David Cooperrider
Professor and Chair Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit

David L. Cooperrider is an Academic Partner of Blu Skye, Professor and Former Chairman of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University and the founder of The Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit.

To this end, David was the initiator and program co-chair of the Global Forum of business leaders and academics held October 2006. The forum was convened by the United Nations Global Compact, the Academy of Management, and the Case Weatherhead School of Management. In 2004 David designed and facilitated an historic Leaders Summit of the United Nations Global Compact between Kofi Annan and 500 business leaders to 'unite the strengths of markets with the authority of universal ideals to make globalization work for everyone.' Among his highest honors David was invited to design a series of dialogues among 25 of the world's top religious leaders, started by His Holiness the Dalai Lama who said, 'If only the world's religious leaders could just know each other, the world will be a better place.' These dialogs resulted in the formation of the United Religions Initiative.

David has published nine books and authored some 50 articles.

Frank Dixon
Author and Sustainability Consultant

Frank Dixon is an author and consultant specializing in sustainability, system change and enhancing financial performance through increased corporate responsibility. For six years, he was the Managing Director of Research for Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, the largest corporate sustainability research firm in the world. At Innovest, he oversaw the sustainability analysis of more than 2,000 firms. Based on his observation that systemic issues compel all firms to act unsustainably, he developed a new sustainability approach focused on system change, called Total Corporate Responsibility. Before Innovest, he worked in the energy and finance areas.

He is currently advising Wal-Mart and other firms on sustainability.

He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Chris Laszlo
Managing Partner and Co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, LLC

Chris is managing partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, LLC www.SustainableValuePartners.com and a Visiting Professor at Case Weatherhead School of Management.

He provides advisory services to senior leaders in some of the worldÕs largest companies to transform societal opportunities and risks into sources of competitive advantage. He has led over 100 executive seminars and spoken widely on ÒSustainability for strategic advantageÓ inside companies and at leading business schools. For nearly ten years, he was an executive at Lafarge, a world leader in building materials, holding positions as head of strategy, general manager of a manufacturing subsidiary, and vice president of business development. Prior to that he spent five years with Deloitte Touche, where he consulted on strategy to global industry leaders

Educated at Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and the University of Paris, Chris earned a Ph.D. in Economics and Management Science. He is the author of The Sustainable Company: How to Create Lasting Value through Social and Environmental Performance, Island Press, October 2003. (Paperback July 2005.) www.sustainableco.com

His latest book is Sustainable Value: How Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good, Stanford University Press, February 2008. www.SustainableValueBook.com

Jeffrey Pfeffer
Professor Stanford University Business School

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University where he has been teaching since 1979.

He has led executive seminars in 28 countries and lectured in management development programs and consulting for many U.S. companies, associations and universities. He currently serves on two corporate boards of directors. Dr. Pfeffer is a member and Fellow of the Academy of Management and a member of the Industrial Relations Research Association. He has won the Richard D. Irwin award for Scholarly Contributions to Management as well as several awards for books and articles. He has authored/co-authored twelve books and published more than 120 articles and book chapters. Dr. Pfeffer has served on the faculties of the business schools at the University of Illinois and the University of California at Berkeley. From 1994-1996, he served as Director of Executive Education, responsible for all of the Stanford business school's executive education activities. During the 1981-1982 academic year he was the Thomas Henry Carroll-Ford Foundation Visiting Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

Recent clients include: Wal-Mart, eBay, Nike, BASF, DuPont and Ford Motor Co. Joe is also part of a team of investors and entrepreneurs building a biofuels development and manufacturing business based on principles of renewable distributed energy and industrial ecology.

Dr. Pfeffer received his BS in Administration and Management Science and his MS in Industrial Administration from Carnegie-Mellon University. He obtained his PhD in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Lawrence Shubert
Entrepreneur

Lawrence Shubert is an entrepreneur and a former principal of IDEO, the world's leading design and innovation company. He has over 20 years of innovation and product development experience as a designer, leader and executive in wide range of consumer and commercial markets. Shubert recently founded ZIP Innovations in partnership with IDEO to commercialize a line of health and safety products he invented. He continues to consult and provides strategic innovation and product development services to a select group of companies and non-profit organizations.

Shubert has worked on an array of award winning design projects ranging from small hand-held and wearable devices to large industrial equipment. Strategic projects include explorations into digital imaging, office furniture and environments, automobiles and lifestyles, hair cutting services and tools, internet services, food equipment and long haul trucking.

Shubert is a prolific inventor and holds several patents. He taught design methodology at Stanford University and currently leads innovation workshops for companies and organizations. He also serves on the advisory board for BUILD, a non-profit that fosters youth from under-resourced communities through real-world entrepreneurial experience.

His client base has included numerous industry leaders such as Medtronic, Kodak, Samsung, Supercuts, Pepsi, Apple Computer, Snap-on, Kenworth and BMW, as well as a number of start-ups in the medical, dental services, telecommunications, computer, energy conservation, toy, social networking and food industries.

As an avid adventurer, Lawrence is always up for a challenge inside and outside of work. In conjunction with his entrepreneurial and creative exploits, he has explored numerous desolate wilderness areas in Alaska, Canada, Chile, Central America and California. Shubert believes that the raw beauty, power and integrity of nature combined with the physical and mental challenges of adventuring are a source of profound inspiration and personal growth.

Terry Tamminen

Terry Tamminen is one of the nation's leading authorities on environmental policy.

From his youth in Australia to career experiences in Europe, Africa and all parts of the United States, Terry has developed expertise in business, farming, education, non-profit, the environment, the arts, and government. A United States Coast Guard-licensed ship captain, Terry has long been drawn to the undersea world, starting in the 1960s with a family-run tropical fish breeding business in Australia and continuing with studies on conch depletion in the Bahamas, manatee populations in Florida coastal waters, and mariculture in the Gulf States with Texas A&M University. On land, Terry managed the largest sheep ranch east of the Mississippi, assisting the University of Minnesota in developing new methods of livestock disease control. Terry also managed a multi-million dollar real estate company, owned/operated a successful recreational services business, and assisted the west African nation of Nigeria with the creation of their first solid waste recycling program. An accomplished author, Terry's latest book, Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction (Island Press), is a timely examination of our dependence on oil and a strategy to evolve to more sustainable energy sources. He has also authored a series of best-selling 'Ultimate Guides' to pools and spas (McGraw-Hill) and several theatrical works on the life of William Shakespeare. Terry is an avid airplane and helicopter pilot and speaks German, Dutch and Spanish. In 1993, Terry founded the Santa Monica BayKeeper and served as its Executive Director for six years. He co-founded Waterkeeper programs in San Diego, Orange County, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. He also served for five years as Executive Director of the Environment Now Foundation in Santa Monica, CA and co-founded the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic at the School of Law, University of California Los Angeles. In the summer of 2003, Terry helped Arnold Schwarzenegger win the historic recall election and become Governor of California. He was appointed as the Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency in November, 2003, and Cabinet Secretary, the Chief Policy Advisor to the Governor, in December, 2004. He continues to advise the Governor on energy and environmental policy. In April, 2007, he was named the Cullman Senior Fellow and Director of the Climate Policy Program of The New America Foundation, a non-profit, post-partisan, public policy institute. In September, 2007, he was appointed as an Operating Advisor to Pegasus Capital Advisors. Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P., is a private equity fund manager that provides capital to middle market companies across a wide variety of industries.

Terry currently travels throughout the United States and the world, lecturing and providing private consulting services to a variety of clients, including several Governors and Canadian Premiers on climate and energy policy.

Our Associate Partners

We maintain dynamic relationships with the academics, scientists, entrepreneurs, and authors on the front lines of sustainability. Click through the pictures above to see just some of the people with whom we frequently collaborate.