The Fowler Center for Sustainable Value - Fowler Center Team

Roger Saillant, PhD, is a recognized authority in renewable energy and sustainability and has served as a pioneer in fuel cells, energy policy, and holistic management techniques. His extensive corporate experience includes seven years as CEO of Plug Power, a cutting-edge fuel cell company. Prior to that, he was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation, and he has worked to open plants and operations in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Dr. Saillant teaches and speaks on sustainability issues, and recent speaking engagements have been at leading colleges and universities including the Sloan School at MIT, Fordham University, and New York University. Another of his passions is communicating sustainability concerns to mainstream society--in this vein, he has recently co-authored a novel, Vapor Trails, dealing with some of today's hottest issues, such as climate change, carbon sequestration, and corporate control. The book has received excellent expert reviews.

David Cooperrider, PhD, is the Faculty Director and is the Fairmount Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management. Since 1991, David has served on the faculty of the Department of Organizational Behavior at Weatherhead, with a secondary appointment in International Health, the Division of General Medical Sciences, Case School of Medicine. David's research interests include the theory and practice of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), organization development and change, advances in “business as an agent of world benefit,” positive organizational scholarship, and qualitative theory-building methods. He is best known for the AI methodology that he co-developed.  David’s founding theory in this area is creating a positive revolution in the leadership of change, helping companies around the world discover the power of strength-based approaches to planning and multi-stakeholder cooperation. His work is especially vital because of its ability to enable positive change in systems of very large and complex scales, for example with the US Navy, Hewlett-Packard, Parker Hannifin, Mckinsey, the United Nations, and Verizon. To contact David, please e-mail.

Ron Fry, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior at Weatherhead and serves as the Faculty Adviser for the Fowler Center and the Chief Editor of the BAWB Innovation Bank. His research interests include organizational change and development, functioning of the executive, group dynamics and team effectiveness, whole systems change processes, management and leadership development, and applications of Appreciative Inquiry to foster human cooperation. Ron was one of the co-creators of Appreciative Inquiry at Case and heads the Institute for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry. He also directs the Case Masters in Positive Organization Development and Change Program. To contact Ron, please e-mail.

Chris Laszlo, PhD, is an Associate Professor teaching strategy and sustainability in the MBA, MPOD and Executive Education programs at Weatherhead. He is the Faculty Research Director of the Fowler Center. In this role, he directs student teams writing teaching cases and co-edits a book collections series. His earlier books Sustainable Value (Stanford University Press, 2008) and The Sustainable Company (Island Press, 2003/ 2005) helped to launch new mainstream management approaches to sustainability for value and profit. His most recent book, Embedded Sustainability: the Next Big Competitive Advantage, was released by Stanford University Press in March, 2011. Chris is also the managing partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, a sustainability strategy consulting firm.

Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, PhD is associate faculty in the Fowler Center and Professor of Neurology as well as Professor of Cognitive Science, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Psychology, Nursing, Organizational Behavior, and History. He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and MD-PhD (Psychology) from The Johns Hopkins University. With colleagues he discovered fundamental aspects of the cholinergic pathology in Alzheimer’s and related dementias, which lead to the development of our current generation drugs to treat these conditions. In 1986 he moved to Cleveland to develop Case’s University Alzheimer Center, now a part of the University Neurological Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. This center became one of the ten best funded in the world. Peter is clinically active at University Hospitals of Cleveland in the Joseph Foley Elder Health Center caring for individuals with concerns about their cognitive abilities as they age.

Peter continued his own life-long learning with a Masters Degree in Bioethics and Fellowship in Organizational Behavior at Case. In 1999 he founded with his wife, Catherine, The Intergenerational School, a unique public multiage, community school. This award winning school serves learners of all ages from Cleveland and the surrounding suburbs and is committed to excellence in life-long learning and spirited citizenship. He developed courses for undergraduates focusing on the theme of wisdom. He helped develop the new medical school curriculum and teaches in various programs including Foundations of Clinical Medicine, a longitudinal program focusing on professionalism and leadership. He has co-learned in a variety of Weatherhead executive education programs including Health Systems Management, Professional Fellows, MPOD and EDM. He plans to spend the rest of his life developing and participating in innovative learning environments that promote the creation of collective wisdom and contribute to environmental sustainability and social justice.

He is the author (with Danny George) of a provocative book entitled “The Myth of Alzheimer’s: what you aren’t being told about today’s most dreaded diagnosis”. Through this book and related projects he hopes to transform our thinking about brain aging and contribute to his own successful cognitive aging.

Peter is the grateful husband of Catherine, father of three vibrant young women, and the son of wonderful parents.

Beau Daane, M.A., MBA, is the Fowler Center Director. He graduated cum laude from Duke University in 2002 with a dual degree in French and International Relations. During and immediately after Duke, he lived in Mali, Guadeloupe and France for a combined two years. In 2004, Daane earned his master's in history from Cleveland State, and then became a Coro Fellow at the Cleveland Foundation. From 2007 to 2011, Daane worked as the Business Recycling Specialist for the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District where he helped businesses start and improve waste reduction, recycling and composting programs. He was named a 2010 Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) Champion of Sustainability. Daane completed his MBA at Weatherhead in 2012. A graduate of University School, Daane is a trustee of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and is co-chair of the Bratenahl Sustainability Action Team (BSAT).

Valerie Robinson has seventeen years of experience as an administrative professional for C-suite executives. From 2000-2008 Robinson was the Office Administrator for the Chicago Transit Authority's Office of Inspector General. During this period, Robinson earned a B.A., Social Structures and Systems of Power, from DePaul University, School for New Learning, where she was invited to join The National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Golden Key International Honour Society. In August 2011, Robinson earned her M.A. in Education, Instructional Leadership, from Argosy University. Committed to lifelong learning, Robinson enjoys reading, writing, outdoor activities, gardening, coordinating her family reunions and family scholarship program.

Brodie Boland is an Advisor on Special Projects at the Fowler Center, focusing on the Distinguished Fellows research project on 'spirituality and business' or 'meaning at work.' Currently a doctoral student in Organizational Behavior at Weatherhead, Brodie is a former President of AIESEC International and consultant for McKinsey & Company. As President of AIESEC International, he led the development of a five-year vision and plan for AIESEC globally, which has since been achieved. Brodie's team also started the initiative to expand AIESEC's operations to the Middle East and Central Asia. As a consultant for McKinsey & Company, he worked with organizations in the public and private sectors on issues ranging from long-term nuclear power generation to petroleum production efficiency. He is currently researching how large-scale, sustainable change occurs in complex systems through the collaborations of business, government, and civil society institutions. Brodie has traveled to over 40 countries, is an avid rock climber, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Calgary.

Abdellatif Ladki is a mechanical engineer with five years work experience in the fields of construction and contracting at the headquarters of "Consolidated Contractors Company" (CCC) in Athens, Greece. He grew up in Beirut, Lebanon where he earned his Bachelors of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut. During his study course, he completed an internship in the construction of a liquid natural gas (LNG) plant in Qatar. Shortly after, Abdellatif moved to Athens where his work focused on estimating costs of mechanical systems in various types of buildings and services. He was attracted to the Fowler Center and Weatherhead, where he began his MBA in 2012. Abdellatif is fluent in English, French and Arabic and enjoys sports and spending time with his family.

Abraham Weiner is a MBA candidate at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management where he concentrates on finance and sustainability. Through his work at the Fowler Center he is authoring a sustainable business case study and is working on different financing mechanisms for commercial energy efficiency. He is also a fellow with the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Corp program and is working with the Cleveland Mayor's Office of Sustainability. Before business school he was involved in urban agriculture, green infrastructure, and community development projects in Washington DC. He has also worked for several environmental organizations around the world in such places as New Zealand and Washington State. Abraham holds a B.A. in Anthropology with an emphasis on environmental studies from Eastern University.

Adam Lerner is an undergraduate management major at Case Western Reserve University. He grew up in Boulder, Colorado and believes in treating people fairly and respecting planet earth as our only home (for the moment at least). He came to Cleveland for the weather and new life experiences. Throughout high school he dedicated time to jazz piano and aspiring to take over for John Williams. He initially came to Case Western to study music and math, but was quickly smitten by the professors working in Weatherhead and switched to management. He's very excited to be working in the Fowler Center with such a forward thinking team on projects from marketing to writing teaching case studies.

Gail Papay, M.Ed., P.C., is the Project Manager for Manage by Design and Sustainable Values Initiatives in the Information Systems Department at Weatherhead. She facilitates the production of the Journal for Corporate Citizenship at the Fowler Center and functions as Managing Editor for the Design Issues journal. A member of the 2011 Class of the Women's Staff Leadership Development Initiative (WSLDI), Gail has earned certification in Weatherhead's Women in Leadership, Emotionally Intelligent Leader, and Executive Coaching. A licensed professional counselor, she is a mental health advocate providing counseling services to the Free Medical Clinic. Gail and her husband have raised two sons. They are avid tennis players and snow and water skiers.

Distinguished Fellows

Ilma Barros, PhD, is an advisor to the Distinguished Fellows program at the Fowler Center.  Ilma has worked on some of the largest strategic planning summits in business and social change over the last 12 years. She is an ELIAS Fellow (Emerging Leaders for Innovation across Systems) and a member of the Presencing Institute. Most recently, Ilma facilitated the Global Forum Latin America, an encounter that gathered 1200 people to think about sustainability in a systematic manner, involving business leaders, academic researchers, the government, and the civil society. As part of her activities in Brazil, Ilma coordinated five B.A.W.B. (Business as an Agent of World Benefit) conferences, and was responsible for the methodology and content used at the Future 10 Parana Forum, a platform of proposals for the strategic planning of Paraná State, and the document created and officially turned in to President Lula, the Governor of Parana State, and all the cities mayors in the state of Paraná.

She worked as a senior consultant for the Federation of Industries of the State of Parana, and in that role she lead the strategic planning for the Federation and industrial segments. She also delivered, for four consecutive years, the Appreciative Inquiry Certificate Program in Brazil in partnership with Case Western Reserve University.

Ilma received her Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University and was an Assistant Professor of Business at the State University of New York and L'Moyne College.

Judy Brown, PhD is an educator, speaker, poet and writer whose work revolves around themes of leadership, change, renewal, learning, reflection, dialogue and creativity. She has served as a White House Fellow and as Vice President of the Aspen Institute. At the University of Maryland she has held posts in both the business school and the public policy school and has been affiliated with the University's National Center for Smart Growth. A mid-westerner from the fishing village of Leland, Michigan, her heritage is that of agriculture and Cooperative Extension, giving her a commitment to the practical use of ideas, research and science. Her books include a collection of her poetry, A Leader's Guide to Reflective Practice (2007 Trafford Publishing) and she is currently completing a book entitled The Art and Spirit of Leadership. As a Quaker, she is interested in organizational processes which incorporate reflection and inquiry. As a writer and poet, she is intrigued by the power of language and metaphor to shift our thinking and open us to new perspectives. As an executive she is interested in how leaders sustain energy and a sense of purpose and direction. And as a scientist she is interested in understanding more fully how it is that we experience openings into greater awareness, and how those experiences allow us to gather our energies in powerful ways on behalf of transcendent, as well as social and organizational purposes.

John R. Ehrenfeld, Sc.D, retired in 2000 as the Director of the MIT Program on Technology, Business, and Environment. He retired again in June 2009 as Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology after guiding its development since the Society was founded in 2000. His continuing research focus is on sustainability and culture change. He is the author of Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming our Consumer Culture. In June 2009, the International Society for Industrial Ecology awarded him its Society Prize. In October 1999, the World Resources Institute honored him with a lifetime achievement award. He received the Founders Award for Distinguished Service from the Academy of Management's Organization and Natural Environment Division in August 2000. He holds a B.S. and Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT, and is author or co-author of over 200 papers, and other publications.

Mary Gorham, MBA, C.P.C.C., is a Certified Professional Coach who provides executive coaching, leadership development, and organizational consulting to leaders dedicated to socially, environmentally, and financially sustainable results. Mary holds an MBA from Yale, as well as coaching certifications from The Coaches Training Institute and the Leadership Circle, and extensive training and experience in Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching. Over the past 30 years, Mary has played a number of coaching, consulting, and human resource development roles in the corporate, nonprofit, and education worlds. Currently she coaches sustainability executives, nonprofit leaders, energy consultants, Green tech developers, foundation executives, Biofuels executives, food policy experts, educators, and others. In addition, she provides all the coaching and leadership seminars for the Yale SEAS Advanced Graduate Leadership Program.

Dave Sherman, DM is President of Dave Sherman & Co and Associate Partner, Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting. He helps executives formulate and execute breakthrough strategies that combine stakeholder-based insights with industry and company specific sources of advantage. He has been instrumental in developing Blu Skye's approach to industry-level sustainability initiatives for the dairy and magazine industries. In 2004 Dave partnered with Jib Ellison to start Wal-Mart on its sustainability journey. He was a founding partner of Sustainable Value Partners and a Vice President at A.T. Kearney where he led an Asia-based practice. Clients include: Wal-Mart, Bunge, Cathay Pacific, Philips Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Staples and Waste Management. He earned his doctorate in management at the Weatherhead School of Management where he researched social entrepreneurship. He also holds an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

Paul Werder founded LionHeart Consulting Inc. in 1983. He has a track record of successfully implementing organizational changes and improving the culture and financial performance of businesses and non-profit organizations. Since 2003, Paul has taught spiritual leadership at the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism after graduating in 2001. His favorite assignments involve coaching leaders of purpose driven organizations, and guiding multi-year organizational change efforts designed to improve the client's shareholder and stakeholder performance by inspiring and actualizing a spirit of purpose and collaborative unity within the organization. Paul holds an MSW from the University of Washington in 1976 where he graduated in the top 5% of his class; he spent several years working with youth at risk and delinquent adolescents. Prior to that, he earned a BS at the State University of New York at Buffalo with a double major in Social Work and English Literature. He has authored two books: Building Unity and Mastering Effectiveness. To reach Paul please email him at paulw@lionhrt.com.

Consultants

Louis Alloro, M.Ed., MAPP, is a Fellow at George Mason University's Center for Consciousness & Transformation, and owns a NYC-based consultancy which specializes in consulting services to learning organizations who want to learn how to think differently. Louis uses a unique, proprietary approach to building social, emotional, psychological, and communal capital which facilitates growth and resilience, even in the face of challenges. He partners in the SOMO (Social/Emotional+) Leadership Movement, a city-wide intervention in Cleveland, Ohio, teaching positive psychology in learning labs all across town: in businesses, schools, community groups, living rooms — and baking principles of applied positive psychology into as many existing projects and initiatives within the city system as possible. He is one of the first one hundred people in the world to hold a master of applied positive psychology (MAPP) and studied at the University of Pennsylvania with Marty Seligman, known for his work in learned helplessness and learned optimism. www.louisalloro.com

Duncan Coombe, PhD, is an organizational academic and consultant focusing on various aspects of organisational life with an emphasis on the outcome of well-being, whether individual, collective or ecological. He is particularly interested in the topic of Love in organisations and how Love has the potential to elevate many different organisational research and practitioner enquiries. Working for the Fowler Center Duncan has been involved in projects related to changing the focus of management education. For example he organized an academic summit on the curriculum re-design of the Weatherhead MBA program. As part of the Aspen TIP project, multiple business schools participated in this summit that led to significant changes in the MBA design and curriculum. Duncan expresses his work as a teacher, advisor, researcher and writer. He has lived and worked in the US, Switzerland, the UK and South Africa and works as an external consultant to numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations. Duncan has a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University, an MBA from IMD, an LLB (Dean’s Merit List) and a Bachelor of Social Science (majors in Psychology and Economics). In addition he is on the faculty of the Gestalt Center for Organization and Systems Development.

Sarah O'Keeffe, MBA, is a special projects consultant at the Fowler Center. A recent graduate of Weatherhead, Sarah focused her MBA studies in non-profit management and sustainability. Sarah previously served on the Fowler Center's World Inquiry Editorial Board and most recently worked as a grants administrator at the CWRU School of Medicine for five years, which included management of two NIH-funded diversity program grants and helping her office earn over $1.8 million in NIH funding. She currently sits on the board of Heights Bicycle Coalition, a non-profit that seeks to promote bicycling as a healthy and sustainable form of transportation, is a member of Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) and dedicates herself to creating sustainable value in every day life. Sarah is a former JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program instructor, has taught environmental education in the San Bernardino National Forest, and holds a BA in English and a BS in Aeronautics from Kent State University.

Linda Robson is an Advisor on Special Projects at the Fowler Center, focusing on the Distinguished Fellows program. She is a doctoral candidate in organizational behavior at Weatherhead School of Management, researching the impact language has on the success of sustainability programs. In 2005 Linda founded Case Western Reserve University's campus sustainability program and served as the university's first sustainability coordinator until 2010. Achievements include: the university joining the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment and developing a Climate Action Plan, which will move the research-intensive university toward climate neutrality by 2050. Additionally, Linda began the first sustainability research program for undergraduate students, has taught multiple courses about the intersection of organizational change and sustainability in large systems, launched a campus-wide composting program, and developed Green Teams in each of the university's schools. Linda speaks at conferences in the US and internationally, on the integration of sustainability in higher education.

Nadya Zhexembayeva, PhD, is the Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development at IEDC- Bled School of Management, Slovenia, where she teaches courses in leadership, organizational behavior, design thinking, and sustainability.

Currently, Nadya's research, teaching, and consulting centers around leadership, organizational design, change management, whole-system approaches to managing multi-stakeholder issues, and sustainability as business strategy. She authored a number of articles and book chapters, and serves as a regular columnist in business periodicals, such as GreenBiz.com. Nadya also belongs to the Positive Organizational Scholarship movement, most noticeably with her work on Appreciative Inquiry, a world-renown change management and strategic planning methodology that fosters multi-stakeholder strategy design.

In 2007, Dr. Zhexembayeva joined US-based Sustainable Value Partners, one of the oldest sustainability consultancies in the world. In 2008, Nadya was elected Vice-President of the United Nations Global Compact Slovenia, an association of businesses dedicated to sustainable value creation and corporate citizenship, where she consults companies in Central and Eastern Europe on a range of sustainability and stakeholder issues. She also serves as Vice-President of Challenge:Future, a global student think tank and innovation competition.

Under Nadya's leadership, in 2009 IEDC-Bled School of Management was named as one of the 100 Top Business Schools in the World, according to the world renown Aspen Institute's ranking of how well schools are preparing their students for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business.

Nadya earned her Doctorate Degree in Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, USA, where she also served as an Associate Director at the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, now Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, until 2008. She received Bachelor of Arts in Management and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Hartwick College, USA. She started her career in the insurance industry, and then led Association of Young Leaders in Kazakhstan.

Nadya's most recent book is Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage, co-authored with Chris Laszlo and to be published by Standford University Press and Greenleaf Publishing.