Bigger Than Us

Adam Zurofsky currently serves as Founding Executive Director of Rewiring America, a non-profit dedicated to combatting climate change and spurring economic growth through the rapid and widespread electrification of the U.S. economy. As Executive Director, Adam sets RA’s strategic priorities, manages its policy development, partnership, and communications activities, and manages all day-to-day operations. Until mid-2019, Adam served as Director of State Policy and Agency Management for the State of New York where he led the development and implementation of all major policy initiatives for Governor Cuomo and was responsible for strategic management of the State’s executive agencies and authorities and their more than 150,000 employees. Prior to that, Adam served as Deputy Secretary for Energy and Finance for the State of New York where he directly oversaw all policy and regulatory aspects of New York State's energy, climate, and finance portfolios as well as the following State agencies and authorities: the Department of Public Service (DPS), the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), including its New York Green Bank, the Department of Financial Services (DFS), including its Banking, Insurance and Consumer Protection divisions, and the Department of Taxation and Finance, among others. Adam was responsible for leading implementation of Governor Cuomo's climate agenda, including establishing the U.S. Climate Alliance of 25 states committed to upholding the Paris Climate Accords and the decarbonization of the over $200 billion New York Common Retirement Fund. Before joining the Cuomo administration, Adam was a partner in the New York law firm of Cahill Gordon and Reindel, LLP, where he advised leading companies, financial institutions and their boards in a wide variety of regulatory, litigation and corporate governance matters. During his almost 18 years with Cahill, Adam also chaired the Firm’s associate development program and was recognized as one of the Top 10 Securities Lawyers under 40 in the nation. Adam currently teaches climate policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He previously co-founded Fordham Law School’s Corporate Sustainability Initiative and has served as a member of Fordham’s Adjunct Faculty, teaching on issues such as corporate social responsibility and impact/ESG investing. He is a published author and a regular speaker at conferences on topics ranging from climate policy to clean energy finance to corporate social responsibility. Adam holds an A.B. with honors in Political Science from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. Adam was previously a member of The Brookings Institution's Leadership Council for Governance Studies as well as the Board of Directors of the Roundabout Theatre Company. He was also a founding Board member of Civics Unplugged.  Adam lives in New York City with his wife and their three children. https://www.rewiringamerica.org/ https://www.rewiringamerica.org/household-savings-report Saul Griffith on the Green New Deal and the enormous opportunity in shooting for the moon https://nexuspmg.com/

Valerie Rockefeller chairs the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a private foundation advancing social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. She also co-chairs BankFWD, a network to persuade banks to phase out financing for fossil fuel and to lead on climate. Her professional background is as a middle school special education teacher for adolescents with learning differences and emotional disabilities. She began her teaching career at Central Park East Secondary School in East Harlem, New York, and also taught in Australia. Valerie has a M.Ed. in Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and a MAT in secondary Social Studies from Columbia University Teachers College. She majored in International Relations at Stanford University, and worked as a confidential assistant to Secretary Richard Riley at the U.S. Department of Education during the first Clinton administration. She also serves as a trustee of Achievement First, the Asian Cultural Council, Columbia University Teachers College, Greenwich Academy, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. She was a trustee of Spelman College, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Valerie lives with her daughters Percy and Lucy and her son Davis in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. https://bankfwd.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

After majoring in electrical engineering and minoring in economics at MIT, Russ was a materials scientist specializing in microchips and circuit boards. During the stock market bubble, he put his math and economics education to work trading currencies, stocks, and options at the PHLX, CBOE, and AMEX. Russ changed career paths and went into private tutoring because he saw an opportunity to transform math and science education. He has been teaching math and science at all levels for over 10 years. He taught Algebra I at Muse School (now MUSE Virtual) and was instantly attracted to the unique approach of the school. Russ is looking forward to integrating the MUSE Virtual foundations of seed to table and sustainability in the science program. Russ finally left Chicago in 2012 to fulfill a dream of living in LA with his wife Annie. Together, Russ and his wife enjoy dog walks, hiking, and bike riding all over Southern California. https://www.museschool.org https://nexuspmg.com/

Lisa Jacobson is the President of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), a 55-member trade association representing the energy efficiency, natural gas and renewable energy industries. In this role, Ms. Jacobson advises states and federal policymakers on energy, tax, air quality and climate change policy. She is a member of the Department of Energy's State Energy Efficiency Steering Committee, the United States Trade Representative’s Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee, the Energy Efficiency Global Alliance Steering Committee and the Gas Technology Institute’s Public Interest Advisory Committee.  Ms. Jacobson has testified before Congress and has represented energy industries before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Prior to her position with the BCSE, Ms. Jacobson was a legislative aide in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has a master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont. SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter: @LJacobsonEnergy, @BCSECleanEnergy LinkedIn: Lisa Jacobson https://bcse.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Gary has led the Office of Sustainability at UT Dallas since 2018 with previous sustainability experience in higher education and municipal government. He is responsible for facilitating the integration of sustainability into campus stewardship, student life, administration, and student learning.  UTD, as well as universities across the nation and the world, track the effectiveness of sustainability programs according to the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS Report) administered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).  As UTD’s sustainability program has grown in recent years, UT Dallas earned AASHE STARS Gold certification for sustainability in 2019 for the first time in school history. For continued progress, Gary advocates for greater emphasis on the connection between environmental stewardship and social justice, and has adopted the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals as the basis for sustainability education and service so that students better understand the connection between our society and the environment. Gary believes that sustainability is a transdisciplinary field to which all members of the UTD community can contribute, and he is always happy to grab a cup of coffee, even virtually, to discuss ideas for collaboration. https://www.utdallas.edu/sustainability/contact/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Diego is the founder and CEO of Pachama, a Y Combinator-backed startup working to accelerate the flow of capital to carbon capturing projects starting with forests biomass projects. Pachama harnesses satellite images and machine learning to verify the carbon storage on forests and then connects directly project developers with carbon credits buyers in an open marketplace. Prior to Pachama, Diego co-founded Bluesmart, an IoT company that raised $20M in venture capital in Silicon Valley and China and was acquired by industry leader TravelPro. Diego also co-founded WeHostels, a pioneering online travel marketplace which was acquired by StudentUniverse. Diego was awarded with the MIT 35 Innovators under 35 and was selected as High-impact Entrepreneur by Endeavor Global. https://pachama.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Tinia Pina accepted her Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2006.  She began her career in sustainability as a former student pursuing a Masters of Science degree at Columbia University prior to becoming the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Re-Nuble, Inc., a waste-to-resource company headquartered in New York City. A strong advocate for sustainable waste management, regenerative agriculture, and urban resilience, she has been involved in management and business development roles within the sustainability industry for ten years. Her professional interests focus on using unique and distributed technologies to extract the optimal value from organic waste streams for upcycling into value-added products. https://www.re-nuble.com/ https://www.re-nuble.com/blogs/re-nuble/launching-our-30-min-lunch-series-with-re-nuble https://nexuspmg.com/

Mr. MacDonald has over 35 years of both public and private sector experience, ranging from international roles within the Parliament of Canada to serving on the boards of numerous publicly listed resource companies. From 1988 to 1997, he was the Member of Parliament for Halifax, Nova Scotia, during which time he was appointed by the Prime Minister of Canada as Parliamentary Secretary of International Trade. From 1997-2002, Mr. MacDonald was President and CEO of the Council of Forest Industries, a large lumber manufacturing, grading and marketing group, where he developed new markets in China, Korea, India and Japan. In recent years Mr. MacDonald has served as President of NRStor Remote Communities and Mines, a Canadian company focused on partnering with off-grid Indigenous communities and mines to develop renewable energy and energy storage projects. https://zinc8energy.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Aaron William Perry is a consultant, executive advisor, and author with deep expertise in the renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and finance industries. He is the founder of the Y on Earth Community - a global non-profit that provides media resources and curated community and corporate events to mobilize community health and wellbeing in the context of global stewardship, regeneration, and sustainability. He is currently completing and epic novel and screenplay all about these momentous times that we're living in.  Find his work at yonearth.org and earthwaterpress.com. https://nexuspmg.com/

Executive, advocate, team builder, and optimist, Rick Parnell has leveraged his unique skillsetto help the Foundation for Climate Restoration (F4CR) pursue concrete and scalable climate restoration solutions. Rick came to F4CR after 16 years with the United Nations Foundation, where he designed the Foundation’s partnership model and put together a team of over 300 committed individuals from across the U.S. and around the world. Under his leadership, the Foundation raised more than $2.2 billion to help the UN solve a range of global challenges, including the deterioration of our climate. https://foundationforclimaterestoration.org/ https://nexuspmg.com/