External Advisory Board
Representing a wide range of sectors, our External Advisors provide broad-based expertise to inform and shape our strategy. By expanding our perspective on pressing sustainability challenges, and helping us to more effectively structure our interdisciplinary research and education offerings, these leaders play a key role in fostering U-M's global leadership position in the sustainability field.
Current Members:
Dean Adler
CEO & Co-Founder
Lubert-Adler
In addition to his CEO duties, Dean is Head of the Investment Committee and is responsible for leading the strategic direction of the team. One of Lubert-Adler’s focus areas is master planning and redevelopment of large, urban brown-field sites into mixed use communities – and he is working with the Graham Institute to expand U-M’s sustainability academic offering by developing a brown-field development course.
Brent Blackwelder
President Emeritus
Friends of the Earth
Brent Blackwelder has served as an environmental advocate for over 40 years. In 1994 he became president of Friends of the Earth and is the most senior environmental lobbyist in Washington. He has testified in front of Congress on pressing environmental issues more than 100 times.
Andy Buchsbaum
Regional Executive Director, Great Lakes Region
National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
Andy oversees the NWF's Great Lakes Regional Center, a 20-staff regional office that works with NWF and other organizations in each of the Great Lakes states. Major projects include Great Lakes restoration; protection of the Great Lakes from global warming; prevention of the introduction of aquatic invasive species; Great Lakes water management reform; environmental education; and protection of Lake Superior from sulfide mining.
Tom Catania
Tom retired from the Whirlpool Corporation in December 2011 where he served as Vice President for Government Relations. In that role, Thomas was responsible for the executive management of the Whirlpool Corporation's government relations function, through which he provided policy direction, participated in government lobbying activities in the United States and globally, maintained effective government contacts, and regularly reported to Whirlpool management on governmental influences on Whirlpool.
Libby Cheney
Vice President, Environment, Health, Safety & Social Responsibility (EHS&SR)
Hess Corporation
Libby is responsible for leading a global team of functional specialists, providing thought leadership on emerging issues for senior management, developing trusted partnerships with key stakeholders, and strengthening the safety culture enterprise wide. Libby has more than 25 years of leadership experience in sustainability, EHS, strategic planning, operations, engineering, and project development.
Lois DeBacker
Senior Program Director, Environment
The Kresge Foundation
Lois leads The Kresge Foundation's Environment team in developing, implementing, and assessing the impact of grantmaking strategies that address climate change. She meets regularly with experts in the climate change field and collaborates with peers at other foundations and in other sectors to execute climate change mitigation strategies.
John Erb
President
Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation
John is the son of noted Detroit-area entrepreneur and philanthropist Fred (and Barbara) Erb. John has held executive leadership roles with several family concerns, including TQ Corporation, Erb Lumber, D.I.Y. Home Warehouse, Inc. and Edgemere Enterprises. He is a Board Member of Birmingham Bloomfield Bancshares, Inc and its subsidiary, Bank of Birmingham, as well as the Detroit Zoological Society.
Don Graham
Chairman
The Graham Group
Don leads four investment companies with significant private and marketable security investments plus world wide operating companies diversified across numerous manufacturing fields. Don is a member of the U-M President’s Advisory Group, the College of Engineering National Advisory Committee, and is a Co-chair of “The Michigan Difference” campaign. Don co-funded the implementation of the Graham Institute.
Steve Hamburg
Chief Scientist
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Steve Hamburg is EDF's public voice for its commitment to science-based advocacy and is responsible for the scientific integrity of EDF's positions and programs. His training and research specialty is ecosystem ecology, with a focus on forests.
Neil Hawkins
Vice President of Sustainability and Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S)
Dow Chemical Company
Neil drives Dow's sustainability strategy across and is accountable for the implementation of the company's transformational 2015 Sustainability Goals. He directly leads a team of sustainability and life-cycle professionals and also has global responsibility for Dow's organizations and programs for Product Safety/Toxicology, Regulatory Affairs, Medical/Health Services, Epidemiology, EH&S Auditing and Compliance, and Remediation.
Carl Page
Entrepreneur
Carl was a co-founder of eGroups, Inc., where he helped build a network of 14 million users who relied on eGroups to support Web-based collaborative work efforts. eGroups was eventually acquired by Yahoo! and is today known as Yahoo! Groups. A serial entrepreneur and investor based in the Bay Area, Mr. Page's experience ranges from hardware to Internet companies, and from startups to large multinationals.
Paul Portney
Professor & Dean Emeritus
University of Arizona, Eller College of Management
Paul is Professor and Dean Emeritus at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management and President Emeritus of Resources for the Future, a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to improving environmental and natural resources policymaking worldwide through objective social science research of the highest caliber. He is also a co-author of "Public Policies for Environmental Protection."
Janet Ranganathan
Vice President for Science and Research
World Resources Institute (WRI)
Janet is the Vice President for Science and Research at the World Resources Institute, where she plays a lead role in ensuring that WRI's research is robust and its strategies evidence-based and designed to create scalable results. She is strategically involved in WRI's four core programs: Climate, Energy and Transport; Institutions and Governance; People and Ecosystems; and Markets and Enterprises.
Steven Sgambati
Chief Financial Officer
General Electric – Renewable Energy
Steven Sgambati is the Chief Financial Officer of GE’s renewable energy business, a leading global provider of wind and solar energy products and services. He assumed this position in July 2010, and is based in Schenectady, New York.
Dave Stangis
Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability
Campbell Soup Company
Dave is responsible for designing and overseeing the Campbell Soup Company's overarching Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy (CSR), including efforts to promote environmental sustainability. He has significant experience in corporate social responsibility, having worked in the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) or CSR fields for more than 20 years.
John Stowell (Chair)
Vice President, International Stakeholder Relations
Duke Energy
John identifies and oversees international relationships for Duke Energy, focusing on policies and projects that enhance the company’s business opportunities. Duke Energy has extensive business holdings in seven Latin American countries and participates in several international coalitions, including the UN Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, and the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership.
Helen Taylor
State Director
The Nature Conservancy, Michigan Chapter
Helen Taylor has spent more than 23 years working on Great Lakes protection, policy and conservation. She joined The Nature Conservancy in 1996 to lead its Great Lakes Program, and since 1999 has served as state director of its Michigan Chapter. She also serves on the board of the Conservancy’s Great Lakes Project.
Bill Thomas
Of Counsel
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Bill is of counsel in the Environment, Health and Safety Department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Washington, D.C., where he advises companies, financiers, developers and other enterprises on environmental law matters, including transactions, projects, and formulation of management and legal compliance strategy. He also handles litigation and disputes involving environmental, health and safety concerns, as well as climate change and other matters of international environmental law and policy.
Mark Van Putten
President & Founder
ConservationStrategy, LLC
Mark spent more than 25 years with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the largest member-based conservation organization in the United States. This includes seven years as President/CEO and 15 years as founding director of the Great Lakes regional office. Mark is a visionary leader with proven strategic thinking and planning skills and a concrete record of turning long-term goals into ongoing organizational reality.
John Viera
Director, Sustainability & Vehicle Environmental Matters
Ford Motor Company
John is responsible for developing global sustainable business plans and policies at Ford Motor Company, reporting externally on the company's environmental and social performance, and leading the company's engagement and partnerships with non-government organizations (NGOs) and other external stakeholders.
Previous Members
David Baxter, Mark Bonnema, Mary Buzby, Jeff Connelly, Alex Green, Michelle M. Harvey, Gary Hirschberg, Bob Hutchinson, Mark Kane, Richard Jarman, Chuck Newman, Lana Pollack, Lois Schiffer, Robert Townsend, and Anne Wallin
(List last updated in September 2012.)