Alexia Akbay is CEO/co-founder of Symbrosia, an aquaponics startup focused on production of sustainable protein. The company is prototyping a system based on red macroalgae and white Pacific shrimp — which have a symbiotic relationship in nature — to produce sustainable seafood as a protein source. Additionally, replacing the diet of cows with the seaweed they are growing (2% replacement) has been shown to reduce methane emissions up to 99%. By providing a pathway to methane-neutral beef with local and responsibly raised shrimp as a byproduct, Symbrosia hopes to inspire others to imagine solutions to the inherently environmentally degrading properties within food systems for a healthier future.  The company was recently awarded Yale’s Sabin Sustainable Venture Prize. Alexia also works with the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School, partakes in personal research on the endocrine disrupting profile of repurposed materials, and is a founding member of the Yale Blockchain Initiative, as she is a proponent of the technology for creating responsible supply chains. She is a candidate for a master’s degree from the Yale School of Public Health, and holds a bachelor’s degree of science in chemistry and global public health from New York University.

Van Jones is best known as a CNN political contributor, regularly appearing across the network’s programming and special political coverage. In this role, he has used his public voice to be the inspirational changemaker that is at the core of his humanity.

The Dream Corps was founded by Van Jones in 2014 to help cutting-edge initiatives grow big enough to impact millions of lives. They back initiatives that close prison doors and open doors of opportunity. Dream Corps supports economic, environmental and criminal justice innovators – all under one roof. Currently, the Dream Corps has these programs:  #cut50: Transforming the criminal justice system; #YesWeCode: Increasing opportunity in the tech sector; Green For All: Building an inclusive green economy; and Love Army: Building a nation where everyone matters.

In addition, he founded and led four other not-for-profit organizations engaged in social and environmental justice including, Rebuild the Dream, that promotes innovative policy solutions for the U.S. economy; the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights that focuses on economic empowerment and skills training in California; Color of Change, that offers training and guidance on issues related to racial equality and fairness on behalf of communities of color; and Green for All, dedicated to jobs training in the green sector with the goal to help lift people out of poverty. He is also a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress and focuses on policy matters related to green jobs and how cities are implementing job-creating climate solutions.

Jones is a Yale-educated attorney and author of three New York Times best-selling books, Beyond the Messy Truth, The Green Collar Economy, and Rebuild the Dream which chronicles his journey as an environmental and human rights activist to becoming a White House policy advisor. In that role he was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act, signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, and the first piece of federal legislation to codify the term “green jobs.” During the Obama Administration, the legislation had resulted in $500 million in national funding for green jobs training.

As the green jobs advisor to President Obama, he helped lead the inter-agency process that oversaw the multi-billion dollar investment in skills training and jobs development within the environmental and green energy sectors.

He has also been honored with numerous awards and spotlighted on several lists of high achievers, including the World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leader” designation; Rolling Stone’s 2012 “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done”; TIME’s 2009 “100 Most Influential People in The World”; and the Root’s 2013 “The Root 100.”

Katherine Keating is the Chief Sustainability and Strategy Officer at Maverick, working alongside Guy Oseary and his portfolio of companies, investments and talent. 

Katherine has held positions at several media companies; at VICE Media as a Global Publisher of VICE Impact; and The World Post and Huffington Post as a Contributing Editor.

Katherine sits on the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council as a New Leader, was recently appointed to the Ambassador Council of the International Crisis Group, serves as Vice-Chair of the Whitney Museum’s Performance Committee and last year was appointed to Global Citizen’s Mandela 100 Advisory Committee. 

Previously Katherine served as a Policy Advisor for the New South Wales Government, Australia.

For two decades, Dr. Shlomy Kattan has been on a mission to foster more opportunities for individuals to reach their greatest potential through learning and technology.

Currently, Dr. Kattan is an Executive Director at the XPRIZE Foundation, where he leads the $7M Adult Literacy XPRIZE. In this capacity, he works with business leaders, policy makers, and industry experts to shape the future of learning and workforce development.

Prior to joining XPRIZE, Dr. Kattan was CEO of Kudo!, an award-winning education technology startup. He was previously a Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, which he joined after a ten-year career in traditional and technology-enabled education.

Dr. Kattan holds a PhD in Education from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellow. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children, where he serves on the School Board of Directors of the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools.

Amy Hunter is the Global Head of Sustainability at BlackRock, a financial asset management firm, with 90+ offices in 34 countries.  She leads sustainability across BlackRock and coordinates with the data centers, real estate, supply chains and businesses to ensure that the company is capitalizing on opportunities to strategically advance sustainability.  She is responsible for environmental and social sustainability initiatives and reporting.  She joined BlackRock in 2014 to lead Philanthropy where her focus was on the firm’s global philanthropy strategy, building the infrastructure to support it and developing corporate citizenship among employees.

Amy has MA degrees in Anthropology from University of Oxford and in Environmental Policy from The New School and BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

Allison Bell joined the IoES staff in 2018 as a research associate for the Corporate Partners Program and the Blue Prosperity project. She assists the director of both programs, Jennie Dean, in event development, project coordination, research support, and website products.

Allison graduated UCLA IoES in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a minor in conservation biology. As a student, she worked on research programs across campus, including the Grand Challenges – Sustainable Los Angeles undergraduate research program and a field marine biology quarter in French Polynesia. She also assisted with environmental microbiology research in Dr. Shaily Mahendra’s lab. Allison looks forward to further contributing to UCLA research in her new role at IoES, particularly with regard to sustainable small island development.

In her free time, Allison enjoys running, exploring the many culinary cultures of Los Angeles and travelling the world.