GreenBiz 23 Program

Karlina Wu has 8+ years of combined experience in sustainability software and strategy consulting for public and private industries on energy, climate, and transportation. Karlina leverages a strong background in business operational improvement to understand, strategize, and solve complex problems with clients.At 3Degrees, Karlina helps clients measure their carbon emissions, set ambitious climate targets, and develop reduction strategies, including renewable energy procurement, carbon procurement, fleet decarbonization and supplier engagement programs.

Will Thelander is a third-generation Arizona farmer. He works with Bridgestone tire company and The University of Arizona on developing a bio rubber plant called guayule.

Sally oversees Forum for the Future’s mission to accelerate transformation to a just and regenerative future. This involves working with global businesses such as HSBC and Walgreens Boots Alliance, as well as a wide range of other non-profit, membership and philanthropic organisations. This work takes the form of both one to one partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaborations, all designed to address complex challenges in systems as diverse as from food to apparel. Sally has recently contributed to Forum’s 'Business Transformation Compass' - a guide to just and regenerative business, as well as co-authored ‘Driving Co-Benefits for Climate and Health’, private sector guidance for developing integrated climate and health strategies. Sally is a regular speaker at international conferences and has had articles published in a wide variety of media outlets. She is an independent advisor on Advisory Boards for several global businesses including Kimberly Clark and Burberry and also Co-Chair of the Independent Advisory Group for Travalyst, the global travel and tourism collaboration led by the Duke of Sussex.

Alisha Bellezza has over two decades of finance and chemical industry experience and leads Chemours’ Thermal & Specialized Solutions business (formerly fluorochemicals).Alisha joined Chemours in 2015, where she helped to establish and led the investor relations function at spin. Within a year, she also took on the role of vice president and treasurer during which she led the company's first public debt offering post-spin, helped increase financial flexibility and liquidity, and initiated a share repurchase program.Always ready to take on new opportunities, in her third year with Chemours Alisha stepped into the vice president, global sales, commercial operations and supply chain for the Titanium Technologies business where she delivered significant business growth in her first six months. She also developed and implemented new go-to-market strategies, including an e-commerce platform, innovative pricing mechanisms and differentiated offerings.Before joining Chemours, Alisha held positions in investor relations, corporate strategy & development, and finance at FMC Corporation in the Agricultural Products Group and at the corporate level. She began her career as a financial analyst in banking at Bank One Corporation and First Bank & Trust, holding progressive leadership positions before joining Verizon Communications.Alisha received her Bachelor of Science in economics from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and earned her Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Sophie Gilbert is the Senior Lead for Natural Capital Development at NCX. Sophie works to expand ecosystem service credits beyond carbon to include wildlife and biodiversity and other key benefits that nature provides, and to help build natural capital markets. For more than 15 years, Sophie has advanced the fields of ecology and conservation to support sustainable wildlife populations in the changing modern world. She’s worked across diverse systems from Alaska through Canada and into the heart of the American West, and collaborated with interdisciplinary scientists, natural resource agencies, NGOs, indigenous groups, stakeholders, and citizen scientists. Sophie previously worked as a tenured professor at the University of Idaho, as well as work at the University of Alaska and University of Alberta and in environmental consulting. She earned her B.Sc. from the University of California Los Angeles and her Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Marisa is the Head of Corporate Sustainability in the Global Sustainability Office at Morgan Stanley. In her role she manages firm-wide sustainable operations strategy, supply chain ESG integration, and employee engagement around sustainability. Through these main areas, Marisa’s work seeks to drive impact, improve efficiency and promote meaningful dialogue with employees on ESG topics. Since joining Morgan Stanley, she has been working toward the Firm’s dual goals of 100% renewable electricity and carbon neutrality. Her past experience in the sustainability field includes roles that span environmental policy and sustainable operations at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the New York City Department of Education. Marisa holds a BS in Biology and Chemistry from Denison University and a MS in Sustainability Management from Columbia University.

Laurel Davis is Fannie Mae’s Senior Vice President of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) & Mission reporting to the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer. In this role, Ms. Davis will be responsible for setting Fannie Mae's ESG and Mission agenda in concert with critical enterprise stakeholders (regulators, Board, and Management Committee) and ensuring that the firm is operating in a way that is consistent with those standards and strategy.

Prior to her present appointment, Ms. Davis was the Vice President for Credit Risk Transfer. She was responsible for developing and executing strategies to transfer credit risk associated with Single-Family’s guaranty business to the Capital Markets and private investors. This included leading the enterprise’s flagship Connecticut Avenue Securities (CAS) program. Before that, Ms. Davis was Fannie Mae’s Vice President for the Single-Family Investor Channel where she was responsible for sourcing, pricing, and executing bulk single-family mortgage transactions with Fannie Mae customers.  Before joining Fannie Mae in 2001, Ms. Davis was Vice President of Finance at First Republic Bank in San Francisco where she was responsible for the bank’s capital markets activities and balance sheet management, including the bank’s private label securitization program. Previously, she served as Vice President of Secondary Marketing at Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation where she was responsible for directing all loan trading and securitization activities, planning loan sales strategy, developing products, and managing investor and industry relationships. 

Ms. Davis has a Bachelor of Arts in economics and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of business administration in finance from the University of Maryland.

Shally leads Vivid Economics’ North America office and serves a wide range of corporate, financial, and public sector clients on net zero strategies, standards, risk and sectoral decarbonization pathways. Prior to joining Vivid, Shally was Acting CEO of Concordian LLC, a global advisory firm working to advise companies on climate risks and opportunities. Before Concordian, Shally founded and ran a pioneering mortgage fintech startup in the U.S.  Shally previously led the private sector climate finance team within the World Resources Institute (WRI), and created the first GHG protocol guide for financial institutions She started her career at Morgan Stanley, as a banker in their fixed income and microfinance institutions groups.

Julian Moffatt is the Principal Solutions Strategist, ESG for VelocityEHS. Julian contributes his expertise in ESG product creation for VelocityEHS, and oversees the ESG team. Prior to working at VelocityEHS, he has had a multitude of EHS experience, ranging from Vice President of Client Solutions at e3 Solutions, EHS Solutions Manager at Blue292 Inc, and Environmental Health Safety Specialist at Caribou Systems Corporation. Julian studied Environmental Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario.

Helene oversees Neste North America’s supply chain sustainability in Europe and the Americas. Prior to joining Neste, Helene started her career at the French Ministry of Defense and later worked for the Qatar Foundation and Shell. Helene earned her Ph. D in Political Science from Sciences Po, Paris. 

Deepa Poduval is a Senior Vice President, leading the Global Advisory Practice within Black & Veatch. In
this role, she provides executive leadership for Black & Veatch’s Strategic and Digital Advisory Services
including support for a wide variety of clients related to transactions due diligence, regulations, business
strategy, energy market planning, asset & risk management, operational technologies and infrastructure
modernization needs. Clients span governments, and electric, water, oil & gas, commercial, industrial
and financial sectors across the Americas, Europe and Asia who seek strategic and technical expertise
related to their critical infrastructure as they pursue goals around Sustainability, Growth and Resilience. 
Deepa also leads Black & Veatch’s strategic solutions related to Decarbonization and serves on Black &
Veatch’s DE&I Council. Deepa brings substantial finance, utility, and energy industry knowledge and has
advised various clients on strategic responses to key issues impacting their business. These issues
recently include creating executable pathways to achieve net-zero objectives incorporating project
viability, risk and future growth.

Todd Cline currently serves as Sr Director of Sustainability for Procter & Gamble’s North America Fabric Care organization. In this role, Todd is responsible for leading sustainability ambitions and programs to achieve them for industry leading brands such as Tide, Gain, Downy, Dreft, and Bounce. He plays a critical role in leading sustainability efforts, including focus on cold water cleaning, reducing overall emissions/Net Zero, and achieving packaging ambitions. Prior to joining the North America Fabric Care team, Todd spent more than 20 years in a variety of R&D leadership roles at P&G and has lead product innovation launches across the U.S. and Europe. He earned an MBA from Xavier University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky.

Jay Watson leads efforts to advance progress on General Mills global impact initiatives, notably the 2030 regenerative agriculture commitment and enterprise climate ambition. In his role, Jay collaborates with farmers, farm advisors, NGOs, suppliers and retailers to deploy programs seeking to improve ecological and economic outcomes of agricultural systems in targeted supply sheds.

Prior to joining the Global Impact Team in 2017, Jay spent 10 years in a variety of buying roles within the company’s global sourcing organization. Jay holds B.S. in Finance and a B.S. in Economics from Arizona State University and a MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

David is a Product Manager at C3 AI, where he focuses on designing AI-enabled enterprise sustainability software. Prior to joining C3 AI, David was the Director of Research – Projects at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (now part of IFRS) where he co-led the team that developed the SASB sustainability disclosure standards. David also led efforts at SASB to drive convergence among ESG reporting standards, working extensively with other standard-setters, regulators, investors, and companies. David has an MBA from UC Berkeley – Haas as well as undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Dan “Sunny” Schlesinger, CPA, is the Director of Finance at The Sustainability Consortium where he leads the Circular Economy ROI Task Force aimed at unlocking the financial benefits of circularity projects. Schlesinger served as the Sr Finance Manager at the Health and Happiness Group, and before that as a financial analyst at the Competitor Group, Inc and audit and tax lead at Leaf & Cole, LLP. Schlesinger received his Master of Accountancy and Bachelor of Accounting from Case Western Reserve University. His expertise lies in problem solving, budgeting and forecasting, and communicating with executive teams. He is passionate about combating climate change and the outdoors. He recently spent 2 years in an RV traveling the country with his wife and Australian shepherd named Arya.

Elba is a finance and strategy professional with 20+ years of experience at UPS. She’s held roles in Finance, Investor Relations, Marketing and Strategy. In 2021, she joined the Sustainability team as Director Stakeholder Engagement. In this role she devises and executes strategies to influence value creation for all UPS Stakeholders including employees, customers, communities, suppliers and investors through environmental care, social responsibility and governing ethically – ESG. Elba was the Chair of the UPS Hispanic Business Resource Group, Crecer. During her leadership, Crecer was recognized as the #1 Hispanic Employee Resource Group by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Latina Style Magazine. Elba is also the founder of a 501(c)(3) social impact organization seeking 50% women in senior leadership positions by influencing change in workplace cultures and talent management practices. Elba holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and a Master of Science in Supply Chain Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. She was named one of the 50 Most Influential Latinos in Georgia by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and serves on the board of The Women’s Collective, an initiative to promote and enhance women leaders. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and enjoys growing hybrid tea roses.

Josh's primary focus is deploying Pachama’s technology to grow landowner and local implementation partner projects to protect and restore forests. Prior to joining Pachama, Josh worked for 15 years at The Nature Conservancy building carbon programs and partnerships for landowners. In his last role, he created and led the Conservancy’s American Forest Carbon Initiative (AFCI) which included the Working Woodlands Program and the Family Forest Carbon Program in partnership with American Forest Foundation.

Anastasia O’Rourke serves as a Managing Director at the Carbon Containment Lab. She has 20 years experience in the environmental sustainability field, as a consultant, entrepreneur, and researcher in Australia, Sweden, France and the US.  Anastasia has specific subject matter expertise in standards and certification systems, cleantech venture investing, and sustainable and green purchasing. Prior to joining the CC Lab, Anastasia was a Senior Technical Consultant with Industrial Economics, where she led a sustainability consulting practice working with federal and state governments, large companies, NGOs, and International organizations on program design, management and evaluation. She co-founded Big Room Inc, developers of the .ECO top level domain and the Ecolabel Index website. She was also a founding Board member of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), a US based 501c3 non-profit. 

Anastasia holds a Ph.D. from Yale University with a dissertation focused on cleantech venture investing, a M.Sc. in industrial environmental management and policy from Lund University, Sweden, and a B.A. with first class honors from Sydney University, Australia, for which she was awarded the University Medal. 

Sally Flis, CCA, Ph.D. Sally Flis is the Senior Manager, Sustainability Field with Nutrien Ag Solutions. In this role, Sally is responsible for the engagement of Nutrien Ag Solutions retail business with sustainability initiatives across the United States. Sally joined Nutrien Ag Solutions in January 2021 and has been working in that time with growers and crop consultants across the U.S. on the implementation of sustainability programs around carbon emissions, carbon sequestration, and improved crop production efficiency. Prior to working at Nutrien Ag Solutions, Sally was the Senior Director of Agronomy at The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) in Washington D.C. While at TFI, Sally worked on the expansion of 4R Nutrient Stewardship programs in the U.S., including language in the 2018 Farm Bill to include a new high priority research area on the source, rate, timing, and placement of fertilizer nutrients. Sally started her career in agriculture working with growers in Vermont and New York to implement CAFO nutrient management plans and is currently enjoying reconnecting with growers in her role at Nutrien Ag Solutions. Sally is passionate about agricultural sustainability and the economic sustainability of growers in the U.S.

Dr. Van Butsic employs geospatial analysis and statistical modeling to improve nature-based carbon removal.He leverages his expertise in forest science to help clients understand the principles for high-quality carbon removal in the forestry sector. He works closely with Carbon Direct's tech team to integrate science with software.Before joining Carbon Direct, Dr. Butsic was an Associate Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialists at UC Berkeley where he combined novel econometric methods with geospatial analysis to understand the causes and consequences of land use policy. Dr. Butsic has developed methods to look at diverse drivers of land use change including carbon offsets, protected areas, wildfires, agricultural subsidies, war, and the regulation of illicit drugs.