Meet the #CleanEnergyU Tweetathon Leaders

The following leaders will participate in the live #CleanEnergyU Tweetathon on April 22 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. Join the conversation to meet these experts and ask them how to best achieve the clean energy future students most want to see. 

Mark Kenber

CEO, Climate Group

@MarkKenber

Mark Kenber is an economist who has worked on climate change for nearly 20 years and is an expert on international climate policy. Before becoming CEO in 2011, Mark was The Climate Group’s deputy CEO and policy director. In this role, he advised former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in the joint policy initiative Breaking the Climate Deadlock, which produced a series of reports outlining the economic and technological rationale for a global climate deal and its key components.

Mark co-founded the successful Verified Carbon Standard. Immediately prior to joining The Climate Group, he was senior policy officer at WWF’s International Climate Change Programme. During this time he worked on the creation of the CDM Gold Standard, a tool for channeling carbon market investments into sustainable clean energy projects. He has also served as director of planning at Fundacion Natura, Ecuador’s largest environmental organization, and climate change advisor to the Ecuadorian government.

Anastasia Schemkes
Campaign Representative, Sierra Student Coalition

@SierraStudent
As the Sierra Student Coalition's Campaign Representative, Anastasia directs the SSC's national campaign strategy and supports individual campaigns on campuses across the country. She supported hundreds of students in retiring one half of the nation’s on-campus coal plants, helped spearhead organizing efforts for coal and fossil fuel divestment, and most recently developed the national “Seize the Grid” campaign for clean energy.

In directing Seize the Grid, Anastasia is building on the SSC’s beyond coal legacy, supporting campaigns across the country that leverage the large energy purchasing power of campuses to transform the energy market. As someone who got her start in organizing in college, Anastasia knows the power of young people to transform their campuses and communities. Seize the Grid mobilizes young people in transforming their campuses to be powered by 100% clean energy by 2030, bringing online significantly more solar and wind.

Joel Makower

Chairman and Executive Editor, GreenBiz Group

@makower

Joel Makower, chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, is an award-winning author and a leading voice on the intersection of sustainable business, clean technology and innovation. He hosts the annual GreenBiz Forum as well as the VERGE conferences around the world, and is author of the annual “State of Green Business” report. Joel speaks widely to companies and business schools around the world. He is author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy (2008), and a forthcoming book on a grand strategy for America, born at the Pentagon, that embeds sustainability at the center.

The Associated Press has called Joel "The guru of green business practices." In 2012, he was awarded the Hutchens Medal by the American Society for Quality, which cited “his ability to tell compelling stories that both inform and inspire business leaders toward profitable action.” In 2014 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Institute of Sustainability Professionals.

David Tulauskas

Sustainability Director, General Motors

@DavidTulauskas

David Tulauskas is GM’s director of sustainability responsible for developing the company’s sustainability strategy and ensuring alignment with its business model.  Key activities include working with various functions to embed sustainability into their processes; sustainability reporting and external rankings/surveys; and identifying key performance indicators and goals for business planning. 

Tulauskas joined GM in 1991 and has held a series of positions ranging from environmental and facilities engineering to public policy and government relations to product development leading the initial launch of Cadillac vehicles in China.  Nearly half of his career has been spent in Asia.  Tulauskas earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science degree in civil/environmental engineering from Wayne State University and an International Executive MBA from Rutgers State University.

Eban Goodstein

Director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy

@BardMBA

Eban Goodstein is Director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, which grants M.S. degrees in environmental policy and climate science and policy. He also directs the Bard MBA in Sustainability. Professor Goodstein holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in Geology from Williams College.

Goodstein is the author of three books: Economics and the Environment, (John Wiley and Sons: 2014) now in its seventh edition; Fighting for Love in the Century of Extinction: How Passion and Politics Can Stop Global Warming (University Press of New England: 2007); and The Trade-off Myth: Fact and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment (Island Press: 1999). In recent years, Goodstein coordinated a series of national educational events around climate change, engaging over 2,500 colleges, universities, and K-12 schools in solutions-based dialog. He currently directs C2C Fellows, a network of undergraduates and recent graduates who aspire to sustainability leadership in business and politics.

Snehal Desai

Global Business Director, Dow Water & Process Solution

@SneDesai

Snehal Desai is the global business director for Dow Water & Process Solutions, a leader in sustainable separation and purification technologies. Desai has more than 25 years of increasing leadership responsibility experience in the sales, marketing and business development of water, plastics, chemicals and renewable materials.

From 2008 to 2010, he led commercial and business development for Segetis, a startup focused on developing novel bio-based chemicals, and from 2003 to 2008, served as the vice president and chief marketing officer of NatureWorks LLC, the first company to offer a family of commercially available low-carbon-footprint polymers. From 1988-2003 Desai held various positions with the Dow Chemical Company in sales, marketing, business development and TS&D in the Specialty Chemicals, Plastics, E-Business and New Business Growth divisions. He received bachelor's degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Anthony Cortese, Sc.D.

Principal, Intentional Endowments Network

@TonyCSN

Dr. Cortese has been engaged in public policy and educational transformation on climate change and other large system sustainability challenges for 40 years. He founded Second Nature along with U.S. Senator John Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry and Bruce Droste. He served as Second Nature’s president from March 1993-August 2012.

He was the organizer of the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment and co-founder of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and the Higher Education Association Sustainability Consortium. He is Principal of Sustainable Visions, LLC a frequent consultant to higher education, industry and non-profit organizations on institutionalization of sustainability principles and programs. 

Dr. Cortese was one of the founding employees of the US EPA and the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. He was the first Dean of Environmental Programs at Tufts University and founded the Tufts Environmental Literacy Institute in 1989. Dr. Cortese is a trustee of Green Mountain College and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served as a trustee of Tufts University and was a founding member of the board of directors of The Natural Step US and of the Environmental Business Council of New England. He has been a consultant to UNEP, a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board, President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development's Education Task Force and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow for Higher Education.

Dr. Cortese has B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tufts University in civil and environmental engineering, a Doctor of Science in environmental health sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Allegheny College and the University of Maine Presque Isle and an Honorary Doctor of Science from State University of New York Oswego.

Georges Dyer M.Sc.

Principal, Intentional Endowments Network

@georgesdyer

Georges Dyer is a principal of the Intentional Endowments Network, supporting endowments in aligning investment policies with institutional mission, values, and sustainability goals. From 2006-2014, Georges served in various roles, including vice president at Second Nature to develop and support the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) -- a network of nearly 700 colleges and universities committed to achieving climate neutrality in campus operations and integrating climate and sustainability into education, research, and community engagement activities.

Through his freelance consulting practice, Greenland Enterprises, Georges has engaged in a variety of sustainability projects, including strategic evaluations for the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University and for Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative.  Previously, Georges was the head of Market Intelligence for the Institutional Equities Group at LaBranche Financial Services and a partner at Aedi Group. Georges is a graduate of The Mountain School of Milton Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Dartmouth College. He holds a M.Sc. in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.