20 Leading Green Execs

In business, some changes are the results of shifts in supply and demand, or new technological advances. But for a single business to have an effect on an industry, or on the world beyond that industry—that requires a visionary leader. We at Sustainable Industries tip our hats to some of the new “green” business leaders in five categories:

• Entrepreneurs, leaders who have taken large gambles to launch “green” businesses and have since turned them into giant success stories;
• Midsize Movers, leaders in the finance, investment and consulting realm who are putting money and management know-how to work for new ideas;
• Corporate Kingpins, leaders within larger corporations striving to broker economy-wide change;
• Advocates, leaders who work to draft and change policy and public opinion in favor of a “green” economy; and
• Visionaries, leaders whose passion for environmental innovation and responsible business has inspired their industries to reach new heights.

---

The Entrepreneurs
Janie Lowe and Virginia Young  »  Founders
Yolo Colorhouse  »  Portland
Janie Young and Virginia Lowe’s creativity and a unique blend of commitment to environmentally sound products, beautiful color palettes and good design have helped differentiate the Yolo Colorhouse brand in the $82 billion global paint industry. Last year, the company grew from five people to 26 people on staff and moved its manufacturing to Wisconsin, setting the stage for national distribution.  Read more


Peter Liu » Founder
New Resource Bank » San Francisco
A former senior vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston and vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank, Liu and a deep roster of Bay Area shareholders founded New Resource Bank in September 2006. Among the bank’s offerings are solar power financing packages for homeowners and financial incentives for green building developers. The bank doubled its assets to $50 million within its first six months.

Kathleen O’Brien » President
O’Brien & Co. » Seattle
A nationally recognized expert in the field of sustainable design, construction and development, Kathleen O’Brien has been instrumental in developing green building programs that have certified more than 6,000 homes. O’Brien is a prolific author with numerous educational texts to her name, including the recently released “Northwest Green Home Primer.”

Brian Rohter » CEO
New Seasons Market » Portland
Brian Rohter and his wife Eileen Brady co-founded New Seasons Market in 1999 with a handful of other local food business families. Since then, Rohter has led the market to open nine new stores and launch an online shopping and delivery service, all while maintaining its commitment to regional food systems. New Seasons plans to open its 10th store in 2009.

---

The Midsize Movers
David Williams  »  CEO  » 
ShoreBank Pacific »  Ilwaco, Wash.
David Williams never imagined that he’d be running a community-focused bank in the town his ancestors founded several generations ago. But when ShoreBank Pacific tapped him in 2000 to take over the bank, headquartered in Ilwaco, Wash., he agreed, eager to fully develop the bank’s sustainability strategy. With Williams at the helm, the bank’s assets grew from $10 million in 2000 to $155 million in 2006, and its loans grew from $2 million to $166 million in the same time frame, according to Williams. Read more

Lois Gordon » President
Ecos Consulting » Portland
Over the past decade Gordon has turned Ecos into the go-to consulting firm for West Coast businesses seeking to make a shift towards sustainability. In addition to traditional corporations, Gordon has worked with utilities throughout the West Coast to focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. In 2007 Gordon led the formation of Ecos’ Climate Solutions division, created to help companies navigate the emergent North American carbon markets.

John Rockwell » Managing Director
Element Partners » Menlo Park, Calif.
Rockwell has been investing in energy technologies for longer and more successfully than most of the VC community. At Element Partners (formerly DFJ Element), he has led his team to raise some of the largest cleantech funds in the industry. In 1996, Rockwell was a partner at Advent International Corp., where he managed the firm’s California office and participated in the direct investment activities of both Advent’s EnviroTech and Advent Energy II funds—some of the most successful clean energy venture funds to date.

Steve Straus » CEO/President
Glumac » Portland
Straus led his West Coast engineering firm’s shift to focus solely on green building, and credits that shift with the company’s phenomenal growth over the past several years. Glumac’s staff has grown by 39 percent since 2001, when the company began focusing on green buildings. Although Glumac has 19 LEED-certified projects under its belt, including the Platinum-rated Gerding Theater at the Armory in Portland, and 33 LEED-registered projects in process, Straus is passionate about taking green building beyond LEED’s 17 energy-related credits.

---

The Corporate Kingpin
Peter Darbee  »  CEO
PG&E  »  San Francisco
It's not terribly often that a Republican investment banker becomes an advocate for the environment. But, since taking the helm of Pacfic Gas & Electric Co. (NYSE: PGC) in 2005, CEO Peter Darbee has shocked environmentalists and analysts alike by rising the occasion and making PG&E not only profitable—with an average 7 percent year-on-year growth in earnings—but also an environmental leader with substantial investments in renewable energy sources, energy-efficiency initiatives and green-collar job training. Read more

Carl Bass » CEO
Autodesk » San Rafael, Calif.
Leading the charge to integrate advanced building information modeling (BIM) capabilities and LEED criteria into the software most of the world’s architects and engineers use, Bass is helping to increase the uptake of green building practices by providing a simple software tool that makes it easier.

Bonnie Nixon-Gardiner » Global Program Manager » Supply Chain Social & Environmental Responsibility
Hewlett-Packard » Palo Alto, Calif.
Nixon-Gardiner deserves credit for being the main voice that spurred high-tech giants to police the global supply chain. She helped to draft and promote the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct and has been a tireless champion for transparency and responsibility in the supply chain for several years.