lieberman, and John Kerry.

In fall 2008, Leilani became an Ambassador for the National Wildlife Federation and landed a national ad campaign as a Lucky Jeans model, her caption read: Leilani Munter, Race Car Driver and Environmentalist - Saving rainforests one race at a time. Her ads appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, In Style, W Magazine and Lucky Jeans stores across the country.

She is currently putting together a race program she calls her Eco Dream Team that will be a vehicle (pun intended) to reach out to millions of gear-head, NASCAR flag waving race fans to make eco minded changes to their lives. Changing out light bulbs, recycling, and using canvas grocery bags may seem like small things, says Munter, but small changes, when multiplied by millions, can make a big difference.

I realize that being a race car driver, I am not in an environmentally friendly sport. That is why I am doing everything I can to reduce my carbon footprint such as using renewable energy, recycling, and adopting tropical rainforest for every race I run. As citizens of Earth, we all need to work together to take care of our world. So far, we have not been doing a very good job of that. The situation is dire and requires our urgent attention. Now is the time to make a change. We need to reduce our use of fossil fuels, commit ourselves to renewable energy sources, and conserve the biodiversity that we have on Earth before it is lost forever. Together we can make enough noise to get the attention of the decision makers in our local and national governments. Let's all do our part to help save our Earth for future generations to enjoy as much as we have. It is our responsibility -- and our privilege -- to do so.

David Muyres most recently held the position of Vice President, Educational Initiatives, for Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In this capacity, Muyres was responsible for developing new strategic offerings for the college. These ranged from educational programs targeted to business executives in order to demonstrate the value of creative process and design thinking, to ArtCenterPRO, a unique program in which companies, as sponsors, collaborate with Art Center students to create real-world design solutions.

Dan Neil is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and staff writer for the Los Angeles Times where he currently writes three columns: Rumble Seat, about automobiles and car culture, Mindshare about advertising and marketing, and Major Domo focused on home technology. As one of the Times' signature voices, his byline appears in almost every section of the paper, including Op-Ed, Travel, Sports, Entertainment and online video content. He has contributed to Esquire, Time, Car and Driver and The New York Times and has been a weekly commentator on KCRW and Marketplace, by American Public Media.

A long-time advocate for "doing the right thing," Lewis Perkins is a champion for sustainability - personally and professionally. Perkins works with companies both big and small on creating a programs and awareness for environmental and social initiatives. Over the past several years, Perkins led the "green" charge as director of sustainable strategies for The Mohawk Group, a leading carpet manufacturer and commercial division of Mohawk Industries, Perkins draws on this passion to help advance the company's mission of environmental and social responsibility. Coupling strong leadership skills with his fervent commitment to ensuring a positive future for the world around us, he helps drive awareness for the importance of sustainable design through strategic marketing communications for all of his customers through partnerships with philanthropic organizations such as Global Green USA, Easter Seals and Susan G. Komen. Prior to his current consulting projects, he served with The Clean Air Campaign. Perkins holds a Master of Business Administration in marketing and strategy with a focus on social responsibility from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington & Lee University.

Sarah Rich is leading voice in the fields of sustainability, design and new media. She has been an editor at Dwell magazine since 2007. Prior to joining Dwell, Sarah was the founding managing editor of Inhabitat.com and the managing editor of Worldchanging.com, where she co-authored the book Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Abrams, 2006). She founded the food politics blog CivilEats.com in 2008 and sits on the board of advisors for Project H, a non-profit dedicated to addressing humanitarian issues through industrial design. When not at her laptop, Sarah can usually be found cooking in her apartment in San Francisco's Mission district.

Ken Rutkowski is both Host and President of KenRadio Broadcasting. Part pundit, part matchmaker, part strategist, Rutkowski is considered one of the most broadly informed and connected people in the media, entertainment and technology markets. He helps startups and multinational corporations understand the trends shaping their industries and connect with the people who matter. His daily radio and Internet show, World Tech Round-Up, is a source of inside information for listeners in more than 40 countries, often scooping the major media and giving perspective to emerging trends, developments and industry maneuvers. An astute strategist, Rutkowski combines a deep understanding of media, entertainment and technology market convergence with an insider's perspective of the problems facing the industry today, helping clients craft strategies that leverage innovations in the digital economy. He is a founding member of the Streaming Media Executive Committee and is on the boards of several media, entertainment and technology companies. He appears regularly as a guest correspondent for KTTV Fox 11 and Fox's Good Day LA.

Jonah's pioneering communications work has helped hundreds of progressive organizations break through the media din with strategic, inspiring messages. Jonah's visionary use of viral marketing has been featured in dozens of top TV networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) radio outlets (NPR, CBC) and newspapers (e.g. The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times). In 2001, Jonah was named one of "The Thirty People Cleaning up the Earth" by Shift magazine. In 2004, Food and Wine Magazine featured him as a "2004 Tastemaker" for thinking up the most successful Flash advocacy movie in the history of the web, The Meatrix (themeatrix.com). Jonah is also a hands-on web designer. He's the creative force behind the web presences of such pre-eminent organizations as the ACLU, Heifer International and Environmental Defense. Along with partner Louis Fox, Jonah is widely considered a leader in the powerful movement to spread progressive political and social messages through use of the Web.

Seasoned reality TV host and producer, Sandra Sanchez, can currently be seen as a host on E!'s "That Morning Show" airing live from 6am-9am, seven days a week. She also continues her hosting duties on "New Music Tuesday" on FOX's action sports channel, Fuel TV, a weekly show in it's fifth year.

Sandra is the creator of www.orGLAMic.com, the online resource for all things "almost always organic - always glamorous!" Since it's conception, the popular site had become the go-to source for discriminating eco-shoppers. Sandra's involvement in the eco-community led to her work as a traveling correspondent on "G Word" and as a producer on "Hollywood Green with Maria Menounos," both airing on Discovery Channel's Planet Green.

A vegetarian since birth, Sandra has been green since the days of Oscar the Grouch - although he didn't recycle at the time, much to her concern. Raised by parents that she likes to call "sophisticated hippies," Sandra has been carrying canvas bags to the grocery store (and Saks 5th Avenue) her entire life. At the age of 17, Sandra moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, where the MENSA member graduated with a B.S. in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention from the Keck School of Medicine in 2002.

While working at LA County Hospital as a research assistant for a Type II Diabetes study, she witnessed the impact of a fast-food, throwaway society on the quality of human lives. On a whim, Sandra competed and won the title of Miss Los Angeles 2003, seamlessly transitioning her to a career in front of the camera. Sandra has since appeared on outlets for ABC, CBS, MTV and Starz!, to name a few. When she's not working, Sandra enjoys traveling to spots where nature still reigns supreme, fine vegetarian dining, reading, yoga and spending time with her rescued dog, Chano.

Len is Vice President for Global Sustainability at P&G. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, he leads the company's overall sustainability efforts. He works closely with P&G's executive leadership to develop and then ensure the company delivers its short and long-term sustainability goals. Len is a 23-year veteran of P&G with broad-reaching experience in human safety, regulatory affairs, and environmental science. In addition to his Global Sustainability leadership role, Len also leads the Human and Environmental Safety, Regulatory Affairs, and Corporate Biotechnology organizations worldwide. These groups are responsible for conducting human and environmental risk assessments for new products and ingredients, ensuring regulatory compliance, and conducting upstream basic research. With a doctorate in Toxicology, Len maintains ties with academia through teaching arrangements in Ohio and West Virginia. He is co-author of Toxicology of the Immune System - A Human Approach and has written numerous journal articles, textbook chapters, and scientific abstracts. He is a Diplomate, American Board of Toxicology, and holds degrees from University of Delaware, University of San Francisco, and West Virginia University. Prior to joining P&G, Len served in the US Army as part of the Medical Research and Development Command. He was stationed at the Letterman Army Institute of Research in San Francisco. Len lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two children. He serves on the boards of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens and the regional blood bank.

Jamie Simon is the Director of Sustainability for Red Bull North America. Her primary responsibility is to identify programs that restore the environment, increase profitability, reduce risk, and improve brand value. As a former World Champion and Red Bull athlete in Freestyle kayaking, Jamie has a deep connection to nature. Her goals include finding the intersection of nature and business, where they profit most, and delivering this unique intersection through her work in corporate social responsibility.

Chris Spain is chairman and chief strategy officer of HydroPoint. Mr. Spain co-founded HydroPoint in 2002 with the vision of providing smart water management for sustained conservation and cost savings. Today HydroPoint is regarded as a proven leader in clean technology, with top-tier venture and strategic partnerships.

Ms. Beth Springer has been Executive Vice President of International and Natural Personal Care at Clorox Corporation since January 2009. At Clorox, Ms. Springer has responsibility for creating an overall, enterprise perspective on long-range strategy and business planning functions. Ms. Springer served as Executive Vice President of strategy and growth of Clorox from January 2007 to January 2009 and oversaw enterprise long-range strategy and business planning, the Clorox's ... growth planning, including acquisitions and partnerships, and the corporate Eco Office. She served as Vice President and General Manager of Glad Products division of The Clorox Co. since October 1, 2002 and also as its Group Vice President of Speciality since January 18, 2005. Ms. Springer joined The Clorox Co. in 1990 as an Associate Marketing Manager in household products, and subsequently held marketing positions of increasing responsibility with Clorox Co.'s litter and home care businesses. In October 1999, Ms. Springer was appointed Vice President of marketing, Glad Products. Prior to Clorox, she was employed at Braxton Associates/Deloitte in management consulting. Ms. Springer holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Bryn Mawr College, and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard University.

Rich Steinberg is the Director of the MINI E Program for MINI USA (a division of BMW of North America). Rich was responsible for the introduction of the MINI E to the US market in his previous capacity as the Manager, Product Strategy for the MINI brand and is currently managing Sales, Marketing & Product Strategy EV topics for the BMW Group.

Rich joined the BMW Group in 1997 with their Financial Services division, and then started up the MINI division in 1999 in advance of the brand's reintroduction to the US market in March, 2002. Rich spent 13 years at Nissan North America before joining BMW. Rich has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

James currently oversees mobile and social media developments at Causecast. His primary focus is on developing tools and best practices that will allow nonprofits to focus on what really matters, being on the ground and making change. James' work at Causecast has spanned from growing Causecast's online social influence, to the design and development of online campaigns and fundraising widgets, to the development and launch of Causecast Mobile Fundraising.
James is also a frequent speaker in the topic of social media for nonprofits. His most recent speaking engagement was on the topic of Social Media Tools and Tips for Nonprofits at the Blog World Expo '09.

Boise Thomas is the fresh face of Adrian Grenier's Alter Eco, an environmentally-focused lifestyle show on Discovery Communications' new eco-focused channel Planet Green. Boise formerly served as the face of G Living, a modern green lifestyle network, where he wrote, produced and hosted over 100 environmentally-focused shows. He stared in G Living's hip, eco-chic online series The Real G, where he interviewed and worked with numerous green personalities and chefs including sustainability expert John Picard and the founders of Method. Boise has interviewed many celebrities and has covered numerous environmental events including the premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour and the 2007 Environmental Media Awards presented by E! Boise is no stranger to the green space. Raised in Upstate NY, he learned the importance of sustainability at an early age through parents who encouraged an environmentally-minded lifestyle. In his early years, Boise worked as a leader for AmeriCan Adventures, driving foreigners across the US while camping, visiting and teaching about the country's national parks and resources. Following his adventures, Boise spent 7 years in commercial work, booking a total of 71 television spots for many major brands and advertisers. Boise currently lives in Venice, California where he and his wife practice a sustainable lifestyle and are currently developing an eco-oasis in Kansas that they hope to use as a tool to teach others about the importance of sustainability.

A Principal with the global design firm Gensler, Gervais is a creative talent with a passion for both intuitive understanding and scientific rigor. As a leader of the Gensler Consulting Practice Area Gervais applies a research based design process to complex design problems. Some recent projects include:

Rethinking how multi-disciplinary scientific communities collaborate (SRI)
Helping support a shift from post crime forensics to pre crime intelligence (FBI)
Reducing the carbon footprint of work by reorganizing workspace for mobility (HP)
Using ethnographic design processes to mitigate the negative experiential effects of increased airport security processes (San Jose Airport)
Studying social media and small company networks as inspiration for new mixed use urban prototypes (Forest City)

Antonio R. Villaraigosa is the 41st mayor of Los Angeles.

He was elected on May 17, 2005 and sworn in to office on July 1, 2005.

Villaraigosa is known for his exceptional skill at building broad bi-partisan coalitions and is considered one of the leading progressive voices in the country. His mayoral platform emphasizes finding solutions to the major issues facing Los Angeles including education, transportation, public safety, economic development and ethics.

Born Antonio Villar on January 23, 1953, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, he is the oldest of four children raised by a single mother, Natalia Delgado. Villaraigosa graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School and attended UCLA, where he received a B.A. degree in history. He is a graduate of the People's College of Law.

At the age of 15, Villaraigosa began his lifelong involvement with the labor movement as a volunteer with the farm workers movement, later he served as a field representative/organizer with the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). He also is a past President of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Government Employees.

In 1994, Villaraigosa was elected to the California State Assembly; four years later, his colleagues elected him the first Assembly Speaker from Los Angeles in 25 years. While Speaker, Villaraigosa oversaw passage of landmark state legislation including the modernization of public schools, the toughest assault weapons ban in the country, the largest urban neighborhoods parks initiative in America, and the Healthy Families program that provides healthcare for over a half a million California children.

He ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 2001 and narrowly lost the election. He then was appointed a distinguished fellow at UCLA and USC, where he helped write After Sprawl a policy blueprint for addressing the issues facing many urban centers.

In 2003, he won the 14th District Los Angeles City Council Seat. During his tenure on the City Council, he championed many of the issues he is addressing today as Mayor and is widely credited with resolving the MTA transit strike, creating the largest passive park on the Eastside and Los Angeles, and protecting funding for the Arts.

General Manager, Considered Products, Nike Currently Lorrie is the General Manager for Nike's Considered team. Considered is the team responsible for introducing sustainable products and business models. Prior to becoming the GM Lorrie was the Innovation Director for Nike Footwear, Apparel and Equipment. Her innovative thinking has lead to several new product technologies with patents to prove it. Her passion for design, innovation and sustainability brought her to the role as a leader in bringing sustainability to all facets of Nike product. Environmentally sound shoes are one thing, but to carry the Swoosh, Nike Considered products are still tasked with being authentic, innovative, with uncompromising performance. With an Industrial Design Degree from Syracuse University, Lorrie has become a leading expert in design innovation. She started out as a Toy Designer working on products like "Speak and Spell", and then moved into Advanced R&D for Texas Instruments where she conceptualized applications and products for emerging technologies. One example is her work on developing new RF Identification Systems with foreign governments for tracking animals, i.e. pigs in Holland, reindeer in Finland, and cattle in Australia, to control the spread of disease. She has also worked for one of the top design consulting firms, S.G. Hauser in Los Angeles, designing a variety of products, from ophthalmic laser handpieces to lady shavers, for which she received an award for consumer product of the year. When not discovering how to make processes and performance product more sustainable, Lorrie spends time with her husband and four children.

Helen Walters is the editor for BusinessWeek.com's Innovation and Design Channel. She is also a contributing editor to British design magazine Creative Review. Walters is the author of several books, including a survey of experimental animation short films and a series of titles looking at the world of T-shirt design.

As Vice President of Communications, Mr. Wells ensures the clear and effective messaging of RMI's work. His leadership in media, branding, and communications has helped the organization reach a significantly wider audience. Having produced a number of feature films and television programs, Mr. Wells is highly experienced in rolling out large-scale media campaigns and initiatives. He spent twenty years in the entertainment industry and was involved in the production of fourteen feature films and five television series. Some of the films that he worked on include "Bagdad Cafe," "The Grifters," "Dogfight," and "Under Suspicion." As one of the original producers of "The West Wing," Llewellyn is honored to have won five Emmy Awards and two Producers Guild Awards.

Freya Williams is co-founder and global planning director of OgilvyEarth, advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather's global sustainability practice. OgilvyEarth offers clients advice on how to uncover the leadership opportunity in sustainability to create cultural currency and relevance for their brands. Freya founded the practice with partner Seth Farbman in 2007 on a belief that sustainability is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century, an ethical and business mandate.

The practice has grown quickly and is now in 15 markets worldwide. OgilvyEarth has developed a suite of tools to help clients navigate this complex space and connects clients to the intellectual capital of a global panel of inspiring sustainability thinkers. It counts among its clients Unilever, Coca-Cola, Siemens, SAP, DuPont and Kraft. Most recently OgilvyEarth created a campaign for United Nations Secretary General Ban-ki Moon to help effect a positive outcome from the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Freya has been with Ogilvy for 10 years. She joined from the prestigious WPP fellowship and has since helped develop big brand ideas for Ogilvy clients like Dove, Kodak, Kimberley Clark, AT&T Wireless and Goldman Sachs.

Freya graduated with a First in English Literature and language from the University of Nottingham. Prior to joining WPP, Freya worked as a strategy consultant for Hydra Associates, a boutique London-based media practice, defining corporate strategy for the BBC and Channel Four. She, her husband and two-year-old daughter split their time between downtown Manhattan and a cottage on the Delaware River. In her spare time works at being an environmentalist and occasionally contributes to women's magazines including Glamour and Cosmopolitan.

Daniel is a Strategic Sustainability Consultant with expertise in sustainable technologies, systems, and management practices. He has worked on a wide range of sustainability consulting initiatives, from implementing basic efficiencies to planning the integration of sustainability into management practices and strategy. Much of his work has focused on quantifying the financial impact of sustainability, as well as addressing the challenges in communicating with and educating others about the benefits of sustainable management. Daniel has collaborated with clients of many sizes, from small machine shops to large corporations. Most recently, he worked with Red Bull of North America to reduce costs through better fleet management, renewable energy, waste reduction, efficiencies, and strategic integration. Daniel received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, CT, and earned an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco.