Environmental challenges facing the world today seem daunting, yet they present tremendous opportunities for “eco-entrepreneurs.” Green-tech and innovative environmental strategies show great promise for reviving the economy and improving the environment.

Eco-Entrepreneurship students at the Bren School are trained to advance an innovation along the trajectory from science to solution. The Eco-Entrepreneurship Advisory Council (EEAC) guides, supports, and promotes eco-entrepreneurship education at the Bren School, and serves as the primary conduit between the school and the entrepreneurial and investor communities.


Brooks Beard
Partner
Morrison & Foerster
415-268-7339
E-mail

Brooks Beard is a partner in Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office, with a trial and appellate litigation practice focusing on complex commercial matters. His areas of emphasis are intellectual property (patent, trademark, and trade secrets), false or deceptive advertising, and environmental litigation matters, and his clients have come from a range of industries, including Internet technology, semi-conductors, telecommunications, network processing, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, financial, consumer retail, food products, restaurants, and mining.

Mr. Beard sits on the Steering Committee for Morrison & Foerster's Cleantech Practice Group. In this rapidly evolving area, he currently provides counseling and litigation advice on issues surrounding false or
deceptive advertising allegations relating to  environmental or "green" claims made by companies in connection with consumer products and services, as well as on patent infringement matters relating to
clean-tech companies and subject matter. He received is BA from the UC Santa Barbara, his JD, cum laude, from Vermont Law School, and his LLM, with distinction, from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Jim Boyden
Independent Consultant
206-399-8470
E-mail

Jim Boyden, a management consultant for energy projects and investments, served as Director of Energy and Environment Programs within the Technology R&D group at Vulcan, Inc, the investment and project-management company founded by Paul G. Allen. In that role from 2000 to 2009, Mr. Boyden proposed, evaluated, and managed environment- and energy-related projects.

He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of a Vulcan investment company dedicated to producing clean, low-cost energy without greenhouse gas emissions. Before joining Vulcan, Dr. Boyden was senior vice president at Interval Research Corp., an independent R&D firm financed by Allen, and prior to that, he made significant contributions to computing technology as Laboratory Director at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, where he headed the innovation of the inkjet and laser printers. Boyden received his BS and MS degrees in Physics from Carnegie-Mellon University and his PhD in Physics from Caltech. He has more than 25 patents to his name. Mr. Boyden divides his time between residences in Seattle, Wash., and Ojai, Calif.

David Kramer
Senior Staff Software Engineer
Google, Inc.
805-845-8228
E-mail

David Kramer has spent the past eight years building teams and software at Google. After graduating with a BS from the University of the Witwatersrand, and earning his MA and a PhD from Princeton University, he joined Thinking Machines Corp. as a research scientist, and then moved to Oracle. He subsequently founded a software consulting firm that consulted to high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. He retired from the consulting business to captain a sailboat in Mexico. On his return to California, Dr. Kramer joined the founders of startup Vivace Networks as a software architect. After Vivace was acquired by Tellabs, he joined Google, where he led the team responsible for data storage. His current interest is GIS systems. He lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and two children.

Angel Martinez
President & CEO
Deckers Outdoor Corporation
805-967-7611
E-mail

A leader in product and marketing innovation and in recognizing and shaping future trends, Angel Martinez, is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the Reebok portfolio of brands. As one of the Reebok Corporation’s founding employees, Angel’s vision was instrumental in the creation of the Reebok Brand worldwide.

Angel joined Reebok International Ltd. in 1980 as a West Coast sales representative. In 1992, he was appointed president of the Fitness Division for the Reebok Brand. amd twp years later, be was named President and CEO of The Rockport Company, the largest subsidiary of Reebok International Ltd. He was honored as the 1997 Man Of The Year by Footwear News, the leading industry trade publication. Angel retired from Reebok in 2001.

Angel was CEO and Vice Chairman of Keen LLC from 2003 to 2005, when the company was selected “Vendor Partner of the Year” by REI, making Keen the youngest company ever to be so recognized.

Angel joined Deckers Outdoor Corporation 2005 as CEO and President. He was named Chairman of the Board in 2008. Deckers offers six brands of footwear; Teva®, UGG® Australia, TSUBO®, Ahnu®, MOZO®, and Sanuk®. In 2008, Deckers Outdoor was honored as Company of the Year by both Footwear News and Footwear Plus.

Angel is a founding member of the Board of Advisors for the Reebok Human Rights Awards. He serves on the boards of Tupperware, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and the Advisory Board for the Bren School. Angel was named Person Of The Year by Footwear News in 2008, making him one of only two individuals to have received that honor twice.

A native of Cuba, Angel immigrated to the United States in 1958. He is a graduate of the UC Davis, where he was an All-American in cross country and track. Angel and his wife, Frankie, have four children and now live in Santa Barbara.

Edward M. Norton
Senior Advisor – Environment
TPG Capital, L.P.
415-743-1500
E-mail

Edward Mr. Norton works with TPG portfolio companies to develop strategies to reduce costs, environmental impact, and associated risks through energy efficiency and waste reduction, and to seize competitive advantage, increase revenue, and enhance value through environmental innovation. Mr. Norton also participates in TPG’s investment review process for new investments and works with the TPG’s growth fund to identify investments in renewable energy and clean technology companies. TPG Capital is a leading global private investment firm with $47 billion of capital under management across a family of funds. Since the firm's founding in 1992, our investment philosophy has been to create value by investing in change - change created by industry trends, economic cycles or specific company circumstances. TPG invests in companies across a broad range of industries and geographies. Our goal is to help management teams build long-term value that benefits all stakeholders. We structure our private equity investments based on each company's circumstances.

Jordan Ramer
CEO
EV-Connect
310-751-7977
E-mail

As CEO, Jordan Ramer is driving EV Connect forward as a leading Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Solution Provider providing turnkey solutions for vehicle OEMs, vehicle dealers, fleets, businesses, and municipalities. An accomplished technology executive and entrepreneur, Mr. Ramer has provided leadership to growth companies in clean-technology sectors for more than ten years. Before joining EV Connect, he led corporate development for NanoH2O, a venture-backed developer of energy-efficient water-purification technology. Previously, he held executive positions in business development, product management, and marketing at AeroVironment, an electric-vehicle infrastructure developer, where he spent seven years elevating the company into an industry leader, spearheading the company’s international expansion and launching its fleet-management software solution. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ramer held roles in business development, finance, and strategy for several venture-backed technology start-ups, as well as Arthur Andersen. He holds an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School and a BS from Skidmore College.

Marc Stuart
Founding Partner
Allotrope Ventures
510-394-1973
909-489-5668
E-mail

Marc Stuart is a private equity investor in the carbon and clean-energy space. His firm, Allotrope Partners, seeks out early-stage opportunities in technology and execution platforms that are positioned to thrive in the transition to the low-carbon economy. Previously, Mr. Stuart co-founded EcoSecurities in 1997 and departed in the spring of 2010, following transition to full integration as a subsidiary of JP Morgan. With offices in 16 countries, EcoSecurities was a globally leading developer of greenhouse gas-reduction projects and was publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange until it was purchased by JP Morgan in 2009. Marc was Director of New Business Development and also headed up the firm's Government and Regulatory Affairs Group, providing the firms positions within the evolving policy and regulatory processes of the UN, EU, US and elsewhere. He has nearly 20 years of international business development experience in carbon market, project finance and clean energy development across more than 30 countries.

He is currently serving a two-year term as one of two private-sector observers to the World Bank’s $5 billion Clean Technology Fund. In January 2009, he was named one of 30 “Green Heroes” by CNBC European Business magazine.  He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the London School of Economics, and the Claremont Graduate University.

Jack Theimer
Owner
The Theimer Group
805-884-1111
E-mail

Jack Theimer is president of The Theimer Group and chief executive officer of HPJ Media Ventures. For nearly thirty years, Mr. Theimer has acquired, developed, and marketed successful initiatives in real estate, venture projects, and community service. Since 1974, Mr. Theimer has developed projects in Montecito, Calif.; Vail and Beaver Creek, Colo.; and Charleston, SC. In his role as CEO of HPJ Media, Mr. Theimer has grown the media company to include magazine properties in Aspen, Vail, and Summit County, Colo.; Sun Valley, Idaho; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Park City, Utah, as well as investments in such online products as JackRabbit Systems and QuickPlay Media. Mr. Theimer’s community involvement includes having served as co-chairman of the California State Preservation Conference, director of the Santa Barbara Community Environmental Council, trustee of Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, chairman and co-founder of The Good Night Foundation, founding member of Clinton Global Initiative, and presidential appointee to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission. Mr. Theimer earned his BA and JD degrees from the University of Oklahoma, where he won five Big Eight Conference tennis championships. A member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, lives in Santa Barbara.