Sustainable Brands Innovation Open

Alaina Johnson is a Corporate Responsibility Lead at Target Corporation and plays a key role in helping the organization identify opportunities to drive both business and social impact through partnerships with NGOs, industry organizations, and members of the vendor and supplier community. Specifically leading Target’s efforts behind how they invest in innovation to help them reach their corporate responsibility goals, Alaina is passionate about how thought-partnership between the start-up community and large corporations can unlock potential and momentum to drive real change for our society and our world.

Before her current role in Corporate Responsibility at Target, Alaina was in Target’s merchandising division and has a major passion for product development and assortment strategy. On top of this, Alaina was also a member of the small team that stood-up Target’s first-ever internal accelerator, Target Takeoff, that is focused on supporting emerging brands that are solving key problems in the retail industry.

Alicia Marseille joins Arizona State University as the director of the newly established RISN Incubator, an innovation and enterprise startup accelerator within the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network, or RISN. Alicia has five years of direct experience in economic development, and prior to that she founded and operated Ka Bel LLC, an international small business working with a cooperative group of farmers in Haiti to export/import raw green coffee and distributed to wholesalers across the U.S.

Prior to ASU, Alicia was the director of Arizona Women’s Education and Employment, a new U.S. Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Center, to build, develop and manage that program. She was also a business analyst at the Arizona Small Business Development Center where she established strategic partnerships with government, community organizations and banks to create economic impact. Alicia currently is on the Metro Phoenix Export Alliance Advisory Board and Arizona State University’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Management Advisory Board.

She is a highly skilled business analyst and consultant with 10 years of experience nationally and internationally in: public/private partnerships; identifying opportunities, trends, and plans for implementation; logistic solutions; import/export; emerging markets; growth strategies; financial modeling, research and proposal development for ventures seeking debt and equity based funding and from international finance organizations such as the International Development Bank (IDB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Alicia has a BA of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (Western College Program) from Miami University of Ohio with focus areas of study in International Development, Sustainable Development, and Urban Planning. Alicia has Master’s in Business Administration from Grand Canyon University.

Anthony has a background in Horticulture and Religious Studies from Michigan State, where he utilized his talents working with Central Detroit Christian CDC as their Garden Production and Aquaponics manager, helping to establish Detroit’s first indoor fish farm in a rehabbed convenience store. He serves as Detroit Ento’s CEO/Co-Founder. Anthony Hatinger began his life and work in Detroit in May of 2013. Being a student of Religion and Horticulture, he decided to bring his passion and knowledge for food justice organizing and creation care theology with him to Detroit. Anthony is also is a Herbal Extract Specialist, landscaper, and has previously served on the Voices for Earth Justice Board of Directors. He is also Co-Founder of Detroit Ento, a prototyping farm in the city, focusing on the rearing of alternative insect protein for food, feed and pharma.

Ashlee leads Open Innovation for Nestlé USA, focusing on partnering with leading food and food technology startups. Her team is driving growth in emerging categories and platforms that align with Nestlé’s mission to improve people’s nutrition, health, and wellness.

Most recently, Ashlee led strategic partnerships for Rock Health, the first venture fund for digital health. Her past work also includes creating The Food Business School’s Mentor Network, an online platform to connect entrepreneurs with accomplished food business leaders; and leading Business Development at Better, a digital health startup developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic.

Ashlee is committed to building communities and creating environments that foster inclusive leadership and entrepreneurship. She is also the Co-Founder of Hygge Health, an organization supporting women leaders in health and wellness. She holds an MBA from the UC Berkley Haas School of Business and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California.

Christina Nicholson is the Director of Sustainable Innovation at Gap Inc. and plays a key role in driving the organizations long range environmental sustainability strategy. She leads a global team responsible for delivering the organization’s 2020 environmental impact reduction goals including those for water, chemicals, GHG emissions and waste.

Before joining Gap Inc., Christina was the Director of Member Value at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). The SAC is a non-profit membership organization working with major global companies to improve their social and environmental supply chain performance. Prior to the SAC, Christina launched and led the sustainability department at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. as their Director of Sustainable Development.

Before starting Makersite with Neil D`Souza, Christoph was CEO of thinkstep. He was previously involved with other start-ups and held executive positions with Education First, Microsoft, and Siemens.

Dimitar is the Director of Content Development at Sustainable Brands. He joined the Sustainable Brands team after earning a Master’s degree in Management Science & Engineering – focused on sustainable business – from Stanford University. Before Stanford, Dimitar worked in international development at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and also in economic consulting at Charles River Associates and NERA.

Born and raised in Bulgaria, Dimitar left his home country for the first time about a decade ago to go to college in the U.S. He has since turned into something of an international man of mystery, thriving on global friendships, global food and global thoughts.

Doug leads Nestle USA’s New Business Ventures group. His role is to drive growth in emerging platforms outside existing core businesses through partnerships, incubation, investment, and acquisition. His experience includes leading the Nestlé USA Innovation Center of Excellence, driving platform-based food & beverage innovation, and marketing of several core brands in the beverage division including Dolce Gusto, Nescafe, Coffee-mate, & Nesquik. He currently lives in Falls Church, VA with his wife & two sons.

A passionate advocate for “doing the right thing,” Lewis Perkins has served as president of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute since 2015. Perkins previously led the Institute’s Fashion Positive initiative, which engages fashion designers, manufacturers, brands and influencers in creating Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM materials and products with the circular economy in mind. Prior to joining the Institute, Perkins consulted with corporations and organizations on the social and environmental program development. He also served as Director of Sustainable Strategies for The Mohawk Group, a leading carpet manufacturer and the commercial division of Mohawk Industries.

Perkins’ passion for sustainability and non-profit work has included strategic roles with organizations such as The Clean Air Campaign, 360i and USWeb/CKS. He is an Ashoka and C&A Foundation Strategy Thought Partner for social entrepreneurs, a 2016 and 2017 member of the H&M Global Change Award Expert Panel, a Design Mentor for the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lexus Design Initiative – Eco Design Challenge Accelerator.

A featured speaker at the 2016 World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Consumption, Perkins has been a featured speaker at the 2009 Forbes Magazine Green Visionary Series, Sustainable Brands, LOHAS Forum, the White House Council for Environmental Quality GreenGov Symposium and the 53rd and 54th annual Grammy Awards Green Summit panels.

Perkins holds a Master of Business Administration in marketing and strategy with a focus on social responsibility from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington & Lee University.

Called ‘The Reinvention Guru’ (In Ventures magazine) and ‘The Queen of Reinvention’ (TEDx Navasink), Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is a business owner, educator, speaker and author — specializing in reinvention.

Nadya is the creator of Chief Reinvention Officer method – and now this approach to transformation and renewal can work for you.

As a business owner, Nadya oversees a group of companies active in real estate, investment, and consulting. As a consultant, Nadya has helped such organizations as The Coca-Cola Company, ENRC PLC, IBM, CISCO, Erste Bank, Henkel, Knauf Insulation, Vienna Insurance Group and many others to reinvent their products, processes, and leadership practices.

Nadya also appreciated an opportunity for corporate experience when a long-term client, a 75,000-employee mining and metals company, ENRC PLC, invited her to join the executive suite to curate business transformation efforts. From 2013 to 2016, Nadya oversaw all aspects of the transformation as the company went from public to private and from a financial to a hands-on operational holding under the new brand, ERG. She continues to support the Group in an advisory role.

As an educator, Nadya personally contributed to the development of nearly 5,000 executives from over 60 countries and 20 industries via small group executive education sessions, custom-made seminars, and long-term corporate reinvention projects.

She served as the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor of Sustainable Development at IEDC- Bled School of Management, an executive education center based in the Slovene Alps, where she continues to teach courses in leadership, strategy, change management, design thinking, and sustainability. In addition to IEDC, Nadya has taught in other business schools, including CEDEP (France) and IPADE Business School (Mexico).

As a speaker, Nadya has shared her insights with audiences worldwide through keynotes, panel presentations, and workshops. She has delivered three TEDx talks in Austria, Slovenia and the US. Over 100,000+ professionals saw Nadya speak publicly.

Nadya is a member of the Resourcefulness Advisory Board at OMV, an oil and gas company, as well as a member of the Advisory Board of Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. She also serves on the Board of Challenge:Future, a global student think-DO-tank and innovation competition that unites 35,000 members from 242 countries and territories.

As an author, Nadya has written two books (“Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage” in 2011 and “Overfished Ocean Strategy: Powering Up Innovation for a Resource-Deprived World” in 2014) and contributed to five others. In an effort to reinvent corporate approaches to sustainability strategy, Nadya and her co-author Chris Laszlo coined the concept ‘embedded sustainability’, which was virtually non-existent when they started in 2009. Today, it produces 25+ million Google search results and has become a staple for corporate sustainability efforts.

Nadya received her BA in management and BA in psychology from Hartwick College and her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University.

A daughter of Kazakhstan, Nadya and her family split their life between the US and Eurasia.

Nkolo is the Business Development and Partnerships Coordinator at Sustainable Brands, managing growth projects, coordinating strategic partnerships, and connecting value to vision.

She has a BA in Criminal Justice from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, with a minor in Sociology, and concentration on Ethics and Economics. She also holds certifications in Social Enterprise Management, Impact Investing, and Campaign Organizing from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale.

Before joining Sustainable Brands, Nkolo served on the operations and programs side in both the private and nonprofit sectors, applying her cross-cultural communications expertise to diversified causes, including grant procurement and program evaluation to address homelessness at a health center in San Francisco, teaching Human Centered Design for the SMASH academy at Stanford, and an AmeriCorps Fellowship at an esteemed environmental non-profit in Hawaii.

Nkolo is fascinated by how mindfulness and inclusion, in technology and design, can elevate everything— from products, to systems, to workplaces, communities, and societies. She’s passionate about learning and creating these outcomes.

Sandy Skees is Regional Director at BSI She leads the sustainability practice as well as managing the growth of BSI’s Northern California region, delivering a range of consulting services and program implementation ranging from sustainability and corporate social responsibility, worker safety, business continuity planning, and EHS services. Prior to BSI, Sandy served as Managing Director for Fenton Communications West Coast, accelerating progress through social change communications. Her work with corporations, nonprofits, and NGOs was focused in consumer products, recycling and waste, renewable energy, supply chain and LGBT issues, She brings over 25 years’ experience in leading professional service firms, corporate and communications strategy.

Skees previously ran her own firm Communications4Good, where she served early stage and Fortune 500 companies. While a partner at Porter Novelli, she managed the global HP account team in 20 cities/10 countries around the world and created programs, processes and predictive integration points as a framework for ensuring global implementation of cutting edge communications techniques. She sits on numerous boards including 100 Women Who Care, Sustainable Brands, Mini Mermaid Running Club, was appointed to a four year team on the Santa Cruz County’s Human Services Commission, and is a seasoned speaker on brand, messaging and sustainability strategy.

An entrepreneur by nature, Shilpa brings her passion for creating change through entrepreneurship to YouNoodle everyday, where she oversees all things related to Partnerships and Growth.

Over the past two years, Shilpa has worked with industry leaders including Cisco, PwC, Salesforce, Amazon, Booking.com to execute innovation programs that support entrepreneurs tackling tomorrow’s biggest environmental and social challenges.