Jury
Eben Bayer
Ecovative
Eben uses biology to create disruptive solutions that are good for people and the planet. He has evangelized a strategy of bio-adaption around the world, including presentations at TED Global, PopTech, and Davos.
Eben is the CEO and co-founder Ecovative, a bio-materials company that grows sustainable materials and products using unique living organisms. Ecovative has been recognized by the World Economic forum as a Tech Pioneer, for its potential impact on climate change by the PostCode Lottery Green Challenge, and recently won a environmental quality award from the EPA. Ecovative has been widely covered in the media, including articles in Wired Magazine, Popular Science, and Time.
Mike Biddle
MBA Polymers
Mike is a global expert in the field of recycling plastics. He has 30 years of experience in the plastics field, and has been developing plastics recycling technology for about 20 of those.
Mike is the founder of MBA Polymers Inc., which and developed a commercial process for recovering plastics from products like computers, sport equipment, electronics, appliances and cars.
His work began in a garage and has grown to become a multinational company that designed, built and now operates some of the most advanced plastics recycling facilities in the world. Mike and MBA Polymer have received many awards, including: the Thomas Alva Edison Award for Innovation, the Tech Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum, the Ascent Award for Entrepreneurship, and the Intel Tech Museum Environmental Award.
Julie Corbett
Ecologic
Julie is the mastermind behind Ecologic’s new bottle – a testament to her insatiable curiosity and ability to “think outside the bottle”. She approaches challenges with fierce optimism and tenacity and isn’t afraid to turn the packaging industry upside down. Julie’s passion is bolstered by her 16 years of marketing and investment experience. Prior to founding Ecologic, she was a Vice President at Jurika, Mills & Keifer, where she helped launch the Counterpoint Mutual and Counterpoint Select funds. Julie was also a Partner at Jurika & Voyles, Inc., where she led the firm’s institutional service and marketing efforts that contributed to asset growth of more than $5 billion before it was sold in 1997. Previously, Julie worked for RBC Dominion Securities and the Royal Bank of Canada as well as BBDO Worldwide in Prague, Czech Republic.
Julie holds a B.A. in Economics from McGill University in Canada and was once a professional gymnast-in-training (a helpful background in an entrepreneurial world that often requires one to jump through hoops). Julie is devoted to her two active girls, serving as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Oakland Lake School for 3 years and as Girl Scout Leader for her daughters’ troops. When not hunched over new bottle prototypes, she is an avid skier and an ardent friend of the earth.
Adam Lowry
Method
Adam is the co-founder and Chief Greenskeeper of Method Products, Inc., the leading innovator in premium environmentally-conscious and design-driven home care, fabric care and personal care products. Adam sees business as a way to create environmental and social change for the better.
Before he founded Method, Adam was a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution, where he developed software products to study of global climate change. He also created products for cars made from recycled and biodegradable materials. These experiences shaped his philosophies towards commercial environmentalism that Method embraces.
Ramani Narayan
Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Michigan State University
Dr. Narayan has 130 refereed publications in leading journals to his credit, 25 issued patents, and several pending patents, edited three books and one expert dossier in the area of bio-based polymeric materials. His research encompasses design & engineering of sustainable, biobased products, biodegradable plastics and polymers, biofiber reinforced composites, reactive extrusion polymerization and processing, studies in plastic end-of-life options like biodegradation and composting. His research involves developing carbon and environmental footprint of biobased and biodegradable plastics and products using biocarbon content analysis (ASTM D6866) and LCA (life cycle assessment) methodology.
He serves as the Scientific Chair of the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), North America www.bpiworld.org. He was elected as Director to Society of Plastic Engineers Bioplastics Special Interest Group (SPE-BioSIG) international standards setting organization and currently chairs the committee on Environmentally Degradable Plastics and Bio-based Products.
Mike Velings
A-Spark Good Ventures
Founder of A-Spark Good Ventures, invests in social entrepreneurs worldwide, giving an impulse to realize innovative projects and ideas. Co-owner at Connexie, a payroll company in the Netherlands, Honorary Marine Fellow of Conservation International and Toniic Member, a global network of impact investors.
Mike naturally combines successful entrepreneurship and social and environmental engagement. He is concerned for the planet and it’s inhabitants, and believes that commercial business can create durable solutions to complex world problems.
Mike loves to network and socialize; to bring good ideas to become reality, nature, the giants stride, playing chess, horseback riding, to travel, startups, diving and speleo.
A-Spark’s interests range from environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture businesses in Indonesia to a start-up that creates a true community marketplace for parking in Baltimore from an entertainment events company in the Netherlands to creating a Marine Protected Area in Mozambique – from Ecotourism in Mexico to a support system for cycle rickshaw drivers in India. They embrace many exciting and innovative ideas and don’t restrict these by sector or geography.
Bina Venkataraman
Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Bina Venkataraman designs and leads international projects, helps shape the U.S. science policy agenda, and teaches at MIT in the department of science, technology & society. She is also a writer. She currently serves as Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Lecturer at MIT, and Senior Adviser to Eric Lander in his role as Co-Chair of President Obama’s science and technology advisory council. She is inspired by the potential of technology, innovation, and science to catalyze social change, particularly in the realms of global health, the environment, and education.
Bina formerly reported for The New York Times, The Boston Globe (where she also served on the editorial board) and the Christian Science Monitor; she covered energy, science, and medicine. She also wrote about skyscraper farms, Rubik’s cube algorithms, cornea transplants, chaos and prediction, the sushi trade, and ancient DNA from dodo bones.
Bina is an alumna of Harvard’s Kennedy School and Brown University and a recipient of a Fulbright, a Princeton in Asia fellowship, a Metcalf fellowship, and a James Reston fellowship. She grew up in a swing state, and has lived and worked in Vietnam, Alaska, Cuba, India, and Mexico. Bina is terrible at whiffleball, sewing, and driving a motorbike in traffic. She is learning to surf on a longboard.
Adam Werbach
Yerdle
A lifelong organizer, at age 23, Werbach was elected the youngest-ever President of the Sierra Club: the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States. At the Sierra Club, Werbach helped pass legislation to create Death Valley National Park, the largest national park in the lower 48 states.
He went on to create the media and strategy company Act Now, which he sold to the Publicis Groupe in 2007, becoming the Chief Sustainability Officer for Saatchi & Saatchi and helping many of the world’s largest companies create, launch and market new products and initiatives. He was named to the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement, which he described as, “like Sarah Palin getting an award from the American Grammatical Society.”
Werbach’s most recent book, Strategy for Sustainability, was published by Harvard Business School Press and is taught in business schools including Wharton and Stanford.
Twice elected to the International Board of Greenpeace, Werbach is a frequent commentator on sustainable business, serves as the sustainability correspondent for The Atlantic.com and appears on networks including BBC, NPR, and CNN, and shows ranging from the The O’Reilly Factor to Charlie Rose. In 2011 he was named a young global leader by the World Economic Forum. He tweets at @adamwerbach.