For more than 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. As a writer, speaker, and strategist on corporate environmental practices, clean technology, and green marketing, he has helped a wide range of companies align environmental responsibility with business success.
Hiroshi Wald is Managing Director of Austral Capital Partners, US. Hiroshi also serves as Program Chair for the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab which hosts the largest ongoing gathering of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and thought leaders at monthly events at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Austral, he was most recently Principal at The Wald Group, a consultancy focused on technology development, management strategy and customer insights, analysis and intelligence.
Josh Becker started his career in the Clean Energy area in 1991. From Williams College he went to work for ICF-Kaiser International, a DC-based environmental consulting and engineering firm. There he helped launch the first Clean Air Marketplace conference back in 1992 and consulted on energy strategy for companies like General Electric. After working on Capitol Hill as a Press Secretary for a Congresswoman on the Energy and Commerce Committee, he started his first Internet company in 1994 when he co-founded IntraACTIVE a pioneering groupware company.
Andrea joined Apollo in July 2009 after working for two years at the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education, where she studied the impact of climate change policies on jobs and workers. Previously, Andrea worked as the campaigns director for the human rights and environmental organization, Global Exchange. She also served as the executive director of the San Francisco-based media advocacy organization Media Alliance.
Rob McKay is the Chairman of the Board of the Democracy Alliance and President of the McKay Family Foundation, which supports community-based organizations working for long-term social, political, and economic progress. Rob, along with his brother and parents, established the McKay Foundation in January 1992. In recent years, the family foundation has supported efforts to bring health care coverage and a living wage to low-income workers, and it has given grants to groups in California working on issues such as affordable housing, economic development, and voter engagement.
Harrison Fraker, Jr., F.A.I.A., was educated as an architect and urban designer at Princeton and Cambridge Universities and is recognized as a pioneer in passive solar, daylighting and sustainable design research and teaching. He has pursued a career bridging innovative architecture and urban design education with an award-winning practice. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for creating a new College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota and was appointed the founding Dean.
Dana Smirin is a native of South Africa and has managed a consulting practice in the United States, Europe, and South Africa working within government, private sector, academia and NGO communities for 17 years. She is currently the Special Assistant to the Dean of the College of Natural Resources for Sustainability and New Initiatives at the University of Berkeley, California.
Raven Brooks is the executive director for Netroots Nation. Brooks got his start in politics by co-founding and leading BuyBlue.org, a revolutionary website that encouraged consumers to “vote with their wallets.” Brooks has a strong background in software development and design, management, business consulting, and project management. Fortune 100 companies and small start-ups have sought out his expertise. Brooks has been featured in countless media outlets as a visionary entrepreneur.
Tim Koogle has had a long career as an entrepreneur, business executive and CEO. His most recent public company role was that of founding CEO of Yahoo! Inc. from 1995 to May 2001. He was Chairman of Yahoo!’s Board of Directors until 2001 and Vice Chairman from 2001 to 2003. Under his leadership as CEO and chairman, he helped build Yahoo! into a leading Internet media company with annual net revenues of more than one billion dollars. During his tenure, BusinessWeek named him one of “The Top 25 Executives of the Year” in 1999 and 2000.
Cheryl Contee, Assistant Vice President at IDI, specializes in helping Fortune 500 companies, major non-profit organizations and leading trade associations manage their brands and their campaigns online. Cheryl comes to IDI with extensive non-profit and business online content development, marketing, communications and fundraising experience. Cheryl consistently creates award-winning sites and is a pioneer in the field of blogger relations including blog creation/management, blog advertising, blog training and blogger outreach.
As some of you may have heard, Google last week made a surprise decision to stop developing Google Wave at the end of this year. At Next Agenda, we are very disappointed by this news.
