Regeneration VC Team
Dan is a Co-Founder and General Partner of Regeneration.VC. Prior, Dan operated numerous companies within apparel, entertainment, and consumer products. He is an experienced investor in early-stage environmentally-conscious consumer businesses.
In 2002, he co-founded Bulldog Entertainment Group, organizing brand deals for celebrities such as Quincy Jones, Shaquille O’Neal, Jennifer Hudson, and Prince before selling to Warner Music Group in 2006. He then pivoted to contemporary fashion, launching House of Harlow 1960 and Winter Kate in partnership with Nicole Richie, A.L.C. with Andrea Lieberman (sold to Interluxe), and L’Agence.
In 2011, Dan switched focus to the food industry, becoming the first investor and President of Coolhaus, a premium ice cream brand sold in over 8,000 locations. He observed and responded to the growing plant-based movement, creating Coolhaus’ vegan line which launched nationwide at Whole Foods in 2018 and the brand was acquired by Perfect Day in 2021.
Dan is a graduate of Boston University. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three kids.
Michael is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Regeneration.VC, an early stage venture fund supercharging consumer-powered climate innovation. Previously, he founded and operated media and real estate businesses, performed as a touring DJ, an environmental organizer and investor into over 30 companies.
Michael ran marketing & digital for Smith Broadcasting, a group of 20 network TV stations, before selling to Boston Ventures. Shortly thereafter, he followed his lifelong passion for music to become a touring DJ and performed alongside artists including Guns N Roses, Rihanna, and Diplo. In 2006, he launched The Playlist Generation, one of the world's largest background music providers. In 2010, he co-founded Creative Space, a real estate firm with a portfolio of 80 adaptive reuse projects between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
After successfully exiting both companies, in 2015 Michael formed Ponvalley, an environmentally focused family office initiative comprising philanthropy, research and impact investments. He convened Shared Mission, an emergency climate summit with Former VP Al Gore, General Wesley Clark, the Department of Energy and Harvard leadership. He currently serves on the board of Regeneration.VC portfolio companies Smarter Sorting and Greyparrot, as well as the American Renewable Energy Institute and Sustainable Change Alliance. He serves as a founding advisor to Salk Institute's Harnessing Plants Initiative and served as a Venture Fellow at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School.
Michael is a graduate of Northwestern University. He lives in Amsterdam with his wife and two children.
Greta has worked globally at the intersection of finance and circular economy. Most recently, as a Senior Impact Investing Fellow at 17 Asset Management, she applied 'Doughnut Economics' principles to investment strategies in public and private markets. Previously, Greta developed impact investing solutions for institutional investors and asset managers at Phenix Capital (Amsterdam) and applied ‘Doughnut Economics’ principles to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology investment strategy (Budapest).
In 2022, Greta was named to Italy’s Nova 111 List–a global talent network recognizing distinguished and accomplished young professionals. She graduated from Columbia University with a M.S. in Sustainability Management, where she founded the Circular Economy Club–a group dedicated to student engagement around topics spanning Circular Economy, Doughnut Economics, and Systems Thinking. Greta currently serves on the Columbia University Alumni Association Board. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the University of Exeter. Greta currently resides in New York.
Destana received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University. In addition, he studied sustainability science under Alicia Harley and Bill Clark (fmr. Co-Chair of Harvard's Sustainability Science Program) and explored the economics of climate change and environmental policy under Robert Stavins (recognized White House advisor on environmental policy).
Outside of class, Destana was a leader in the impact investing group, where he developed initial components for a student-managed impact fund, led a research fellowship investigating DEI in private capital markets, and studied non-profit venture fund spinouts under HBS Professor Brian Trelstad (founding CIO Acumen Fund).
Katie Hoffman is a financial innovator, investor, and entrepreneur. Katie has over a decade of experience building and advising companies that drive measurable environmental impact in public and private markets. She has expertise in utilizing data-driven approaches to make climate-smart investments across multiple asset classes. Katie has shaped policy and practice around Environmental, Social and Governance standards for individual, family and institutional investors, including the California public funds and members of the $40.4T+ AUM Divest–Invest initiative, which she helped lead.
Katie was a Managing Director at Etho Capital where she led strategic development, facilitated the market introduction of Etho’s flagship Climate Leadership Index and ETF, and scaled AUM to over $100M. She has built green incubator and accelerator programs with the University of California, the California Clean Energy Fund, and NEXUS Global. Katie has supported over 100 green projects and start ups in finance, clean tech, and consumer verticals through policies and initiatives she helped create. She received her degrees with Summa Cum Laude distinction from the University of California, Berkeley and resides in New York City.
David has been an institutional investor for two decades, deploying more than $10B across various industries, with a focus on environmentally oriented businesses. Throughout his career, he founded, advised, and angel invested in many early-stage companies.
David is currently a portfolio manager at HITE, an ESG hedge fund positioned as “short carbon,” in a market-neutral strategy. He serves on the board of CH4 Biogas, the leading commercial scale biogas company in North America, as well as CYCLEffect, a Rockefeller affiliate leading early-stage regenerative investments. David is also an advisor to lightning energy a leader in advanced grid storage and rapid recharging battery technology.
In 2013 he served as the founding CIO of Artivest, a fintech company improving access to private capital pools. Funded by KKR & Peter Thiel, the firm was recently acquired by iCapital in May 2020. Prior to working with Artivest, David enjoyed investment positions with Paulson & Co., Canyon Capital, PAAMCO, and Colony Capital.
David received his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he worked under Senator Elizabeth Warren, while also completing his MBA with honors from Harvard Business School. He lives in Greenwich with his wife and two kids.
Maria Llambias is the Director of Fund Operations at Regeneration.VC and has been an integral part of the team since inception. She is responsible for overseeing the Fund Administration team and collaborates with management to ensure optimum day to day performance in operations.
With over twenty years of experience in Business Management, including eight years as an independent business, she has successfully assisted numerous start-ups with financial analysis, the creation and implementation of sound accounting procedures, as well as oversight of operations.
Due to her strong work ethic and excellent reputation, she was selected to work directly with Diane Keaton, as her Financial Manager where she implemented management and accounting systems in both personal and corporate holdings. She has also worked with other high-profile home offices where she has used her analytical strategies to ensure optimum performance through streamlined accounting and business practices in their companies.
Maria holds a BA in Economics & Accounting from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and resides in Redondo Beach, CA with her husband and two daughters.
Tom has owned and operated multiple global enterprises within a diverse set of industries. He is an experienced investor and advisor, bringing decades of institutional investment experience and multiple board appointments for prestigious private equity funds.
After serving in the Marine Corps, Tom began his professional career with Ernst & Young, before transitioning to a VP role with Valley View Capital Corporation, a private equity fund. In the following decade, Tom served as Chairman, President, and/or CEO for food distribution, office product wholesale, and manufacturing businesses totaling $8.7B in revenues.
During this time, Tom became the Co-Founding GP of Wingate Partners (1987-96), a $450MM private equity fund rated by Buyouts magazine as the top-performing fund for nearly two decades. He has previously served on boards of Goldman Sachs PE funds, a New Zealand philanthropic foundation, and the US National Chamber of Commerce, among others. Tom currently serves as Chairman to two holding companies, spanning printing, agriculture, retail, and aquaculture.
Tom received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently lives between California and New Zealand. He enjoys hiking, collecting antique cars, and supporting philanthropic causes within environment, conservation, and healthcare.
Martijn is a Regeneration.VC Venture Partner, supporting the fund’s European expansion strategy across fundraising, sourcing, diligence, and ecosystem building.
His journey to become a serial entrepreneur began in California, where Martijn built successful companies in mobile and digital media including GoldPocket Interactive (exit: Tandberg/Ericsson) and GPW (exit: Motricity). Returning to the Netherlands, he pivoted focus to the circular economy transition, moving the world from a “take, make, dispose” linear economy to one that uplifts material flows through intentional design, responsible use, and systematic reuse.
For six years, Martijn served as CEO of Black Bear, a circular economy technology company upcycling end-of-life tires into valuable materials. During this period, he joined the Supervisory Board of Circle Economy Foundation, an Amsterdam-based organization empowering nations, cities, and businesses with practical and scalable circular solutions. Martijn was soon asked to step in as CEO of Circle Economy, where he closed key partnerships with European Investment Bank and Deloitte, spearheaded the launch of the annual Circularity Gap Report and secured long term projects together with UNIDO, European Union and Chatham House.
Martijn serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence with YES!Delft and has presented at World Economic Forum, COP, UNGA Climate Week, and TEDx. He holds an MSc in Applied Physics from TU Delft and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He now lives in the Netherlands with his wife and three sons.
Pratibha Vuppuluri is the General Partner at Unreasonable Collective, an investment syndicate with a mandate to invest in Series A & B Stage Climate Tech ventures. She brings 22+ years of capital raising and investing experience across industrial and clean technology sectors and has executed more than $7.5bn in transaction value at bulge bracket investment banks, including Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Barclays.
Pratibha graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors in Applied Economics and Management with an academic publication to her name. She also completed her Masters in International Affairs (International Finance and Economic Policy) at Columbia University. Pratibha is a frequent writer and speaker on the role of private capital in tackling societal challenges, impact investing, and diversity & inclusion.
Advisory board
Leonardo DiCaprio is an Academy Award® award-winning actor (and six-time nominee), who has been recognized for his work as an actor, producer, and activist. DiCaprio has been a longtime champion of global environmental issues including climate change, wildlife conservation, access to clean water, protecting biodiversity, marine conservation and supporting Indigenous communities. To date, through his philanthropic efforts, DiCaprio has provided more than $100 million in grants to a variety of programs and projects.
In July 2019, in response to a growing climate crisis, DiCaprio, along with businesswoman and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, co-founded Earth Alliance, an organization created to activate and mobilize a global response to the urgent threats that our planet is facing. Earth Alliance builds upon DiCaprio’s lifelong commitment to environmental causes, coordinating the power and commitments of organizations and people around the planet to galvanize action. Earth Alliance has launched critical funding initiatives including the Amazon Forest Fund to help aid the fires in the Brazilian rainforest, the Australia Wildfire Fund in response to catastrophic fires burning in the region, as well as the Virunga Fund in support of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, DiCaprio helped launch America’s Food Fund alongside Laurene Powell Jobs, Apple, Ford Foundation and Oprah Winfrey, which has since raised nearly $45 million for hunger-relief organizations including Feeding America and World Central Kitchen.
In September 2014, DiCaprio was designated as a United Nations Messenger of Peace for his longstanding commitment to environmental activism. That same month, DiCaprio was honored with the Clinton Global Citizen Award, participated in history’s largest climate march in New York City, and addressed the UN Summit. DiCaprio also serves on the boards of Natural Resources Defense Council, and International Fund for Animal Welfare.
In January 2016, DiCaprio was awarded a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for his work bringing global attention to the urgent need to address climate change.
DiCaprio was seen most recently in Adam Mckay's DON'T LOOK UP. He was also in Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Prior to that he starred in The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, he received the Academy Award (2016) for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, and the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Actor.
Tue Mantoni has enjoyed an illustrious career operating, advising, and investing in global consumer businesses. For four years, he served as a Board Member and subsequently Chairman of the Board at Vaekstfonden, Denmark’s sovereign wealth fund with a focus on early-stage and fund investments.
Tue spent his early career advising major multinationals across Europe with McKinsey & Co’s Copenhagen and London offices. After spearheading a successful brand rebirth and business strategy transformation for his client, Triumph Motorcycles, Tue accepted an offer to become CEO of the company. During his 8-year tenure, Triumph saw tremendous growth, leading to his concurrent appointment to the Board of Directors at Bang & Olufsen, a high-end Danish consumer electronics business (“B&O”). After two years as a non-Executive Board Director, Tue transitioned to CEO & President of B&O, a role he held over five years.
Today, Tue holds Board Member and Chairman positions for cutting-edge apparel & lifestyle (GUBI, Stine GOYA), consumer electronics (Soundboks), and food & beverage businesses (Lakrids by Bülow, Joe & The Juice, The Organic Crave Company) based in Copenhagen.
Tue is the best-selling author of “Samfundskontraten” (“The Social Contract”), an exploration of the relationship between business and society through study of the current Danish entrepreneurial ecosystem and detail of its near-future potential. He completed his Master’s Degree in Mathematical Finance at Copenhagen Business School and still calls Copenhagen home, where he resides with his wife, three children and his dog, a Lagotto Romagnolo called Ziggy.
William McDonough is a globally recognized leader in sustainable development. McDonough is trained as an architect, yet his interests and influence range widely, and he works at scales from the global to the molecular. McDonough is the architect of many recognized flagships of sustainable design, including the Ford Rouge truck plant in Michigan and NASA’s Sustainability Base, one of the most innovative facilities in the federal portfolio. He was the Inaugural Chair of the World Economic Forum’s MetaCouncil on the Circular Economy (2014-2016) and currently serves on the Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security.
McDonough has written and lectured extensively on design as the first signal of human intention. He was commissioned in 1991 to write The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability as guidelines for the City of Hannover’s EXPO 2000. In 2002 he co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, widely acknowledged as a seminal text of the sustainability movement, which was followed by The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability -- Designing for Abundance (2013).
McDonough advises commercial and governmental leaders worldwide through McDonough Innovation. He is also active with William McDonough + Partners, his architecture practice in Charlottesville, VA, as well as MBDC, the Cradle to Cradle consulting firm co-founded with Michael Braungart.
He co-founded three not-for-profit organizations to allow public accessibility to Cradle to Cradle thinking: GreenBlue (2000), to convene industry groups around Cradle to Cradle issues; Sustainable Packaging Coalition (2009), to cultivate a community of packaging thought leaders; and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (2009), to expand the rigorous product certification program. In 2017 he co- founded Fashion for Good with the C&A Foundation, a joint-industry initiative which aims to transform the global apparel chain into a force for good based on Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM to define its quality.
Dr. Marta is a creator, innovator, and troubleshooter, who after nearly a couple of decades in corporate, recently became a founder of dr.mp, a small business that offers B2B services in skincare formulations, defense and aerospace, consumer products packaging and circular economy best practices.
She developed her deep love for the science of skincare at the age when her first pimple showed up, as always uninvited, which prompted her to research labels, actives, and test all hypotheses and ideas. Her fascination for all matters of the skin industry grew throughout her college and graduate school years, fueled by increased understanding of chemistry and its never-ending applications to the betterment of the health and beauty of skin. The opportunity to make this passion a career happened when she joined Procter & Gamble (P&G) to pursue her innate love for beauty and the fascinating industry around it. After the first years at P&G making grooming more fun for men and women alike as a scientist in Gillette, Dr. Marta moved to Singapore via Kobe, Japan to become a senior chemist for the Japanese iconic prestige brand SKII. She then moved to the UK to lead several projects for the cosmetics lines of D&G and Gucci, back then part of the Prestige business of P&G. In 2015, Dr. Marta accepted a position as a Director of R&D for the Estee Lauder Companies (ELC) in New York City. While at ELC she developed new test procedures; troubleshot many issues from production to product in the consumer’s hands; and deeply comprehended the business of formulation, from creation to packaging and the tricky business of consumer research. In 2021, after a decade and a half in corporations, Dr. Marta established her own company, applying her never-ending creativity to formulate products for Rejuvalift, developing skincare lines for private labels, acting as a formulator and skincare expert for startups looking to break in the market or expand their lines.
As a contractor for the Department of Defense, she is leading the “Critical Chemicals” sector of DPA Title III (part of the Office of the Department of Defense, OSD). In this role, Dr. Marta is developing domestic manufacturing of all critical chemicals, while minimizing the environmental impact that production of raw materials carries along.
Besides the science of skincare and the defense industry, she has accumulated expertise in packaging materials and their interaction/stability/toxicity when in contact with product. Furthermore, her deep knowledge and expertise in polymers, metals, glass, coatings, composites, UV curables, protective and decorative technologies, has been of used in numerous other applications such as defense system components (artillery, vessels, etc.), additive manufacturing/ 3D printing, construction (adhesives and coatings), appliances, devices, explosives, and propellants. Her experience acquired at the Coca-Cola company in sustainable materials and her passion for preserving the environment have also led her to join the board of regeneration.vc; a fund dedicated solely to the promotion of business centered in circular economy.
A native of Spain, where she obtained her BSc. in Chemistry and MS in Polymer Science, she came to the USA as a Fulbright scholar to earn her doctorate in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Akron. Her career has taken her to assignments in North America, Europe and Asia. After having lived in seven different countries, her current residence is in Atlanta, with Tokyo and Neko, her two Bengal cats.
Stephen Mills Badger II, born September 1968, attended Duke University and Reed College, and, in 1992, graduated from Union Institute in Cincinnati, OH with a BA in Anthropology. He was one of the largest investors and key developmental influencers of Seeds of Change, an organic seed and food company and was President of the company from 1995- 2004.
From 2004-2008 Stephen led Corporate Affairs for Mars, Incorporated as the Global Director. In March of 2008, Stephen joined the Mars, Incorporated Board and became Chairman in March of 2011 and served for its term of three years. In March 2017 he assumed the role again.
Other boards include/have included Island Press, Permacultura Latin America, The Africa Society, The Association for Traditional Arts, Project Hempstead Heart, and the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation. Stephen also produced “Muscle Shoals” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. It was sold around the world including to PBS’ premiere network ITVS in the United States.
Pentatonic GmbH, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Masuku Ltd, Co-Founder
Dedicated to the advancement of a net zero future, Johann Boedecker has taken a technology driven approach to circular economy.
Johann co-founded Pentatonic in 2016 with the aim of moving consumer-focused circular economy projects from concepts, into tangible and profitable reality. His collaborative, results-driven approach has led to Pentatonic partnering with some of the world’s leading consumer brands, such as Starbucks, Burger King and New Era.
Johann brings a wealth of experience in circular supply chains, having realised the vast opportunities in the circular economy during his early career spent in Asia. Johann, fluent in German, English and Mandarin, is a published author. He is based in Berlin, Germany.
Reyna Bryan is the President of RCD Packaging Innovation, a sustainable packaging innovation & supply company (www.rcdpackaging.com). She specializes in packaging engineering, materials and manufacturing, with a focus on compostable flexible film packaging, specialty fibers, and bio-polymers. Reyna is passionate about the circular economy and works to bring cutting edge materials and technologies to packaging manufacturers and helps brands transition to sustainable material supply chains.
Reyna brings unique expertise in collaborative innovation facilitation. She recently completed a design-thinking workshop in which she brought together 80 experts from across the packaging value chain to generate solutions to help the industry move towards a zero-waste future. Working alongside large industry players such as Mars, PepsiCo, NewHope, and Whole Foods, the group successfully generated hundreds of new ideas and launched 9 incubation projects.
With a background in mechanical engineering and engineering management, Reyna has dedicated her career to transforming supply chains and building technologies to enable positive action on a planetary scale. She has a wide range of experience and has worked across several industries, including energy, aerospace, consumer packaged goods, management consulting and data visualization. She is the Board Chair of The Clock Tower Project, a non-profit that builds software to support effective climate action and is passionate about cultivating innovative solutions that improve the health of humans, communities and the planet.
Gen. Wesley Clark retired in 2000 from his position as NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, where he led NATO operations in the Balkans, and managed NATO military and US military engagement in some 89 countries. His military awards and decorations include the Ranger tab, US Defense Distinguished Service Medal (5 awards), US Army Distinguished Service Medal (2 Awards), Silver Star, Legion of Merit (3 awards) Bronze Star (2 awards, and Purple Heart. He has received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US Department of State Distinguished Service award, honorary knighthoods from the British and Dutch governments, Commander in the French Legion of Honor and some twenty additional foreign awards.
Since his military retirement he has been a businessman, author and commentator. Since 2010 he has chaired his own boutique investment bank, Enverra. He has served on numerous public and private boards, including boards for major US private equity firms. He has his own consulting company, Wesley k. Clark and Associates. Altogether, he has worked with more than 100 US and overseas companies in the energy, infrastructure, security, and financial space, as board member, consultant, banker or advisor. His work has taken him to Europe, China, Indonesia, Latin America, and Africa. He is currently on one publicly traded company board and several private boards.
Clark specializes in small companies and in start-ups, where his leadership skills and business experience bring the most value to entrepreneurial efforts. He has worked with wind, solar, electric motor, and battery companies, as well as in various consumer products.
Clark is a 1966 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated as Valedictorian, with an engineering degree and concentration in national security studies. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he attended Magdalen College, Oxford for two years and received his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He also served as White House Fellow, 1975-76 in the Office of Management and Budget. He is a graduate of Armor Officer Basic and Advanced courses, the Distinguished Graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, 1975, where he received a Masters of Military Arts and Science, and a 1983 graduate of the US National War College. He has received numerous Honorary Doctorate Degrees.
Clark is a strong believer in public service. He is the founding Chairman of City Year Little Rock, a former member of the Little Rock airport Commission, a Director of the Atlantic Council, and works with various think tanks on important policy issues. In his last effort he Co-Chaired the National Commission on Grid Resilience.
Andy co-founded the direct-to-consumer menswear brand Bonobos in 2007 and served as the company’s first CEO for the company’s first decade. Bonobos was the first internet driven, direct-to consumer brand launched in the US. The company pioneered both the digital first approach and its subsequent extension into experiential, inventory-free physical locations, the Guideshops. In 2017, Walmart acquired Bonobos for $310 million. Andy served for the next three years as Walmart’s SVP of Digital Consumer Brands.
Andy is an investor in 80 startups, individually as an angel investor and through the seed fund he co founded, Red Swan Ventures. His focus is on sustainable consumer and mental health. Notable investments include Warby Parker, Hinge, and Blueland. Andy is Chairman of the organic children’s apparel company Monica + Andy, where his sister Monica Royer is CEO. He serves on the board of the Network for Executive Women and is Chairman Emeritus of Blue Engine, a public education social enterprise.
Andy majored in Economics & History at Northwestern University. He began his career at Bain & Company and Wind Point Partners before earning an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Andy, his wife Manuela Zoninsein, and their son Isaiah reside in Greenwich Village, NYC. While a New Yorker for the last 14 years, Andy has not given up his Chicago Cubs tickets and plans to hang onto them until the very end.
Debbie Levin is considered one of the most influential people in the environmental movement and entertainment industry. Since taking over the organization in 2000, Levin has been singular in harnessing the power of the media and entertainment communities to pioneer a high impact model of social activism, utilizing storytelling and message development to drive awareness into action and solutions. Through over 23 years as the CEO of EMA—which was founded to influence the public’s environmental awareness through television, film and music—Levin has expanded the organization to serve as a leading tool to connect industries, brands, influencers and entrepreneurs to collaborate, advocate and drive action empowering not only individuals, but the corporate world as well. The organization has grown into a diverse subsection of entertainment industry tastemakers, entrepreneurs in finance and technology and green icons dedicated to the mission of promoting environmental progress and corporate innovations through celebrity role modeling, campaign work, year-round programs and our two large scale annual events, The EMA IMPACT Summit and The EMA Awards & Honors Benefit Gala.
Levin has the pulse on the Gen Z and Millennial generations, understanding their thirst for transparency, willingness to be educated as consumers and the strong desire to maintain the earth’s natural resources and embrace new technology, ideas and the exploding green economy.
The consummate connector within the global celebrity world as well as the corporate and sustainability communities, Levin is authentically the iconic persona and voice clearly embracing and educating the sustainable lifestyle. Through her deep relationships with past honorees like Billie Eilish, Elizabeth Olsen, Jane Fonda and the close-knit community of the EMA Board of Directors, including EMA Board Members, Jaden Smith, Van Jones, Nikki Reed & Ian Somerhalder, Shailene Woodley, Ed Begley Jr., Lance Bass, Malin Akerman, Philippe Cousteau, (Property Brothers) Drew Scott and Nicole Richie. Levin has built a powerful coalition of influencers and allies as well as her deep relationships with all the studios and agencies. Her authentically rooted relationships across entertainment and media have allowed the organization to amplify its initiatives and cement them in both popular culture and in the public consciousness.
Under Levin’s leadership, EMA has been responsible for some of the green movement’s most public and pivotal milestones, notably, working with Toyota and Lexus marking their 22nd year anniversary of partnership in 2023. Levin helped launch and popularize the now ubiquitous Prius throughout the entertainment community (therefore the global community), which resulted in Toyota crediting EMA with a 20% increase in sales and Fortune Magazine calling EMA a “secret weapon” for Toyota. She invented and implemented the “green carpet” and environmentally conscious practices as staples of major events and across productions through the global film and television industries, and growing the organization’s flagship gala, the EMA Awards, which recognizes environmental efforts across entertainment, to be one of the year’s most acclaimed and anticipated events across any industry last year garnering nearly 40 billion media impressions.
As a supermodel Petra Nĕmcová has been the face of covers and campaigns for over two decades. Recognizing the widespread exploitation of people and the planet within the fashion and beauty industry, she has dedicated her life to catalyzing conscious and sustainable consumer options - inspiring designers, brands and other businesses to implement ethical and environmental centric driven business models. Nĕmcová was selected by Vogue in 2020 to be the Sustainability Editor for Vogue Czechoslovakia.
In 2005 Nĕmcová founded the Happy Hearts Fund to rebuild disaster-resilient schools in impacted areas. After her near death experience in the 2004 tsunami, her work and story has offered crucial motivation and sustained support for lives affected by similar climate events. In 2017, Happy Hearts merged with ‘All Hands Volunteers,’ becoming All Hands and Hearts, an organization with over 63,000 volunteers from 144 countries. Petra founded three additional mission-aligned NGO’s - Happy Hearts Indonesia, Happy Hearts Czech and All Hands and Hearts Mexico. Collectively, they have completed 325 schools, serving over 117,000 children in 16 countries and supporting over 1.2 million community members from 23 countries.
In 2017, Nĕmcová was appointed as a Disaster Risk Reduction Champion and Tsunami Awareness Advocate for the UNDRR. She serves on Concordia’s Leadership Council and the advisory board of the acclaimed Glamour’s Women of the Year Fund. Petra has received accolades from several organizations including the United Nations for her philanthropic leadership. She is the author of Love Always, Petra, which donates all proceeds to children affected by tsunamis.
Kunaal Patawari is a London-based circular economy investor whose vision is “a consumer-driven
circular economy for a sustainable world”.
He led the creation of a tyre recycling business, which now collects and ensures the resource recovery of every 6th tyre in the world.
Kunaal’s family runs one of the world’s largest circular economy platforms, which enables the recycling of 4 billion plastic bottles, 5 million refrigerators and 300,000 cars across 500 towns in 75 countries.
Kunaal is now developing an investment pipeline of $20 billion beginning with the existing trusted pool of 4,000 stakeholders on his family’s platform.
He also leads his family’s philanthropic initiatives in their 12 adopted villages for their medical, educational, and waste management needs.
Dr. Bill Peck received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta. Bill is an expert in managing difficult technology projects and delivering robust scalable biological manufacturing processes. At Complete Genomics, he developed sequencer fluidics systems, including silicon nano-array flowcell, and oversaw instrument integration into Human Genome Sequencing Factory. At Agilent, Bill architected two generations of their high density microarray manufacturing platforms. In addition to his experience in chemical process automation and hardware development, Bill’s technical expertise is in nanofluidics with original research in birth evolution and decay of turbulence created by droplets. As a postdoc fellow at Stanford/NASA- Ames, Bill researched computational fluid mechanics and developed a numerical code to model free surface flows.
A 20 year veteran of media and professional sports, Michael Wandell has extensive experience in marketing, merchandising, social media, business development, media sales, contract negotiation, research, measurement and management. Through key leadership roles at both the team and league level, he has contracted more than $2 billion in revenue.
Most recently, Wandell served as As Chief Commercial Officer for BSE Global where he led marketing and revenue generation across all BSE Global properties, including the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. He was also responsible for the development and growth of BSE Global’s ticket sales, corporate hospitality and global marketing partnerships businesses, as well as the long-term brand strategy for the company. During his tenure he secured the largest jersey patch deal in NBA history at more than $30 million annually. Wandell joined BSE Global after spending more than three years as the Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he oversaw all corporate partnership sales and service and was responsible for directing and developing joint sales strategies with the team's media partners. Prior to joining the Dodgers, he was Vice President of International Business Development at the National Basketball Association where he focused on creating large-scale global partnerships across Asia, India, Africa, Europe, South America, Mexico and Canada. Wandell also spent time in Beijing and Shanghai overseeing all business development for NBA China, in addition to ticket sales and marketing partnership roles at the Indiana Pacers, Phoenix Suns, and Charlotte Bobcats. A native of Champaign, IL, Wandell graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in History. He is a board member of the Los Angeles Zoo and a member of Young President’s Organization.