Board of Directors
SBC Board Members
Laura Berland-Shane, Steve Glenn,
Rob Kramer, Carrie Norton, Lee Wallach
Laura Berland-Shane
Laura is a Business Development Manager for Siemens Industry’s Solar Vertical Market Management group, where she focuses on providing solutions to the utility-scale and commercial solar market. Previously, Laura was the Southern California Director of Sales for SolarCity. She also has served as COO and as an operations and business development consultant to Permacity Solar. Prior to working in alternative energy, Laura was a media and entertainment finance and strategic planning executive. Some of her previous roles have included Director of Business Management for Styleclick, Executive Director of Finance and Strategic Planning at The Kushner Locke Company, as well as VP Business Development of imoviestudio. She began her career in Los Angeles at The Walt Disney Company. Laura's post-collegiate career began in New York City, where she was a securities analyst for The Value Line Investment Survey, as well as a labor union business consultant. Her passion for sustainability was inspired when she co-founded and was Director of The Macadamia Tree Project, a non-profit carbon offset organization based in Guatemala. Presently, Laura serves as the Southern California Chapter Leader for Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), sits on the Solar Working Group for the LA Business Council, and is a co-founder of the Sustainable Business Council. Laura has an MBA in finance from The Wharton School, a BA in International Relations from Brown University and she is a LEED AP. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband and daughter.
Steve Glenn
Steve Glenn is the founder and CEO of LivingHomes, LLC, http://www.livinghomes.net, a premier developer of modern, prefabricated homes that combine world-class architecture with an unparalleled commitment to healthy and sustainable construction.
The first LivingHome, designed by Ray Kappe, FAIA, was erected in only eight hours, became the first home ever to receive a LEED for Homes Platinum rating, and was the only home to win the AIA¹s top sustainability award in 2007. The second LivingHome was named Green Home of the Year by Green Home Builder Magazine, and to date, nine LivingHomes have been certified LEED Platinum.
Prior to founding LivingHomes, Glenn worked with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI), managing the development of CHAI’s first initiative in Africa, a $220 million program in Mozambique.
He founded and is former Chairman and CEO of PeopleLink, a leading provider of enterprise ecommunity solutions. PeopleLink raised $35 million from AT&T Ventures, GE, Goldman Sachs, idealab and others.
Glenn was also a founding partner of idealab, a business incubator that raised $1 billion in venture capital funding, and which has founded or invested in a number of successful companies including: GoTo/Overture (OVER), NetZero/United Online (UNTD), CitySearch (TMCS), Tickets.com (TKTS), eToys, and CarsDirect.
He has worked for Walt Disney Imagineering as co-director of the Virtual Reality Studio and co-founded Clearview Software, which was sold to Apple Computer where he served as a marketing specialist.
He holds a bachelor¹s degree with honors from Brown University and where he was a Coro Fellow. Glenn teaches courses at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management and California State University, Long Beach. He was named the Clean Tech CEO of the Year in 2008 by Clean Tech Week, Environmental Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 by LA City Council/Faith2Green, and was recently named "Greatest Person of the Day", by the Huffington Post.
Glenn’s nonprofit work includes: co-founder and Chair of the Sustainable Business Council, http://www.sustainablebc.org, the Kaia Parker Dance Fund, http://www.kaiaparker.org, co-founder and former board member of Hope Street Group, http://www.hopestreetgroup.org, member of the board of directors of the Brown University Entrepreneur Forum, http://www.brownep.org, and the Watts House Project, http://www.wattshouseproject.org.
Rob Kramer
Rob has been a successful entrepreneur and executive in the media, technology, environmental, and non-profit sectors. He is the CEO and co- creator of HipSwap www.hipswap.com – a hyper local marketplace service for iPhone, android and the web. Rob is also co-founder of PopRule and Campaign Live www.poprule.com / www.gocampaignlive.com. PopRule is a technology company that creates mobile / web applications and platforms for consumer, political and non-profit brands including American Express, Nissan, The Economist and International Medical Corps, to name a few. Rob has consulted for various companies in the sustainable business and water sectors including Johnson Diversey, Cydcor and Product Partners. Previously, Rob was CEO of Uprizer, Inc., an Intel-funded peer-to-peer enterprise software company that sold in 2005. From 1993 to 1999, Rob was co- Founder and CEO of Moving Pixels (now Public VFX) www.publicvfx.com, a successful independent computer animation studio in Los Angeles. In 1999, Rob sold his interest in this 17-year old company. Previously, Rob was President and Executive Producer of Pagan Films, a major label music video and commercial production company. Since 2003, Rob has been Chairman of Global Water Trust www.globalwatertrust.org, a Santa Monica based non-profit that provides clean safe water to school children throughout the developing world. GWT has provided clean safe water to over 10,000 people in Bangladesh, Nepal and Kenya. Rob serves on the Board of Directors of Sustainable Business Council www.sustainablebc.org and on the Los Angeles Committee for Global Green USA www.globalgreen.org. He has been a featured speaker on water-related issues at numerous universities including MIT, Stanford, UCLA, and Brown. In 2006, he wrote and produced the documentary film, “ARSENIC: The Largest Mass Poisoning in History,” which premiered at 20th Century Fox Studios in 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Hvexu5SqM. Rob has attended the Aspen Institute Socrates Program as a sponsored participant with an expertise in global water issues.
Contact: o: 310-450-1749; m: 310-663-6260; e: rob@hipswap.com
Carrie Norton
Carrie Norton is the Founder and President of Green Business BASE CAMP, a global immersion training program and on-line education platform for early stage green business and clean tech entrepreneurs. Carrie’s broad expertise in sustainable business and entrepreneurship has been developed in senior roles at Garage Technology Ventures and Idealab. Most recently, Carrie served early-adopting solar power clients such as Google, Sony, and British Telecom as a senior executive responsible for Market and Project Development during her 7-year tenure in the commercial solar power industry. Carrie is a Catto Environmental Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Class of 2010. She co-founded the Sustainable Business Council of Los Angeles, and her community leadership also includes work with Grid Alternatives, the Clean Economy Network and Net Impact. An adjunct Faculty member at the Graziadio School of Management at Pepperdine University, Carrie earned an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA from Trinity University. Carrie speaks and consults frequently on innovation & entrepreneurship, clean tech, and triple bottom line investing.
Lee H. Wallach
Lee is currently the CEO of Community Assets Consulting; a firm specializing in assisting Israeli, International and United States environmental technology companies with business development in the U.S. and California. CAC additionally specializes in developing, coordinating and implementing the sustainability efforts of large U.S. firms. He has been the Senior Business Development Consultant to Tecnospot Solar USA, Inc., the leading Italian global solar company. For almost ten years prior he lead the U.S. business development and external affairs activities of one of the most successful and largest utility scale solar technology companies, Solel Solar Systems Ltd and Siemens AG resulting in over 500 mw of contracted solar. He is a founding board member and President of Faith2Green.com. He has been an appointee to the State Committee of Bar Examiners for 10 years, has served on the boards of the National Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), as a founder of the Large-Scale Solar Association. Additionally he served on the Los Angeles Business Council’s Sustainability Committee, the Western Governors Association Renewable Energy Task Force and the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters.
In recent years Lee Wallach has assisted environmental companies in obtaining over $4 billion in sales and hundreds of contracted MW’s. He has been instrumental in shaping U.S. solar policy, including California Governor Schwarzenegger's, "Million Solar Rooftop Initiative" and "Global Warming" bills. He authored and facilitated the signing of a renewable-energy R&D cooperation agreement between California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. He has written over a dozen solar and environmental bills at the federal and state level. He recently assisted in the creation of the Green Building Program for the City of Los Angeles and is active in the city efforts to attract green sector business to the city. President Bill Clinton has joined forces with Lee and faith2green.com to support the opening of the Israel office to further Israeli environmental companies sales and technology in the U.S.
Previously Wallach served as Executive Director for Days of Dialogue, the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, as the Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation’s Commission on Urban Affairs. At the University of Southern California, Wallach served as director for USC’s Graduate Student Community programs and as a field representative for the Office of Civic and Community Relations. He represented the University on University Trustee Committees, USC Board of Governors, and Governor Wilson’s Interim Commission on California Service. He has earned numerous honors including numerous city, state and national citations and awards for public service, and was honored by the Coalition for Clean Air for his environmental accomplishments and contributions.
Board Members Emeritus
William B. Colitre
Mr. Colitre is an attorney providing strategic counsel to institutional and individual clients in areas including copyright and digital media, corporate and nonprofit organization and maintenance, and regulatory compliance. He has served in the Entertainment Department of Loeb & Loeb LLP, as counsel to the boutique music firm of Altschul & Olin, LLP, and as in-house counsel to the Roll International Corporation and CBS Paramount Network Television Home Entertainment. He is currently the Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs of Music Reports, Inc.
Mr. Colitre is also a sustainable business advocate focused on improving the resource efficiency of the built environment through intelligent real estate investment.
Lorelyn Eaves
As an independent marketing consultant, specializing in the LOHAS marketplace Lorelyn has worked with Advanstar’s trade show group MAGIC, Livingreen stores, FindBliss.com, Viro Fibers and Otis School of Fashion Design. Most recently she has help produce Gravity Summit, high impact seminars for Business & Marketing that focus on Social Media.
She created and launched ECOLLECTION, the fashion industries largest eco-fashion and lifestyle exhibition for Advanstar’s MAGIC show. ECOLLECTION included brand exhibits as well as a speaker series, fashion show, style salon, petting zoo and live entertainment. Lorelyn also served as Director of Marketing for MAGIC | Advanstar for three years.
As the VP of Marketing and Communications for the California Market Center, the fashion wholesale mart in downtown Los Angeles she was instrumental in the re-branding the building as the Style Center for fashion, gift and home as well as launching glow, one of the industries first exhibitions to showcase wellness related products. She led marketing efforts for all the regional markets and trade shows. While at the CMC, she represented the Los Angeles Fashion District at the D&A show in Toyko, Japan and was instrumental in forming The Intersection, a partnership of building owners designed to promote the fashion district showrooms and bring retail buyers to Los Angeles.
Prior to the CMC she was Senior Director of Creative Services for Move.com (formerly Homestore.com), where she led the creative services department and worked on sponsorship programs and partnerships with Sundance, MIT, Smithsonian Institute and Habitat for Humanity.
She graduated from the International School in Bangkok, Thailand and has her BA in Asian Studies from SUNY Albany.