NASA FORUM Speaker Bios

SPEAKER BIOS

Nick Gogerty is the founder of Thoughtful Capital Group, a value research, risk and portfolio allocation consultancy firm based in Greenwich, CT. He delivered risk research to the US Senate on the World’s largest $200 billion technology problem as one of 7 global experts. His hedge fund investing beat the S&P 500 by over 90% during the global financial crisis 2007-09 outperforming 99% of all hedge and mutual funds. He has launched a renewable energy currency SolarCoin in 15 countries
and is currently working on launching a 100% green investment bank targeting $5bn in AUM in 5 year. In addition he advises tech start-ups on strategy and major financial institutions on risk. His past work and research includes: Building risk models for global banks, Work with one of the World’s largest hedge funds, Quantitative Forex analyst for >$2 trillion balance sheet bank, Founding social media software start-ups and strategic risk firms, Chief Analyst at Starlab a deep future multi-disciplinary science research institute.

His lifelong interests have been in studying large interesting problems and sustainable economic development for poverty reduction. Born and raised in the US, he has lived in 6 countries, studied cultural and economic anthropology and art history at the University of Iowa and received an MBA from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France. Nick holds the CAIA Chartered Alternative Investment Association designation. He has held series 3, 7, 63 and UK FSA registrations.

Dr. Lynn Reaser is the Chief Economist at the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute for Point Loma Nazarene University. The Institute engages in economic analysis, modeling, and forecasting with practical and actionable recommendations for corporations, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Dr. Reaser has deep experience in the financial services sector, and is a leading spokesperson for the university on public policy and economic issues.
She currently serves as Chief Economist of the Council of Economic Advisors for California State Treasurer John Chiang and is active in several professional organizations.

Katherine Collins is Founder and CEO of Honeybee Capital, an independent research firm dedicated to reconnecting investing with the real world. She is author of the book, The Nature of Investing, and her closest neighbors in Massachusetts are several thousand honeybees.
Katherine has over twenty years of professional investment experience as portfolio manager and head of research at Fidelity Management & Research Company. More recently she has earned her MTS degree at Harvard Divinity School and studied biomimicry as guides for investing in a more integrated way, in service to our communities and our planet.

Richard Bookstaber is the author of Option Pricing and Strategies in Investing and A Demon Of Our Own Design, a book highlighting the fragility of the financial system that occurs from tight coupling and complexity. The book is noted for its foreshadowing of the financial crisis of 2007–08. Bookstaber held positions in research and proprietary trading at Morgan Stanley, and was appointed to be the firm's first market risk manager. At Salomon Brothers he was the Managing Director in charge of firmwide risk. Following the purchase of Salomon Brothers by Citigroup he worked in a number of hedge funds, including Moore Capital Management and Bridgewater Associates, and founded the FrontPoint Partners Quantitative Equities Fund.

Following the publication of A Demon Of Our Own Design, Bookstaber testified a number of times to Congress on issues related to the financial crisis on topics including derivatives, hedge funds, systemic risk, and risk management. Bookstaber worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during formulation of the Volcker Rule. Since 2010 he has worked at the United States Department of the Treasury, where he is Senior Policy Advisory to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and Research Principal at the Office of Financial Research. His principal research focus is on applying Agent-based models to assess systemic financial vulnerabilities.

Dr. Michael K. Dorsey is a recognized expert on global energy, environment, finance and sustainability matters. Dr. Dorsey is interim Director of the energy and environment program at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. He is a Director on the national board of the Sierra Club—one of the largest and oldest US environmental organizations. In 1992, he was a member of the U.S. State Department Delegation to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, “The Earth Summit.” From 1994-96 he was a task force member of President William Jefferson Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development.

In 1997, in Glasgow, Scotland, Dorsey was bestowed Rotary International’s highest honor, The Paul Harris Medal for Distinguished Service to Humanity. From April 2007 until November 2008 Dr. Dorsey was a member of Senator Barack Obama’s energy and environment Presidential campaign team.

In 2010 Lisa Jackson, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) Administrator, appointed Dr. Dorsey to the EPA’s National Advisory Committee (NAC). Jackson reappointed Dr. Dorsey to the US-EPA NAC in 2012 and Administrator McCarthy reappointed him again in 2014. In 2013 Dr. Dorsey was made a “Full member” of the Club of Rome; that same year the National Journal named Dr. Dorsey one of 200 national “energy and environment expert insiders”.

Michael Brownrigg co-founded TOTAL Impact Capital in 2010 with partners who saw the need for a financial intermediary committed to utilizing market mechanisms to advance social and environmental goals. TOTAL works with entrepreneurs and governments to arrange capital for promising enterprises and public policy innovations. Michael's earlier career was in diplomacy, chiefly trade negotiations, and venture capital/private equity. While in the US Foreign Service he served the country in Hong Kong, Syria and Washington DC, including at the Office of the US Trade Representative, part of the Executive Office of the President. At ChinaVest, the oldest US private equity firm in China, Michael was Managing Partner and helped make and manage investments in growth companies in logistics, manufacturing, consumer services and information technology, sitting on numerous boards of high growth companies.

Michael's commitment to public service continues today in his home town of Burlingame, California where he serves as one of five elected City Council members, most recently as Mayor. He is also an advisor at the non-profit Foundation for a College Education, an institution helping disadvantaged kids (and their families) prepare for and succeed in college.

Chris Garvin is an accomplished practitioner and active voice in the sustainable design community. Based in New York, he has specialized in environmentally sustainable architecture and materials research, while serving on numerous advisory boards and in organizations that advocate for sustainability in the built environment.

An integral contributor to Terrapin’s development, Chris was named a Partner in 2008 and the Managing Partner in 2014. He serves as a project lead for many of Terrapin’s consulting engagements while also actively involved at COOKFOX Architects, where he is a Senior Associate. He is currently working to develop a Framework for the Ecological Built Environment (Phoebe) that integrates dynamic ecological inputs into sustainable planning. His interests include high-performance buildings and regenerative communities through the implementation of systems thinking, biomimicry, biophilia, and data analytics. Chris lectures frequently on sustainable design and has taught at the Pratt Institute’s Center for Professional Practice and Carnegie Mellon University. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Urban Green Council, the New York chapter of the US Green Building Council, and on the Advisory Board for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability.

Mikhail Davis is Director of Restorative Enterprise at Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet. He is responsible for advancing Interface’s journey to Mission Zero (and beyond) in the Americas by building internal leadership capacity, facilitating strategic alignment of efforts, and creating external partnerships that shift the marketplace toward sustainability. An expert in sustainable materials, he leads Interface’s product transparency efforts in the Americas and is lead author and editor of the Radical Industrialists column at GreenBiz.com.

His previous work includes three years as manager to environmental icon David Brower (an original member of Interface's "Eco Dream Team") and five years with Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting building sustainable business strategies and tools for Fortune 500 companies including Walmart, Sony Pictures, Bunge, Staples, and Waste Management. He holds a B.S. in Earth Systems-Biosphere from Stanford University and is a certified Biomimicry Specialist.

Darren Beck is Director of Environmental Initiatives & CR Innovation at Sprint. Darren is responsible for driving innovation at Sprint that helps reduce environmental impact while enhancing the company’s reputation and its bottom line. He achieves this by advising a range of operational working teams at Sprint focused on areas such as device recycling, sustainable packaging, waste reduction, water conservation, responsible procurement, and "winning with corporate responsibility" in business sales. Darren also is developing an innovation pipeline for Corporate Responsibility (CR). He works with partners inside and outside the company to identify "shared value" opportunities that generate new streams of revenue for Sprint while helping to create a better world. He has a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Kansas and has 25 years of experience in marketing, business development, strategy and corporate responsibility to his current role.

Francesco A. Schurr is a Professor of Law and head of the Chair for Company, Foundation and Trust Law at the Institute for Financial Services, as well as Program Director of the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Company, Foundation, and Trust Law at the University of Liechtenstein. Previously he was Professor for Private Law and Comparative Law at the Law School of the University of Innsbruck/Austria and Deputy Director of the Department of Italian Law. After completing his law studies at the Universities of Regensburg, Saarbrücken and Perugia he was admitted to the bar in Italy and Germany and obtained his PhD summa cum laude as well as his Habilitation from the University of Innsbruck.

Francesco A. Schurr has published numerous articles and books on Consumer Protection Law, Law of Foundations, Trust Law, Contracts and European Private Law. He had numerous visiting and adjunct professorships including those at the University of Padova/Italy, the Free University of Bolzano/Italy, the Riga Graduate School of Law in Latvia, the University of Bucharest/Romania as well as the Victoria University of Wellington/New Zealand.

Simon Tribelhorn, Liechtenstein Bankers Association, CEO. After his studies at the University of St. Gallen, he spent many years in the banking industry, most recently four years as legal counsel in the Legal & Compliance department at the Swiss Union of Raiffeisen Banks. Since February 2006, he's been working for the LBA, first as a lawyer and later as Deputy Managing Director. As of January 1, 2010 he was appointed CEO of the LBA. As part of his function, he represents the LBA in various national and international commitees. Simon's main objectives are the long-term preservation of the stability of the Liechtenstein financial sector, on the one hand, and the continuous enhancement of the capacity for innovation, on the other hand. His interests include the development of a sustainable financial system as well as impact investing. He participated and was significantly involved in the founding and developement of the LIFE Climate Foundation Liechtenstein. Since the establishment of the LIFE Climate Foundation in 2009, he serves as its director in addition to his regular job as CEO of the Bankers Association.

Simon Tribelhorn holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of St. Gallen. In 2002, he became attorney at law (with admission to the swiss bar).

Steve Hipskind, Chief, Earth Science Division of NASA Ames Research Center. Mr. Hipskind is the Chief of the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center. The division is primarily a research group working on global to local problems in Earth system science using NASA’s unique perspective from space. The Division has over 100 scientists, engineers and technical support staff focused on atmospheric and ecosystem science and technology development. The division has a heritage of scientific discovery and application of NASA science and technology for societal benefit.

Mr. Hipskind began his career at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and then moved to Oregon State University before coming to NASA Ames. He has conducted research in stratosphere-troposphere exchange and has managed airborne field campaigns around the world. His field work has taken him from Punta Arenas, Chile on the Straits of Magellan to Kiruna, Sweden above the Arctic circle, and many latitudes and longitudes in between.

Eva Willmann de Donlea, MBA, CEO Sustainability Intelligence (Aus) and Sustainability Intelligence US LLC (USA).
With a background in science, business, and finance, Eva has over thirty years experience advising on the integration of sustainability, climate change, clean technologies and carbon related matters into business and investment strategies.
As investment advisor, she advised individuals and NGOs in Australia on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) portfolio strategies. Eva has written industry courses on this topic and consulted to major national and international investment funds.

She served as the Head of Sustainability and Climate Change at FINSIA, the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and was the Founder & Chair of The Climate Council Inc., whose aim was to bridge public and private initiatives on climate change. In her earlier career, Eva served on a federal government selection panel for clean technologies, worked for the UN in Geneva, Switzerland and for a federal minister in Australia. More recently, Eva developed a strong interest in traditional cultures around the world, and her focus has shifted to the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in the sustainability debate and to develop cross-cultural competencies.

Alejandro Caminos serves as a Financial Services Professional at New York Life. He brings with him over 20 years of financial experience in the areas of wealth, portfolio and risk management, investment banking and project finance. Mr. Caminos assists his clients in developing tailored solutions in areas of risk management, wealth accumulation, distribution, advanced planning, tax and risk mitigation. Prior to joining New York Life, Mr. Caminos served as Vice President of Public finance to SNW Securities in California. He led the firm’s efforts in investment banking in California and Mexico.

In 2008 he established IPFC Group which provided consulting services for development agencies, Governments and Supranational entities including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union Water Commission and the German Development Bank-GTZ. He assessed over 15 financing projects and 50 financial institutions in over 20 countries. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Caminos served as Managing Director at DEPFA Bank and headed the Bank’s western U.S. operations and investment/loan portfolio. Prior to 2006 Mr. Caminos served a vice president for KNN-Zions First National Bank and brought to market over $3.5 billion in financing for local governments. Prior to KNN-Zions Bank Mr. Caminos worked for the private client services division of Lehman Brothers.

Robert Suarez is the Managing Director, Innovation and Design for SU Labs, where he provides design and innovation direction for corporate, startup and field impact teams. Robert is constantly investigating human behavior, nature’s strategies, and emerging technology to find new opportunities for design and innovation that drive positive impact for the world.

Before joining SU, he was on the founding team of Level Money, a mission-driven design-led financial services organization in San Francisco. Level’s mission is to empower America’s young adults to take control of their financial futures, both individually and collectively, by creating fair and trustworthy personal financial services and by educating and advocating for financial sustainability. Throughout his over 15-year career in consumer experience design Robert has created product and service experiences that change the way people live, work, and play. He was a Senior Portfolio Director at IDEO, where his design direction focused on building new offerings in mobile experiences, financial services, cross-platform gaming and emerging technologies. Robert is a Certified Biomimicry Professional and strives for solutions that integrate social, environmental, and educational considerations while proving that purpose and profit can combine for the greatest impact.