Gar Alperovitz
Gar Alperovitz is Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political-Economy at the University of Maryland and a Founding Principal of the Democracy Collaborative, an organization devoted to developing community wealth-building approaches to local and national democratic reconstruction.

Alperovitz is a former Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, of the Institute of Politics at Harvard, of the Institute for Policy Studies, and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He received his Ph.D. in Political-Economy as a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University, a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Alperovitz served previously as a Legislative Director in the U.S. House of Representatives (with Rep. Robert Kastenmeir of Wisconsin) and the U.S. Senate (with Earth Day Founder, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin), and as a Special Assistant concerned with United Nations issues in the Department of State. He was also Chief Economic Adviser to a coalition of 135 Members of Congress led by Rep. Richard Ottinger.

Alperovitz lectures widely and has testified before numerous Congressional Committees. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, The Nation, The Atlantic, and other popular and academic publications. He has been profiled by The New York Times, The Associated Press, People magazine, UPI, and Mother Jones and he has appeared on numerous network television news programs including (among many others): “Meet the Press,” “Larry King Live,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” “Cross-Fire,” and “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Alperovitz’s most recent book is Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance (with Lew Daly). Two related books are America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty and Our Democracy and Making a Place for Community (with Thad Williamson and David Imbroscio.) He is also author (with Jeff Faux) of Rebuilding America and (with Staughton Lynd) of Strategy and Program (Beacon). Alperovitz is also a historian of nuclear weapons; his most well known works in this field are The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (Knopf) and Atomic Diplomacy (Simon & Schuster).

Jeffrey is a well-respected leader in the socially and environmentally responsible communities.  As co-founder of Seventh Generation, and former Chief Inspired Protagonist and Executive Chairperson, Jeffrey led Seventh Generation from its humble beginnings to its current position as the leading and fastest-growing brand of natural products for the home and the leading authority on issues related to making a positive difference in the health of the planet and its inhabitants through consumers’ everyday choices.

Hollender currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Greenpeace Fund; the Environmental Health Fund; Verite; the Advisory Board of Healthy Child Healthy World; and is a member of the Resource Education Foundation of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. He is also on the board of Alloy Inc., a publicly traded company.

Jeffrey Hollender and his wife Sheila have three children: Meika, Alexander, and Chiara. The Hollenders live in Vermont.

Steve Kagen was born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he and his wife Gayle raised four children. He earned an Honors Degree in Molecular Biology and his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  Steve founded four Kagen Allergy Clinics and served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Allergy-Immunology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Dr. Kagen is Board Certified in Internal Medicine; Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology.  He was elected by his peers as one of the “Best Doctors in America,” and is known internationally for discovering many new causes of allergy and asthma.  Kagen served for seven years as the exclusive Allergy Consultant to CNN, CNN Airport News, CNN Headline News, and CNN Interactive.  In 2006, Kagen was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 8th District of Wisconsin from 2007 – 2011.

To give small business a voice at the legislative table, Congressman Kagen founded the first Congressional Business Owners Caucus (CBOC), and he led the fight to outlaw discrimination against patients with pre-existing medical conditions. Dr. Kagen is working hard to secure transparency in all health care pricing and to improve the health of his patients and our nation’s economy.

Jennifer Orgolini started on the bottling line at New Belgium Brewing Company over 17 years ago.  Subsequently she became NBB’s first CFO and, later, COO.  As Sustainability Director, her initiatives include creating a Sustainability Management System, writing the company’s first corporate sustainability report, completing a life cycle assessment of the carbon footprint of a six-pack of Fat Tire Amber Ale, and securing over $1 million in funding from the Department of Energy for peak electrical load reduction.

Orgolini received a B.A. in Humanities from Washington College in Maryland.  She has an MBA in Finance from Regis University and completed the course work for a Masters in Applied Ethics from Colorado State University.

Michael Peck

Michael Peck founded MAPA Group in 1994 as a “doing well by doing good” paroject and transactional-driven business development consulting practice mostly in the green economy sector.  Michael’s current advoccy board affiliations include the Blue-Green Alliance, the Apollo Alliance, the American Sustainable Business Council, and the Wind Energy Foundation. For over a decade, Michael has served as the North American delegate for Mondragon, the world’s largest industrial worker cooperative.  Michael was instrumental in bringing the leading Spanish wind turbine manufacturer, Gamesa, to Pennsylvania in 2004 where the company has invested over $220 million in two factories and has created 1000 in-state green jobs.

In October 2009, Michael participated in forming the Mondragon and United Steelworkers Union (USW) partnership to create union-coop hybrids with the goal of revamping U.S. manufacturing through worker empowerment and ownership.  Michael is part of teams seeking to further develop progressive stakeholder economy models such as through the Turning Point Solar project that will place the nation’s largest PV project on reclaimed mine lands in rural Appalachia and create a new local solar manufacturing factory.

Previously, Michael served as a naval officer on active duty from 1976–83, winning the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe Leadership award in 1981, and completing his service as a Commander in the Naval Reserves in 1996. Michael also served as a defense and economic development assistant to the U.S. Senate Majority Leader (1984-86), as executive assistant to the President of the BDM Corporation (1986-88), and as a senior vice president for corporate business development at SAIC (1988-94).

Bill Ritter Jr.

Bill Ritter Jr. was the 41st Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011. During his term in office, Ritter pursued an aggressive agenda that included education reform, transportation funding, and health care reform. Ritter also signed 57 clean energy bills into law and, in the process, made Colorado a national and international hub of the “new energy economy.”  Due to Ritter’s efforts, Colorado has one of the most aggressive Renewable Energy Standards in the nation and a variety of policies that support the development of a clean energy economy.

After leaving the Governor’s Office, Ritter became the Director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.