Home > CESD Board of Directors

Roger Lang, Board Chair
Sun Ranch
2028 Hwy 287 N
Cameron, MT 59720
Email: roger@langstudios.com

Mr. Lang's professional experience spans a variety of high-tech industries. In 1986, he co-founded a financial software company and worked as vice president of client services. In 1989, he founded and ran Infinity Financial Technology, which grew to become the world's leading supplier of derivatives trading and risk management software. As founder/CEO, he led Infinity through its initial public offering on NASDAQ in 1996 and its subsequent merger with SunGard Data Systems in 1998. Mr. Lang remained at SunGard until July 1999. Mr. Lang was named one of the 50 most influential people in the history of the financial risk management by the industry's flagship publication, Risk Magazine. Subsequently, Mr. Lang has moved to Montana, founded TransAria, Inc. (www.transaria.com), a rural broadband company for businesses, and Papoose Creek Lodge (www.papoosecreek.com), and a leading eco-lodge adjoining his cattle ranch in Southwest Montana. His current endeavors center around building a fully sustainable “eco enterprise”, built around sustainable practices in real estate, agriculture, recreation and scientific research.He currently sits on several boards of both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Mr. Lang holds a BA in Anthropology and MA in Latin American Studies from Stanford University.

Andy Bill Portrait Andrew Bill, Director
Siera Marketing
72 Madison Avenue
Floor 11
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 696-4797
Fax: (212) 696-9804
Cell: (917) 478-2062
E-mail: andrew@sieramarketing.com

An Englishman born and bred, Andrew came to America for the weekend 20 years ago and somehow never left. For the first four years he worked as a journalist, traveling the globe for publications like Newsweek International, Fortune, Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler. In 1990 he founded Siera Marketing, a New York-based company that makes and manages creative marketing tools (brochures, Web sites, trade- and customer-loyalty programs, branding, e-mail marketing campaigns, newsletters, etc.) for the travel industry. Clients include tourist boards (Australia, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Austria, France), hotel chains (Marriott, Shangri-La), publications (The New York Times) and resorts (Peter Island, Mustique, Curtain Bluff).

In 2005, Andrew started looking for ways to apply his experience and skills to another, better purpose. Given his life-long passion for places where nature is the teacher, ecotourism was an obvious fit. Since then he has started consulting for TIES. His new initiative is Earthsong Adventures, a collection of tour operations designed to support and incubate ecotourism initiatives in areas of the world most in need of conservation. The first company in the collection, Earthsong Dominica, will begin operations this winter season.

Robert Breech, Director
David E. Kelley Productions
1600 Rosecrans Ave., Bldg. 4B
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Phone: (310) 727-2200
Email: bbreech@youstinka.com

Bob Breech works with David E. Kelley Productions, an Emmy Award winning producer on Picket Fences, L.A Law, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal and The Practice. Bob met Kelley in 1986 when they came together to work on L.A. Law. Bob was a practicing attorney for many years, having earned his B.A. from Stanford and his J.D. from Loyola University School of Law, but had left his practice to obtain an MFA in producing at University of Southern California (USC). He worked briefly in documentaries, did a couple of features, and then moved into television. His main responsibilities deal with the creative execution, overseeing a team of writers, but he is involved with ever aspect of production including editing the final version that is then screened by David E. Kelley. During his years working with Kelley, Bob has won seven Emmy Awards.

tom horton Bill Bryan, Ph.D., Director
Off the Beaten Path
Rural Landscape Institute
7 E. Beall
Bozeman, MT 59715
Phone: (406) 586-1311,br /> Fax: (406) 583-1411
Email: billb@offthebeatenpath.com

As founder and Executive Director of the Northern Rockies Action Group in the late 70s, William (Bill) Bryan aided in the start-up and reorganization of many state and regional citizen or public policy development groups. In the late 80s and early 90s, he also served as founder and president of Silvertip Consulting Associates, gave public speeches and taught and lectured across the United States on Natural Resource Management and related challenges. At the close of the 90s, he was retained by the Montana Department of Commerce as a resource contact and speaker for a series of Farm and Ranch Recreation workshops. Bill currently serves as Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Off the Beaten Path, LLC, as well as Executive Director and board member of the Rural Landscape Institute: A Catalyst for Food and Agricultural Integrity in the American West.

Bill holds a B.A. in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire, and both an M.S. in Conservation and a Ph.D. in Resource Planning and Conservation from the University of Michigan. Currently a resident of Montana, he has served on numerous boards and advisory councils in the West dealing with environmental policy and strategic planning. His current positions include seats in the advisory council of Green Travel Magazine and The Yellowstone Business Partnership, and on the boards of Washington D.C.'s Climate Policy Center and the Resource Renewal Institute of San Francisco, California.

Mike Conroy portrait Michael E. Conroy, Director
Colibri Consulting / Austin & Oaxaca
Certification for Sustainable Development
503 Cater Drive, Austin TX 78704
Phone: (512) 326-1456
Cell: (914) 374-0631
Skype: michaelconroy8044
Email: michael.conroy@earthlink.net

Dr. Michael E. Conroy is an economist who taught Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Texas from 1971 to 1996 and who spent the past 12 years working for two U.S. private foundations, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.From 2003 to 2006 Dr. Conroy has also had an appointment as a Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

At the University of Texas, Dr. Conroy taught and wrote about Latin American political economy, urban and regional economics, and the global economics of sustainable development.At the Ford Foundation, his work focused on the development of advocacy-led certification systems that encourage and reward higher social and environmental accountability on the part of corporations worldwide, with special emphasis on sustainable forestry, fair trade in agricultural commodities, sustainable tourism and ecotourism, responsible mining, and sustainable finance.At the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, his work has focused on global governance, including support for new mechanisms of governance for the global commons and new global accountability for multinational corporations.

Dr. Conroy’s latest publication, in press, is: Branded! How the ‘Certification Revolution’ Is Transforming Global Corporations, New Society Publishers (Spring 2007).

Rich Franko portrait Richard Franko, Director
Mithun
Pier 56
1201 Alaskan Way, Ste. 200
Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: (206) 623-3344
Fax: (206) 623-7005
Email: richardf@mithun.com

Richard Franko is an architect and principal at Mithun, an integrated design practice of architects, landscape architects, interior designers and planners in Seattle, WA. He has a strong interest in the integration of sustainable strategies into the design, construction and lifecycle of the built environment. He has been a leader in two LEED Gold certified projects, including an environmental learning center for children that functions on weekends as a 90 bed corporate retreat center. He was a leader on the sustainable master plan for a 35 block neighborhood in Portland Oregon that received a National AIA and ASLA award in 2005. He has lectured internationally on Mithun's environmentally based work, and is currently writing a chapter on "Sustainable Building Design" for a new ULI book on sustainable communities. He is excited to bring this experience to resort design, and learning from the work that has been done in Costa Rica.

Tom Horton, Board Treasurer
Canopy Development
126 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Phone: (413) 584-4491 Fax: (413) 280-0177
Email: thorton@canopydevelopment.com

Tom Horton brings more than 20 years of development and project finance experience to Canopy Development. To focus on leading the Canopy team, Mr. Horton recently departed his position at The Trust For Sustainable Development where he served for 8 years as US Managing Director and as VP of Development of the Trust project, Loreto Bay. In his capacity as VP of Development for the Loreto Bay Company, Tom Horton was responsible for developing the securities offering and completing the initial 22 million dollar equity financing for the Loreto Bay development. Tom also served as the first "Sustainability Officer" for Loreto Bay, helping to establish the Loreto Bay Foundation and drafting the aggressive sustainability standards for that project.

Tom currently also provides advisory services to Landquest Development, LLC. Landquest identifies, purchases, and permits more than 20 properties annually on the eastern seaboard of the United States. These properties are utilized for major residential and mixed-use urban and suburban developments on behalf of the public home building industry. In his capacity with Landquest, Mr. Horton has advised on a variety of financing strategies and affected a joint venture between Landquest Development and Institutional Housing Partners, a major real-estate finance company working on behalf of CalPers and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance as well as other large institutional investors.

During his career, Tom has developed and managed technology and land development projects in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Belize. At the Rodale Institute, Tom created the Consultative Group for Regenerative Enterprise, providing management and business services to organizations engaged in sustainable development.

Alexi Huntley Portrait Alexi Huntley, Director
Nature Air
Tobias Bolaños Airport
San Jose, Costa Rica
Phone: (506) 299-6043
Email: ahuntely@natureair.com

Alexi Khajavi received his degree in Anthropology and Latin American Studies from the University of California. Mr. Khajavi has over 15 years experience in Latin America and the tourism industry. Mr. Khajavi has worked in PR with Global Exchange, as a publicist for Communication Works, and as Director of Marketing for Naturegate.From 2001 to 2003, he served as the Mountain Region Director for Burton Snowboards’ non profit organization. For the last four years he has served as VP of Sales & Marketing for NatureAir, a regional airline based in San Jose, Costa Rica.

NatureAir flies 74 daily flights to 17 adventure and nature destinations in Central America.This year, more than 110,000 passengers will travel Central America on NatureAir, which become the premier Central America airline for adventure travel, luxury vacations and eco tours.By name and by nature, NatureAir is committed in fact the world's first and only zero emissions airline. As airlines and their engines are a source of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, Nature Air implemented a year long analysis of our carbon emissions for each route and aircraft. The company chose two sustainable programs in Costa Rica which provide clean energy through solar and wind farms, and since January 2006 they have offered a completely zero emission flight for all their passengers.

Roberto Murray Meza portrait Roberto Murray Meza, Director
AGRISAL
Boulevard Del Hipodromo 539
San Salvador, El Salvador
Phone: (503) 2500-9011
E-mail: rmurray@agrisal.com

Roberto Murray Meza has been President of the Board of Directors of Agrícola Industrial Salvadoreña -AGRISAL since 1999. AGRISAL is an important Salvadorian Consortium of Industry, Hotel, Automotive and Agricultural Businesses of national and regional companies.

He is also President of the Business Foundation for Social Action (FUNDEMAS), a foundation dedicated to promoting Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Competitiveness in El Salvador. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Business for Social Responsibility, of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington D.C. and of TechnoServe, a US organization that promotes business solutions to rural poverty in Africa and Latin America.In May 2006, Roberto was nominated as member of AccountAbility Council based in London, and he joined The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) in 2006.

He is Honorary Consul of Ireland in El Salvador. In January 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences by the Salesian University of Don Bosco in El Salvador.He holds a degree in Economics from the Yale University, as well as a MBA from Harvard University, and a MA in Literature from Middlebury College.

Dennis Pinto, Director
Managing Director
Micato Safaris
15 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212-545-7111
Email: dpinto@micato.com

Dennis Pinto represents the second generation of Pintos at Micato Safaris. In 1982, Dennis established the New York office of the safari outfitter his parents founded in East Africa some forty years ago. A graduate of Stanford University, he was in banking for several years before the irresistible lure of the family’s hospitality business brought him back to his original calling. At Micato, he expanded the company, launching tour operations in India and South Africa, and co-founded Micato’s nonprofit arm, AmericaShare, dedicated to the support of orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa. Under Dennis’s leadership, Micato has won numerous awards, most recently as a World Savers Award finalist by Condé Nast Traveler. Also in 2008, Micato Safaris won an unprecedented sixth consecutive title as World’s Best Tour Operator by Travel + Leisure magazine. Dennis resides in New York City with his wife, Joy Phelan-Pinto, and their two young safari enthusiasts.

Consultants to the Board of Directors

Karen Lewis, Ecotourism Charter Club Chair
Lapa RIos Ecolodge
Box 025216-SJO 706
Miami, FL 33102-5216
Phone: (202) 329-9107
Email: karenlewis04@mac.com

Karen Greiling Lewis was nurtured in Minneapolis with mid-American values. She participated in Girl Scouting and the American Field Service (AFS) student exchange program and from 1968-70 was a Peace Corp Volunteer teacher in Kenya. For over 20 years, Karen was a professional keyboard musician and music educator in Minnesota and holds degrees in music and geography from the University of Minnesota. She raised two children and her diverse life experiences proved instrumental to pioneer ecotourism, an innovative travel concept sustaining land conservation and the well being of local people.

In 1990, Lapa Rios co-founders John and Karen Lewis took their bird watching avocation to a contributory level and purchased over 1,000 acres of tropical rain forest in the Osa Peninsula, SW Costa Rica. They created Lapa Rios to maintain this bio-diverse reserve and to use only the land as an economic-educational vehicle to sustain the Osa community. Separation from familiar comforts and self-sacrifice was requisite for early wilderness survival yet by commitment to education and operational improvements the adventure of sharing ecotourism values with locals and like-minded travelers defines today’s present success.

In 1991, the Lewises formed La Asociación de Educacíon, a Lapa Rios guest-supported foundation, to build a community-based school. This travelers’ philanthropy project continues to build and maintain several Osa primary schools. In 2005, she was elected to The International Ecotourism Society’s board of directors. Karen and John, with the assistance of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Costa Rican-based CEDARENA Land Trust, aided Costa Rica’s Osa Campaign by creating the Peninsula’s first conservation easement to legally protect their 920-acre Lapa Rios Reserve donation in perpetuity. Karen now lives part-time in Seattle and Costa Rica, and shares her experiences developing Lapa Rios at educational conferences.

Alan A. Pemberton, Lawyer
Covington & Burling LLP
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004
Phone: (202) 662-5642
Email: apemberton@cov.com

Alan Pemberton heads the Covington & Burling LLP firm's Government Contracts practice group. His practice includes government contracts, as well as other complex civil litigation and ADR.

He has practiced in the government contracts area since 1982, and his practice includes bid protest and other procurement litigation before GAO, agency boards of contract appeals, the federal courts and ADR tribunals. He advises contractors and grantees about the full range of government proposal, performance, compliance, regulatory, transactional and legislative issues.

Mr. Pemberton received his degree in Law, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. He holds the position of Vice Chair of the firm's public service committee, and has for many years been active in prisoners' rights and other civil rights matters. He is currently plaintiffs’ counsel in Jerry M. v. District of Columbia, a class action seeking to reform the city’s juvenile justice system. He supervises firm lawyers serving in our Bread for the City rotation program.His work with CESD is also pro bono.