Team & Board

Shireman forged partnerships between Mitsubishi and the Rainforest Action Network to help save the world's forests. He drove an agreement between Greenpeace and Canada's largest timber company to save old growth forest. He unified Coca-Cola and campus activists to work together to promote peace in the Sudan. He advocates technology to solve labor and human rights problems in the developing world. And he has written some of the world's most effective and economical recycling laws, including California's landmark beverage container recycling law, the nation's most cost-effective "bottle bill." The innovative laws, programs, and policies he has developed have cut pollution and waste and saved more than $5 billion for consumers and businesses.

In 1996, Shireman joined with Mitsubishi Electric America CEO Tachi Kiuchi and other Fortune 500 chief executives to form the Future 500. Future 500 drives profitable alliances between companies and their stakeholders - even one-time adversaries - to meet the challenges of climate, water, recycling, and factory labor.

Shireman is the author of many articles and books on business, environment, and the future. His writings have appeared in USA Today, Technology Review, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, and other newspapers, magazines, and journals. He is co-author (with Tachi Kiuchi) of What We Learned in the Rainforest: Business Lessons from Nature (Berrett-Koehler).

Bio image available in hi-resolution version

A graduate of the Chinese University of Science and Technology, Dr. Jin has been a researcher at the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Deputy Chief Engineer of Changchun Electric Industrial Administration; and Vice secretary-general of China enterprise Directors (Managers) Association, State Economic Committee of China.

She has been a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Senior Research Fellow, Institute For The Future; and a Special researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology policy of Japan. Jin is currently a Guest Professor Tsinghua University in Beijing and Hohai University in Nanjing. She also holds the title of Research Fellow at the World Business Academy, is a Planning Committee Member of the Millennium Project and Co-chair of the China node of the United Nations University of Americas council.

She has more than 100 published monographs, theses, and research reports to her credit.

Erik's career has focused on finding common ground between the corporations and NGOs to advance systemic solutions to sustainability - economic, social, and environmental. He has worked in both the Corporate and NGO sectors: as a PIRG activist and lobbyist for non-profits and as an environmental consultant for Arthur Andersen and in Public Affairs at Ciba Geigy. He has a MBA from Yale School of Management with a concentration in Competitive Strategies and Master's degree in Environmental Management from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Industrial Environmental Management. He also received a B.A. in history from Yale College, focusing on development of the American West.

During his free moments, Erik spends time with his wife and two young daughters, travels, plays squash, cooks, and recreates outside whenever possible.

She holds a degree in Journalism and Communication from Wayne State University. Her background includes working in Washington, DC as a Consumer Protection Specialist for the Federal Trade Commission. She has 20 years experience in New Business Development with major corporations. She brings her enthusiasm and love of making a difference in the world to her work with Future 500, a spirit she fosters among the Future 500 community.

She engineered a three-week entry into Kosovo during NATO bombing campaign in 1999 to become one of only eight international journalists operating independently from Serbian supervision inside the Yugoslav province, and contributed to Newsweek's win of the 1999 American Society of Magazine Editors Award for Reporting. Juliette established and implemented policies in South Asian bureaus of Western media outfits generating more than 300 stories, including 60 front page features and an unparalleled six-part series from Pakistani tribal areas. In addition to her work with Future 500, she publishes a weekly column for World Politics Review and is a Contributing Editor to SmartBrief's daily UN Newswire covering health, environmental, developmental and human rights issues.

Turner earned a MS in International Affairs at the Sam Nunn School at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BA in Government and International Studies, with a concentration in International Relations, at the University of Notre Dame.

Interested in nexus of the private, public and non-profit sectors, in addressing current and future environmental and social challenges, Turner is working to develop and expand Future 500's Global Stakeholder Initiative, while also assisting to build partnerships between businesses and NGOs on climate issues.

Matt enjoys traveling, running, photography and, on occasion, Notre Dame Fighting Irish football.

Nick also edits The Liberty and Economics Review and has had his work featured at Reason.com, The Daily Caller, and Broker World Magazine.

At Future 500, Danna works as Director of Stakeholder Campaigns, helping to mobilize coalitions around important social justice issues in climate change, recycling, water, and human rights. Before joining the Future 500 team, she worked as a political consultant fighting against a billion dollar project that would result in the loss of one of the last pieces of undeveloped, environmentally sensitive land in the Bay Area. Danna studied Communications and International Relations at San Francisco State University, and globalization at the Universidad Belgrano de Argentina and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She also volunteered in France at Amnesty International, working on a global human rights campaign for political prisoners. In her free time, Danna enjoys studying language, dancing, reading and traveling.

Rebecca possesses extensive experience working within the NGO sector and the media. She has focused her career around communication of environmental issues to a wide range of stakeholders- from the business sector, academics, policy makers, NGO, and general public.

Prior to joining Future500, she was a Communications Officer and Business & Biodiversity team member at the conservation organization Fauna & Flora International. She has also worked as a journalist covering European environmental policy for the specialist ENDS media titles, based in London, UK.

Rebecca earned a Bachelor's in Biological Sciences from Oxford University and an MSc in Environmental Technology (Ecological Management option) from Imperial College London.

In her free time, she enjoys oil painting, travelling, and exploring the culinary delights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

She holds a Master's degree in Education from the University of California at Berkeley, where she also obtained her undergraduate degrees in Mass Communications and African American Literature.

Bodhi is also a well-known speaker on sustainable tourism and community development, with recent presentations to the Global Ecotourism Conference, and the Asian Institute of Technology, among others. More information on Bodhi's work can be found at www.andamandiscoveries.com and www.northandamantsunamirelief.com

In his new role at Future 500, Alok supports a number of programs including energy, recycling and labor and transparency.

Drawing on his consulting experience and his passion for facilitating mutually beneficial agreements, Brent will support Future 500 programs in fostering stakeholder engagement and consensus.

David holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science, an M.A. in Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics, all from the State University of New York at Albany.

He lives in Thailand with his wife and two children.

Today, as Chairman of the Future 500, and CEO of Tokyo-based E-Square, Kiuchi informs and inspires business leaders all over the world, and develops profitable and sustainable business practices at computer, electronics, automobile, and other companies.

Kiuchi is a popular keynote speaker at major global conferences on business, the environment, and Japanese-U.S. relations. In his spare time, Kiuchi skydives, runs marathons, climbs Mount Fuji, rides his bicycle to Future 500 headquarters in downtown Tokyo, and does 2000 push-ups a day.

He is the co-author with Bill Shireman, of the popular book What We Learned In The Rainforest - Business Lessons From Nature, featured in the Harvard Business Review, which declares the business-as-machine era over, and shows how companies can become as innovative as the rainforest, leveraging feedback to grow more profitable and sustainable than ever.

We must learn to provide affluence without effluence - by consuming less from the environment, not more. We can use less, and have more. Consume less, and be more. The interests of business, and the interests of environment, are not incompatible.

Prior to his current position, PK was director of California's Department of Technology Services, and vice president of ACS, Inc. for three years, where he worked with state and local governments to help transform information technology.

Previously, he served as executive vice president and chief information officer for NIC, Inc. from 2000 to 2003. From 1996 to 2000, Agarwal was chief information officer for the Franchise Tax Board and from 1984 to 1996 he was chief of the Office of Information Services within the Department of General Services. His state government experience also includes three years as manager of the Database Development Bureau for the Department of Social Services and one year as a technical project manager for the Department of Health Services. Agarwal began his career as a management consultant and customer manager for EDS Corporation from 1975 to 1978.

He owns Personal Health Organization, L.L.C., which provides health care testing for thousands of Americans through major retail and pharmaceutical corporations. He provides consultation support to national and western health care organizations besides his own. He continues to serves on the Boards of environmental organizations.

Before co-founding Alternative Technologies in 1989, Skomer served as Executive Director of the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG) from 1980 to 1985. In 1983 he forged a strategic partnership with MassPIRG to finance and organize a major restructuring of CalPIRG, combining five regional organizations into California's leading consumer-environmental watchdog. Skomer then leveraged the CalPIRG/MassPIRG partnership to help found the Fund for Public Interest Research, and worked with chief executive Doug Phelps as its Budget and Administrative Director during its formative years, as it grew to become the umbrella organization for a national network of statewide PIRGs and affiliates.

An attorney and former member of the Arizona Bar, Skomer is also a tenured faculty member at the Merritt College paralegal program in Oakland, where he first began teaching in 1985. He is married to bay area artist Elana Chaitman.

He has written for a diversity of publications, including Communications of the ACM, Mondo 2000, The New York Times, and Time. He has been on the masthead of Wired Magazine since it was founded. His piece on the future of copyright, "The Economy of Ideas" is taught in many law schools and his "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" is posted on thousands of web sites.

In 1997, he was a Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and has been, since 1998, as a Berkman Fellow at the Harvard Law School.

He lives in Wyoming, New York, San Francisco, On the Road, and in Cyberspace. He has three teenaged daughters and aspires to be a good ancestor.

Ichikawa has worked on the majority of Future 500 Asia partnerships, is the lead liason with the Future 500 China organization and is responsible for developing future relationships and networks in the region. She is the major account lead on key partner relationships and is an advisor and facilitator to companies regarding the Global Citizenship 360 and sMap process.

From 1997-2001, Dr. Shapiro was U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. In that position, he oversaw the nation's major statistical agencies, including the Census Bureau while it planned and carried out the 2000 decennial census, and economic policy for the Commerce Department. Prior to his appointment as Under Secretary, he was co-founder and Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and the Progressive Foundation. He also served as principal economic advisor in Bill Clinton's 1991-1992 presidential campaign, Legislative Director for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, Associate Editor of U.S. News & World Report , and economics columnist for Slate. Dr. Shapiro has been a Fellow of Harvard University, the Brookings Institution and the National Bureau of Economic Research. He holds a PhD from Harvard, a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an AB from the University of Chicago.

Bonnie was a key driver in a common industry code of conduct and complimentary tools and processes as the founder and Board Member of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC). Ms. Nixon serves on multiple multi-industry consortiums including global retailers, footwear and apparel, toy, pharmaceutical, chemical, automotive, consumer goods and mining.

Prior to HP, Bonnie owned an Environmental Planning and Communications Firm, Circlepoint. At Circlepoint, Ms. Nixon managed more than 200 public and private sector projects with business, community and agencies.

Today, she is a Resident Scholar at Stanford University and Executive faculty at Presidio's Sustainability MBA. She was named one of Sustainable Industries "20 Leading Green Executives in 2008" and "one of 10 nationwide women making strides in sustainability" in the Green Economy Post.

Prior to Circlepoint, Bonnie managed public outreach and environmental mediation for the Boston Harbor Cleanup Project and began her career in the environment when she was a part of student government at Three Mile Island at Pennsylvania State University.

For a number of years Lawrence sat on the Executive Committee of the Intercontinental Hotel Group and managed their billion international property portfolio. Whilst at Intercontinental he also co-created an environmental manual with the CEO John van Praag, which was sponsored by Prince Charles and adopted by all the other five star hotel groups. It currently is operating in just under four million hotel rooms worldwide.

Lawrence co-founded the environmental initiative Global Action Plan with David Gershon which is currently operating in seventeen countries. He sits as an advisor to the Foundation for Conscious Evolution, a Rockefeller-funded US thinktank. He lives in London and Cambridge with his partner Pippa and has three children Rebecca, David and Jo.

For more than a decade, Mr. Nair has strongly advocated a more sustainable approach to development in Asia, and has helped the governments of Taiwan and Hong Kong instill these principles into how they make key decisions. He continues to advise the Hong Kong Government, devising a new approach that gives the public a bigger role in key policy making decisions - another first for Asia.

Mr. Nair is a visiting scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's School of Business, running a course "Leading in Asia for the Future" as part of the Kellogg-HKUST MBA programme. He advises the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, the World Wildlife Fund in Asia, and is a director of the Jane Goodall Institute. He is a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.

A keen sportsman, Mr. Nair managed the Hong Kong hockey team for seven years, taking it to the 2002 Asian Games in South Korea. He plays the saxophone and used to head a band in Africa. He has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Building upon 30 years of post-doctoral work and recent training in Ken Wilber's Integral Sustainability, Joanna Macy's The Work The Reconnects, Angeles Arrien's Collective Wisdom seminar, all associated with furthering "glocal" (global and local vitality) and inner sustainability. These trainings assist Dr. Cappadonna with her commitment to Boulder's Climate Action Plan and Colorado's renewable future, including being on the Advisory Board for the Colorado Climate Change Conference. Internationally, Dr. Cappadonna has guided Social Action Training with Brazilian entrepreneurs who create programs to eliminate poverty in the cities and care of resources in the rainforest. She has also taught year-long women's leadership trainings, seminars and workshops, including introspective work with the World Business Academy. She also has an abiding interest in China's environmental thriving, its challenges and solutions, as well as in Asian cultural ways.

A Mechanical Engineer with a Doctoral Award in Business Strategy, Chaudhry has advised scores of multinational corporations, sovereign states, and NGOs in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America. He is the accredited consultant to the Government of Brazil, and "India Representative" and "Consultant, New Global Markets" for Western Switzerland, comprising Cantons of Vaud, Valais, Jura and Neuchatel, with the mandate to assist global corporations to set-up a pan-European operations base in their Region.

Chaudhry has also been a consultant to Governments of Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Canada and Uganda. His other clients include UNIDO, World Bank and international NGOs. He has served on the Boards of several companies as Director and Chairman.

McElligott was the spokesperson of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for the Sudan Peace talks, and served on the task force that freed the ICRC aid workers from rebel territory in 1996. She serves as an unofficial liaison between the Catholic Church of Sudan and the Sudanese Government and was instrumental in helping to commute 27 death sentences as well as the chief negotiator to solve many of the complex refugee issues in the outlaying capitol region. From 1997 through 2001, McElligott was the liaison between the Sudanese intelligence service and the US FBI, focusing on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, some of which is chronicled in the book Losing bin Laden by Richard Miniter (2003), as well as Vanity Fair's 'The Secret bin Laden Files' by David Rose (2002).

In the Middle East, Ms. McElligott was instrumental in assisting the first environmental symposium of the Arab Organization of Agricultural Development in Damascus, Syria. In the United States, McElligott served under President George Bush on his personal staff in the White House in 1990, and prior to this served on the staffs of three U.S. senators. McElligott speaks conversational German and Chinese, functional French, and limited Arabic and Russian.

Mr. Bhatia is a Member of the India National PolioPlus Committee, was an advisor to the World Health Organization as a Corporate Affairs Specialist, served as a Campaign Associate for Rotary's Polio Eradication Private Sector Campaign, Trustee of the Institute of Head and Neck Oncology of Indore Cancer Foundation, and Trustee of the Ananth Shishu Palan Trust of India, an orphanage & school at the Sri Ram Ashram, Hardwar. He is a senior functionary of Rotary International, the world's oldest and perhaps largest service organization, and is deeply involved in Rehabilitation of Polio victims through the Polio Corrective Surgery project for the past 12 years.

Mr. Bhatia is currently Managing Director of an engineering export company. An effective and articulate orator, he talks at various forums on different subjects close to his heart - Leadership, Values, Education and care for the underprivileged.

Marcello Palazzi studied economics at the University of Buckingham, public and foreign policy and business administration at London School of Economics (LSE), London Business School (LBS), MIT and the Rotterdam School of Management.

At age 23, at the start of his career in 1981, he co-founded his first business in the UK and Italy with his father, manufacturing and marketing diagnostic laboratories and kits for environmental monitoring. Having achieved sales in 30 countries and considerable market recognition, he and his family sold the business in 1992. Since 1993 he has focused on Progressio

Foundation from the Netherlands, which he had co-founded with Paul Kloppenborg in 1989.

His past roles also include co-founder and Director of Social Venture Network Europe (www.svneurope.org), Head of Development for The New Academy of Business, founded by Anita Roddick, director/board member/advisor of a number of SMEs, investment funds and non-profit organizations, such as the Andromeda Fund BV, the Robeco-Rabobank Sustainable Fund of Funds and responsibility.

Since 1983, Mr. Pinchot has led Pinchot & Company, a firm that helps companies launch new businesses and implement more sustainable business practices. Its client list includes half of the Fortune 100 and numerous government and non-profit organizations as well as clients on every continent except Antarctica.

Mr. Pinchot has facilitated numerous sustainability projects. He has licensed two of his inventions. Mr. Pinchot graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1965 with an A.B. degree in economics, then completed his coursework for a Ph.D. in neurophysiology at Johns Hopkins University.

She also has advised the executive directors and senior staff of numerous nonprofit organizations. Libba also co-authored The Intelligent Organization with her husband, Gifford Pinchot III.

Libba has chaired the boards of a model progressive school and a start-up environmental education facility and was a staff clinician in an outpatient setting, delivering psychological services to individuals, groups and families. Libba was senior curriculum developer for the first computer-assisted education project at Stanford University, a joint venture of IBM and Stanford University. She was awarded a two-year fellowship from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and received a Master's degree in Education from the University of Oregon. She was founding director for the University of Oregon Day Care Center in Eugene, Oregon and taught Child Development at Lane Community College, while also holding the Director position of the LCC Laboratory School, a Head Start teacher-training program.

He is also currently at Tsinghua University, as the co-director of the Tsinghua-Bayer Public Health and HIV/AIDS Media Studies Program and also a Research Fellow and Senior Guest Lecturer at the School of Journalism and Center for International Communications.

He holds an MBA from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management in Arizona and a Masters degree in Instructional Technology and Media from Columbia University, New York.

Bill chairs the European Chamber's CSR Working Group in Beijing and is also a longstanding member of the Amcham CSR Committee. In 2006 he was selected to be a member of the National Committee on United States-China relations and in 2007, he joined the International Advisory Board of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, at the Boston College Carroll School of Management.

Alex is part of the Sustainability Solution Providers network who connect former
senior environmental,health and safety and sustainability executives with domestic
and global companies, organizations and government entities needing senior level
counsel and strategic guidance in order to meet their sustainability objectives.

Alex has over 30 years of Washington, DC policy and law experience, most of
which in the environmental,energy, and sustainability fields. He has worked for
several federal agencies, the Senate Judiciary Committee, a major corporation,
and a non-profit corporate-member association. His most recent public service
was at the Department of Defense (2004-2009) where he served as Assistant
Deputy to the Deputy Under Secretary for Environment, Safety & Occupational
Health, then Principal Deputy to the Deputy Under Secretary for Installations
Environment and became the Department's first Chief Sustainability Officer. He
also served several months as Acting Deputy Under Secretary.

Alex is also currently an Adjunct Research Fellow at National Defense University's
environment and energy program at FT McNair, Washington, DC, an advisor to
"Live Better", a monthly e-magazine focused on security and sustainability, based
in Independence, W VA, and board member of Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay,
Annapolis, MD. and of Imagine Schools, Arlington,VA, one of the largest non-profit
charter schools organization in the U.S.He is the founder of the Environmental
Policy Group, a monthly luncheon speakers forum on topics of current interest,
and co-founder of the Security and Sustainability Forum which produces webinars
on issues which intersect national defense and sustainability.

Alex has an A.B.from Princeton University,Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

From creating the Oregon Business Council's Cluster Network to help the state align public sector and university resources with industry needs, to coordinating the many initiatives developed by the Oakland Partnership's Green Technology Cluster and the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership, to advising the Energy Foundation on ways to build clean tech clusters in the Southeast United States, Elizabeth understands the importance of engaging leaders from the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors in the creation of long-term economic and workforce development strategies.

Elizabeth received her Master's degree in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and is currently working on several projects to better link environmental and energy policy with economic development. She has published multiple articles on sustainable business, corporate social responsibility, and clean technology.

http://www.crosssectorstrategies.com/

He is the author of several seminal books on business strategy, valuation, and corporate change, including the Nature Society's book of the year, In Search of Environmental Excellence: Moving Beyond Blame (Simon and Schuster, 1990). His articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Technology Review, Carpe Articulum, and the Christian Science Monitor. He is also a highly sought speaker for events.

In 1988, Ken was appointed Vice President-Environment and Energy at Kimberly-Clark Corporation, with responsibility for formulation of corporate policies and management of the company's technical support staffs in both areas. From 2004 to 2008, he served as Vice President-Global Environment, Safety, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for Kimberly-Clark. In this role he managed the development of Kimberly-Clark's Corporate and Business Unit sustainability plans as well as relationships with outside stakeholders interested in the corporation's sustainability performance.

Since 1997 he has been involved in developing market mechanisms and incentives that allow landowners and land managers to benefit from conservation and restoration actions. He is a co-founder and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Ecosystem Marketplace which is a global information service on these market mechanisms and incentives for conservation. He is also a Partner in Ecosystem Investment Partners, a new private capital solution that delivers returns through conservation and restoration actions across a portfolio of real estate holdings.

Current clients include the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Nature Conservancy, and the Parametrix corporation.

During his tenure at Coke, Mr. Cutshall's responsibilities spanned both domestic and international markets across several disciplines, including Marketing, Operations, Public Affairs and Communications. His most recent Coke experiences focused on the development and implementation of system-wide citizenship/corporate social responsibility initiatives involving both company-owned and bottler-owned operations. He led the company's Citizenship@Coca-Cola program, which enabled the company and its global network of bottlers and partners to measure and build their commitment to good citizenship. For more than three years, he provided leadership, oversight, and collaborative development and implementation of global citizenship programs as well as other strategic cross-system initiatives.

Prior to that role, he spent four years as Vice-President of The Coca-Cola Company's Latin America Group. In his capacity as Director of Field Support, he focused on improving the performance of Latin American operations, through his leadership of numerous de-centralized support networks, including Finance, Technical and Legal

From 1979-1998, Mr. Cutshall held numerous positions within The Coca-Cola Company, most notably as Director of Worldwide Sports Marketing in the Corporate Marketing Group, with responsibilities for maximizing the business impacts of global sports properties such as the Olympic Games and World Cup Football. He also led and directed significant organizational, customer service and in-market executional initiatives for the North America business as Director, Field Operations in the North America Group as well as other operations and marketing positions.

Mr. Cutshall received a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Marketing from Georgia State University. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee.