Ann and Jack Graves Foundation Conference Series 2021

Magali (Maggie) Delmas is a Professor of Management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability. She is the director of the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance and the Center for Impact at the Anderson School of Management. She conducts research in Strategy and Corporate Sustainability, and has published more than 90 articles, book chapters and case studies on the subject. She currently works on developing effective information strategies to promote conservation behavior and the development of green markets. Her latest book: “The Green Bundle: Pairing the Market with the Planet,” is published at Stanford Press.

Mr. Navid Hanif is the Director of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). He is also the UN sous Sherpa to the the G20 finance and main tracks. He joined UNDESA in 2001. He was Senior Policy Adviser in the Division for Sustainable Development and member of the team for the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002. He later joined the office of the Under-Secretary General for UNDESA and focused on departmental initiatives in various policy areas. He worked as the Chief of Policy Coordination Branch in the office for Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) support. He also served as the Director of this office from 2011-2018. He was the first head of the DESA Strategic Planning Unit established in 2010. He was Principal Officer in the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General and worked as a member of the team for the 2005 World Summit. He was Vice-Chair of the UN High Level Committee on Programming (HLCP) and Co-Coordinator of the UN team on repositioning of the UN Development System that led to major reforms in 2018. He has contributed a number of articles on financing and investing in the SDGs in various journals and reports.

Bhushan Joshi is Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility for Ericsson in Market Area North America. He has over 15 years of professional experience in corporate sustainability, business development, energy management, renewable energy, sustainability reporting, sustainability strategy development and program management. At Ericsson, Bhushan advocates for the role of the Information Communications Technology sector in enabling other industries take exponential climate action. He is also focused on developing strategies to help telecom operators achieve their energy and sustainability goals with the introduction of 5G and growth in mobile data traffic. Bhushan has an MBA in Sustainable Business Practices from Duquesne University, and holds undergraduate degrees from Ferris State University and Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University. Engage with Bhushan on Twitter @bhushanjoshiCSR or LinkedIn

Noorie Rajvanshi is Staff Scientist at Siemens with more than ten years of experience in the field of environmental sustainability, energy and urban development. She currently serves as chief data and strategy analyst supporting the US Sustainability Office, working across the Siemens ecosystem of business and corporate units to deliver environmental and business objectives. Her work includes collaborating with colleagues across Siemens to ensure successful implementation of the US Environmental Action plan to decarbonize facilities and fleets. Prior to joining Siemens, Noorie graduated from the University of Florida with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Environmental Engineering. Her graduate work was funded through an interdisciplinary NSF-IGERT fellowship program. Following the PhD, Noorie worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Life Cycle Analysis (CLCA) at Columbia University, studying the impact of crystalline silicone photovoltaics.

Ben Tacka is a member of the Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability at Trane Technologies (CEES) which supports the company’s strategic brands —Trane and Thermo King — and is responsible for forward-looking sustainability initiatives aimed at transitioning to more efficient and within company facilities. His recent efforts have led to the release of the company’s first integrated ESG Report for 2018, and played a role in the establishment of Trane Technologies 2030 Sustainability Commitments, which include such targets as carbon neutral operations and the single largest industrial commitment to reduce scope 3 (product related) emissions by 1 gigaton. Ben will also be leading an internal ‘Design for Circularity’ council to determine the company’s role in the coming Circular Economy. Ben holds an undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University as well as a Sustainable Innovation MBA from the University of Vermont.

Dr. John Frey developed and leads HPE’s practice for customer collaboration on sustainability and IT efficiency. He partners with HPE’s largest customers, stakeholders, and governments to develop net positive solutions to business challenges, share best practices, and drive new business opportunities. Dr. Frey was named an HPE Strategist, the highest level of technical achievement, in recognition of his sustained leadership and contributions. Dr. Frey is a member of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Steering Council at Texas A&M University, and Sustainable Brands’ Advisory Board

Mike Redeker is a member to the Kennedy Center’s National Committee for the Performing Arts representing the state of Texas. Mike has earned an MBA and a Master of Science from The University of Texas at Dallas and an MA in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has served as the Director of Communications for a Christian leadership training organization and Executive Director for a medical/dental organization with medical centers in Romania, Moldova and Guatemala. Having traveled to over 80 countries, Mike has worked directly with leaders in places like Haiti, India, Cuba, Uganda and Eastern Europe. An investor in the undervalued, he currently invests and serves on the boards of: (1) a graduate leadership institute in India, (2) a ministry to cancer patients and their families, and (3) a ministry to refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Myanmar.

Peter Greer is president and CEO of HOPE International, a global microenterprise development organization serving throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining HOPE, Peter worked internationally as a microfinance adviser in Cambodia and Zimbabwe and managing director of Urwego Bank in Rwanda. He is a graduate of Messiah College and received a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School. Peter has coauthored over 10 books, including Mission Drift (selected as a 2015 Book Award Winner from Christianity Today) and Rooting for Rivals (selected as a 2019 Leadership Resource of the Year in Outreach Magazine). More important than his occupation is his role as husband to Laurel and dad to Keith, Liliana, Myles, and London. For more information, visit peterkgreer.com.

Paul Voelker has served as the Mayor of Richardson Texas since May 2015. His duties include serving as the official community representative for economic development and other city activities, including many that are organized through the Mayor’s Office of International Business. Voelker also represents Richardson on the Regional Transportation Council. This is hosted by the North Central Texas Council of Governments for which the Mayor has served as an Executive Director.

Mayor Voelker’s past positions include serving as President of the Metroplex Mayors Association and service on the Texas Governor’s IT Cluster Committee under the Texas Workforce Commission.

Mayor Voelker’s involvement in local education includes past board memberships on the Richardson Independent School District Foundation and the University of Texas at Dallas Jonsson School Industrial Advisory Board Executive Committee. Voelker received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Dr. Rajan Kapur started his career at Bell Labs. Since 1985 he has worked exclusively with start-ups, first on mixed signal micro-chip development in the Silicon Valley, and on liquid crystal on silicon micro-display systems in Colorado. In 2006, he transitioned to renewable energy and founded and sold a microinverter company. Now he runs a sustainability incubator in his garage, working with small dispersed teams on early stage projects, with participants from academia and the private sector. His current projects include air-conditioning with thermal storage, electric transportation in hill states in India, and working with IEEE Smart Village partners in Africa, the Americas and South Asia. He holds Electrical Engineering degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; Rice University, Houston and the University of Texas at Austin.

S. Gabriel Shumba (Gabriel) is an investor, author, fund manager and structured finance expert. He also advises asset management firms, and governments on venture development, capital raising, and portfolio De-Risking solutions using structured finance strategies. Gabriel has experience at management and board levels at Group Shumba, D&R Investments, Pfuma Funds, PwC, and advisory roles at Goldman Sachs, Fortress Investment Group and Barclays Bank. He has over 20 years of experience in private equity fund administration, structured finance, urban investing, investment structuring, and smart city investment strategies across 3 continents. Gabriel’s core investment experience has mostly focused on real estate, financial services, insurance, mining, and agriculture value chains within South America, Africa and North America through positions in fund advisory and investment committees for continental private funds within the mid and small-cap sectors. He served listed companies, private funds, insurance and international banking clients in the United States of America, Latin America, and Southern Africa, in various roles in fund management, structured finance, risk management, Infrastructure investment and economic advisory.

Dr. Easter’s research focuses on how individuals, groups and organizations work together across complex differentiated contexts with a particular focus on sustainability-related phenomena. She conducts in-depth qualitative research in important substantive domains such as poverty and homelessness. Projects include working with a coalition to end homelessness in Western Canada and a social enterprise for people with disabilities in Central Vietnam. Her work has been published in the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and presented at major international and national management conferences. Dr. Easter also serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of International Business Studies.

Manish Vyas is the President, Communications, Media & Entertainment Business, and the CEO, Network Services, at Tech Mahindra – the Technology arm of the Mahindra Group. An accomplished leader with extensive expertise and experience across global markets, Manish has led large and diverse global programs during his 26- year career. He is known for his ability of building high performance teams, and for driving profitability & growth through innovative solutions & go-to-market strategies. He cherishes mentoring Young Leaders and believes that there is a lot to learn from them. He has been associated with Tech Mahindra for more than 19 years and played a key role in taking Tech Mahindra’s Telecom services business to wider geographies and a diverse clientele. He has been involved in creating the strategic direction to the Telecom & the Networks Services business and in driving various Organic & Inorganic growth initiatives.

Dr. Nichole Hugo is an associate professor in hospitality and tourism and the graduate coordinator of sustainability at Eastern Illinois University. Courses she teaches include Destination Management, Sustainable Communities, and Intro to Sustainability. Her research focuses on sustainable development and marketing related to tourism, particularly in developing countries. Other research includes examining lodging operations and events to see how they can improve upon their environmental impact and their connection to the community.

Tan is an accomplished business leader, with over 3 decades of experience in global IT services industry and expertise in multiple corporate functions such as strategy, operations, education, talent development and technology implementation. Currently, Tan heads the Delivery Operations for the Americas and Education, Training & Assessments at Infosys. An Infoscion since the last 20 years, he has served in the capacity of Head of Application Management and Development and as Group Head of HR at Infosys. Tan is passionate about giving back to the society and has been actively partaking in youth and education related voluntary activities. He is a member of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Professional Development Committee and an advisory member of Infosys Foundation USA. Tan also co-leads a working group for the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs (UNDESA), to Develop Industry Sector Specific Sustainability Impact Metrics.

Professor Lee has been involved in the revision of IEEE Std. 141, 339, 551, 739, 1584, 3002.8, and 3002.9 development. He is the President of the IEEE Industry Application Society (IAS) and editor of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications and IAS Magazine. He is the project manager of IEEE/NFPA Collaboration on Arc Flash Phenomena Research Project. He has been involved in research on Utility Deregulation, Renewable Energy, Arc Flash Hazards and Electrical Safety, Smart Grid, MicroGrid, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Virtual Power Plants (VPP), AI for Load, Price, and Wind Capacity Forecasting, Power Quality, Distribution Automation, Demand Response, Power Systems Analysis, Short Circuit Analysis and Relay Coordination, Distributed Energy Resources, Energy Storage System, PEV Charging Infrastructure Design, AMI and Big Data, On Line Real Time Equipment Diagnostic and Prognostic System, and Microcomputer Based Instrument for Power Systems Monitoring, Measurement, Control, and Protection. He has served as the primary investigator (PI) or Co-PI of over one hundred funded research projects. He has published more than one hundred and ninety journal papers and two hundred ninety conference proceedings. He has provided on-site training courses for power engineers in Panama, China, Taiwan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Singapore. He has refereed numerous technical papers for IEEE, IET, and other professional organizations. Prof. Lee is a Fellow of IEEE and registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

Krzysztof Łapiński is the IoT Strategy Leader in the Digital and Emerging Technologies division at EY Technology Consulting. Krzysztof leads the IoT for smart cities offering, tools, and methodologies development of the EY EMEIA Advisory Center. IoT for smart cities services address the strategic implementation of digital transformation, considering city IoT ecosystem development, value creation, interoperability, and monetization of enabled infrastructure and data. Krzysztof led multiple advisory projects for city authorities, including the IoT Business Strategy development for the government of a Smart City in the Middle East; a smart city digital advancement project covering eight major cities in Europe; smart city strategy development for two cities in Turkey. He is frequently engaged as a subject matter resource in smart city-related projects across the globe. Krzysztof also supports enterprises providing public services to transform their operations to better suit the smart city agenda. Krzysztof holds a master’s degree in Psychology in Business from Upper Silesian Higher School of Economics in Poland.

Gary has led the Office of Sustainability at UT Dallas since 2018 with previous sustainability experience in higher education and municipal government. He is responsible for facilitating the integration of sustainability into campus stewardship, student life, administration, and student learning. UTD, as well as universities across the nation and the world, track the effectiveness of sustainability programs according to the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS Report) administered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). As UTD’s sustainability program has grown in recent years, UT Dallas earned AASHE STARS Gold certification for sustainability in 2019 for the first time in school history. For continued progress, Gary advocates for greater emphasis on the connection between environmental stewardship and social justice, and has adopted the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals as the basis for sustainability education and service so that students better understand the connection between our society and the environment. Gary believes that sustainability is a transdisciplinary field to which all members of the UTD community can contribute, and he is always happy to grab a cup of coffee, even virtually, to discuss ideas for collaboration.

Carolyn Reichert is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas. She is Director of the Master of Science in Finance program and served as Chair of the Sustainability Committee. Her research interests include sustainability, corporate governance, compensation, and real estate, and she teaches courses in financial management. Carolyn is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University (Ph.D.) and The Ohio State University (B.S. in Finance and B.A. in Mathematics).

Nikunj Nirmal is a business executive, technology enthusiast and an accomplished leader with an extensive experience in digital strategy, Intellectual Property acquisition, product management, enterprise architecture, and technology roadmap for Fortune 100 organizations. Nikunj has worked in several leadership roles such as Chief Technology Officer, Head of Digital Transformation, Head of Innovation Labs (USA), and IT Delivery Head. With strong focus on customer experience and innovation, Nikunj has extensive experience in leading large-scale digital transformation programs and delivering technology centric solutions to drive sustainable growth. He has been awarded and recognized through several leadership development programs, including Fellowship. Nikunj serves on Forbes Technology Council. He has been on the Technical Steering Committee for Linux Foundation for Artificial Intelligence, serves on the Advisory Board for Global Business at UT Dallas, and has worked as Adjunct Faculty at UTD. Nikunj is passionate about mentoring, and building high performance teams.

Paras is the founder of Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE), a social Impact enterprise, that provides clean energy access to the remote unelectrified villages of Himalayas through setting up of smart DC Solar Nano-grids. Over last 9 years, Paras has led several leadership expeditions to Ladakh (India) to provide clean energy and digital education access to remote off-grid communities. His initiative GHE, has been instrumental in electrifying 141 remote off-grid Himalayan villages and impacting over 65,000 lives in the process. Paras is inspired by cutting edge technologies and applies it to create and drive sustainable micro businesses for rural communities. An engineer by profession, Paras merges technology and passion with an approach to entrepreneurial models in these high-altitude areas advocating use of sustainable tourism solutions that would eventually providing stimulus to local economy, reducing local emigration and preserving age old cultural Himalayan heritage. For their work in Impact and sustainable tourism, GHE received the UN Climate Action Award in 2020 from UNFCCC and the sustainable tourism enterprise award from World travel and tourism Council (WTTC) in 2018. GHE’s work has also been highlighted by BBC and National Geographic as one of the “Breakthrough technologies” in the present world.

Dr. Bose is the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate classes in Information Systems, he mentors students on industry-funded projects in Business Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud technologies. He is an active member of the IEEE Smart Village (ISV) initiative of the IEEE Foundation that funds local organizations in less developed communities across the world in energy projects that also affect education and local enterprise. These projects support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals 7-12. He received his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Masters in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland and Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of Texas, Austin. He is a Senior Life Member of the IEEE and has served on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society and as Technical Editor of IEEE Communications Magazine.

Toyah Miller is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas within the Organizations, Strategy, and International Management area. She received her doctorate in Management at Texas A&M University, and before getting her doctoral degree, she worked as a management consultant. She has published over 14 articles in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. Her research to date has focused on introducing these ideas to four interrelated areas: entrepreneurship, innovation and change, international contexts of business, and corporate governance. She is serving as associate editor for Journal of Management as well as serving on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Venturing and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.