Speakers

Topic: Sustainability in the Transport Sector--How LFMs are Decarbonizing Transportation

This presentation will overview the sustainability opportunities in the transport sector, giving a "wide angle" view for all transport (air, sea, ground) and then deep diving into the automotive sector, focusing on the case of Bright Automotive--an new electric automotive company with two LFMs (of different generations) on the executive leadership team. LFM '04 Michael Brylawski, co-founder and VP of Strategy at Bright Automotive and former Vice President of the Tranpsort Practice at Rocky Mountain Institute, will go over the major global trends in automotive sustainability and talk about the origins of Bright Automotive--an Indiana based automotive startup commercializing a 100-mpg light commercial vehicle and U.S.-built battery packs.

Michael Brylawski brings fifteen years of experience in green mobility as an entrepreneur, consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and published researcher. In 2007, he helped CEO John Waters create Bright Automotive, managing the original consortium of Google, Alcoa, and Johnson Controls and writing the first business plan. At Bright Automotive, Mike works with the Leadership Team on key market, technology, and financial strategy decisions. He is also responsible for developing ancillary growth opportunities including future product portfolios, telematics, energy storage, and grid services.

Previous to Bright Automotive, Mike’s diverse work experience included roles as Vice President at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), where he is currently a Senior Fellow, and positions at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Boeing Aerospace. He was co-founder and Vice President at Hypercar, Inc. (now operating as Fiberforge), one of the first green automotive startups. Other work experience includes tenures at the Environmental Protection Agency's Future Studies Group and North Carolina's Advanced Energy Corporation.

Mike has been cited extensively in the press, including Forbes, MSNBC, Popular Mechanics, Fast Company, and The New York Times. He has spoken widely, including keynoting Automotive News’s Green Car Conference. Mike is a featured correspondent for the Discovery Planet Green network and was featured in the Discovery Science series Eco-Tech. and the forthcoming "Big Green Lies" on the Fine Living Network.

Mike received a MS in Mechanical Engineering and MBA as an LFM 2004 Fellow, and he received a BS in Earth Systems Science with honors from Stanford University.

Topic: The Natural Step - A Framework for Sustainable Thinking

Most businesses see environmental issues as a necessary cost of doing business but one that yields little, if any, benefit to the bottom line. Now a growing number of companies are turning that reasoning on its head and finding significant economic return and competitive advantage by pursuing a very aggressive environmental strategy.

In his talk, Duke Castle, CEO and founder of The Castle Group, will talk about the Swedish developed process called the Natural Step. The Natural Step introduces a new way of thinking about sustainability. At the heart of The Natural Step are four guidelines for operating any organization. Like a compass, they provide a framework of scientifically based principles to guide business, institutions and communities into the 21st century. Within this framework, the ingenuity of an organization is unleashed to develop sustainable practices that are good for business and the earth. Environmental progress is made through innovation, not regulation. In addition to explaining the Natural Step concepts, Duke will also show how businesses have successfully applied the framework within their organization.

Duke has traveled to Sweden to study how Swedish organizations have successfully applied the Natural Step principles. He has received training on the Natural Step from founder Karl Henrik Robert, has conducted numerous Natural Step trainings and briefings. In 2000 he was asked to train Oregon state leaders on sustainability and The Natural Step as part of Governor Kitzhaber's sustainability executive order.

Duke is a former marketing executive with Hewlett Packard and has a BSEE from Cornell University and an MBA from Stanford.

Topic: Social and Environmental Responsibility in the Supply Chain

As the world's largest information technology (IT) company, HP has the industry's most extensive supply chain, and they take the challenge of raising standards in their supply chain seriously. HP acts as a force to improve lives in the communities where they work and the company expects their suppliers to make the same commitment. Jay will discuss how HP responsibly manages the social and environmental performance of their suppliers; including engagement regarding energy efficiency and carbon reporting, logistics optimization, and social and environmental performance.

Jay Celorie joined HP in 1998. He is currently the global program manager for supply chain energy, directing programs to create transparency of energy use in the supply chain and to work with HP’s suppliers to reduce the overall carbon footprint. Jay is a part of the Global Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) Operations team in Hewlett Packard, driving programs to implement SER policy into HP’s products and supply chain, from design and materials through manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life.

Prior to his work at HP, Jay was a Senior Project Manager at CH2M HILL where he directed multi-million dollar environmental remediation projects.

Jay holds a BS and MS in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University. Jay is also a registered professional engineer.

Boise Paper is North America’s largest provider of recycled paper into the corporate office. Boise has been a leader in the development of both recycled and chain of custody certified papers.

Topic: Cleantech Markets and Opportunities

Aaron will provide an overview on the market drivers that are making clean technology companies one of the most exciting recent investment vehicles. Given the trillion dollar markets of energy, automobiles, aerospace, building materials, water distribution, and commodities, it is difficult to find an industry that won't be severely influenced, and be provided enormous opportunity, as we move into a carbon constrained world. Aaron will cover the market drivers, and discuss some of the exciting activities that are happening in the different sectors that comprise clean technology companies. Particular focus will be given on how the principles of lean manufacturing and efficiency are of particular relevance in this new economy.

Aaron Fyke has spent fifteen years building successful clean technology companies across a number of technology areas including fuel cell, ocean power, concentrating solar PV, advanced automotive engines, and energy storage technologies.

Previously a Partner at Starfish Ventures, Australia’s largest venture capital firm, Aaron led the investment into Starfish’s biggest initial investment to date – Ausra, a KPCB and Khosla Ventures backed solar thermal energy company.

Prior to joining Starfish Ventures, Aaron led the manufacturing product development of a concentrating solar PV system as part of the pre-funding team for early stage start-up, Soliant Energy. Previous to that, he managed the start-up of a new manufacturing facility, and led the formation and growth of a logistics division to over 40 people and $7M in revenue. Aaron raised over $1M to commercialize a new ocean power technology for AeroVironment, a leading clean technology and aerospace company. As well, Aaron has provided consulting services to Visteon, a large automotive supplier, to respond to new business conditions, and was a key engineer in the development of direct methanol fuel cell technology for Ballard Power Systems.

He is currently heading up the launch of a $10m X PRIZE in Energy for the X PRIZE Foundation.

Aaron earned his MBA and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the LFM program (class of 2002), and his BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Victoria, as the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering Gold Medal recipient for the highest graduating average in his class. He has achieved certification as a Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering both in California and British Columbia.

Topic: Healthcare & Lean Methods

In his talk, Mark will share his personal experiences as an outsider entering healthcare with a call to action for all LFM alumni. Mark will describe how LFM lessons, general operations practices, and lean manufacturing concepts apply in a hospital or doctor’s office. He’ll also touch upon what LFM alumni can do to promote lean, how they can get involved in their community healthcare settings, and what healthcare career possibilities are available for LFMs looking for a new mission.

Mark Graban (LFM’ 99) is a Senior Fellow with the not-for-profit Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, MA. In this role, Mark helps the LEI promote and expand the use of Lean concepts and methods in healthcare through training, publication, and participation in the Healthcare Value Leaders Network.

Mark began his career as an Industrial Engineer at General Motors, learning from many Toyota-trained Lean manufacturing practitioners. He participated in a plant-wide Lean transformation effort, coaching and teaching supervisors and production personnel.

After LFM, Mark’s career took him on Lean journeys in many industries and environments including Dell, Factory Logic, Honeywell and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics ValuMetrix Services, where he began lean healthcare consulting in 2005.

Mark founded the popular Lean Blog site (www.leanblog.org) in early 2005, where he has an online community centered around blog posts, audio podcasts, and video podcasts. He is the author of a book, "Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction," which was awarded a Research Prize by the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence.

Mark graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University. He was also a Leaders for Manufacturing Program Fellow and earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA. His wife, Amy, is currently an MIT Sloan Fellow ’10.

Topic: Entrepreneurship within the Sustainability Space

Alan Hickenbottom will speak about Entrepreneurship in cleantech, leveraging his experience with Tanner Creek Energy. Tanner Creek Energy is an Oregon-based, Oregon-focused general contractor and project developer of commercial, industrial and utility scale solar power systems. The company has successfully completed over 550 kW of solar energy systems in Oregon and is one of the largest developers of solar energy systems in the state.

An Oregon native, Alan is a well known member of Oregon's alternative energy community and a frequent speaker on renewable energy and sustainable business topics. In 2007 Alan founded Tanner Creek Energy after an exhaustive review of opportunities in the space.

In 2003, after 20 years in the high-technology sector, Alan co-founded Common Energy, a renewable energy and green building firm located in Hood River, Oregon. In 2006 he joined Energy Outfitters, later acquired by groSolar, as Director of the Commercial Products Division.

Topic: Nike’s Story of Transformation

Hannah Jones is currently responsible for managing Nike’s global corporate responsibility efforts including labor compliance, sustainability and business integration, global community affairs, stakeholder engagement, and regional corporate responsibility programs.

Before joining Nike, Jones served as a consultant to Microsoft and Kimberly-Clark on both companies’ community affairs programs. She also worked as the European manager of Community Service Volunteers Media, a UK-based non-governmental organization, where she led pan-European campaigns centering on youth issues. Jones began her career as a reporter, researcher, and producer for the social action unit of BBC Radio One and Radio Five. She is a board member of CSR Europe, a European business-to-business network that promotes corporate responsibility.

Kevin Koertje has been with Boise for 15 years in a variety of sales and marketing roles. Today he spends the majority of his time working with clients in both the public and private sector on sustainability programs related to paper. Areas of focus include programs to reduce waste, maximize the use of environmentally preferable papers and closed loop recycling.

Kevin earned his B.A. in History from Whitman College and has an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

Topic: Sustainability in the Transport Sector--How LFMs are Decarbonizing Transportation

This presentation will overview the sustainability opportunities in the transport sector, giving a "wide angle" view for all transport (air, sea, ground) and then deep diving into the automotive sector, focusing on the case of Bright Automotive--an new electric automotive company with two LFMs (of different generations) on the executive leadership team. LFM '94 David Lauzun, VP of Product Development at Bright and responsible for the entire product development, design, and engineering process (Dave essentially "runs" the operation), will describe Bright, and in particular, its IDEA plug-in hybrid vehicle and the core technologies (battery packs, control systems) within it. David will also share his insights coming from 24 years at Chrysler to a new automotive startup.

David Lauzun has 25 years of experience in executing large-scale automotive full vehicle products. His specific expertise lies in Vehicle Development, Program Management, and Quality Management for the automotive industry. In his current role, David is responsible for the entire product development process including the Vehicle Engineering and Product Design (styling) for Bright Automotive products and solutions. Along with extensive automotive experience, David brings a passion for the environmental and economic aspects of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) in providing whole-system solutions for the transportation sector and the planet.

Prior to Bright Automotive, David spent over 24 years at Chrysler, LLC where he held a variety of executive positions. His most recent position was Vehicle Development Manager for Chrysler’s mid-size sedans. In this position, David was responsible for managing all aspects of the vehicle development including “Voice of the Customer”, packaging, weight, vehicle performance, fuel economy, aerodynamics, quality, safety/impact and noise/vibration/harshness (NVH). In previous positions at Chrysler, David served as Program Manager for Chrysler’s mid-size and full-size sedans (responsible for business aspects of five major vehicles), and Quality Manager for the Jeep team (responsible for driving large quality improvements in all Jeep products). David has also held leadership positions in several design groups including Chassis Systems, Interior Systems, and Body Systems. His substantial career at Chrysler was enhanced with several positions in the Manufacturing organization including Plant Vehicle Engineering Manager in an assembly plant; Manufacturing Specialist in the "Chrysler Operating System" group; and Area Manager in a stamping plant.

David received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He also received an MS in Materials Engineering and an MS in Management from MIT, LFM Class of 1992. David is also a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Michigan.

Topic: Clean Technology and Sustainable Business Deep Dive - Solar

Over the past few years, renewable energy has become a top-of-mind issue for national governments, state and local governments, policy experts, investors, companies and private citizens worldwide.

Just as the dot-com and Internet revolution of a decade ago reshaped the landscape of global commerce virtually overnight, the impact of the renewable energy sector will likely be even bigger given that it is at the nexus of issues as broad as economic recovery, national security, energy independence and global climate change.

The renewable energy sector is a great opportunity for LFM’s/LGO’s wishing to get into a dynamic industry on the ground floor of building companies and building an industry. In particular, the solar industry is currently going through a radical transformation driven by the confluence of macro-economic conditions, technology shifts and government policies.

This session will serve as a primer in solar energy and the specific opportunities that it presents to LFM’ers/LGO’ers. Specific issues to be addressed will be a brief introduction to solar energy: technology, market and trends and the metrics that will ultimately be the benchmark to wide scale adoption. An operational framework will be presented that creates a context for the opportunities of LFM’ers/LGO’ers. Finally, observations and advice will be offered to those that may be considering a transition to this exciting industry.

Jim Miller is Principal and Co-Founder of Sierra Crest Consulting, a specialty consulting firm focused on supply chain and operations management for high technology and green technology companies. His clients include industry leading solar companies, solar start-ups and leading high technology companies.

Prior to Sierra Crest Consulting, Jim was the Executive Vice President of Supply Chain and Product Management at First Solar, an industry leading supplier of CdTe Thin Film Photovoltaic modules and systems. In this role, he was responsible for building the First Solar supply chain team and developing the supply chain strategy as well as leadership of the Product Management team.

Jim was formerly, Vice President of Product Operations for Cisco’s worldwide supply chain organization. In this role, he was responsible for new product introduction (NPI) and product lifecycle management for Cisco’s hardware and software products.

Jim was also the Vice President of Cisco’s Manufacturing Technology group, Supply Chain and Logistics organization and was the Vice President of the Midrange plant where he had responsibility for the new product introduction and manufacturing for one-third of Cisco’s hardware and all of its software revenue.

Before his tenure with Cisco, Jim served as Amazon.com’s vice president of Supply Chain, where he was responsible for the inception of Amazon.com’s supply chain organization and was a key contributor to Amazon’s rapid growth. Jim has also held key technical and production positions at IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation and Teledesic, a Seattle-based telecommunications startup.

Jim has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He additionally holds a Master of Science Degree in Management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a "MIT Leaders for Manufacturing" Fellow.

Jim resides in San Jose, California with his wife and son.