Keynote Speaker Profile

Sonoma State University’s School of Business and Economics have teamed up with New College of California’s Green MBA program and several local sustainability business leaders including Global Genesis, WSP Environmental, Sustainable Progress and Simplers Botanical Company to bring you this years conference. Here is more information about this year’s Keynote Speaker Paul Dolan.

Paul Dolan
Partner
Mendocino Wine Company

Paul Dolan’s life changed with one taste of a grape. An early morning walk through a vineyard in 1987, tasting the soon-to-be picked grapes: Paul was astonished at the difference in flavor between a test block of organically farmed Sauvignon Blanc and the same grape variety conventionally farmed next door.

“If you’ve ever had your heart and mind turned, to see the world in a whole new way,” says Paul, “You know it changes you forever. I instantly saw myself as part of the whole fabric of this place, where I live and raise my children. And I saw that how I act here, as a business-person as well as a winemaker and a parent, can make a huge difference in this world.”

As winemaker (and, later, president) at Fetzer Vineyards in California’s Mendocino County, Paul chose to make a difference in how the winery grew grapes, and how the company did business.

In his book, True To Our Roots: Fermenting A Business Revolution, Paul shares his ideas about how to succeed with a “triple bottom line” – balancing environmental, economic and social equity needs to achieve success. Putting the triple bottom line into daily use evaluating winegrowing and business practices helped make Fetzer Vineyards one of world’s largest and most successful wine companies.

Wine runs in Paul Dolan’s blood. He is a fourth-generation winemaker, descended on his mother’s side from winemakers at the original Italian-Swiss Colony, and on his father’s side from the winemaking Concannon family. His children, now in business with him, add a fifth generation to this winegrowing family.

Paul Dolan was born and raised in Oakland, California, and attended college at Santa Clara University, earning a degree in business and finance. After three years of service in the U.S. Army Infantry, Paul chose winemaking over accounting as a post-military career. He returned to the classroom at the California State University, Fresno, and graduated with a Master’s Degree in enology before going to work at Fetzer Vineyards. During Paul’s 15 years as head winemakerFetzer was recognized by Wine & Spirits magazine as “Winery of the Year” seven times, and Paul himself was named “Winemaker of the Year” in the Los Angeles Times.

In his 27 years at Fetzer, Paul helped oversee its transition from a small family-owned winery to an employee-based organization selling wine across the globe. Through his persistent efforts, Paul’s vision for Fetzer was realized: “… to be recognized as the environmentally and socially conscious winery, committed to making the highest quality, best valued wines in the world.”

Today, Paul is a partner in the Mendocino Wine Company and several other vineyard and winery ventures. He serves on the boards of the Wine Institute and Business for Social Responsibility, and is a founder of Wine Vision. Paul participated on President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Business, and he chaired the California Sustainable Alliance Board. He continues to advocate for sustainability and organic farming based on the simple premise that this natural view of our relationship with the world is not only the right view, but also delivers better products and healthier lives.

“I see the world of business in transition,” says Paul, “From a traditional to a sustainable approach. I am committed to making a world that works for everyone. Business, approached sustainably, can be the driver and the leader that helps create that new world.”

“I believe the future of business is to make the future its business,” say Paul.

Buy Paul's book from Powell's Books:
True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution

Guest Speaker Profiles

Stephen Gale
Owner and Principal Consultant
Stephen Gale & Associates

Currently the owner and Principal Consultant for Stephen Gale & Associates, a business development firm located in Santa Rosa, Stephen became involved in sustainability issues over 15 years ago and continues to incorporate sustainability and life-cycle-costing principles in his work with clients located in the United States, Europe, Australia and Canada. He introduced waste reduction and supply chain evaluation procedures to reduce the environmental footprint of Fair, Isaac and Company in his first assignment with that firm, leading their Procurement Services department.

Later, as the executive responsible for the Fair Isaac Office Park project, Stephen led the community involvement and design approval process for a 350,000 square foot infill office development that was hailed as a model for sustainable development, with the project endorsed by major environmental organizations in Marin County, and approved for phased development 11-months after the project was submitted for public review and approval. He continues to be a strong advocate for the triple bottom line with his clients and for Smart Growth in the North Bay.

Cynthia Riggs
Business Diva
www.bizdiva.biz

Cynthia Riggs, the Business Diva, is a lifestyle entrepreneur, having successfully started and exited three profitable businesses, including Making It Big, her multi-million dollar mail order/catalog company, which she sold in 2004. She has launched her fourth enterprise, Women Building Business, working as a consultant and teacher of business development to small and micro business owners. Her core commitment to green business practices; sustainability and the triple bottom line have influenced her business ventures since day one.

Cynthia’s conviction that every entrepreneur needs support, problem solving opportunities and a useable business plan culminated in her certification as a One Page Business Plan consultant. Cynthia has distinguished herself from other business consultants with her 25 years of entrepreneurial success. She draws upon that invaluable wisdom to help small business owners garner growth and financial success of their own. She shares her expertise and insights with businesses all across the country. Learn more about her work at www.bizdiva.biz.

Susan Burns
Managing Director
Global Footprint Network

Susan Burns is Managing Director of Global Footprint Network an international network making ecological limits central to decision making. She is also the founder of the pioneering sustainability consulting firm Natural Strategies. She has over 18 years of experience working with more than 50 corporations and other organizations on a variety of sustainability-related issues including: product design, consensus building, management systems, business strategy, forest policy and stakeholder communications. She led the team that designed Portfolio 21, America's first sustainability mutual fund. Susan is also an expert in the application of the Natural Step framework for sustainability, and co-authored The Natural Step curriculum extensively used in the USA. She has spoken widely on the subject of sustainability, corporate responsibility, and strategic environmental management, having been a keynote or featured speaker at over 100 national and international events.

The Future 500
Specializes in Stakeholder Engagement (SE)
future500

The Future 500 is a non-profit that specializes in Stakeholder Engagement (SE), forging links between corporations and stakeholders to advance global citizenship. Future 500  employs tools, processes, and strategies to bring together business, NGO, and government stakeholders to resolve conflicts and find common solutions to advance sustainability. Past successes include the Mitsubishi-Rainforest Action Network (RAN) agreement in the 1990s where Future 500 helped broker a deal to create forest product procurement standards that have now been adopted by most major corporations.

Erik Wohlgemuth
Director of Stakeholder Engagement
Future 500

Mr. Wohlgemuth directs Future 500’s stakeholder engagement program, developing and refining tools and processes that capture the organization’s methodological approach to stakeholder engagement. He oversees the sMAP software-driven stakeholder planning process, stakeholder opinion leader surveys (SOLS), and stakeholder roundtable meeting facilitation.

With over 13 years of experience, Mr. Wohlgemuth has focused his career on bridging the gap between for-profit, non-profit and governmental sectors. He has enjoyed a varied career working for NGOs as an environmental activist and lobbyist as well as for corporations as an environmental consultant. 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.

Lance Funston
Marketing Associate
Future 500

Lance Funston is a marketing consultant focusing on corporate communications, and social and environmental marketing. Lance has worked with numerous socially and environmentally-focused businesses and non-profit organizations over his career including The Napa Valley Peace Table, Ninth House Networks, Harvard Business School, Cooperative Community Energy, WholeLife, and Global Exchange’s Global Citizen Center project.

Lance’s areas of topic expertise are in clean energy and sustainable mobility. He also holds certificate in Film Production at the Center for Advanced Film and Televisions Studies at the American Film Institute, and holds a B.A. in social anthropology from Reed College. He holds an MBA in Sustainable Enterprise with the Green MBA Program at New College of California.

Sonora Beam, MBA
Founder
Digital Hive

Sonora Beam is a lifelong artist, accomplished in painting, writing, and music. Since 1990, she has worked in advertising and multinational corporations as both a writer and graphic designer in the telecom and finance sectors, as well as arts and government organizations. Ms Beam taught creativity and innovation workshops for engineers and managers of global corporations such as Lucent Technologies. She has extensive experience designing technological applications, including software design, and database development, as well as applications and websites for the Internet.

Janet Pomeroy, MBA
Founder, Director of Business Development
Digital Hive

Janet Pomeroy owned and operated her own film and video production company, creating videos for private and civic organizations, managing $1,000 to $1 million television commercials. Two of her educational productions are in national distribution Prior to owning her own company; she was a commercial Producer and Director for a large multinational cable corporation, and a journalist at a metropolitan daily newspaper. Ms Pomeroy was a User Experience Designer for web-based applications for companies such as: Sun Microsystems, Cisco and Agile as well as Digital Think, a corporate training company.

David Jaber
Business Development and Project Manager
Natural Logic

Business Development and Project Manager with Natural Logic, David provides assistance to businesses and communities in sustainability planning, developing performance indicators, and “eco”-efficiency.

David Jaber has led over 60 facility productivity assessments of manufacturing and commercial facilities in the past five years.
Other projects include:
- Economic development planning, based on industrial ecology principles, with the City of Albuquerque
- Analyzed and benchmarked environmental performance indicators for HP’s first Corporate Sustainability Report
- Zero Waste plan development for the City of Palo Alto, CA
- Benchmark environmental performance in WA State's pulp and paper sector

Rosanne Harding
Policy Analyst
WSP Environmental North America

Rosanne Harding, has been an environmental specialist for over 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental/Occupational Health and has completed post-graduate coursework in environmental law and geology. Ms. Harding has worked in both the public and private sectors advising businesses and institutions in a broad cross-section of environmental, occupational, safety and health matters.

During her professional career she has served as an environmental consultant to the computer industry, school districts, community colleges and universities, government, engineering companies, construction firms, environmental remediation contractors and non-profits. She particularly enjoys taking convoluted laws, confusing regulations and esoteric standards and merging them into a single comprehensive management system.

In her current position as a policy analyst, she reviews pending regulatory changes, drafts legislation, works with regulatory agencies to devise reality-based policy, generates plain-language environmental guidance documents, and advises the health services sector on environmental matters.

When she has free time, she enjoys many of the great outdoor activities that Northern California has to offer with her partner Ed and their five children.

Michael Dittmore
Environmental Health & Safety Specialist
Agilent Technologies

Michael Dittmore is an Environmental Health & Safety Specialist. He has worked for Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies for the last 25 years at the Santa Rosa site. He has direct oversight of the Solid and Hazardous Waste programs at seven manufacturing sites in the US, located in the State of Washington, New Jersey, Arizona and California. He is Agilent's content expert for Universal Waste and Electronic Scrap. He sits on the Sonoma County AB939 task force and is a member of the Santa Rosa Chamber Commerce Environmental committee.

J. David Erickson
Climate Protection Campaign

Since 2003, David Erickson has been working with local governments in Sonoma County to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. He is a recent cum laude graduate of the Energy Management and Design program in Environmental Studies and Planning at Sonoma State University. He has been working with Climate Protection Campaign since 2004 and has helped with the achievement of several national precedents in the commitment of Sonoma County local governments to reducing GHG emissions. Also since 2004, he has worked on a variety of energy efficiency projects for municipal wastewater treatment plants, as well as helping deliver a variety of energy efficiency services to local governments. Prior to working on climate change, he held a variety of software engineering design and consulting positions in high tech startups and other companies on both the West and East Coasts.

Jeff Mendelsohn
New Leaf Paper

As founder of New Leaf Paper in 1998, Jeff Mendelsohn has played a significant role in the paper industry over the last decade by creating a new standard for environmental papers. His vision is to create a sustainable paper industry by developing demand for better environmental papers, with a focus on creating papers that can be used for everyday business needs. Under his leadership, New Leaf Paper has grown to more than $18 million in annual revenue and has been recognized nationally for its significant role in the paper market.

 Jeff received a BA from Cornell University and studied international relations. He is active in the socially responsible business community and is a member of Social Venture Network and Business for Social Responsibility. Jeff loves the outdoors and enjoys rock climbing, surfing, backpacking, and hiking.

 New Leaf Papers offers a complete line of high quality office and printing papers, using post-consumer waste content, chlorine free bleaching and non-wood fibers. To learn more about New Leaf Paper, visit www.newleafpaper.com.

John Schaeffer
Real Goods

John Schaeffer has been exploring renewable energy and sustainable living since graduating from UC Berkeley in 1971. Over the last 28 years, he founded and grew Real Goods as its President from a garage start-up to the foremost global source for tools and information on renewable energy and sustainable living. In 1995 he helped create the Solar Living Center in Hopland, California, a 12-acre educational demonstration site. He founded and remains Board Chair of the educational non-profit Solar Living Institute dedicated to promoting renewable energy through inspirational environmental education. John lives with his wife Nancy remotely in Mendocino County, California in a natural home built mostly from recycled materials in the middle of a permaculture oasis powered by solar and hydro-electric.

Kerry Sachs
Chief Technical Officer
Puroast Low Acid Coffee

Mr. Sachs is the Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of PuroastŪ Low Acid Coffee Company, Inc. He is also the inventor of the patented PuroastŪ process. His patents for renewable energy and roasting are the foundation for PuroastŪ's low acid coffee which has a market estimated to be 38 million strong in the US alone. PuroastŪ's sustainable technology is a breakthrough in the coffee trade, as it provides 100% real coffee but with over 50% less acid than all other brands. PuroastŪ was awarded the Sustainble Business Institute's Seal of Sustainability in 2001 and is now selling in the US, Europe and Japan.

Sachs is formally trained as a combustion engineer taking an MS degree in agricultural engineering from the University of California, Davis. Mr. Sachs has traveled extensively throughout the world (Venezuela, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, St. Vincent, Ecuador, Mexico, Japan, China) in his career as a biomass energy expert and co-founder of PuroastŪ and is fluent in Spanish.