Net Impact: 2009 Conference: Confirmed Speakers

Net Impact and Cornell University were thrilled to have the following exceptional speakers join us:

Keynotes

Featured Speakers

Panelists & Workshop Leaders

To learn more about our speakers, please visit the speaker galleries that are organized by last name.

Alex Counts

President
Grameen Foundation

Counts became Grameen Foundation’s first chief executive in 1997, after ten years of working in microfinance. A 1988 Cornell graduate, Counts’ commitment to poverty eradication deepened as a Fulbright scholar in Bangladesh. Counts has propelled Grameen Foundation’s approach through his writings. His latest work, “Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World,” was published in 2008. Counts is a recipient of the Horace Mann Alumni Association's Award for Distinguished Achievement

Unmesh Brahme

Senior Vice President, Corporate Sustainability
HSBC

Unmesh Brahme’s experience in the corporate responsibility and sustainability space spans over fifteen years across niche disciplines and issues at the corporate-community interface. He has worked extensively in community development, corporate responsibility, sustainability, advertising, marketing, brand management and strategy with corporates, development agencies and many civil society institutions. Unmesh has contributed in a significant way to the development of corporate responsibility and strategic philanthropy during his extensive work with OXFAM, World Bank, Ogilvy & Mather, and more recently HSBC, among other leading institutions. Unmesh also has a deep experience in understanding the problems of emerging economies such as India and his work amongst communities has taken him to serve the most remote of indigenous peoples in the country.Unmesh specialises in application of strategy, continuum thinking and innovation to business and community processes with the broader aim of achieving social good and sustainability. His work is deeply rooted in the cultural reality of people and processes and is context sensitive to the needs and demands of conflicting stakeholder groups.Unmesh has won numerous awards and accolades, most noteworthy amongst them being the Asian Brand Marketing Effectiveness Award and PR Week Gold Award for his reverse cause related marketing water management projects and campaign for Castrol/British Petroleum and rural consumer groups. Unmesh Brahme presently serves as Senior Vice President for Corporate Sustainability for HSBC India. At the bank he has successfully launched a number of business aligned corporate responsibility initiatives including significant Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) work in microfinance, financial literacy, environment, sustainability, climate change and stakeholder engagement. His work helped HSBC recently win the coveted Federation of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) commendation in CSR from the President of India.Unmesh’s areas of interest in the Corporate Sustainability (CS) space are business processes, financial innovation, emerging market and CS economics, impact scalability and new business design at the BOP. Unmesh has played significant advisory roles for a large number of non-governmental organisations and community professionals. He presently serves on the Confederation of India Industries (CII) National CSR Committee and on the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industries CSR Committee.Unmesh lives in Mumbai (India) and loves to travel, mentor, and seek new opportunities to grow the impact of corporate sustainability on business and society.

Patty Calkins

Global Vice President, Environment, Health and Safety
Xerox Corporation

Patricia A. Calkins is the vice president of Environment, Health and Safety for Xerox Corporation. She is responsible for developing and implementing sustainability policies and strategies throughout Xerox that help save hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the company worldwide. She is dedicated to strengthening Xerox’s position as a pioneer in sustainability and is committed to smart environmental management that demonstrates that doing what’s right for the environment is not a cost of doing business, but an opportunity to benefit the world in which we work and live. Calkins joined Xerox in 1993 as a manager of resource conservation, developing plans to help the company capture energy and materials savings through more sustainable and efficient processes, facilities and product design. Since then, she has assumed increasingly responsible management positions in quality, business process management and product design, enabling the company to remain at the forefront of driving environmental improvement throughout the value chain. Before joining Xerox, Calkins began her career as a chemist for AT&T and then moved on to initiate many of the company’s sustainability initiatives. During her tenure, she focused on how changes in product and process design could eliminate many environmental challenges, including eradicating the use of toxic chemicals in the electronics manufacturing process. For her efforts, she was recognized for her engineering excellence. In 1992, she joined Abt Associates as a senior scientist where she worked directly with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in developing marketbased voluntary sustainability programs. She also provided consulting services to corporations developing environmental leadership strategies. Calkins earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts, and a Master of Science degree in civil/environmental engineering from Tufts University. In 2001, she received her executive M.B.A. from the University of Rochester. Calkins currently serves as a member of the external advisory board for the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems and is on several boards, including the Central and Western New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Richard Lechner

VP, Energy & Environment
IBM Corporation

Rich Lechner was named Vice President of IBM's newly formed IT Optimization business unit in March, 2007. In his current role, Mr. Lechner oversees an extensive portfolio of solutions that combine hardware, software and IBM services to help IBM customers simplify, better manage and do more with their existing infrastructures. As part of this, he is responsible for IBM's virtualization, grid and platform management offerings. Prior to this role, Mr. Lechner has held a number of business leadership positions at IBM. From November, 2005, Mr. Lechner served as Vice President of IBM Virtualization where he was responsible for overseeing and growing the industry's largest and broadest portfolio of software, server and storage virtualization solutions. From 2004 through late 2005, he served as Vice President of Marketing for IBM's Storage Systems Group where he was responsible for IBM's product management strategy for the complete line of hardware and software storage products. Prior to that, Mr. Lechner was IBM's Vice President, Marketing and Sales, for Enterprise Servers within IBM Systems Group, including its flagship IBM eServer zSeries (System z) mainframe portfolio from 1999 through 2003. He served as Vice President of Sales Support for IBM's entire eServer family of products, including its UNIX (System p) and Intel-based (System x) x86 servers. During his eServer tenure, Mr. Lechner was responsible for transforming customer businesses into e-businesses and directing the company's Customer Design Centers and Advanced Technology Centers.Mr. Lechner has also held senior development, marketing, and sales positions with IBM in both the United States and Europe including serving as Sales Manager for IBM Software Group's largest accounts from 1994 to 1997. In addition, he was director of Strategy for IBM Software Group and was instrumental in establishing the company's commitment to Linux and open standards. Lechner spent ten years as a programmer for IBM and began his career at IBM as a micro-code programmer in the Financial Services Industry. Mr. Lechner holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from UCLA.

Jo Mackness

Executive Director
Haas Center for Responsible Business

Jo Mackness joined the Center for Responsible Business at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business in September 2008. Building on her close work with the Center as a corporate sponsor, and most recently as the instructor for the Strategic CSR & Consulting Projects course, Jo’s focus as the Executive Director is on corporate engagement, new program development and academic integration. Prior to her role at Haas, Jo was the Corporate Responsibility Integration Leader at Ernst & Young, working to embed socially responsible thinking and action into core firm activities and to identify and execute on new opportunities that a responsible perspective brings. She is a strong supporter of environmental sustainability and was integral to the creation of a new function focused on minimizing E&Y's environmental footprint. Jo also worked as a human capital consultant working in the US and the UK, primarily serving professional services and financial services firms on transactions, corporate governance and executive compensation issues. Jo is a holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and BA in psychology from UCLA. A dual citizen of the UK and US, Jo lives in San Francisco with her Danish husband and toddler son.

Ben Packard

Vice President of Global Responsibility
Starbucks Coffee Company

Ben Packard joined Starbucks Coffee Company in April 1998 as the Environmental Affairs Manager after receiving his MBA and Certificate in Environmental Management from the University of Washington in Seattle. Prior to Starbucks, Ben worked for six years in the environmental field for a non-profit, a governmental policy agency, and then privately with a start-up in the recycling industry. Now the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for Starbucks, Ben is responsible for designing the strategy and developing programs in support of the Company’s commitment to environmental leadership. He was responsible for completing an environmental footprint analysis for the Company using the Natural Step Framework. From the footprint, Starbucks has established focus areas and performance metrics that are woven into the strategic planning process. Ben was part of the initial team of Starbucks partners in the Corporate Social Responsibility department that was established in November 2000.In January 2000 Ben received a Fellowship from the Environmental Leadership Program, an organization seeking to transform public understanding of environmental issues by training and supporting a network of visionary, action-oriented emerging leaders. Ben was named Starbucks “Leader of the Year” for 2002 for his work on the Environmental Footprint Project. Ben also serves on the Mayor of Seattle’s Urban Sustainability Advisory Panel and on the Advisory Board of the Net Impact chapter at the University of Washington MBA Program. Through the dedication of our passionate partners (employees), Starbucks Coffee Company has transformed the way people in 37 countries enjoy their coffee, one cup at a time. Starbucks is the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world, with more than 11,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. The Company is committed to offering its customers the highest quality coffee and human connection through the Starbucks Experience, while striving to improve the social, environmental and economic well being of its partners, coffee farmers, countries of coffee origin, and the communities which it serves. Through Ethos Water, Starbucks demonstrates its long history of integrating a social conscience into all aspects of its business. The Company surprises and delights its customers by producing and selling bottled Starbucks Frappuccino® coffee drinks, Starbucks DoubleShot® espresso drinks and Starbucks® superpremium ice creams through its joint-venture partnerships, and Starbucks™ Coffee and Cream Liqueurs through a marketing and distribution agreement, in other convenient locations outside its retail operations. The Company’s brand portfolio includes superpremium Tazo® teas, Starbucks Hear Music™ compact discs, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia. These brands’ unique and innovative personalities allow Starbucks to appeal to a broad consumer base.

John Perkins

Author, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Dream Change, Inc.

New York Times Bestselling Author John Perkins's classic exposé, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, spent over 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists and is published in more than 30 languages. His follow-up New York Times bestseller, The Secret History of the American Empire, provides a plan for creating a better world. He is founder and board member of Dream Change and The Pachamama Alliance, nonprofit organizations devoted to establishing a sustainable, just, and peaceful world, has lectured at universities on four continents, and is the author of five books on indigenous cultures.

Vic Abate

VP Renewable Energy
GE

Victor Abate is vice president of GE Energy’s Renewables business, a leading global provider of wind and solar energy products and support services. He assumed this position in November 2005, and he is based Schenectady, New York. GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of renewable energy technology. With manufacturing and assembly facilities in Germany, Spain, China, Canada and the United States, the company’s current renewable product portfolio includes 1.5 and 2.5 megawatt wind turbines and solar electric power systems for on and off grid applications. The company’s renewable installed base also exceeds 17 GW. Prior to his current role, Mr. Abate was vice president of technology for GE Energy's power-generation segment, which includes gas, steam, wind, solar and hydro-turbine generators, gasification technologies and integrated gasification combined cycle. Mr. Abate began his GE career in 1990 and has held several management roles in engineering, services, production and quality. In 1996, he led the large turbine generator business as the quality leader and was soon appointed general manager of generator technology. In 1999, Mr. Abate assumed responsibility in leading the gas turbine volume ramp in GE’s power generation segment and in late 2000, he was appointed general manager of steam turbine technology. Mr. Abate became an officer of GE in 2003. Prior to joining GE, Mr. Abate worked for Allied Signal and Zurn Industries and was responsible for mechanical drive technology and new product development. Originally from Williamstown, Massachusetts, Mr. Abate holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College respectively, he also holds an M.B.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

James Schorr

Professor & Director
Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management

Professor Jim Schorr has 15 years of experience working at the intersection of business and society, and is among the nation’s leading experts on issues of social enterprise and entrepreneurship. In 1993, he co-founded Net Impact, a global network which has since enabled more than 25,000 graduate business students and professionals on six continents to integrate social and environmental priorities into their education and career. His career has also included leadership and consulting positions with major corporations, start-up companies and government agencies, giving Professor Schorr unique insights into the role of business in society from a wide variety of perspectives. Among the organizations in which Schorr has served are Juma Ventures, EcomBrands, Cobra Golf, Windermere Associates and Florida Leisure Corporation. Prior to joining Owen, Schorr was a faculty member at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, within the school’s Center for Responsible Business. He continues to serve as board chair of Net Impact, and is on the board of directors for the Social Enterprise Alliance, Global Social Venture Competition and Juma Ventures. Professor Schorr’s perspectives on social enterprise have been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and he has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences and events, including the 2008 World Forum on Social Enterprise in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Adam Werbach

Global CEO
Saatchi & Saatchi S.

Adam is regarded as one of the world’s premier experts in sustainability. At age 23, he was elected as the youngest president ever of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States. In 1998, he founded sustainability agency, Act Now, to engage the corporate and media world in social, environmental, cultural and economic change. After ten successful years, Act Now merged with global ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi to form Saatchi & Saatchi S, the world’s largest sustainability agency. Adam has always been an advocate for change, as exemplified by his 2004 speech, "Is Environmentalism Dead?" which sent shockwaves through the environmental movement. He declared that he would no longer call himself an environmentalist, as the movement was unprepared to solve the underlying social and economic issues of climate change. Soon after, Wal-Mart engaged Act Now to lead the involvement of its 1.9 million Wal-Mart associates in the Personal Sustainability Project (“PSP”). Adam returned to the Commonwealth Club in April 2008 to receive its 21st Century Visionary Award and deliver his follow-up address to “Is Environmentalism Dead?,” entitled “The Birth of Blue,” which envisions a billion-person strong, consumer-based movement for sustainability.

Adam Werbach

Global CEO
Saatchi & Saatchi S.

Clint Wilder

Co-Author, The Clean Tech Revoltuion & Contributing Editor
Clean Edge Inc.

Clint Wilder, contributing editor for Clean Edge, is an award-winning technology and business journalist. His book The Clean Tech Revolution (with co-author Ron Pernick) published by Collins in June 2007, has been called “the best clean tech book” by ClimateProgress.org and is being translated into five languages. Wilder is a frequent speaker at industry events and writes a blog on clean tech for the business section of The Huffington Post. Before joining Clean Edge in 2002, he covered the high tech and Internet industries for more than 15 years for Information Week, Optimize, Computerworld, and Corporate Computing magazines.

Sheryl WuDunn

Author
The New York Times Company

Sheryl WuDunn is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who has reported from inside some of the toughest regimes in the world, from Myanmar to North Korea. As a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, WuDunn covered China and won a Pulitzer with her husband, Nicholas D. Kristof, for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in Beijing and the military crackdown that ended it. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism, and she was first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer. As a banke

Advancing Sustainable Global Enterprise: Changemakers, Innovators, and Problem Solvers - 2009 Net Impact Conference - Cornell University - The Johnson School - November 13-14

Confirmed Speakers

Keynotes

Featured Speakers

Panelists & Workshop Leaders

Gil Crawford

Alex Counts

Unmesh Brahme

John Brock

Patty Calkins

Richard Lechner

Jo Mackness

Ben Packard

John Perkins

Vic Abate

James Schorr

Adam Werbach

Adam Werbach

Clint Wilder

Sheryl WuDunn

Net Impact