Advisory Board
Mark Buell
Mark Buell is a native San Franciscan, a graduate of the University of San Francisco and a decorated Vietnam veteran. He has spent 35 years in both public and private real estate development. Mark served as San Francisco’s first Director of Economic Development under Joseph Alioto and later served as the first Director of the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency from 1977 to 1985.
He was a founding member and first President of CALED, the California Association for Local Economic Development and has served on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission under Dianne Feinstein. Buell serves on the Boards of various non-profit organizations including the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the San Francisco Conservation Corps, the Bolinas Museum and the Chez Panisse Foundation. He has two children, Sabrina and Justin.
Susie Tompkins Buell
Susie Tompkins Buell is the former co-founder and co-owner of Esprit de Corp, a global lifestyle company. She is a native San Franciscan who is often credited with introducing Northern California lifestyle to the world through Esprit’s product, groundbreaking marketing and progressive corporate culture.
Since selling Esprit in 1996, Susie has devoted herself to politics and the empowerment of women through activism. She is considered one of the top Democratic fundraisers in the nation and is a tireless supporter of those candidates who are true to her causes.
Her recent philanthropic ventures include bringing V-Day to San Francisco and chairing the first ever Global Fund for Women event. She has two daughters, Summer and Quincey, and five grandchildren.
Ann Moller Caen
Ann Moller Caen is President of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She is also the President of her own company, Moller & Associates, a consulting firm. She also serves on the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony, the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Board of Trustees of Golden Gate University, as well as the UCSF Foundation. She has served on Boards of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Fisherman’s Wharf Merchant’s Association. Caen was also a Director of Pier 39, Siwel, Inc, and Sico Inc. Additionally, she was President of the Nob Hill Capital and Publisher of the San Francisco Visitor News. She is also involved with the Audubon Canyon Ranch, the International Hospitality Center, KQED, the California Pacific Medical Center, the San Francisco Junior League, and the Northern California Cancer Center.
Commissioner Caen holds a BS in Biology and Education and an MBA in Finance. She is the widow of Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Herb Caen. She was first appointed by Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. in March 1997, and reappointed for a second term in November 2001. Mayor Gavin Newsom reappointed her to a third term in January 2005. She served as President of the Commission from 2001-2002. Her term will expire in August 2012.
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman is head of Inverness Associates, an educational consulting firm that supports schools in sustainability, strategic planning, and effective management. He brings to his work a wealth of experience about education and how to develop good schools. He is especially interested in developing “green” schools that use resources efficiently, create a healthy campus environment, strengthen the ecological curriculum and establish a nutritional food program and school garden. His perspective has been shaped by a long career in education as Head of the Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA, Assistant Head at San Francisco University High School and Associate Director of Admissions at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Raised near Chicago, he attended Hinsdale High School and received a B.A. in history from Yale and an M.A. in American history and a Ph.D. in the history of education from Stanford. In the 2010-11 school year he was a visiting scholar at Stanford and UC Berkeley, researching greener, more environmentally sustainable schools. Currently he also serves on the boards of the National Association of Independent Schools, San Francisco Friends School, the advisory boards of the UC Berkeley Library, SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education), and GEMS, an international school consortium operating in 12 countries. He enjoys reading, fishing, traveling and hiking with his wife, three children and his Golden Retriever.
Johanne Bouchard
Johanne Bouchard is a native of Quebec City Canada, a Computer Sciences graduate and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1987. To her volunteer and passionate commitments, she brings to bear more than 25 years of high tech leadership experience and entrepreneurialism, in worldwide marketing and international executive roles with pre and post IPO companies, as founder of her own strategic and global marketing company, as founder of her own leadership consulting practice focused on Board and Executive leadership effectiveness and as founder of her own non-profit dedicated to young adults, women and men’s Self-Mastery. She has been instrumental in helping organization accelerate their entry to market in Europe, Asia, Japan and North America and focus their market strategy.
Marisa Brown
Marisa Brown brings 15 plus years of marketing and sales expertise in the education and consumer markets. She has worked at some of the largest high-tech companies, like Lotus, IBM and Apple as well as smaller entrepreneurial entities including running her own successful lead generation and customer acquisition firm, Traction. More recently, Marisa has spent the last several years at Apple in iTunes immersed in shaping the on-line and social media strategy. She is currently responsible for iTunes’ global presence on Facebook and Twitter. Marisa has rapidly grown the iTunes Facebook fan pages to a total of 10 representing 14 countries with over 11 million fans worldwide. Additionally, Marisa oversees the online advertising program promoting strategic music, TV and movie content for the iTunes store. Marisa came to Apple as the team-lead responsible for launching iTunes U, the free education content category on the iTunes Store. , After completing her MBA in marketing in1990 at Boston College Carroll School of Management, Marisa began her high-tech career at Apple as a channel analyst and later as a marketing manager on the Performa team. Marisa holds a B.A. in Human Biology with a concentration in organization behavior and management from Stanford University. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.
Tony Clapes
Tony is an international technology lawyer and a consultant on intellectual property management who has represented US mainland high-technology companies of all sizes, from the individual inventor to the largest high-tech enterprise in the world. In 1992, he was named one of America’s top 30 high-tech intellectual property lawyers in a National Law Journal peer survey. Before entering private practice in 1996, Tony was Assistant General Counsel at IBM, responsible for US litigation and dispute resolution. In that position, he managed large teams of inside and outside lawyers and paralegals. Tony has undertaken high-level negotiations, mediation, arbitration and litigation for his clients, and has advised on antitrust, employee relations, legal issues concerning Web-based businesses, intellectual property (particularly as regards software), commercial and securities law, and a broad range of other legal issues faced by operating businesses of all sizes.
Hans Davidsson
Hans Davidsson is the CEO of Hulu AB, a product and technology vendor of data and telecom equipment. Mr. Davidsson brings an extensive career and global experience as a senior executive at Ericsson, one of the world’s largest wireless infrastructure and services companies. During his career at Ericsson, Mr. Davidsson served in several senior technical and business roles, including: founder and President of Ericsson’s Wireless Internet group; Vice President of Sales & New Products for North and Latin America; Global R&D Director for Ericsson’s mobile phones group; and General Manager of a multi-billion dollar infrastructure unit in charge of Ericsson’s access products. As a managing partner of IdeaEDGE Ventures, a California-based venture development firm focused on the convergence of computing and communications, Mr. Davidsson led and/or participated in several early stage ventures. He remains an active Director and Advisory Board member in numerous companies around the world. Mr. Davidsson is also a Director of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce. He is a graduate of the Linköping University of Technology and Business Management in Sweden.
John Davis
John Davis presently serves as conservation director for the Adirondack Council, a non-profit group dedicated to protecting the ecological integrity and wild character of northern New York’s six million acre Adirondack Park. John also serves on the boards of directors of Wildlands Project (working to protect continental wildlands networks big enough to protect the full range of North America’s biodiversity), RESTORE the North Woods (main project, creation of a three plus million acre Maine Woods National Park), Wild Farm Alliance (fostering types of agriculture compatible with wildlife and biodiversity), and the Eddy Foundation (protecting wildways in the eastern Adirondacks and southern California). He formerly served as program officer for Biodiversity and Wildness at the Bay Area-based Foundation for Deep Ecology. In the early 1990s, John was editor of Wild Earth magazine, a quarterly dedicated to North American wilderness and wildlife protection & recovery. John lives with his wife, Denise, and step-son, Justin, and three indoor cats near the village of Essex, New York, and travels to wilder places by bicycle, canoe, or ski whenever possible.
Bob Ferri
Bob, co-founder of Nagle & Ferri, LLC, serves as counsel to public and private companies and nonprofit organizations. His areas of focus include early-stage and public company growth, investment sales & marketing, investor relations, corporate development, business development, corporate communications and public policy. In Washington, D.C., Bob was Executive Assistant for Communications to United States Senator John Heinz. Bob, who has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has a wide range of experience in politics and government. A member of the Dean’s Alumni Leadership Council of Harvard’s Kennedy School, Bob serves on the not-for-profit Boards of Directors of the Resource Center for the United Nations, the American Liver Foundation’s Northern California Chapter, and the Presidio YMCA in San Francisco.
Andrew Fiore
Andrew T. Fiore is a researcher and visiting assistant professor at Michigan State University. He holds a Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Information, where he studied computer-mediated communication with a focus on relationship formation via online dating. He also co-developed the graduate course on Computer-Mediated Communication at the I School. In 2006, he was named a Microsoft Research Fellow. Andrew holds master’s degrees in Statistics from UC Berkeley and Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab as well as an interdisciplinary B.A. from Cornell University.
Eva Konigsberg
Eva serves as the President of Savvy Tax & Financial Coaching, a firm that serves social entrepreneurs, community corporations and nonprofits. She is an Enrolled Agent. This is the highest professional designation given by the IRS on tax preparers who demonstrate expertise. She has served as a consultant to various social and environmental NGOs and agencies, including Global Footprint Network, Biomimicry Institute, Healthy 880 Communities, Mother Miracle and GoLightly. Her work has included assisting agencies in forming/maintaining operations in Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. Closer to home, she helps individuals form and run successful small businesses. She is a certified Conscious Bookkeeping financial coach and bookkeeping trainer. Prior to Savvy Tax, Eva was the finance director for Building Futures with Women and Children, an agency providing services to homeless persons in Alameda County. She is the past Treasurer of Chochmat HaLev, a center for Jewish spirituality in Berkeley, CA. Earlier in her career, she was the co-founder of both e-Acumen, Inc. (a software company in the energy field) and Abacus, Inc. (an Apple dealership and networking company). She has also served on the Advisory Board of the University of San Francisco McLaren School of Business.
Sukan Makmuri
Sukan has held numerous technology leadership and executive roles at Fortune 1000 companies such as USWest, CSC Consulting, KPMG Consulting, and Bank of America. As a serial entrepreneur he brings 26 years of experience in building and growing start-up companies, including one with 5 offices in Asia. Three of the start-ups were acquired, and one went public later. For the last 9 years he has helped companies and entrepreneurs crystallize technology and marketing strategies, prioritize tactical steps, fine-tune operations, and seek funding to go to the next level. He has also coached thousands to protect and grow their business and investment portfolios. Sukan holds Engineering degrees from University of California and Stanford, and an MS in Computer Science from Rice University. Sukan avidly supports Go Green’s mission to empower our future generations to advocate for a social diversity, economic justice, and environmental stewardship.
Diana Meistrell
Diana currently is a Senior Manager with the global firm Harvey Nash specializing in Executive Search and IT Recruiting. Diana’s eclectic background includes 20 years in the telecommunications and software industry and an early career as a professional ballet dancer in New York and with the San Francisco Ballet. Diana also founded and manages outahere.com, an ecotourism travel site and helped support an ecotourism resort in the Caribbean. Previously, Diana spent 2 years with the Peace Corps in the Central Asian country Uzbekistan where she taught English to grade school and high school students in a remote region of the country. Working with the youth from a foreign country and helping to develop their leadership skills made her all the more aware of how dependent we are on the understanding and commitment of our future leaders. It’s time for our next generation of future leaders to take action and get involved.
Pekka Parnanen
Pekka brings more than 20 years experience in international business in IT and Communications industries. He has been helping companies to establish or re-establish themselves in the international markets with especially deep experience in establishing companies and partnerships in North America, Japan, Europe and Asia. Pekka’s experience has enabled companies to go through accelerated learning curves in establishing successful business and technology strategies driving successful international market penetration. Pekka is currently the Head of Finpro Silicon Valley where he also was key in establishing the FinNode (Finnish Innovation Center in Silicon Valley) in 2007. Prior to Finpro, Pekka was Director for Global Business Development for Solid Information Technology. Prior to Solid, he was VP Global Marketing and Sales for Cybelius Software and also set up the company in the US and prior to Cybelius he was President for T.V.I – TEMET Vision Industry in Helsinki and Atlanta, GA, USA. Pekka holds Masters of Science in Material Science and Marketing from the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
Don Price
Don is an IT professional and has held many different leadership roles through industry. He has successfully led creation of new businesses supporting solutions in OnDemand communications, and applications. As a solution builder and technology leader, he is also an active speaker and industry leader on technology standards and global interoperation. Just a few of his accomplishments include building the first virtualized commercial PBX, created the first to market WAP/WML service in Europe, electronic messaging leader for Fortune 10 global companies, and brought to market the first carrier grade applications hosting platform for OnDemand services. He has held CTO roles in Avaya, Lotus/IBM, and ccSync and various leadership roles at Bankers Trust, Texaco/Getty, American Airlines, Farmarco, and Graves Truckline. He has held leadership roles in public standards groups as Chairman of the Multi-media Affiliate Services Forum for Lotus, and Chairman of the x.400 Inter-op Electronic Messaging Forum. He is also a three-time winner of the Texaco Malcom-Baldridge award for quality. Don has been a founding supporter of the Go Green Foundation and an advocate for responsible living.
Bradley Skaggs
Bradley Skaggs serves as Creative Director at Skaggs Design. Prior to joining Skaggs, he worked as an architect for Daniel Solomon and then Studios Architecture as a project architect. Prior to this, he spent nearly 4 years traveling and working in Europe. His work has appeared in several architectural magazines, Veggfödur (an Icelandic Design Publication), Print Magazine, Pastry Art and Design, Information Design and Dynamic Graphics by Rockport Publishers as well as Fortune Magazine.
Jonina Skaggs
Jonina Skaggs serves as the Art Director for Skaggs Design. Prior to creating Skaggs Design in 1998, she worked at Hermann & Valentiny, an architecture firm in Luxembourg, where she served as a junior project manager/architect. Her work has appeared in Veggfödur (an Icelandic Design Publication), Print Magazine, Pastry Art and Design, Information Design and Dynamic Graphics both by Rockport Publishers and Fortune Magazine. Outside of work, Jonina enjoys swimming (especially when visiting Iceland), diving without sharks, Icelandic cuisine, reading, and politics.
Eugene S. Vann
Gene Vann teaches Biology and AP Environmental Science at the Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA. He advises the school’s East Bay Habitat for Humanity club, co-advises the student driven Green Team, and serves on the school’s faculty-student Green Council. He holds a EdM. in teaching and curriculum from Harvard University and a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College. Gene lives with his wife and daughter in Oakland and enjoys San Shou sparring in his free time.
Blake Ward, PhD
Blake currently holds the position of Principal Consultant at Animas Consulting Group, specializing in integrated web and mobile solutions for corporations. Prior to Animas Consulting Group, Blake was VP of Product Development at Syndicom, Inc. where his responsibilities included general product planning and design, and management of IT and software development. Prior to Syndicom, Blake was CTO at Marketocracy, where he oversaw all software development, information management, and web site operations. He also designed many of Marketocracy’s underlying stock market analysis algorithms. Blake has more than 30 years of computer science experience in high-tech industries. He has provided expertise in computer software engineering, architecture and infrastructure, prototype development and design and data analysis as well as corporate strategy, budgeting and fund raising for businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Blake’s career also includes senior management and research positions at Apple, Xerox PARC, Gateway and Amiga. Blake has a PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Michael Hicks
Michael is the Dean of Student Activities at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, CA, and a former Biology teacher. As the former chair of the Monta Vista High School Green Team, he continues to serve in an advisory capacity in the school’s student leadership program. He holds a masters degree in Teaching and a B.S. in Biology from Centenary College of Louisiana, as well as a masters degree in Educational Leadership from San Jose State University. He lives with his wife and son in San Jose and enjoys outdoor activities including golf and snowboarding.
Jeff Burke
Jeff is Director of Technology Research Initiatives for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT), Adjunct Assistant Professor, and Executive Director of REMAP, a joint research program of TFT and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. REMAP’s core projects investigate the interrelationships among community, culture, and technology and how embedded and mobile computing can support community development and cultural expression. Most recently, he helped to form what is now the Participatory Sensing area at the National Science Foundation Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS). Participatory Sensing seeks to enable everyone to use their mobile phones, along with cloud-based computing resources, to safely collect, analyze and share data about things they care about most.
