2021 Speakers

Opening Remarks & Keynote

10:30 AM - 11:05 AM EST |

MAXINE BEDAT

**Executive Director, New Standard Institute**
Maxine Bédat is the founder and director of New Standard Institute, a think and do tank using data to drive accountability in industry. She is also the author of the book, UNRAVELED: The Life and Death of a Garment, which has been longlisted for the Financial Times/ McKinsey Business Book of the Year. Prior to NSI, Maxine co-founded and was the CEO of Zady, a fashion brand and lifestyle destination creating a transparent and sustainable future for the apparel industry. For its work in sustainability, Zady was named one of the world’s “Most Innovative Companies” in retail by Fast Company. Bédat has been recognized by Oprah in her Super Soul 100, for leaders elevating humanity. She has been regularly featured as an expert by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, The New York Times, Vogue, Forbes, Business of Fashion, and CNN. Bédat began her career in international law working at the Rwandan Criminal Tribunal and Allen & Overy, and received a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School.

PANEL 1 - "How can circular urban development and systems design create resilient, equitable cities?"

11:15 AM - 12:00 PM ET

MICHELLE TULAC -
*Moderator*

**Program Manager, Ellen MacArthur Foundation**
Michelle Tulac brings the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's mission to life in North America. She's a systems thinker with a background in anthropology, life sciences, and design. She activates and develops meaningful partnerships, programs, and policies that demonstrate circular solutions. She has a particular focus on mobilizing system actors toward ambitious action at the city-scale and is working closely with the City of New York, a Strategic Partner of the Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Michelle worked at the global design and innovation company IDEO. Originally from California and currently living in NYC, Michelle loves to travel and explore the world. She’s endlessly curious and always up for an adventure.

SHILPI KUMAR

Partner, Urban Us

Shilpi is a Partner with Urban Us, an investment platform focused on urban tech and climate solutions. She specializes in customer development and product strategy for early-stage companies, with experience as both a consultant and early employee. She previously led go-to-market and early sales efforts at Filament, a startup focused on deploying secure wireless networks for connected physical assets. Shilpi has a background as an investor, focused on hardware, mobility, energy, IoT, and robotics. She is passionate about leveraging technology to decarbonize industry, upgrade cities, and fight climate change. Before Urban Us, Shilpi worked with VTF, First Round Capital, and Village Global. Shilpi graduated from Duke University with a degree in Neuroscience and Economics.

CLARE MIFLIN

Director, Center for Zero Waste Design

Clare is an architect and systems thinker with over 20 years of experience designing buildings to the highest environmental standards. She is certified as a Biomimicry Professional, Architect, Passive House Designer, and LEED professional.

She led the development of the Zero Waste Design Guidelines for New York City through a multidisciplinary collaborative process. The Guidelines serve as resource and inspiration for architects and developers to help cities reach their zero waste goals, and are being disseminated and implemented through the Center for Zero Waste Design.

Since 2017, Clare has served as co-chair of the AIANY’s Committee on the Environment.

NICOLE SPINA

**Senior Project Manager, NYCEDC**
Nicole Spina is a Senior Project Manager at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), where she oversees industry development programs in resiliency, clean energy, and circular economy with the goal of creating good jobs and strengthening neighborhoods across the 5 boroughs. Nicole is passionate about growing the green economy, and holds a degree in urban development, geography, and sustainability from the George Washington University. She’s a NYC native and lifelong Brooklynite.

PANEL 2 - How can we hold corporations accountable to their sustainability goals and commitments?

12:30 PM - 1:15 PM EST

ANNA SACKS -
*Moderator*

**Activist/Influencer @TheTrashWalker**
Anna Sacks is forming a coalition to advocate for bipartisan, common sense #donatedontdump policy on the federal level. She previously worked at Think Zero LLC, a waste reduction & diversion consulting firm, and is head of messaging for NYC’s #SaveOurCompost coalition, which formed in response to COVID-related composting budget cuts. In 2019, she started a change.org petition asking CVS to #donatedontdump, which has received over 440k signatures.
On social media, as the @thetrashwalker, Anna documents the usable items that she finds in both corporate and residential waste to raise people’s consciousness about waste and consumption. Anna’s work has been featured in The Guardian, The NY Post, NowThis, and BuzzFeed, among others. In 2020, she was named a 36 Under 36 recipient by The Jewish Week.

DIANA FARMER

**Action Manager, CDP Worldwide**
Diana is the Action Manager on CDP North America’s Corporate Engagement team where she works with corporate leaders to secure their disclosures to CDP and to advance their environmental performance, including committing to more ambitious action by setting science-based targets. CDP is one of the partner organizations of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and in her role, Diana also sits on the Corporate Engagement team in the SBTi as the North American regional lead.
Her professional background is in corporate sustainability, ESG standards and frameworks, and executive recruitment. Diana obtained her MBA in Sustainability from Bard College and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Delaware.

JAIME KLEIN DALEY

**VP of Strategy CBX**
Jaime Klein Daley is VP of Strategy at CBX, a brand strategy and design agency in New York. During her 20 year career in branding she has helped reshape heritage brands like McCormick Spice Company, built brand platforms for retailers Sephora and Petco, and launched the first line of adaptive clothing from a mainstream fashion brand (Tommy Hilfiger). Regardless of company or category, Jaime believes impactful brands come from trusted relationships, and trust is driven through engagement that’s interesting, consistent, and useful.
Jaime is a speaker, writer, and spokesperson for female leadership in the marketing and advertising industry, and a vocal advocate for diverse leadership styles and supportive team environments. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, two children, and a closet bursting full of clothes.

COURTNEY FOSTER

**Associate, Ceres**
Courtney is an Associate on the Food and Forests team at Ceres where she produces research and materials on the topics of deforestation and land use. In this role, she provides support on investor initiatives within the food, beverage and consumer goods industry, spearheads federal policy strategy, and leads the development of the team’s just and inclusive economies strategy. Courtney has expertise in evaluating natural climate solutions as part of corporate climate commitments and determining their appropriate design and usage within a climate strategy.
Prior to working at Ceres, Courtney served for a year as a legislative intern in the United States Senate. She holds a B.A. in Global Environmental Politics and French and Francophone Studies from Bates College with a minor in Rhetoric.

PANEL 3 - How can governments and businesses collaborate with community leaders and activists to create a just transition to a sustainable economy?

1:35 PM - 2:20 PM EST

ALEJANDRA POLLAK - Moderator

Director of Operations, New Standard Institute

Alejandra Pollak is Director of Operations of New Standard Institute (NSI) where she leads efforts to translate solutions into policy and legislation to drive the apparel industry to meet its environmental and social objectives.

Prior to NSI, Alejandra was Merchandising and Operations Manager of Zady - a pioneering fashion lifestyle brand. Outside of fashion, Alejandra exercises her love of animals and passion for conservation as an active Board Member of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, where she led board-level development strategies as chair of the International Development Committee. Alejandra also led voter protection volunteer coordinating at the New York Democratic Lawyers Council for the 2020 election cycle. Alejandra lives in New York with her husband, David, daughter, Colette, and dachshunds, ZZ Top, and Bootsie.

TENZIN SELDON

**Co-Founder/President, The Plant**
Tenzin Seldon is the Co-Founder & President of The Plant, where she is creating a global home for climate solutions and community development programs. She served as Senior Advisor, Board Member of Earth's Call Fund, in partnership with Lever for Change. She is the founder of Kinstep, a social enterprise platform, has worked at the United Nations Regional Office of Asia and the Pacific and the United Nations Environment Programme, and has been a visiting lecturer at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.
Tenzin’s work has been recognized around the world, most recently at the United Nations as an Innovative Disruptor. She graduated top of her class at Stanford University and went on to be the first Tibetan-American Rhodes Scholar at University of Oxford.

CLAIRE KELLS

**Senior Manager, UN Global Compact**
Claire Kells is the Senior Manager for Corporate Engagement at the UN Global Compact, the United Nations’ corporate sustainability initiative. Claire is responsible for helping companies achieve their sustainability objectives by guiding them in their engagement with the Global Compact. Throughout her years at the UN Global Compact, Claire has led elements of business operations and worked to bring the voice of responsible business to major international conferences including the Paris Climate Agreement and the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.
Throughout her career, Claire has worked with mission-driven organizations to fund and deliver impact. She holds a Masters of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA from UC Berkeley.

MICHELLE MOORE

**CEO, Groundswell**
Michelle Moore is a social entrepreneur and former White House official with roots in rural Georgia. Often described as a "relentless agent for change,” she’s building an equitable clean energy future as CEO of Groundswell by connecting clean energy and resilience with affordability and quality of life. Her vision for Groundswell was inspired by observing the contrast between the sun’s abundance compared to the exclusivity of solar power and asking how we can do better by “loving our neighbors as ourselves” using solar energy. As a result, since joining Groundswell in 2015, Michelle has created new, equitable solar models that share power, savings, and opportunity - putting clean energy to work restoring communities and putting families with low and moderate incomes first. Her team currently serves more than 5,000 households in five states with clean energy savings exceeding $2 million per year.

Fireside Chat - How can sustainability leaders turn their ecoanxiety into constructive action?

2:30 PM - 3:00 PM EST

ADITI DESAI -

Moderator

President, Women & Sustainability

Aditi Desai is a MSc in Sustainability Management Candidate at Columbia University. She is the President of Women & Sustainability, and serves as a student representative on her school’s DEI Committee.

Aditi works full-time at Voltpost, a climate tech startup that transforms lampposts into electric vehicle charging stations. In her role at Voltpost, she manages and supports business development, project management, communications, and more.

Prior to Voltpost, Aditi worked at Barclays Investment Bank in business development, strategy and compliance.

Aditi is passionate about centering environmental justice and equity in her sustainability work. Outside of work and school, you can most likely catch her at a concert, art gallery, or talking someone’s ear off about astrology.