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Your search for Environment & Climate Change returned 10 results

Stewart Brand
Author, Futurist, Activist and Visionary

Since he emerged in the counter-culture sixties, Stewart Brand has been a force in the world for giving access to the information needed to make the planet a better place.

He is a co-founder and managing director of Global Business Network, a scenario strategy consulting business and part of the Monitor Group, where he works with leading companies and public institutions on their futures.

Mr. Brand is the president of The Long Now Foundation. Brand is well known for founding, editing and publishing the Whole Earth Catalog (1968-85), which received a National Book Award for the 1972 issue. In 1984, he founded The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), a computer teleconference system for the San Francisco Bay Area. It now has 11,000 active users worldwide and is considered a bellwether of the genre.

Brand has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, an interdisciplinary center studying the sciences of complexity, since 1989. He received the Golden Gadfly Lifetime Achievement Award from the Media Alliance, San Francisco in the same year. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization which supports civil rights and responsibilities in electronic media, and is an acting advisor to Ecotrust, the Portland-based preservers of temperate rain forests from Alaska to San Francisco.

Recently, he has advocated nuclear power as a responsible strategy to address power demand in the face of the stark reality of global warming. His seminal essay on this topic, entitled Environmental Heresies, appeared in the MIT Technology Review in May 2005.

Brand is the author of many pioneering books including The Clock Of The Long Now in 1999, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built in 1994, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT in 1987, and Two Cybernetic Frontiers on Gregory Bateson and cutting-edge computer science in 1974. It had the first use of the term "personal computer" in print and was the first book to report on computer hackers.

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Larry Brilliant
Pioneering Physician and Philanthropist; President, Skoll Urgent Threats Fund

A self-described social change"addict," Dr. Larry Brilliant is a pioneering physician and global philanthropist.  He is currently president of the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, a new organization within the Skoll Foundation launched to address urgent threats confronting humanity and the planet. The focus of the organization is to identify and support innovative high-impact initiatives to combat climate change, water scarcity, pandemic, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict.

Prior to his appointment at The Skoll Foundation, Larry was the first executive director of Google.org, the company's philanthropic arm before becoming chief philanthropy evangelist for Google.  An M.D., M.P.H., and board-certified in preventive medicine, epidemiology and public health, Larry was one of a four-person international team that led the successful World Health Organization smallpox eradication program in India and South Asia. He later founded the Seva Foundation of Berkeley, California, which works in dozens of countries around the world to eliminate preventable and curable blindness. Seva's projects have given back sight to nearly 3 million people. Last year, Time magazine named Brilliant one of the 20 most influential scientists and thinkers and one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

In addition to sitting on the board of the Skoll Foundation, Larry was elected to membership in the Council on Foreign Relations in 2009 and sits on the boards of Health Metrics Network and Omidyar Networks Humanity United.

Larry's work has been praised and awarded recognition throughout the last decade. In 2008, Brilliant was given a Global Leadership Award by the United Nations Organization. In 2006, he received the TED Prize. He was named "International Public Health Hero" by the University of California in 2004. He has also received numerous other awards, prizes and two honorary doctorates.

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Eamonn Kelly
Futurist, Change Agent, and Strategic Thought Partner

Eamonn Kelly sits at the forefront of exploring the emergence of a new economic, social, and geopolitical order and its far-reaching consequences for organizations and indviduals.

A partner at Monitor Group, Eamonn leads the firm's network, thought leadership and marketing initiatives. For 10 years previously, he served as CEO and president of Global Business Network (GBN), the renowned futures network and scenario strategy consultancy. He has developed insights, tools, and methodologies for mastering uncertainty and has consulted to dozens of the world’s leading corporations in many sectors and global and national public agencies. Prior to joining GBN, Eamonn was head of strategy at Scottish Enterprise, one of the world's most respected development agencies, where he led the creation of effective strategies for economic and social development in a new era. In his highly acclaimed book, Powerful Times: Rising to the Challenge of Our Uncertain World, Eamonn weaves together seven powerful “dynamic tensions” that will fundamentally reshape human life in the coming decades. He offers breakthrough insights into how these tensions will conflict and interact to create huge waves of change beyond anything society has experienced previously.

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Mats Lederhausen
Investor and Advisor to Purpose-Driven Enterprises

After a long career both as a Joint Venture Partner and as a senior executive of McDonald’s Corporation, Mats Lederhausen formed his own company in early 2007. The company focuses on building businesses with a purpose bigger than their product. This focus comes from a strong belief that purpose is paramount in today's marketplace. Companies with stronger conviction can attract energy and loyalty both from consumers and employees. The primary mission of BE-CAUSE is to invest in companies that need to scale an already tested and promising aspiration. Mats will use his experience from building thousands of units in many international markets for several concepts. Mats will also continue to do selective consulting projects for companies in the areas of CSR, Corporate Reputation, Innovation and Strategy. Mats currently serves as a senior advisor to the McDonald’s Management team on both asset management and Brand Trust.

Prior to forming BE-CAUSE, Mats served as Managing Director of McDonald’s Ventures. McDonald’s Ventures managed the investments McDonald’s held in future oriented growth initiatives including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Boston Market, RedBox DVD and Pret A Manger. As a director, Chairman and finally lead director of Chipotle from 2000-2006 Mats helped shape the strategy that ultimately led to one of the most successful restaurant IPOs of all times. Mats continues to serve on the boards of Pret A Manger, RedBox and Donatos Pizzeria.

Mats joined McDonald’s Corporation in 1999 as head of global strategy. During the next 4 years he had the responsibility for global strategy and business development. As President of Business Development Mats later assumed responsibility for worldwide menu, worldwide real estate and restaurant R&D. During these years Mats played a key role in shaping the agenda that later has helped McDonald’s complete one of the most successful corporate turnarounds in recent history.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Mats began his career with McDonald's in 1979 as a part time crew member in Sweden. In 1983, he participated in the McDonald's Management Development Program and worked as a store manager from 1984 to 1985. Lederhausen worked for The Boston Consulting Group in London from 1988 to 1990. In 1990, he returned to McDonald's and in 1993 became the Managing Director and Joint Venture Partner for McDonald's Sweden. Under his leadership, the company grew from 40 restaurants to nearly 170 restaurants.

Mats was named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ “40 under 40” to watch in 1999 and the World Economic Forum honored him as a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” in 2000. Mats serves as Chairman of the board for the not-for-profit Business for Social Responsibility and serves on the board of trustees of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Mats received a Master’s degree from Stockholm School of Economics in 1988. Mats lives in Chicago with his wife, Dr. Jessica Lederhausen and their 4 children.

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Chris Luebkeman
Architect, Engineer, Designer of the Built Environment

Dr. Chris Luebkeman is a bridge builder of many kinds. He is a third generation educator, formally trained as a geologist, structural engineer and architect, who believes that successful design cannot be separated from breadth of knowledge and steadfast inquiry. Chris speaks widely to the issues of sustainability and thoughtful design. He applies the lessons learned in the design of the built environment to businesses of all kinds. His keynotes, workshops, and strategy sessions are created for executives seeking better design sensibility for their products, services, and processes. Through his unique user-centric methods, Chris helps clients better understand the needs and desires of consumers, customers, and citizens.

Chris runs the Global Foresight + Innovation initiative at Arup, a global design and engineering firm and a leading creative force behind many of the world's most innovative projects and structures. In his role, he conceives new ways of building—recyclable buildings, reusable offices, and furniture that can decompose—and works with some of the world’s largest companies to develop what he calls ‘plausible futures’ to better understand the opportunities that change is creating for them in the built environment.

In his book, Drivers of Change 2009, Chris and the Foresight team at Arup look at 50 important factors that will affect our world, arranged in a framework known as STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental and political). Designed as a collection of notecards, the book provides a tool for developing business strategy, brainstorming, education, or simply to think creatively and holistically. The cards are designed to encourage deeper consideration of the forces driving global change and the role that individuals can play in creating a more sustainable future.

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Eric Roston
Science Journalist and Climate Change Expert

Eric Roston is a science journalist in Washington, DC, and author of THE CARBON AGE: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat. He is also Senior Associate in the Washington, DC, office of The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, of Duke University. He joined the Institute after a year-long term as a Visiting Scholar at the Washington energy and economics think tank, Resources for the Future.

Previously, Roston wrote for TIME, where he covered economics, politics and technology. He joined the magazine in 2000 as a business reporter in the New York bureau, covering stories such as the collapse of Enron, China's emergence as a force in global trade, and how advanced computing technologies are reshaping the economy. An eyewitness to the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Roston was a part of the reporting team that won a National Magazine Award for best single-issue coverage.

In September 2002, Roston became a part of TIME's Washington bureau. He traveled with President George W. Bush and Senators John Kerry and John Edwards during the 2004 election campaign, providing reporting to the magazine's political team. He was also a frequent contributor to the magazine's work on energy, technology environment, and health. In the spring of 2004, he became Time.com's first blogger, writing a daily commentary on "the technology that will carry us through tomorrow – and the stuff that keeps us stuck in yesterday."

Roston has been a guest on Comedy Central's “The Colbert Report,” CleanSkies.tv, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBC, National Public Radio and many radio stations. Prior to TIME, he wrote for LIFE magazine and contributed to Slate.com, where he wrote the "Today's Papers" column. Roston, who is fluent in Russian, holds an M.A. in Russian literature and linguistics, and a B.A. in modern European history, both from Columbia University.

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Daniel Schrag
Climate Change Expert; Director, Harvard University Center for the Environment

Daniel Schrag studies climate and climate change over the broadest range of Earth's history. He is Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Professor of Environmental Science at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Center for the Environment.

He has examined changes in ocean circulation over the last several decades, with particular attention to El Niño and the tropical Pacific. He has worked on theories for Pleistocene ice-age cycles including a better determination of ocean temperatures during the Last Glacial Maximum, 20,000 years ago.

Dan also helped develop the Snowball Earth hypothesis, proposing that a series of global glaciations occurred between 750 and 580 million years ago that may have led to the evolution of multicellular animals. Currently he is working with economists and engineers on technological approaches to mitigating future climate change.  In particular, Schrag proposes investing in carbon sequestration technology, involving the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from such sources as coal-fired power plants, as a necessary step to mitigate a large part of future greenhouse gases.

Awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 2000, he has recently been working with economist and engineers on technological approaches to mitigating future climate change.  In early 2009, Dan was appointed by President Obama to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

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Peter Schwartz
World-Renowned Futurist and Strategist

Peter Schwartz is co-founder and current chairman of the Global Business Network (GBN), the world’s preeminent member organization focused on scenario thinking and planning, where he leads programs for corporations, governments, and non-profit institutions. His current research and scenario work encompasses energy resources and the environment, technology, life sciences, telecommunications, media and entertainment, aerospace, and national security. A prolific author, Peter’s most recent book, Inevitable Surprises, offers a provocative look at the complex forces at play in the world today and their implications for business and society. His first book, The Art of the Long View, is considered a seminal publication on scenario planning and has been translated into multiple languages. Peter addresses many different audiences in corporate board rooms, at conferences on issues such as global warming and human life extension, and at the World Economic Forum. He led the scenario team at Royal Dutch/Shell in the 1980s, where many of the scenario tools were pioneered. He has even lent his futurist skills to Hollywood as a script consultant on such films as The Minority Report, Deep Impact, Sneakers, and War Games.

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Rick Smolan
Photographer, Citizen Journalism Expert

A former Time, Life and National Geographic photographer, Rick Smolan co-founded the best-selling Day in the Life... photography series. Smolan is also a co-founder of Against All Odds Productions, which specializes in the design and execution of large-scale global projects that combine compelling story-telling with state-of-the-art technology. Their projects have been featured numerous times on the covers of magazines around the world including Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Asia Week and US News & World Report.

From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback was the first illustrated book to include an interactive CD-ROM disc. The San Francisco Chronicle called it, "a stunning, addictive and mesmerizing experience that may well change the course of publishing forever."

Passage to Vietnam: Through the Eyes of 70 Photographers, a large-format illustrated book and a CD-ROM, was created in partnership with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Interval Research. The New York Times described Passage as, "the most beautiful CD-ROM ever."

24 Hours in Cyberspace: Painting on the Walls of the Digital Cave, was the largest online event ever to take place in a single day. ABC's Ted Koppel devoted an entire evening to 24 Hours on Nightline, and the project was also featured on the cover of US News & World Report.

One Digital Day: How the Microchip is Changing Our World was produced in conjunction with the celebration of Intel's 30th anniversary. The book was featured on the cover of Fortune magazine and in a 30-page excerpt. CNN also ran a TV special about the making of the project.

The Planet Project: Your Voice, Your World, was the largest Internet poll of the human race ever conducted. Over 1.5 million people from over 240 countries participated in real time over a 4 day period by answering a series of questions exploring what it's like to be a human being at the beginning of the Millennium. In addition, 500 'Planet Pollsters' were dispatched around the world to conduct the poll in remote regions of the globe to insure that the opinions of people who do not have access to technology were also included.

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Terry Yosie
Master of Sustainable Business Practice

Terry Yosie joined the World Environment Center in October 2006 as the President & CEO. In this capacity, he develops and implements strategies to achieve this global non-profit organization’s mission to implement sustainable development through the business strategies and operations of global companies in partnership with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and other stakeholders.  WEC’s principal areas of focus have included climate change and energy efficiency, enterprise development, greening the supply chain and technological innovation.  Dr. Yosie leads WEC’s global initiatives and frequently meets with business, government and other leaders to develop solutions to a variety of environmental, economic and social issues.

Dr. Yosie has held senior-level management positions in government, corporate and consulting organizations. He served as Vice President at the American Chemistry Council from 1999-2005, providing leadership to upgrade the chemical industry’s environmental, health, safety and security performance. He managed a global CEO Task Force in 2004-2005 to develop the Responsible Care Global Charter to improve chemical industry performance in 52 countries.  He represented the industry as a delegate to the 2002 U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

As the Executive Vice President of Ruder Finn Washington from 1992-1999, Dr. Yosie led the environmental management and communications practices of the firm for a wide range of clients such as BASF, British Petroleum, Pfizer, and Philips Electronics. At BP, he advised the company on climate change issues that led to a new strategy announced in 1997 by the CEO John Browne.

Dr. Yosie served as Vice President for Health and Environment at the American Petroleum Institute from 1988-1992. In this capacity, he successfully led the industry’s effort to negotiate cleaner fuel standards with EPA, state and local agencies and environmental organizations that impacted over $40 billion dollars in refining investments.

From 1978-1988, Dr. Yosie was employed at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board where he also served as Director from 1981-1988, In this role, he advised EPA Administrators and the U.S. Congress on the scientific basis of public health and environmental decisions, and he instituted policies and procedures to improve the technical basis for EPA-wide policy decisions and risk assessments.  He was a member of the U.S. delegation for the bilateral environmental program with the Soviet Union and negotiated diverse agreements with that country.

Dr. Yosie has recently served as a member of the National Research Council Committee that published a major study, Science and Decisions (December 2008).  He is the author of more than sixty professional publications and co-editor of a book entitled, Sustainable Environmental Management.  He received his doctorate degree in Humanities and Social Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University in 1981 and has been designated by the University as one of its Most Notable Alumni.

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