President

U.S. Foreign Service Institute:  Certificate, Major Defense Challenges 1965 - 1965

Syracuse University; NYU  BA; MA Political Science; International Relations; United Nations/Development economics ;

Activities and Societies: American Foreign Service Women's Association, International Committee for Social Welfare, Austria(Founder and President) International Committee for Save the Children, Geneva, Switzerland

• Expertise in Sustainable Development, Renewable Energy, Development Economics, Community Development;

• Program Development; United Nations, International Affairs, Women's Empowerment. Specialties: Management, training, program planning, public relations, public affairs, public speaking.

• Advocacy and awareness raising on sustainability and renewable energy, especially in the United Nations context, through information sharing, newsletter, and hosting events with innovative speakers at the United Nations, webinars. 

• Maintaining a global internship program for college, graduate students, young professional associates, and retirees.

• Implementing a UN funded small-scale solar energy project in Liberia. Represent two developing country women's chambers of commerce, furthering women's empowerment.

• Most recently, actively promoting with elected officials and concerned citizens the installation of a solar power facility on NRG Manressa Island - Norwalk, Connecticut decommissioned coal and oil burning facility.

Read more about her in Our Story. 

First Vice President and Acting Treasurer

Harriet Schmidt received her education both in the US and Germany.  She is a graduate in Economics from Moravian College, received a Master of Arts in Political Science from New York University and pursued her interest in Political Economy further at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research and the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. Her professional career was entirely devoted to the United Nations and spans more than 35 years. She has served as Chief of Staff of the Under-Secretary-General for Management. 

Second Vice President

Mrs. Struyvenberg spent most of her career at the United Nations.  Before her retirement in 2014, she served as the first Principal Registrar of the Office of Administration of Justice, which was established in 2009.  Currently, she is an independent consultant and works with the UN and other organizations as an investigator.

Honorary Board Member

Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations. Mr. Carazo has wide ranging experience in politics, international relations, business and law as well as a business professional in industry, commerce, agriculture, tourism and the service sector, and as a consultant to international organizations. He was a Deputy of the Legislative Assembly from 2002 and 2006, and the first Ombudsman of Costa Rica, a position he held from 1993 to 1997. Between 1984 and 1987, he was a representative of the University for Peace to European offices of the United Nations, and, in 1978 to 1980, Special Ambassador of Costa Rica to the United Nations General Assembly and various countries. 

Board Member

H.E. Dr. Mohamed Al-Hassan, Permanent Representative of the Sultanate of Oman to the United Nations, presented his credentials to the United Nations Secretary General on August, 21 2019.From 2016 until his latest appointment, Ambassador Al-Hassan served as Acting Undersecretary for Diplomatic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman, Muscat. A career diplomat, Mr. Al-Hassan, also served as the Chief of Staff since 2015, and as the Head of the Minister’s Department between 2012 and 2015, and as the Head of the Office of Political Analysis in 2012.

Special Advisor

Ambassador Mylnar has a Masters and Doctorate degree in foreign languages from Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia. He also studied at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The Ambassador has been a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since September 2000. He was previously the Ambassador of Slovakia to Kenya, and Permanent Representative to UN agencies in Nairobi. Mr. Mylnar served before in New York as Deputy Permanent Representative during Slovakia’s membership in the UN Security Council, 2006-2007. 

Board Member

Formerly the Charge d'Affaires, a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations. Amb. Grignon was appointed Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations in 2012. She serves as one of the  Vice-Chairpersons of Bureau of Commission on Status of Women and is also the Vice Chair in the Bureau of United Nations Forum on Forests, representing the African Group. 

Special Advisor

Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Kuret was State Secretary in Slovenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2017.  She had previously served in New Delhi as Ambassador to India between 2013 and 2015, with concurrent accreditation to Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka from 2014 and 2015. Ms. Kuret was Ambassador to Bulgaria between 2009 to 2013.  A career diplomat, Ms. Kuret was Ambassador to Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia between 2002 and 2006, and Head of the Department for Analysis and Planning in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2001.  She was Ambassador to Israel with accreditation to the Palestinian Authority from 1995 until 1999. Ms. Kuret holds a degree in social sciences from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

Board Member

Dr. Larry Bridwell is Director of International Business Programs whose research covers international business with a primary interest in the future high growth areas of China, India and Africa. He joined the Lubin School of Business in 1982. Dr. Bridwell's teaching interests includes globalization and he teaches courses such as Globalization, the New Economy and Ethics as well as Government Institutions and Business Strategy. He has been a senior fellow for the American Society for Competitiveness since 2016.

Board Member

Eric Chan is the founder of ECCO Design. He formed the firm in 1989 with the mission of bringing a meta-culture philosophy to the highest level of consulting through product identity and development. Numerous international publications and art and design museums worldwide have featured his work, including the 2001 MoMA show “Workspheres.” In 2007, Contract named him as one of the 10 most influential designers in America. BusinessWeek hailed him as “One of the new breed of ingenious American designers that is making the world take note.” In 2010, he received the World Outstanding Chinese Designer Award (WOCD) from Hong Kong Design Centre, the most prestigious award to recognize the Chinese heritage designer globally. I.D. magazine also named him among the 40 most influential designers in the US.

Board Member

Jesse Pichel joined ROTH Capital Partners in June 2013 as Managing Director in Investment Banking. Prior to joining ROTH, Mr. Pichel was a Managing Director, Global Head of Clean Technology Research for Jefferies Group Inc. Jesse has 18+ years of capital markets experience and is recognized as one of the first research analysts to focus on Solar and New Energy Technologies. He co-founded Piper Jaffray’s CleanTech practice in 2004 and has been ranked as a top analyst and “Top Gun” by The Wall Street Journal Best on the Street Analyst Survey. He was most recently ranked as a top analyst in the 2012 II All American Team for Alternative Energy, and was runner up two times previously. Pichel is a founding member of the Sierra Club’s Clean Tech Council, and is on the board of other non-profits promoting Sustainability and the Environment. Pichel earned his B.S. from Cornell University, and his MBA from Fordham University.

Board Member

Mr. Nelson is the founder and CEO of EnviroLeach. He has founded a number of successful Ventures. Most recently he was the CEO and co-founder of Silvermex Resources Inc., a past TSX listed gold and silver producer. He is the founder of Quotemedia Inc., a successful financial market data company established in 1998, a leading provider of global financial stock market data for the Toronto Stock Exchange, NASDAQ OTC, and others.

Special Advisor

Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, and founded and directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. From 1979 through 2008, he practiced environmental law in New York, most recently as partner in charge of the New York office of Arnold & Porter. Upon joining the Law School faculty in 2009, he became the senior counsel to the firm. He also chaired the faculty of Columbia University’s Earth Institute from 2015 to 2018. Gerrard is an accomplished author, two of his most recent publications are: Climate Engineering and the Law: Regulation and Liability for Solar Radiation Management and Carbon Dioxide Removal (with Tracy Hester, 2018); and Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (with John Dernbach, 2019)

Honorary Board Member

František Ružička has served as the Slovak Permanent Representative to the UN since 2012. Ambassador Ružička was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) during the 69th UN General Assembly and was a member of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing in 2013-2014. He also co-chaired the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the 68th UN General Assembly.

Honorary Board Member

Former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the UN. He is also the Managing Director of Hairong International Private Ltd, Sri Lanka.  Hairong invests in holistic health resorts, mining, infrastructure development, and sustainable energy production, including solar. He is also the Vice President of the World Organization on Good Governance and Competitiveness.He serves on the board of SIBA University and of SL Wildlife Conservation Society, is Chairman of the Board of BMS University, and Advisor to NGO Sustainability. 

Special Advisor

Dr. Amor Laaribi has over 30 years of experience working in the field of geospatial information for decision-making and development. He joined the United Nations Statistics Division Office in February 2000 to define and plan the priorities of the UN in the geospatial information area and to promote its use with census mapping in developing countries. He contributed to the foundation of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and led the work of the UN Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information in support of the 2030 Agenda.

Special Advisor

Dr. David Goldberg is an accomplished academic, business leader, and educator. He is an expert in social studies education and currently directs a secondary program in international affairs. He is an Engaging Eurasia Fellow at the Davis Center at Harvard University. He is also the head of business development for Dialedin, a leader in online digital education. He is the Chairman Emeritus of Lensdrop, Inc., the Spotifyy/Netlix of stock photos. Dr. Goldberg sits on the President’s Leadership Council at the Nobel Prize nominated Search for Common Ground, the largest organization in the world devoted to ending violence. He also currently serves as the Board Vice President of Peace Education Initiative Rwanda and sits on the National Advisory Council at the Center for Civic Education. Previously he has advised the Institute for Human and Community Development in Haiti and has led round table discussions in Afghanistan. He has been a Fulbright recipient of the German-American Fulbright Commission, and has been awarded fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities in Turkey, the Goethe Institute in Germany, and The Korean Studies Foundation in South Korea. He has also served on the Columbia University Global Education and Leadership Foundation grant from The Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation in India. He is the recipient of the Edward Weisband Award for Public Service or Contributions to Public Affairs. Dr. Goldberg received his B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Binghamton University, his M.S. from Hofstra University, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Special Advisor

Scott Sklar steps up as Director of The GWU Solar Institute in August 2018, and The Solar Institute's offices are at the Environment & Energy Study Institute's (EEMI) office in Tompkins Hall, where he serves as EEMI's Energy Director.Sklar has a 40 year career in solar energy. For the last eight years, he has been an Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, where he teaches three unique interdisciplinary sustainable energy courses and is an Affiliated Professor at CATIE, an international sustainable graduate university based in Costa Rica. Scott Sklar is President of The Stella Group, Ltd. a strategic policy and clean technology optimization firm facilitating clean distributed energy utilization

Special Advisor

She was recruited to UNICEF Headquarters in New York in 1985 as its Comptroller and became its Deputy Executive Director in 1987. She held the position until she retired at the end of 2004.This latter role was at the level of Assistant Secretary General. Karin Sham Poo served as Interim Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict in 2005. This role is one at the Under Secretary General level.The United Nations regards roles at this rank as equal to that of a cabinet minister of a member state.