Chris Porto is an entrepreneur and real estate developer with a background in finance and sustainability. Before founding Smart Growth, Chris held positions at Deloitte and SunPower; where he helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars in capital for solar energy developments. An expert in capital raising, financial modeling and deal structuring; Chris values ethical, sustainable business practices above all. A tremendous sense of responsibility and passion for developing sustainable real estate permeates everything he does. To Chris, Smart Growth is a means to contribute towards a more sustainable culture, and it’s just the start. After graduating from Virginia Tech University with a degree in Finance, Chris moved to Japan where he studied martial arts and subsequently earned a black-belt in Aikido.

Patrick Flynn is the Senior Director of Sustainability for Salesforce, the world’s leading CRM provider and the fastest growing top 10 software company in the world. Prior to Salesforce, Patrick worked for IO, a leading global colocation data center provider, where he led sustainability strategy and also built and led a San Francisco-based R&D team. He has experience working as a building engineer (he has a P.E. in HVAC) and as an investor in a cleantech venture capital firm, where he focused on green building technologies and software-driven energy efficiency. Patrick holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He received the Thomas R. Peterson Achievement Award and two Peer Recognition Awards for his contributions to the MIT Sloan community.

Through hard work and diligence, my objective is to learn every day, improve every day, help build lasting business relationships, add value and help others be successful in their businesses and careers. Work in commercial real estate in a position that offers the challenge to develop, acquire, operate, maintain, repair, modernize and improve the sustainable areas of the built environment. Provide long range value through thoughtful planning, implementation and execution of the day’s work. Employers deserve this level of commitment from their investment in its employee's, and it is what makes companies fundamentally succeed. Your work should be your resume and it should speak to the success of the business as well.

Specialties: I have extensive experience in facility operations, maintenance, repair and construction as well as operating & capital improvement projects, bidding and execution of construction projects. I have performed multiple due diligence exercises for acquisition and disposition. I have an eye on sustainability and the USGBC LEED goals and objectives, processes and projects. I also have experience in labor negotiations and contracts.

Sara Neff is a Partner and General Manager of Sustainability for Microsoft's Cloud Operations + Innovation team.

Prior to joining Microsoft, she was Head of Sustainability, Lendlease Americas, where she provided leadership and management oversight in developing, implementing and driving Lendlease's corporate sustainability framework in the Americas region.

Prior to that role, she served as Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation. Under her leadership, Kilroy was recognized as a leader among publicly traded real estate companies on sustainability in the Americas by GRESB for seven of the last eight years as well as being recognized by NAREIT, and achieved carbon neutral operations at the end of 2020. She is a LEED Fellow and holds a BS from Stanford and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Based on his iconic status in the green building industry, Barry was appointed CEO of BREEAM USA in May 2016. Developed in 1990 by BRE, BREEAM is the world leading, multi-disciplinary building science program, and has over 2,250,000 registered projects and over 600,000 certified buildings worldwide across more than 80 countries.

In his career, Barry has worked in virtually every aspect of the building industry — engineer, general contractor, systems operator and facilities supervisor. Barry is LEED for Existing Buildings pioneer and LEED Fellow, and one of the writers of LEED EB for all versions. Barry’s passion, innovative thinking, and candor make him a highly sought after speaker, consultant and teacher.

Darin Bernstein leads Cushman & Wakefield’s West Coast Sustainability practice, helping owners and

occupiers establish, articulate, and achieve their sustainability goals. He has worked with leading clients

such as Adobe, 23andMe, Vistaprint, and Ameriprise Financial in flagship projects including 100 Hooper,

Wilshire Grand Center, and One World Trade Center.

Darin first discovered the power of business-oriented solutions to solve environmental challenges while

at SolarCity, then pursued an MBA from Presidio Graduate School to dive deeper into this topic. He was

accepted into the prestigious EDF Climate Corps Fellowship between his first and second year of

graduate school, where he worked directly for a corporate client in establishing their sustainability

program.

Darin holds several green building and wellness credentials including LEED AP O+M, WELL AP, and Fitwel

Ambassador and has project experience across each certification system. This May, he is riding his bike

from Eureka to San Francisco as part of Climate Ride in order to raise funds and awareness towards

climate-related issues.

In May, 2016 Doug Co-Founded Mynd. His goal is to create the leading property management company for mid-market (< 50 units) residential rental properties in the US. Mynd will leverage technology, systems and data to make it's team more efficient, so that it can provide a better experience for renters and enhanced investment performance for owners.

In 2009, Doug Co-Founded Waypoint Homes, which was one of the early pioneers in the SFR industry. He grew the company to over 600 employees, with ~ $3.5 billion in assets under management, primarily consisting of 17,000+ rental homes, and created the second largest public SFR REIT. Doug first served first as Co-CEO and then CEO. Over the years he received awards including Goldman Sachs Top 100 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs (2012), Business Times 6th fastest growing company in the Bay Area (2013), and Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California (2014).

From 1994 to 2005, Doug was a place-kicker in the National Football League. He played for the Super Bowl Champion San Francisco 49ers in 1994 and was elected team captain and NFLPA Player Representative while playing for the Saints. When he retired from the NFL he was one of the top-ten most accurate kickers in NFL history and today he remains the all-time leading scorer at Cal.

Doug has founded and operated a number of non-profit enterprises including Kick for Kids' Sake and The Leo Brien Foundation. He is currently serves as a member of the United States Olympic Ethics Committee and the National Board for Build (www.build.org).

Doug holds a B.A. in Political Economies of Industrial Societies from the University of California, Berkeley and earned an M.B.A. from Tulane University while playing for the New Orleans Saints. He also completed the Wharton Sports Business Initiative Program in Entrepreneurial Management at the University of Pennsylvania and was selected as a member of the NFL's inaugural class .

Prior to joining Westlake, Ms. Smith served as Vice President, Property Management for Westcore Properties, a commercial real estate investment company, where she was responsible for acquisitions, dispositions, and portfolio operations. Before that, she spent 14 years at the RMR Group, (Nasdaq: RMR), an alternative asset management company primarily focused on real estate related businesses. Smith held a variety of positions at RMR, starting out as a property manager and eventually serving as Area Director with responsibility for oversight of real estate leasing and day-to-day portfolio operations for RMR’s Western Region. Ms. Smith holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Franklin Pierce University.

Will Coleman is the CEO of Lucid and founder of Onramp Capital. Lucid is the developer of

BuildingOS, a cloud based data and analytics platform for commercial building operations that

empowers modern approaches to building efficiency and sustainability.

Will is also an advisor and investor in a range of innovative companies including Honest

Buildings, Phylagen, and Spire. Will was previously a Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures where

he focused on early stage investments across sectors such as energy, buildings, materials,

cleantech, and IT. He has also worked with GE, X/seed Capital, the Global Environment Fund,

and previously worked on energy policy issues.

Will has been a leader in clean technology innovation for almost 15 years as an investor,

entrepreneur and thought leader. He is on the advisory board of the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory (NREL), the investment advisory board of the California Energy Commission’s

Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (an $840m fund to stimulate

deployment of low carbon transportation technologies), and has testified multiple times before

the US Senate and Congress on how to unlock innovation in the sector. Will is also on the board

of the Berkeley Energy & Climate Institute and the Governing Council of the Wilderness

Society. He has been actively engaged with the national labs, ARPA-e, MIT, Berkeley, Rice, and

on the boards of The Center for Clean Energy Innovation, and the University of Colorado’s early

ventures fund.

Will received his AB magna cum laude from Harvard University and earned a MBA and MS in

Energy & Resources from the University of California at Berkeley. While at Berkeley Will

founded the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC) and the Center for Energy &

Environmental Innovation (CEEI).

Bill Strang serves as President of the Americas’ Operations for TOTO USA and Chairman of TOTO Mexico. In these capacities, he is responsible for all of TOTO’s North American operations, including supply chain, design and development engineering, quality, ISO, environmental resource management, and management of TOTO’s five North American plants with 1.8 million sf under roof.

Under Bill’s leadership, TOTO has received numerous awards and recognitions for its leadership in environmental resource conservation, including the U.S. EPA’s Water Efficiency Leadership award (TOTO is the only plumbing manufacturer so honored); former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s Water Conservation Leadership award; the South face Sustainable Homebuilders’ Argon* award; the City of Atlanta’s Phoenix Award, and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s River Sustainability award. Recently, the Brookings Institution distinguished TOTO for its leadership in Clean Economy jobs creation.

Scott Andrews directs engagement and strategic partnerships for Aclima, Inc., a San Francisco-based company specializing in the development, design and deployment of environmental sensor networks. Scott's experience as a sustainability practitioner spans several decades and sectors, including applied research at the Earth Institute's Urban Design Lab and consulting with Terrapin Bright Green in New York City. Before joining Aclima in February 2016, Scott served as the head of the Energy Track for the Clinton Global Initiative. There he helped private companies, NGO’s, and governments identify and implement projects to address global challenges ranging from reducing respiratory illness in off-grid villages to expanding electric vehicle charging networks across North America. Scott completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Columbia University, where he received his MS in Sustainability Management in 2012.