Cocoanut Grove at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, September 25, 2009

Registration

Sponsor-Exhibitor Benefits

Agenda - Speakers

Photo Gallery

Location - Lodging

Press

Contact

Home

Call for speakers

SPEAKER BIOS

Tony Livoti - President, Monterey Bay International Trade Association (MBITA)

Todd Acker - Regional Sales Manager, International Sales, FedEx Services

Jim Sandoval - Project Engineer, CH2MHILL

Gregory Harris - Commercial Officer, American Consulate General Shanghai

Barbara Sprenger - Chief Executive Officer, Satellite Centers, Inc.

Matthew Steiner - Principal, Hygrid Green Energy

Bob Gough - Secretary, IntertribalCOUP.org
NativeWind.org - NativeEnergy.com

Edward Martinez, Program Director, New Paradigm Seniors Project

Kevin Danaher - Co-founder of Global Exchange, Founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals, and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center

Deborah Walliser - Executive Director, Solsustech Inc.

Marty Kurtovich - Senior Business Development Manager, Chevron Energy Solutions (CES)

Daniel Robin - Managing Director, In3 BioRenewables

Michael C. Elkin - Assistant District Director – Entrepreneurial Development, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

Scott Secrest - Financial Advisor, Natural Investments, LLC

Peter H. Ballinger - Director, Business Development, Small & Medium Enterprise Finance, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)

Crystal A. Zarpas, Esq. - Mann & Zarpas, LLP

Bettina Skehan - Director of Marketing Communications, LonMark International

Jordan Daniels - Director of Business Development, BuildingWise LLC

Tony Livoti
President, Monterey Bay International Trade Association (MBITA)
Another Perspective on the Eco-City, American Style

Tony Livoti has been involved in small business development his entire career – starting and successfully operating a creative management company in Hollywood, a small manufacturing company in Felton, California,  working as a business broker in the sale of businesses throughout the Monterey Bay region and forming and operating an Export Management Company for companies throughout California. (EMC). In 1984, Livoti saw a need for an international trade association for the burgeoning Monterey Bay region and its array of entrepreneurial enterprises, and as a result, founded the Monterey Bay International Trade Association (MBITA). Under his leadership, the MBITA in 1995 became a founding partner in the BAYTRADE public-private sector export promotion program that has helped generate over $350 million in ‘new-to-market’ exports representing exporting companies throughout 17 counties in Northern California.   Under his guidance as its President, MBITA has grown over the years to become a wholly self-sustaining non-profit with over 200 members and clients and foreign cooperative partnerships throughout the Pacific Rim, the European Union, and the Americas. MBITA has also become a leader in California on utilizing web based solutions for conducting, facilitating and consummating global trade transactions for small to mid-sized enterprises.  This includes desktop to desktop global eCommerce training and a web based eTraining program for online global trade in partnership with the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and the GLOBE project.  MBITA manages TradePort.org owned by the L.A. Chamber of Commerce (LACC) and the Bay Area Economic Forum (BAEF) and has created and currently operating the U.S’s first statewide ‘intranet’ for trade promotion services called the TradePort Collaborator supported by 40 public and private sector trade promotion organizations located throughout the California.

Todd Acker
Regional Sales Manager, International Sales, FedEx Services
FedEx and the Environment - Let's Connect the World in Responsible and Resourceful Ways

Todd Acker has been in the transportation industry for 26 years starting with a national LTL carrier in 1983. In 14 years he transferred from Denver to Chicago to Oakland back to Denver and finally back to Chicago. After joining FedEx in 1999, he moved to San Jose and he has been working in the International Market for the last 10 years. Acker is currently the Regional Manager for International Sales responsible for Northern California and the state of Hawaii. He also manages the International Route Development for FedEx's U.S./Japan lane. Acker is a graduate of Northern Colorado University with a degree in Business Administration.

Jim Sandoval
Project Engineer, CH2MHILL
Masdar City - Building the World's First Carbon Neutral/Zero Waste City in Abu Dhabi

Jim Sandoval is a professional engineer at CH2M HILL with 20 years of experience in environmental and civil engineering. He carries out project management and technology support to a variety of clients in pursuit of greenhouse gas management, waste minimization, and energy independence.  In 2007-2008 he was responsible for setting up the logistics to implement the planning, design, construction and operation of the zero waste road map for Masdar City--a $23-billion carbon neutral/zero waste new city and renewable energy technologies research institute currently under construction in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Sandoval lives in Santa Cruz, CA and continues to support the Masdar City program and a number of projects in California. He is currently managing the energy minimization and greenhouse gas reduction plan for the proposed City of Santa Cruz/Soquel Creek Water District desalination facility. The Masdar City Program is owned by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. CH2M HILL is serving as the program manager responsible for implementation of planning, design and construction of the carbon neutral/zero waste new city.

Gregory Harris
Commercial Officer, American Consulate General Shanghai
Clean Tech China:  Market Opportunities and Challenges

Gregory Harris is a Commercial Officer at U.S. Consulate in Shanghai, China where his portfolio encompasses the substantive environmental, energy, construction and rail/marine sectors.  He also leads the China wide environmental team.  Prior to this assignment, Harris served as Commercial Officer at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei office, the Grand Rapids Michigan US Export Assistance Center, and the Kaohsiung office of AIT. Over his career, Harris has been credited with assisting US firms export American products and services valued in the millions of dollars to over twenty-five foreign markets.  He has previous Asia experience in the international non-profit and private sectors.  He has US military experience with the U.S. Air Force as a linguist and intelligence analyst with postings in Japan and Korea.  He has been covering greater China, academically, economically or militarily for over twenty-five years. He is married with two children.

Barbara Sprenger
Cheif Executive Officer, Satellite Centers, Inc.
Back to the Future: The 21st Century Village

Barbara Sprenger is a serial entrepreneur, building an engineering/manufacturing business in the 1980’s and taking it international at a time when this was unusual for small business.  Sprenger holds a patent on an innovative induction heating system developed at that time to help a particular industry meet Clean Air Act requirements.  She sold the company to an Ohio-based multinational that is still building Mountaingate’s products.  Since the mid-1990’s, she has focused on commercial property investment and green development, working with several new energy-efficient building technologies. Sprenger, with three partners, recently founded Satellite Centers, Inc. and opened the pilot for small, connected, neighborhood-based professional workspace for telecommuters, home-based businesses, consultants and startups. Sprenger holds a BA in Economics, Highest Honors, from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Public Policy from the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute and California State University at Monterey Bay.  She has served her community on numerous social service boards and as a twice-elected school district trustee.  She is the mother of four exciting children and four increasingly interesting grandchildren.

Matthew Steiner
Principal, Hygrid Green Energy
Another Perspective on the Eco-City, American Style

Matthew Steiner completed his BA Biology degree in 1996 at UCSC.  He is also a registered licensed nurse working in ICU and ER divisions for nine years. Steiner has been an avid student of renewable energy policy and alternative methods of power production since his teenage years. Recent renewable incentives and a public interest in “GREEN” technology have inspired him to shift his focus to meet our energy requirements. His application of knowledge in biology and practice in nursing has forged a unique holistic approach to meet current energy challenges.  Steiner realized that equilibrium is dynamic and multifaceted and that all aspects of our energy needs must be considered further while recognizing that biology has efficiently and elegantly refined itself for billions of years & holds many solutions to our modern day problems and challenges.

Bob Gough
Secretary, IntertribalCOUP.org
NativeWind.org - NativeEnergy.com
Sustainable Options for Clean Energy in Indian Country:  Generating More and Using Less

Bob Gough is an attorney with graduate degrees in sociology and cultural ecology, with over 30 years experience and two law fellowships on tribal cultural and natural resource issues. The first director of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Utility Commission, Gough participated in WAPA negotiations for tribal allocations of federal hydroelectric power. He is the secretary of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy, an organization composed of federally recognized Indian tribes in the Northern Great Plains providing a forum on rights and resources for utility services on tribal lands, and co-chairs the national assessment’s Native Peoples/Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop, part of the national assessment on climate change and variability through the United States Global Change Research Program and has participated in the Kyoto Protocol COPs 6 in The Hague and the COPs 6b in Bonn as part of the Indigenous Peoples delegation. He also maintains a private law practice in indigenous rights. A member of the Western Governors’ Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Committee, Gough contracts with the Department of Energy (DOE)-Wind Powering America program’s Wind Powering Native America Initiative, and co-directs the NativeWind.org supporting partnerships between ICLEI-Cities for Climate Protection and the Intertribal COUP Tribes interested in building sustainable homeland economies based upon efficiency and renewable energy. The Intertribal COUP plan for tribal wind development across the West was recently recognized with the inaugural World Clean Energy Award forCourage, in Basel, Switzerland.

Edward Martinez
Program Director, New Paradigm Seniors Project
Sustainable Global Models for Senior Care

Edward Martinez is a developer with more than 34 years of promotional, environmental, marketing and non-profit experience; beginning as one of the youngest creative co-directors for the Boston Children’s Museum Haunted House in 1975 at age 15. Over the course of the next 34 years Martinez campaigned with Greenpeace, raising nearly one million dollars while working as 2nd Boson’s mate, Campaign Coordinator and zodiac pilot on the MV Rainbow Warrior.  Martinez helped lead the fight against off shore oil throughout the 80’s, worked to create responsible toxics policies, while helping to build consensus on sustainable environmental strategies in Santa Cruz California. Martinez was a top seller for the largest news paper in Santa Cruz County; was a VP for a computer training company and served as the Development, Marketing and Outreach director for the most effective seniors’ organization on the Central Coast, creating new programs and increasing paid membership more than 25 percent in one year alone. Most recently, one of Martinez’s video productions was submitted for a national Community Television award and he produced a significant metal sculpture for the prestigious River Arts Festival in Santa Cruz. Martinez is a goal driven innovator with excellent peripheral vision and abundant energy, working to create recycling and environmental policies for government and non-profit sectors.  Along the way he has acquired expertise with wide range of recycling practices for large and small businesses, training more than 100 companies in the last 2 years alone.  Martinez has also worked with municipal waste haulers, recyclers and landfill directors to halt the overuse of these resources and to create alternative diversion tactics to help those municipalities work with the non-profit sector to attain a 75% diversion rate.

Kevin Danaher
Co-founder of Global Exchange, Founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals, and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center
Green Jobs and the Global Economy

Dr. Kevin Danaher is a co-founder of Global Exchange (1988), founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals (2001), and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center (2004). He was the founding Board Chair of TransFairUSA, the fair trade certifying agency for the United States. Danaher received his PhD in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and his BA from Sonoma State University. He is the author and/or editor of 13 books, including his latest, The Green Festival Reader: Fresh Ideas from Agents of Change (2008), and Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots (2007).  He has lectured at universities and to community organizations throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. He has appeared on television and radio shows around the country.  He has published articles in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many others. Danaher’s current projects include the Green Festivals (www.greenfestivals.org), a weekend gathering in five cities (co-produced with Green America), comprising 350 green companies, nonprofit social change organizations, more than 100 exciting speakers, organic vegetarian restaurants, diverse live music and much more. His other project, building off the Green Festival, is the Global Citizen Center (globalcitizencenter.org), which is developing a nonprofit building that will bring together green retail, a restaurant, offices of nonprofit social justice and environmental organizations, event spaces, and affordable housing for teachers and first responders in a downtown location in San Francisco. This building is being developed as a prototype that can be replicated in other cities around the world to unite the green economy movement. Danaher has lectured undergraduate and graduate course on subjects such as: Social Enterprise, Triple-Bottom-Line Economics, Accelerating the Transition to the Green Economy, and How to Restructure the Global Economic (dis)Order.

Deborah Walliser
Executive Director, Solsustech Inc.
Low Carbon Footprint Agriculture Production

Deborah Walliser has been involved in the greenhouse and hydroponics industry for more than 12 years. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Botany from North Carolina State University where she studied hydroponic systems for Kennedy space Center used in Shuttle missions.  After moving to Arizona, she obtained her Masters Degree in Education from Northern Arizona University for her work on greenhouse training curriculums.  Working closely with the University of Arizona, Walliser designed and built some of Arizona’s first commercial floating lettuce systems to withstand extreme temperatures.  She also worked with many tribal entities along the Colorado River in Native plant propagation and alternative agriculture methods in addition to tropical plant nurseries and tree farms.  She is a member of the United Fresh Produce Association, International Society of Arboriculture and the Arizona Nursery Association.  Walliser has written and been featured in many articles, newspapers and publications.

Marty Kurtovich
Senior Business Development Manager, Chevron Energy Solutions (CES)
The Power of Community Energy

Marty Kurtovich currently manages business development efforts for Chevron Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of Chevron U.S. A., in San Francisco, CA, His over twenty years of professional experience include positions at the California Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington DC, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company.  His past assignments include development of environmental policies to address groundwater pollution in Silicon Valley, as a Special Assistant in the Clinton Administration worked on sustainable technologies with the Western Governors Association, and developed and evaluated utility energy efficiency programs in California.  Kurtovich’s current focus is on linking the nexus between policy, technology, and economics to enable new markets for green technologies and renewable energy.  Kurtovich’s educational background is in environmental engineering and policy, with degrees from UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University.

Daniel Robin
Managing Director, In3 BioRenewables
Waste to Energy, the Cornerstone for Any Kind of Eco-City

Daniel Robin is managing director of In3 BioRenewables, a market analysis, sustainable technology commercialization, and investment banking services firm based in Santa Cruz, California. In3 assists entrepreneurs with business development, finance strategy, joint venture partnerships, marketing communication and planning, specializing in zero waste, renewable energy, nutraceuticals, and industrial materials. Robin is adjunct professor of management and strategy at Fisher Graduate School of International Business, ranked one of the top schools in the country for entrepreneurship.  Robin has worked with several Fortune 500 companies as well as numerous smaller enterprises building sustainable value including Chemical Fabrics & Film Association, DiverseyLever, Driscoll’s, ExxonMobil Chemical, Government of Kuwait, Hewlett Packard, and Pacific Gas & Electric.  He is author of more than 150 articles published internationally on leadership, sustainability, innovation and business.

Michael C. Elkin
Assistant District Director – Entrepreneurial Development, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
Panel - Finance Your Green Project Through Public and Private Sector Resources
Financing your International Growth in this Challenging Economy

Coming Soon!

Scott Secrest
Financial Advisor, Natural Investments, LLC
Panel - Finance Your Green Project Through Public and Private Sector Resources
Global Warming and Sustainable Cities

Scott Secrest is a fee-only Financial Advisor with Natural Investments, LLC., a socially responsible investment manager with five offices in the western U.S.  managing $70MM in client assets.  Secrest is the author of numerous published articles on various SRI topics and investing.  Secrest also serves as the firm’s Director of Investment Research.  This role requires the continual evaluation,  modeling and management of the broad range of socially responsible and alternative energy investments in the marketplace.  Secrest is a graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. and has been licensed in the securities business for more than 20 years.  He presently holds an Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS®) designation.  Secrest has headed the Natural Investments office in San Luis Obispo since 2005.

Peter Ballinger
Director, Business Development, Small & Medium Enterprise Finance, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
Panel - Finance Your Green Project Through Public and Private Sector Resources
U.S. Government Support for Foreign Investment

OPIC POSITION Peter Ballinger of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is a Director in the Small and Medium Size Enterprise Finance Department in charge of business development and marketing for OPIC’s fast-growing SME lending programs, including OPIC’s recently launched Environmental Loan Initiative. He joined OPIC in 1986 in a position promoting U.S. investment in the Middle East/Africa region.  Since 1989, Ballinger has concentrated much of his efforts at OPIC on developing new finance and insurance projects in the Europe/Eurasia region.  This included a five-year assignment as the OPIC Director at the Caspian Finance Center, a joint regional office of OPIC, the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the U.S. Trade and Development agency based in Turkey.  From this regional office, OPIC completed the first small business projects in countries such as Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey as well as several power generation and energy transport projects.  From 1992-1995, Ballinger was the Director of Marketing; prior to this, Ballinger managed investment development and outreach activities in the Asia, Africa and Latin American region.  He also managed two successful USAID-funded investment promotion projects for the Latin America (1990-1992) and Africa (1990-1994) regions and oversaw the establishment of OPIC’s first overseas office, in Moscow, Russia, in 1992. PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE Before joining OPIC, Ballinger worked for several years at the Washington International Center of Meridian International in a variety of international economic program positions.  Prior to this, he owned and operated a sports-related travel company with operations in the eastern United States and western Europe.  He has lived and worked in some 10 countries, including Turkey, the Philippines, Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, Panama, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. EDUCATION Ballinger received his M.S. in International Business from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in International Relations from the American University.

Crystal A. Zarpas, Esq.
Mann & Zarpas, LLP
Successful Legal Strategies for Green Project Subcontractors

Crystal A. Zarpas has been an attorney in Los Angeles for the past 27 years.  Her practice focuses on legal representation of clients in connection with real estate and corporate matters and commercial business transactions.  Zarpas has represented real estate clients since the mid-1980’s and her real estate experience includes representation of owners and contractors/sub-contractors in connection with residential and commercial projects.  Likewise, Zarpas has extensive experience representing landlords and tenants in connection with commercial leases, with a particular emphasis on shopping mall leases.  Rounding out Zarpas’ real estate experience is representation of buyers and sellers in commercial and residential sales and exchanges. An integral part of Mann & Zarpas’ practice is representation of clients in real property litigation matters, including, Foreclosure issues, Construction Claims/Defect cases, commercial Landlord/Tenant issues, Homeowner Association issues, Rent Control issues and Unlawful Detainer cases. Having served as an officer and on the Board of many professional groups, Zarpas is well known in many circles of the legal community.  She also has served as President of City of Hope Apparel Industries Group, and for many years, has acted as the West Coast Consultant to the New York based publication, “The Fashion Mannuscript.” Zarpas regularly lectures on legal issues at various venues, including the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, the Otis School of Fashion Design, Cal State University at Northridge, and the University of Southern California. Additionally, Zarpas has participated as a panelist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Counterfeiting and Piracy Awareness Conference, the American Apparel & Footwear Association “Knock It Off” Conference, the San Fernando Valley Economic Summit and the First Annual Green Trade Network Summit.  Likewise, Zarpas has been consulted by various publications, including the California Apparel News, the Los Angeles Times, the San Fernando Business Journal and LA Weekly, in connection with various legal issues. Zarpas is a founding partner of MANN & ZARPAS, LLP which offers expertise in real estate matters, business transactions and general civil and business litigation matters.

Bettina Skehan
Director of Marketing Communications, LonMark International
Open Standards Creates Greater Opportunities for Green Projects

Bettina Skehan is the Director of Marketing Communications for LonMark International. LonMark International is a member-driven, non-profit trade organization that has helped build a multi-billion dollar industry based on the LonWorks networking platform. Before joining LonMark International in May 2007, Skehan was self-employed and prior to that she worked as Product Marketing Manager at Kycon, Inc. Skehan has published articles for Connector Specifier and Electronic Products. Skehan received her BA in Communications from CBS (Copenhagen College of Business Studies).

Jordan Daniels
Director of Business Development, BuildingWise LLC
Cash for Trash: The Case for Deconstruction, Reuse and LEED

Jordan Daniels is the Director of Business Development for BuildingWise LLC, a local green building consulting firm, and a LEED Accredited Professional since 2005 with over eight years of experience in the built environment, most recently as Project Manager for Daniels & House Construction Co., a general building contractor in California.  He has recent experience managing LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance projects such as 525 Market Street in San Francisco (1.1 million square feet) and Chevron Park (14-building campus) in San Ramon, as well as Uptown Monterey, the first LEED certified (Silver) shopping center in California.  Daniels is the Co-Chair of the Monterey Bay Branch of the USGBC, Northern California Chapter.  Daniels recently made a documentary film (www.deconstructiondvd.org) to educate communities about LEED and deconstruction as an alternative to demolition, which features his experience with the Uptown Monterey project.