Bigger Than Us

Ashley Meeky is a freshman at Vanderbilt University. She plans to double major in Economics and Communications and minor in Human and Organizational Development. She is the Youth Ambassador Board Member of the Foundation for Climate Restoration and is also a Content Creator Ambassador for Beauty and Brains Organization. She is an advocate for climate restoration, inclusivity, women’s empowerment, and domestic violence awareness. She also loves volunteering at South Suburban Family Shelter, Habitat for Humanity, and Progressive Housing. For fun, she enjoys reading, playing tennis, and operating her own natural hair care business called Hair Chronicles By Ashley. She aspires to be an international businesswoman that works for climate restoration and cultural awareness. Since she was young, she has longed to travel the world, which sparked her interest in restoring the climate so that we all can have the opportunity to experience the Earth’s beauty for years to come. Youth Leaders 4 Climate Restoration Interest Form https://forms.gle/jeCPixtQ5iY7gdoS9 https://nexuspmg.com/

Graham is the president and Chief Cannabis Officer of Glass House Group, one of the most rapidly growing, privately-held cannabis and hemp companies in the country, and the founder of Glass House Farms, perhaps the largest greenhouse operation in California. He was part of the original team at Software.com, taking the company public in 1999, and one of the first employees at Sonos, where he was involved with product design, development, sales and customer support. With 25 years of experience in the technology sector as well as in starting successful businesses in new and emerging markets, Graham has now created one of the largest earth-friendly cannabis and hemp businesses in the country, conducting precision agriculture in greenhouses with a cutting edge water reclamation system, filtration, recycling, integrated pest management and other industry-leading cultivation techniques. His sun-grown and ocean-grown operation is viewed as a model for tech innovation, sustainability and financial success in the cannabis space. https://www.glasshousegroup.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Laura Schifter, Ed. D., is a Senior Fellow leading K12 Climate Action with the Aspen Institute, a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a fellow with the Century Foundation. Previously, she worked as a policy and research consultant, a senior education and disability advisor for Rep. George Miller (D-CA) on the Committee on Education and Labor, and an education fellow for Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. After graduating from college, she taught elementary school in San Francisco. Laura earned an Ed.D. in Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice and an Ed.M. in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in American Studies from Amherst College. Laura is also the mother of three daughters, Ellie, Issie, and Thea, and she hopes that engaging more people on climate change can help build a sustainable future for them and the next generation. https://www.k12climateaction.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Emily Stengel is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of GreenWave, a non-profit organization dedicated to training a new generation of regenerative ocean farmers and building the foundation for a new blue-green ocean economy that creates jobs, mitigates climate change and grows healthy food for local communities. She brings to GreenWave a background in sustainable food systems, working for several years at a B-Corp catering company in NYC dedicated to supporting the regional farm and food economy, and more recently, working on a research team focused on workforce development in agricultural communities. Emily has an MS in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont. https://www.greenwave.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Peter is associate manager of the Sustainability and Circular Economy program at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center (CCC), where he contributes to the Foundation’s original research, programming, content and convenings in corporate sustainability. Peter brings particular expertise in climate solutions including clean energy and electrified transportation, and circular economy themes including recycling and recovery system optimization, circular business models, and alternative materials innovation. Prior to joining the Chamber Foundation, Peter was a founding employee of Generation180, a national nonprofit committed to helping consumers embrace their role in the clean energy transition. Projects of focus included research and programming in renewables procurement for K-12 schools, electric vehicle deployment, and implementation of climate-focused consumer behavior change frameworks. Peter is a Washington, D.C. area native and holds a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law (PPEL) from the University of Richmond. He discovered his passion for sustainability issues while studying international politics and economics abroad in Cape Town, South Africa and Córdoba, Argentina. https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/ https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/best-practices/business-community-climate-leadership-case-study https://nestpowerproject.withgoogle.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Alexander Gillett is the co-founder and CEO of HowGood, an independent research company with the world's largest database on food and personal care product sustainability. Since 2007, Alexander has guided HowGood’s business trajectory, driving innovative partnerships with like-minded companies and organizations. Under Alexander's leadership, HowGood has provided critical data and insights into the quickly-shifting world of sustainability for retailers, consumers, and CPGs, while maintaining its mission to increase transparency and reduce the impact of food and consumer goods on our world. HowGood is an independent research company with the world's largest database on product sustainability. With more than 33,000 ingredients, chemicals and materials assessed, HowGood SaaS and impact data offerings help leading brands, retailers and investors improve their environmental and social impact. Through in-depth, ingredient-level insights into factors ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to animal welfare to labor risk, HowGood data powers strategic decision-making for the sourcing, manufacturing, merchandising, and marketing of sustainable products. https://howgood.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Lionel is an accomplished Product Management Leader with expertise in Operations Management, Financial Management (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow), Lean Six Sigma, Supplier Development, Strategic Sourcing and Product Quality Management. His experience spans General Electric where he graduated from the highly regarded Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP) and owned Profit & Loss Responsibility as Manufacturing Shop Operations Manager of a High Volume Production Facility and three Fast Moving Innovative Start Ups (SpaceX, Faraday Future & Romeo Power) where he has held various Roles including Director of Procurement, Vice President of Engineering and Chief Operating Officer. Lionel holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University and MPS in Supply Chain Management from The Penn State University. https://romeopower.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Guy Elitzur holds significant management experience. He currently serves as CEO of Vertical Field, a leading agro-tech provider of vertical farming and living green wall solutions for urban environments and smart cities. He previously headed up STK Bio-ag Technologies (STK), a leading global crop protection company as its CEO and served as a member of the board. At STK, Elitzur led the company to successful geographical expansion and fundraising of $90 million in return for a majority stake. Prior to this, Guy served private and public companies in senior executive roles. He is a licensed CPA and earned his L.L.M. from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. https://www.verticalfield.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Mark Herrema is the Co-Founder and CEO of Newlight Technologies. In 2003, Mark co-founded Newlight with a vision of using greenhouse gas as a resource to make high-performance, sustainable materials. After a decade of research, Mark and his team developed a technology that uses a natural process found in the ocean to make a material called AirCarbon. AirCarbon is a meltable energy storage molecule made in almost all known living things that is strong, meltable, and ocean-degradable. AirCarbon is now being used to replace plastic in single-use foodware, fashion products, and a variety of other applications. Newlight has been honored to receive recognition as “Biomaterial of the Year” by the Nova Institute, “Innovation of the Year” by Popular Science, and “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum. In 2016, Newlight was awarded the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mark graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, and has since garnered over 15 years of expertise in process engineering, polymer functionalization, and strategic business development. https://www.newlight.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Naveen Sikka Founder & CEO Naveen Sikka is the founder and CEO of TerViva, a Series-D agriculture technology company that is building the world’s most sustainable supply chain of plant protein and vegetable oil. Utilizing experience in management consulting, technology, natural resources and agriculture, Naveen established TerViva to understand and extend the benefits of the ancient pongamia tree’s resilience and protein and oil-packed beans. TerViva has since introduced pongamia as a new commercial crop that converts distressed farmland into sustainable, productive acreage. Under his leadership, TerViva has unlocked pongamia’s potential as a climate-friendly, nutritional powerhouse for feeding the world’s rising population. TerViva is the first company to develop high-yielding, non-GMO cultivars of pongamia and to create edible protein and oil from its beans to feed people. Product partners draw on TerViva’s plant protein and vegetable oil supply chain that is world class in its low-carbon intensity, traceability and cost competitiveness with existing oilseed supplies. Naveen and TerViva have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Food Navigator, Growing Produce, All About Feed, Food Business News and Pacific Business News, among other leading publications covering sustainable innovation and technology in agriculture and food. Naveen completed his MBA from UC Berkeley where he co-chaired the development of the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley Lab to evaluate its existing portfolio of commercial technologies. Prior to earning his MBA, Naveen worked as a management consultant at Gemini Consulting and TPI. He graduated as a Class Senior Marshal with a BA from Columbia University, during which time he studied and worked in France and West Africa. He is a mentor and member of Environmental Entrepreneurs and the New Innovators Council of the World Resources Institute. Sudhir Rani CFO, Board of Directors Sudhir brings extensive financing and structuring experience to TerViva. Before joining TerViva in 2011, Sudhir was a Director in the Private Equity group at D.E. Shaw & Co. in New Delhi, India where he structured, negotiated and conducted due diligence on growth capital investments. Prior to that, he spent eight years at UBS in Asset Management and Investment Banking. Sudhir has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Columbia University. https://www.terviva.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/