Josh Allison - Josh helps discover the opportunity in even the most complex business situations. He brings to Blu Skye a deep working knowledge of environmental policy and clean energy. He enjoys helping clients navigate the political environment and search for solutions in the scientific community.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Josh worked as a consultant for BlueWave Strategies, advising clients on a variety of clean energy and green building projects. He has also worked as a project manager in the real-estate industry and has volunteered his energy expertise in the developing world.
Josh earned his BA from Boston University and is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as a LEED Accredited Professional. He is an avid traveler, who enjoys spending his free time outdoors and is most at peace with a fly rod in his hand.
Erin Billman - Erin believes that sustainability is an incredible business opportunity, and that doing the right thing and making money go hand in hand. Erin brings nearly ten years of business and strategy consulting experience to help her clients create, communicate, and execute on strategic initiatives.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Erin was a Case Team Leader at Bain & Company, where she worked with industry leaders from retail, technology, healthcare, and gas & electric utilities. She has experience applying a suite of tools including growth strategy, performance improvement, organizational design, due diligence, and operations / project planning, to address companies’ most critical issues and opportunities.
Erin’s work in sustainability began as an undergraduate intern, with activities ranging from rehabilitating orphaned hawks, to waist-deep mucking for pond turtles, to radio-tracking coyotes. During business school, she conducted a market study for an Amazonian NGO, applying a business approach to achieving sustainability for its indigenous people. She is now working with Walmart to forward the progress of the Sustainability Index and sustainable agriculture.
Erin has a BS in Biology from Boston College where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She received her MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Sustainable Business and the Environment. In her spare time, Erin enjoys exploring the Bay Area with her young daughter. They can often be found hiking the local trails, noshing at the farmers market and picnicking in the park.
Tripp Borstel - Tripp's passion lies in creating 'aha' experiences for business leaders about how to create business value through the lens of sustainability. He believes that with the right combination of stakeholder dialogue and potent data, insights can be generated that transform businesses and move them to adopt sustainable practices. Tripp envisions a world in which business and industry, through triple-bottom line practices, step up to become the leading drivers of change within the sustainability movement.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Tripp worked as an analyst in the real estate finance industry and as a project manager for California's largest affordable housing development company. He was also a co-founder of the local Emerging Green Builders network within the U.S. Green Building Council, a committee that connects students and young professionals to the green building movement.
Tripp studied liberal arts and business administration Gonzaga University and University of San Francisco, and received his MBA from University of California at Berkeley.
John Buffington - John has worked with corporations, start-up ventures and non-profit organizations over the last decade to show that, with creativity and leadership, doing the right thing for the environment and society can provide competitive advantage. Since 2004, John has helped to create and implement sustainable business strategies for clients in the retail, food products, and hotel industries. John puts an emphasis on understanding corporate culture and becoming part of the client team in order to help create new leaders.
John has an MBA and Masters in Environmental Management from the University of North Carolina. After business school, he helped launch an eco-friendly venture in Tibet. In 2005, he won first prize for the Oikos International Sustainability Case Writing Competition. John enjoys travel, movies, college sports and dining out with family and friends.
Nicky Conroy - Nicky Conroy brings a passion for environmental and social justice to her approach to sustainability as a critical tenet of any business model. At a fundamental level, she believes in the power of businesses to catalyze high-level transformations around sustainability; she’s excited about the potential when organizations harness their resources to this effect.
Prior to Blu Skye, Nicky consulted on carbon footprint reduction and air quality legislation and wrote articles on sustainability for a broad target audience. Earlier she researched and developed corporate social responsibility initiatives for a large public company in the field of renewable energy, health and wellness, product development, and supply chain sustainability.
Nicky graduated with honors from Dartmouth College with a BA in Environmental Studies and English. After college she spent time in Southern Africa researching the social and political implications of environmental change. In her spare time she’s working on backyard permaculture experiments and training for her next triathlon.
Mikhail Davis - Mikhail uses the lessons of ecology and effective advocacy to help you find unexpected allies and new business value. His knowledge and skills gained working alongside seminal leaders in both environmental and business sustainability can help you make your journey toward sustainability both profitable and inspiring.
Mikhail’s ten years of experience in the environmental field prior to joining Blu Skye includes being project manager for environmental icon David Brower, developing wetlands restoration projects in Southern California, creating a national environmental leadership program, organizing sustainable business conferences, and studying indigenous history and language in the Peruvian highlands. Mikhail’s background gives him a deep understanding of activist tactics and perspectives that helps clients create leadership strategies that get them ahead of stakeholder demands and regulatory changes while driving innovation.
Recent clients include Walmart, Bunge, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Waste Management, and PSC.
Mikhail holds a B.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University. He enjoys spending time with his young son and watching or playing the world’s favorite game (soccer!).
Blake Durtsche - Blake firmly believes that companies embracing sustainability have the potential to develop game-changing, innovative solutions that create both economic and social value. He enjoys helping companies gain competitive advantages by incorporating sustainable-thinking into their strategy, operations, and people. Blake’s expertise includes strategy, operations, business case development, financial modeling, data analysis, and process improvement.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Blake spent four years as a strategy consultant with Deloitte Consulting where his experiences spanned strategic, operational, and technological projects.
He primarily served clients in the healthcare, insurance, and financial service industries.
Blake earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and received a B.S. from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Blake loves to travel with his wife and considers canoe camping in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness one of his favorite places to vacation.
Jib Ellison - Jib assists senior leadership in creating new, innovative, wealth-creating strategies. Through an unprecedented angle of attack, he helps clients create visions that have the power to transform markets. He helps CEOs understand sustainability as a business proposition, align behind a plan, and commit to the actions necessary to capture business value. He brings a select network of content experts and organizations to deliver the best solutions to his clients.
Recent clients include: Wal-Mart, Kleiner Perkins, Environmental Defense, Conservation International, Vodafone, McKesson, Gap Inc., The Home Depot, Nokia, YMCA, and Barclays Global Investors. A class V river guide, he has lead whitewater expeditions on five continents.
His work includes designing and overseeing organization-wide transformation processes for Fortune 50 companies, building high performance leadership teams, improving cross-functional teamwork, strengthening corporate culture to deliver results, and one-on-one coaching for CEOs.
Follow Jib and his family as they look for positive deviance - where people, nature and economy are working - Jib and his family will visit the USA, Africa, Asia, South America and Europe before landing home in July 2010. Visit Jib's blog at
A Family Odyssey.
Polina Feldman - Polina believes in the power of business to drive change in our interactions with the world. The dependence of long-term profitability on business sustainability is increasingly unavoidable and Polina is excited to help business leaders uncover opportunities in this space by identifying value streams, setting measurable goals, and developing innovative frameworks.
Previously, Polina worked as a strategy consultant for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Here she designed creative and data-driven solutions to problems involving growth, competitive strategy, market assessment, and business development.
Polina graduated cum laude from Harvard College with an AB in biological anthropology and a citation in Spanish. In her spare time, Polina loves to train, perform, and compete in ballroom dancing.
Tony Hansen - Tony is a consultant and entrepreneur that has found his niche in the design and implementation of sustainability strategies. Specialty areas include market analysis, opportunity identification, event creation and project management. Over the past 18 years, he has consistently demonstrated a flair for realizing competitive advantage through the strategies implemented.
Prior to Blu Skye, Tony worked in the fields of sustainable agriculture, event management, marketing and general management. He has worked in over 20 countries with leading multi-national corporations, the public sector and NGOs. As a sustainability consultant, he co-created a transformative sustainable agriculture strategy with the South African Wine Industry. During his 10-year career in event management Tony honed his skills in designing and running high-impact events for diverse stakeholder groups. Most recently, these skills were leveraged in the creation of Wal-Mart’s ground-breaking 2008 Beijing Sustainability Summit.
Recent clients include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Wal-Mart, The Nature Conservancy and the South African Wine Industry.
Tony holds undergraduate and post graduate business degrees from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He lives with his family in Healdsburg, California, and has a passion for life, the outdoors, food and wine.
Brynn Harrington - Brynn believes that businesses -- via their people, processes, products, and customers -- have immense potential to incubate positive change within their organizations and communities. She is passionate about using her expertise in creative problem solving, strategic planning, organizational design, and communications to help organizations realize this vision. Brynn strives to help her clients embrace change and navigate the change process successfully.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Brynn was a Program Manager at the Taproot Foundation, where she led teams of consultants bringing private sector business expertise to public sector organizations. Earlier, she spent five years working in public relations and corporate communications in New York.
She has worked with many leading companies, such as Amgen, Bayer AG, Dow, IDEO, NetApp, and Pfizer.
Brynn received her M.S. in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University and her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin. In her free time, she can usually be found outside -- running, cycling, hiking, or adventuring with her family and friends. She also spent a number of years leading luxury cycling trips in Europe and North America and the summer of 2007 running around the globe to raise awareness and funds for safe drinking water projects.
Rebecca Harris - Rebecca helps clients build and maintain momentum around their sustainability goals by generating insights through analysis and helping to design and deliver high impact interactions. She is experienced in supporting highly successful meetings from a group of three to thirteen hundred. She excels at conducting stakeholder outreach for effective collaboration and finding innovative approaches to problem solving.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Rebecca worked in construction consulting, providing project management support and assisting clients with conflict resolution on contentious projects.
Recent clients include Aramark Uniform Services, Dairy Management Inc., Hilton, and Wal-Mart.
Rebecca graduated with honors from Humboldt State University with a B.S. in Environmental Science with an emphasis on Ethics and Policy. She also studied abroad in Australia at the University of Wollongong. In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys spending time with her husband and infant son, exploring the hiking trails of the East Bay hills and finding new home improvement projects.
David Haynie - Dave has several years of strategy consulting experience with Bain & Company, primarily in the Dallas office where he served corporations in the transportation, distribution, construction, online retail, and oil services industries. He advised clients on a range of issues including growth strategy, operational efficiency, corporate positioning, revenue enhancement, organizational restructuring, and corporate turnaround implementation.
In addition to strategy consulting experience, Dave has spent 5 years in private equity--leading business diligence and valuation models on leveraged buyouts in the Western US. He has worked extensively and closed deals in consumer products, specialty retail, healthcare, and construction.
Dave graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Brigham Young University and with an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Laura Helland - Laura is passionate about helping companies integrate sustainability into their core business model. She believes that when businesses direct their efforts to this end, we come closer to solving some of the most pressing environmental and social issues of our time.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Laura worked on implementing and advancing sustainable agricultural practices for sellers at a farmers market in San Francisco. This experience reaffirmed her desire to continue to work towards enriching the environment and people’s relationship to it. In addition to this rewarding experience, Laura also worked for three years at a small civil litigation firm where she developed her skills at ensuring smooth and successful project management.
Laura earned her BS in political science and philosophy at Santa Clara University and recently completed her Masters in Public Policy from Mills College. Laura lives in San Francisco and enjoys spending her free time exploring the city and discovering new trails with her favorite canine companion.
Robert Hildreth - Robert helps clients inspire the transformations inherent in sustainability through sound internal and external communications strategies and programs. As a storyteller and strategist, he has significant experience leveraging communications vehicles to facilitate change.
Before Blu Skye, Robert was Global Vice President of Strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi Sustainability where he worked on bridging the gap between people and possibilities for companies such as P&G, Publicis & General Mills.
For Robert, time ceases to exist when he is exploring far away places or has met his match in ping pong.
Linda Angela Hoecker - Linda’s experience in design, sustainability and management all come together seamlessly in her role as Blu Skye’s IT/Facilities Coordinator. Applying her “every day is earth day” values she keeps Blu Skye sustainable.
Prior to Blu Skye, she worked at IDEO, an innovations design firm, there she successfully reduced costs, spearheaded the internal sustainability program and helped create memorable experiences for both employees and clients. In that role she realized how much she enjoys helping businesses be accountable while saving money.
Although she does not serve clients directly she works closely with the consultants on various internal projects. Thereby helping maintain and create an environment in which the consultants can develop their best work. A passionate environmentalist and an active volunteer, she helps promote CSA programs with Capay Valley FarmShop and is a project lead with the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA).
She received her first BA from Wells College in Aurora, New York in International Relations, a second BA in Industrial Design – Product Design from the Academy of Art, San Francisco and has studied at the Universität in Bonn, Germany. Besides learning, Linda enjoys spending time with a variety of animals, inspiring people to change their environmental behavior, autocrossing Mazda Miata’s with her family, snowboarding, and trying to grow random vegetables in planter boxes.
Amy Horton - Associate Amy Horton brings 7+ years in project management experience, helping clients develop research, communications and technology tools to support and promote sustainability. At Blu Skye, Amy works with business and industry organizations to convene diverse stakeholder groups that extend well beyond their operations to address complex environmental and social challenges and create business value.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Amy worked in the Bangkok-based offices of UNESCO and USAID, leading regional efforts to build the capacity of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS projects through best practice dissemination, knowledge exchange and improved reporting.
She began her career in social change as a project manager for a political consulting and online campaign strategy firm in Washington, D.C. Her clients included Alliance to Save Energy, Campaign for America’s Wilderness and the International Women’s Health Coalition.
Amy earned her degree in Journalism and Communication from the University of Oregon. She thrives on taking her passion for inquiry and investigation to new heights through her work supporting the Blu Skye team and clients.
Geoff Huntington - Geoff specializes in leading complex, tactical sustainability initiatives requiring participation and buy-in of stakeholder groups. He brings 20 years of experience designing and implementing transparent decision making processes and project implementation strategies. Through strategic listening and questioning, he helps clients design and execute sustainability initiatives that draw upon the untapped business value derived from identifying and integrating the environmental and social potential of the supply chain and marketing value-based products.
Before joining Blu Skye to serve Fortune 50 clients, Geoff spent a decade as an environmental trial attorney followed by nine years of service as a member of the natural resources cabinet of Oregon's Governor in key policy roles and as an agency director.
Geoff resides with his family in Oregon where he is also a part time faculty member of Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Glen Low - Glen works to seamlessly integrate sustainability, innovation, and business value. Glen brings 15 years of business and consulting experience, applying a broad suite of tools which include corporate/business strategy, operations, performance improvement, product development, organizational design, and mergers & acquisition. He has extensive experience spanning from start-ups to the world's largest and most successful companies. Glen approaches all these engagements with a personal passion to live his life pursuing game-changing impact for his client and the world.
Prior to Blu Skye, Glen was a senior Manager at Bain & Company. During his seven year tenure, he worked in four different offices and gained extensive international experience while working in 10+ countries. While at Bain, he won numerous awards for his client teams and created significant intellectual capital while working in the firm's Performance Improvement and Technology practices. Prior to working in strategy consulting, Glen worked as a project/R&D engineer for a Silicon Valley start-up before attending business school.
Glen has served as a trusted advisor and strategist to a number of senior executives. His recent clients include efforts in clean technology, city-based sustainability efforts, technology and telecom clients. Most recently, Glen is working with Walmart to advance their efforts with the Sustainability Index and sustainable merchandising.
Glen has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley where he was an Alumni scholar and the recipient of the Leonard Farbar award for leadership and academic achievement. Glen also has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business where he held significant leadership positions with the Corporate Management & Strategy Group and the Booth student admissions office. Glen lives in Marin County where he can be found spending all his available time helping his wife raise their two energetic young children.
Sarah Lugaric - Sarah's expertise is in helping clients create and implement visionary strategies consistent with their highest aspirations, with a belief that developing strong leaders and high-functioning teams is an essential foundation for successful execution. Her work is designed to recognize immediate gains, while ensuring clients develop the skills, capabilities and sense of ownership required to sustain momentum and create lasting results.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Sarah was an Associate Partner at The Trium Group, a boutique management and strategy consulting firm. She has experience leading projects across a wide variety of industry-leading clients, including eBay, Gap, Inc., 24 Hour Fitness, YMCA, Cisco, Wal-Mart, and Barclay's Global Investors.
Earlier in her career, Sarah managed over 40 national and global relationships for J.P. Morgan's Institutional and Private Asset Management practice.
Sarah earned her BA from Dartmouth College and completed several months of outdoor leadership courses at both Colorado Outward Bound School and NOLS.
Michael Margetts - Michael is a financial professional who has gained a diverse skill set through helping manage companies that are in various grow cycles, that fall within unique industries and that utilize corporate structures ranging from single-owner to worker-owned co-operative. He leverages years of practical experience in Accounting, Human Resources, Organizational Management, and Administrative Acumen to provide the “behind the scenes” support that helps keep the Operations and Finance departments efficiently serving Blu Skye.
Prior to Blu Skye, Michael has held financial positions for companies in the wine and entertainment industries. He has acted as corporate officer and trusted advisor to firms with whom he has been associated.
Michael is a Certified Public Accountant, in the State of California. He received his MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He is a native Californian, who enjoys all the benefits of the beauty and the bounty that the State offers.
Sean Martin - Sean’s focus is on ensuring that his children have a healthy prosperous planet to live on. That motive has proven to be a perfect catalyst for helping his clients achieve breakthrough results in capturing new revenue opportunities, strengthening their brand, reducing costs, and other forms of growth and profitability. He brings a decade of experience in helping companies create long term competitive advantage through skills in clarifying direction, planning for action and improving team effectiveness. Leading engagements focused on new market entry, supply chain, organizational redesign, culture change, etc., has led him to conclude that sustainability has taken a seat at the table of CEO’s who aspire to long term organizational health and performance.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, he was a founding member of The Trium Group, a boutique strategy consulting firm. Before making the shift to business management, Sean worked in the field of psychology and provided counseling under the supervision of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health - which some might assert is perfect preparation for working in many of today's corporate environments.
Recent clients include: Hilton, Walmart, Waste Management, Microsoft, Sony Pictures and Burt’s Bees.
He received his BA from Boston University, his MBA from the University of California at Davis, and studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Julie Menter - Julie works with clients to design and implement ambitious strategies that capture lasting competitive advantage. Through her work, she seeks to transform society by providing people with choices that are better for them and for the world.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Julie was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in the San Francisco office. She has 3+ years of experience working on projects ranging from developing strategies based on rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis to implementing major company transformations. She also created and lead the office’s green team. Prior to that experience, Julie worked for nonprofits in India and China, helping them develop their long term strategy.
At Blu Skye, she has helped Microsoft roll out its sustainability targets globally and Walmart define its sustainable agriculture strategy.
Julie has an MBA from the Ecole de Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (Paris, France). In her free time, Julie is a leader of the Net Impact San Francisco Professional Chapter. She loves to bake desserts, scheme about saving the world and explore the great California outdoors.
Carrie Merget - Carrie believes in the synergies that are created when the right group of people, take on the biggest and most pressing challenges, at exactly the precise time. Her passion lies in supporting those emerging synergies at Blu Skye and finding the best methods to leverage her colleagues in tackling sustainability head on. Through those efforts, Carrie plays a key role in client services, executive support and internal Blu Skye operations.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Carrie worked in winery and vineyard production at a premium winery in the world-renowned Russian River Valley, Sonoma County. In that role, she supported the winemaker and vineyard operations director with recommendations for new methods, procedures, and equipment to improve operational efficiencies. In preparation for harvest each year, she put data models to work in developing custom crop estimates and worked daily with growers to ensure the highest quality of wine grapes.
Carrie received her MBA with Chancellors List honors from The University of South Australia in Adelaide, South Australia. She also graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Chico with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Business. Carrie is an avid traveler, voracious reader and enjoys spending weekends working on her new home in west Sonoma County.
Tom Miller - Tom helps leaders drive major transformation efforts by working with them to develop inspired visions, clarify and align behind overall strategy, and build high performing teams and cultures. With over 20 years of consulting and management experience, Tom has expertise in vision and strategy development, organization design, leadership development, governance, and change management. He draws on a broad range of tools and practices to help organizations create solutions that work and teams that deliver results. Tom brings a deep personal commitment to creating and implementing profitable sustainability strategies inside the world’s largest companies.
Prior to Blu Skye, Tom co-founded The Trium Group, a leadership and strategy consulting firm. Prior to co-founding Trium, Tom was the President of a consulting firm focused on leadership and culture change. Earlier, he was a Principal with A.T. Kearney, where he helped establish the firm's West Coast Financial Institutions practice and grow it into the leading FI practice in the region. He also led several intellectual capital initiatives and won an award for his contribution to the firm's thought leadership. After leading strategic initiatives for a division of American Express, Tom began his consulting career in Europe with OC&C Strategy Consultants, a McKinsey/Bain spin-off.
Tom has served as a trusted advisor to CEO’s and top management teams and led engagements inside AXA, Bank of America, Barclays Global Investors, Cisco, Gap, Genentech, eBay, Kaiser Permanente, Lufthansa, and Nokia.
Tom has a B.A. in International Studies from the University of the Pacific. He received a Certificate of Proficiency in French Language and Economics and completed the business curriculum at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Rouen, France. He has lectured on leadership issues and high performance teaming at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. Tom lives in the Bay Area, where on weekends he can be found hiking Mt. Tamalpais with his family or training for his next triathlon.
Clinton Moloney - Clinton has ten years of experience in strategy consulting in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and South East Asia. His work displays a passion for strategy development and execution with a focus on leadership and culture change. He has consulted to leading companies across a broad range of industries including health care, pharmaceuticals, communications, finance, software, consumer electronics and consumer packaged goods.
Clinton’s expertise is in:
• Designing and facilitating processes that enable senior business leaders to jointly define and become truly aligned on the strategic agenda and their role in executing on it.
• Partnering with business and functional leaders to build the organizational capabilities, processes and structures that equip the business to execute decisively
• Helping great leaders engage, enroll and mobilize others into taking action - bringing the entire organization along with them.
Most recently, Clinton was Managing Consultant with the Trium Group – a boutique strategy consulting firm – in San Francisco. At Trium, Clinton worked closely with executive leadership teams, helping them clarify purpose, implement strategy, and develop the leadership mindsets and skills required to execute as a high-performance organization. In the past year, Clinton lead a client team at a leading software company to create more explicit connection between corporate strategy, product strategy and go-to-market approach that resulted in a $100M improvement in efficiency. Prior to that, Clinton lead a team working with the CEO to create a step change in the performance of the executive leadership team and its ability to build the culture needed to execute on a new market strategy.
Clinton holds a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering with first class honors from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business focusing on organizational behavior, marketing and finance.
Having lived in number of cities and countries, Clinton now calls San Francisco home. In his spare time, Clinton enjoys contributing to San Francisco Bay Area non-profit organizations, working with Stanford Alumni Consulting Team, skiing, travel and photography.
Ellie Moss - Ellie works in partnership with clients to craft and execute strategic initiatives and transformational business plans. Ellie is passionate about finding innovative, market-based solutions to solve environmental problems and make businesses more sustainable.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Ellie was a Project Leader with The Boston Consulting Group in the Washington D.C. office where she worked across a range of industries including retail, technology, telecom and non-profit. Ellie’s work in sustainability began during business school working with Common Good Ventures to develop a strategic growth plan for a social enterprise business in sustainable agriculture. Ellie is also a co-founder of TerraPass, a provider of carbon offsets to consumers and businesses through a diverse portfolio of certified offset projects.
In Ellie's most recent client engagement she advised Microsoft on the creation and launch of their Environmental Sustainability Strategy, focusing in particular on opportunities to leverage technology to enable businesses to achieve massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Ellie received her MBA with honors from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where she concentrated in Operations and Information Management. She also graduated from Brown University magna cum laude with a dual bachelor’s degree in Economics and Public Policy. She is fluent in Spanish and a Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher.
John Nixon - John applies his studies in governance and organizational effectiveness to Blu Skye's project teams and client services. John has a broad background in science, project management and grants administration.
Prior to Blu Skye, John performed emissions modeling at The Public Policy Institute of California, represented Nauru in the 32nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, worked in project administration at The Institute for Genomic Research (now the J. Craig Venter Institute), designed a laser metrology system at Oxford University's Department of Particle Physics, and studied water quality with Stroud Water Research Center.
John was awarded an A.B. in Physics and Math from Dartmouth College and later earned a Master of Environmental Management, focusing in Policy, Economics and Law, from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. In 2000, John was the forestry specialist on the Pennsylvania team that placed first at the international championships for the Canon Envirothon.
Leslie Oestreicher - Leslie enjoys helping organizations capture value from innovations in sustainability. She specializes in helping organizations recognize opportunities for environmentally responsible changes by understanding organizational strengths, applying the latest technologies, and anticipating emerging issues. Leslie’s areas of expertise include strategy, marketing and project management.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Leslie worked in the fields of health care consulting, marketing for a consumer packaged goods company, and strategy for non-profits and foundations. Leslie has studied art in Amsterdam, learned Zulu in South Africa and designed infant incubators in Nepal.
Leslie’s recent clients include Walmart and the University of Arkansas’s Applied Sustainability Center.
Leslie graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude from Yale University with a double major in History and International Studies. She also received her MBA from Stanford University with a certificate from the Public Management Program.
Laurel Peacock - Laurel applies her expertise of project management to coordinating client and team interactions. Her engendered passion for the natural environment extends into her business-minded leadership skills through her background in organizational psychology and economics.
Prior to Blu Skye, Laurel spent 4+ years in the wine industry in Oregon and California in Marketing and PR. At her most recent position at a multinational winery in Napa Valley, she honed her writing and collateral skills, acted as a non-profit liaison to domestic and international firms, and coordinated sales and trade events. She consistently applied her passion to this rapidly evolving industry by championing sustainable and biodynamic viticulture efforts.
Laurel was awarded a BA from Claremont McKenna College in Psychology and Leadership. She also studied abroad at University of Melbourne, Australia (where she experienced the coldest backpacking trip of her life in a blizzard in Tasmania). As a testament to her work ethic, she is concurrently finishing up her MBA from San Francisco State University in Sustainable Business. She is a Culinary Institute of America Certified Wine Professional and enjoys hiking and camping in her Montana homeland and the deserts of the American Southwest.
Beth Rattner - Beth enjoys helping companies grow in a healthy and productive way: growing their restorative impact on natural and social issues as well as growing revenue. As an attorney and business consultant to Fortune 500 companies for over 12 years, Beth brings “out of the box” thinking to immediate, practical and actionable steps.
Formerly with Hewlett Packard, Beth helped establish its Emerging Market Solutions (EMS) group, a group established to amplify ecological, social and economic development for the Bottom of the Pyramid and adjacent economic markets, while returning profitable incremental annual revenue for HP. Prior to HP, Beth worked for a Kleiner-Perkins start-up, Icarian, and America Online's AOL.com division, architecting business development strategies and deals.
In addition to her year-long work with Blu Skye where she worked with hospitality, retail and agriculture clients, she is working with sustainability visionaries William McDonough and Michael Braungart on the sequel to Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.
Beth has a J.D. from Loyola Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from U.C.L.A.
Diana Rothschild - Diana thrives when helping today's business leaders envision and execute on strategies that lead to competitive advantage. Diana's experience in merchandising strategy and supply chain, combined with her innate ability to connect stakeholders through common interests allows her to find untapped potential for our clients. She is passionate about leading clients through what's required to use sustainability as a lens to increase profits and regenerating value for society and our planet. Diana exhibits a deep commitment to transforming world-changing and world-leading companies for the better of all stakeholders.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, Diana worked at McKinsey & Co. and, prior to that, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. While at Walmart, Diana was an electronics buyer, an inventory planner, an analyst ensuring top performance for Walmart's top 50 suppliers globally, and one of the core team members who launched Walmart's sustainability efforts in 2004. Earlier, Diana was a Manager at Fitch, a branding and design consulting firm, where she helped brands transform their identity in different retail settings. Diana has also worked in corporate finance at Banc of America Securities, and audit at Deloitte & Touche.
At Blu Skye, Diana has worked extensively with several clients. With Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. she focused on sustainable products merchandising and supply chain strategy, with Dairy Management, Inc. she worked on the industry-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and with the University of Arkansas she helped launch the Applied Sustainability Center. Currently, she works with Waste Management, Inc.
Diana received a B.S. in Business Administration from University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University. Diana lives in San Francisco, where she enjoys running, gardening, and baking.
Leah Seligmann - Leah’s interest lies in the connection between people and the environment. She comes to Blu Skye from the nonprofit sector and is excited about bridging the gap between science and action. Leah’s strength is bringing together the right stakeholders to create long-term solutions that are good for the world and for her client’s bottom line.
Prior to coming to Blu Skye, Leah worked in the fields of conservation and education. She lived in the Galapagos Islands combating invasive plant species and creating a model for sustainable agriculture.
Recent clients include Microsoft and Case Western Reserve University.
Leah graduated from Columbia University and has a BA in Political Science with an emphasis on environmental policy. Leah is an avid traveler, who is happiest when she is hiking, diving, snorkeling or just hanging out in a beautiful place.
Dave Sherman - Dave helps executives formulate and execute breakthrough strategies that combine stakeholder based insights with industry and company specific sources of advantage. At Blu Skye he has focused heavily on helping companies develop sustainability strategies that drive innovation and create business value. He works to fully integrate sustainability into the business model. He has also been instrumental in developing Blu Skye’s approach to industry-level sustainability initiatives for the dairy and magazine industries.
For the past 20 years he has served clients on five continents. He was a founding partner of Sustainable Value Partners and a Vice President with A.T. Kearney where he led an Asia-based practice. Clients include: Wal-Mart, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dairy Management Inc., City of Cleveland, WellPoint, Bunge, Cathay Pacific, Philips Electronics and other leaders in sectors such as agriculture, chemicals, consumer products, energy utilities, financial services, government, healthcare, high-tech, oil and gas, retail, and transportation. During this time Dave has led more than a dozen company-wide and unit-level strategy engagements as well as several dozen operations engagements aimed at improving cost, service, and quality position of clients’ operations.
He earned his doctorate in management at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University where he researched social entrepreneurship and actively participates in the school's Center for Business as an Agent of World benefit. He also holds an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.
Thomas Singer - Thomas is driven by a strong interest in social entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation. He enjoys helping organizations turn conventional business practices into game-changing opportunities that intersect at the triple bottom line.
Thomas has worked in strategy consulting, advising Fortune 50 companies on corporate strategy, growth opportunities, and best-practices. He was also co-founder of the Community Language Bank, a non-profit dedicated to eliminating language barriers in multi-cultural communities. Thomas brings with him an international background as he has lived and worked in South Africa, Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, and Hong Kong.
Thomas supports Blu Skye on select engagements as a freelance consultant. He has worked with Blu Skye clients in diverse industries, focusing on sustainability opportunity assessment and strategy development. Recent clients include Aramark, Microsoft, Waste Management, and WellPoint.
Thomas graduated from Tufts University with a BA in International Relations and a focus on Entrepreneurial Leadership. He received First Place in the Tufts Social Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition, and is also a fellow of the StartingBloc Institute for Responsible Leadership.
John Whalen - John has over 25 years of experience in business strategy, operations, and organizational development working with senior leaders across a variety of industries. His passion is helping organizations understand the interactions between their economic value chain and the broader societal context in order to discover hidden opportunities to create value for their organization and for society. His specialty is creating breakthrough value-creation strategies through “whole system” engagement - convening entire value chains with societal stakeholders, academics, NGOs, and other experts who don't usually work together in conversations they've never had, creating a shared vision of a future they all want to see happen, and aligning around the actions that create real value for the organizations and for society. He uses a variety of methods to break down barriers, challenge assumptions, open avenues for innovation, foster collaboration, and develop leaders who can innovate using the lens of sustainability.
Prior to joining Blu Skye, John was a Partner at Sustainable Value Partners, a Washington-DC based strategy consulting firm focused on integrating sustainability into core business strategy. Before that, John worked with Catalyst Consulting Team, where he focused on strategy implementation and leadership development, and with International Network Services where he consulted on development and operation of enterprise and service provider communications networks. He ran his own business focused on organizational transformation and business process redesign for a number of years, and worked at CSC|Index where he helped develop and implement the ground-breaking business reengineering practice, with special emphasis on the people and organizational side of business process change. John began his career in information systems and specialized in the human and organizational aspects of technological change and the application of information technology to business innovation.
At Blu Skye John has worked extensively with Wal-Mart Stores in their ground breaking sustainability efforts, with Dairy Management, Inc. on the industry-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the US Dairy value chain, and with the University of Arkansas in launching the Applied Sustainability Center. Previous clients have included Verizon, American Express, Intel, NASA, Pfizer, Cable & Wireless, Key Bank, M&T Bank, Nextel, AT&T, NCR, Target Stores, New York Life, Capital Holding Insurance, and Mass Mutual.
John has an M.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame. He has extensive training in facilitation and multi-stakeholder and large group strategy processes including the Appreciative Inquiry Summit and Future Search. He lives with his wife and two children near Washington DC and is currently building a small but beautiful straw-bale walled, passive-solar home with a wood-fired heating system, solar hot water and solar photovoltaic systems with the goal of being carbon neutral at home.
Jenyng Wu - Jenyng has spent over 15 years helping emerging companies, non-profits and local communities understand the social context of diversity, intercultural and interpersonal relations and creating the necessary building blocks for successful organizational development. Her passion lies in the interconnectivity of people and their relationship to each other and understanding the structures needed for fostering healthy, sustainable and successful organizations. She draws on her knowledge of operational functions and their interdependency with each other to find solutions for overall firm management.
Prior to Blu Skye, Jenyng spent five years working for a Taiwan based electronics distribution company. She helped build their US operations and developed tools to streamline communications, production and delivery of goods from factories in China/Taiwan to customers in US and Europe. Prior to that, she was a producer for Las Vegas PBS station KLVX-Channel 10: projects included working with Apple to develop technology ‘how-to’ videos for the State of Nevada’s school system as well as producing an Emmy-nominated international documentary on the social context of China/Taiwan/US relations.
Jenyng received her BA in Communications from Evangel University and holds a Masters in Asia Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco. She is also a certified Zumba instructor and lives with her family in beautiful Sonoma County.
Ryan Young - Ryan helps clients take a structured, data-driven approach to sustainability and decision-making. With over 11 years of consulting and business experience, his expertise lies in business strategy, pricing and demand optimization, economic modeling, market assessment, and competitive analysis. Ryan believes that addressing the impact of human activity on our environment will be one of the defining challenges of our time, and he is thrilled to part of Blu Skye’s efforts to help tackle this issue. His goal is to help consumers and businesses reduce their impact on the environment to ensure that the natural world is respected and preserved for the long term.
Ryan is excited to be able to combine his business skills and experience with his personal interest in and passion for the environment. Prior to joining Blu Skye, Ryan worked in the Strategy Consulting group at BearingPoint, where he helped clients including Wells Fargo, Intel, SYSCO, and Chevron make large business transformations to improve profitability. Ryan’s previous experience also covers corporate strategy (with Wells Fargo), economic consulting (with Law and Economics Consulting Group), transfer pricing and intangible asset valuation (with Ernst & Young), and enterprise software product marketing (with Siebel Systems).
Ryan has helped clients assess and improve their businesses at companies such as: the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy (www.usdairy.com/sustainability), SYSCO Foods, Wells Fargo, Chevron Global Lubricants, and Intel.
Ryan graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Economics and holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He lives in the Bay Area, and enjoys all that the area has to offer, including wine tasting, road biking in Marin, and seeing live music, and he also loves to travel.
Our Team
Blu Skye was founded by Jib Ellison in early 2003 based on his personal epiphany that sustainability was the greatest untapped source of competitive advantage in the 21st century. Since then we have grown into a thriving organization comprised of best in class strategy consultants, scientists and business leaders who realize that sustainability provides access to the only enduring form of long-term business success.
|
