Keynote, 2009

Jared Huffman

Assemblymember 6th District

Elected to the Assembly in November 2006, Assembly Member Jared Huffman has quickly earned respect as a legislator who tackles complex public policy challenges, works tirelessly, and gets results – often by forging consensus on seemingly intractable issues. In his first two years, Huffman was among the state’s most prolific lawmakers, passing 28 pieces of legislation.

His determination, candor, and independent thinking are reminiscent of his hometown hero, President Harry S. Truman. Growing up in Independence, Missouri, Huffman’s earliest political memory was seeing Truman walking around the town square. Huffman still collects memorabilia and books on President Truman.

Huffman’s priorities include protecting our environment; fighting global warming while creating jobs and building a “clean and green” 21st century economy; promoting sustainable water, land use and transportation policies; revitalizing public education; and reforming our broken health care system.

Ian Kim

Director, Green Jobs Campaign, Ella Baker Center

Ian Kim works at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights as Director of the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign. He advocates for policies in the city of Oakland and statewide in California to create "green-collar" jobs (quality, career-track, manual labor jobs in industries like renewable energy, water and energy efficiency, and green building), especially for low-income young adults and those with barriers to employment. Ian is a co-convenor of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellum's Green Economy Task Force, and served as Vice-Chair of the Oakland Oil Independence by 2020 Task Force. Ian holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Ian and his wife, Sunjung, are often laughing at the antics of their two-year-old daughter, Minju.

Kevin Surace

Kevin-Surace.jpg

Mr. Surace, a noted speaker and writer on climate change and the built environment, is on a mission to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels and their effect on the environment. As CEO of Serious Materials, Kevin leads the company in its mission to reduce energy usage and CO2 generation of the world's largest contributor, our buildings. By developing new materials and processes that require little energy to manufacture, and advanced products which dramatically improve the insulation and comfort of homes and offices, a worst-case climate and energy catastrophe can be avoided.

Phillip Micheal Williams, PE, and LEED AP

Vice President of Technical Systems and Sustainability, Webcor

His career focus has been in the California marketplace with extensive experience in the design, application, sales, installation and service of HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire protection, data and related systems.

Most recently he served as the Chairman of the San Francisco Mayor's Task Force on Green Buildings which focused on recommendations for private sector green building requirements. These aggressive standards; planned for implementation in 2008, cover virtually all private sector commercial and residential building types with phased escalations to enable industry implementation. In addition he serves on the Advisory for the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3), the San Francisco Building Code Advisory Committee (including Code Advisory Green Building Subcommittee), Chair of the Industry Advisory Board for the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) and California’s Green Technologies Advisory Board.

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