Steering Committee

As Director of the Department of Conservation, Bridgett Luther oversees a budget of $1.3 billion for a wide range of programs including land resource protection, beverage container recycling, geologival survey, mine reclamation, and oversight for oil, gas, and geothermal production. Previously she was the national development director for REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection), which supports pro-environment Republicans. She helped create the first recycling program in the history of North Carolina's Mechlenburg County, led campaigns to create neighborhood parks and acquire land to protect the region's water quality, and founded the Carolinas office of the Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization.

Daniel Feitelberg has worked with numerous public sector clients to implement capital credit structures to finance more than $100 billion of government operations, buildings, transportation, energy, water, education and healthcare projects throughout the U.S. In April 2009, he served as a senior banker for nearly $7 billion of Build America Bonds issued by the State of California as part of its General Obligation Bond program.

Mr. Feitelberg also served as a senior banker on the California Department of Water Resources finance team, which supplied a $4.3 billion interim loan and underwrote $11.3 billion of power supply revenue bonds to help California stabilize its energy markets in 2001 and 2002. He was also senior banker on the team that developed the Infrastructure State Revolving Fund Program, which provides low-cost financing to public agencies for local infrastructure projects. Mr. Feitelberg also serves on the Board of Directors for the California Foundation for the Economy and the Environment.

Deborah Magid represents IBM’s $22 billion software business in the company’s 9-year old Venture Capital Group. Deborah is responsible for building ecosystems for IBM by sharing insights about emerging markets, technologies, and business models with venture firms and entrepreneurs around the world. She also brings insight from the venture community to the development of IBM’s growth strategies. She scouts for emerging business opportunities, and shares views on innovation and growth areas of the market. Deborah’s relationships are global, and extend into emerging geographies. Deborah is a frequent spokesperson on topics of relevance to entrepreneurs and investors, and is on the board of SDForum, the Silicon Valley emerging technology network.

Gary Gero ensures that the Reserve meets the highest standards for integrity, transparency and quality. He leads the organization’s efforts to support local government greenhouse gas emission reduction programs. Previously, Mr. Gero worked in local government for nearly 20 years, primarily in Los Angeles where he served as Air Quality Director and Assistant General Manager for the Environmental Affairs Department. Recently, he managed the Green LA programs at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. There he redesigned the LADWP Solar Program, expanded energy efficiency programs, and supervised tree planting, distributed generation, advanced transportation, and Green Power programs.

Mr. Cowin was appointed Director of the Department of Water Resources in January 2010.  Prior to this position he served as the Deputy Director for Regional Water Planning and Management for DWR. As Deputy Director Mr. Cowin was responsible for developing and implementing statewide integrated regional water management strategies, coordinating DWR efforts related to climate change, and updating and implementing the California Water Plan. During his 25 years with DWR, Mr. Cowin has also served as Chief of the Division of Planning and Local Assistance and Assistant Director for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, the largest water management and ecosystem restoration program in the nation. Highlights of his tenure include overseeing the development of the 2005 update to the California Water Plan, administering grant and loan programs under Propositions 13, 50, and 84, and developing the water management components of the Governor’s Strategic Growth Plan.

Mr. Cohen is responsible all strategic investments in environmental initiatives for the Bank. He has significant governance experience and is currently director of six companies located in both North America and Europe. Prior to taking on the above roles in May 2000, Mr. Cohen was head of North American Interest Rate Swap Trading for Bank of America in Chicago. He joined Bank of America in early 1997 as head of U.S. Dollar Derivative trading in San Francisco. His derivatives experience includes more than five years at Lehman Brothers where he was head of dollar swap trading.

Dr. Hammon oversees ConSol’s consulting department, which specializes in new residential construction research and development. In 2006, he became co-chair of the New Solar Homes Partnership Advisory Committee, which advises the California Energy Commission on ways to encourage solar technology in new home construction. For a landmark research project launched in 2004, Dr. Hammon secured funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to build and test marketable prototypes that are 40% to 70% more energy efficient than typical new homes. In addition, he integrated two teams working on separate Commission-funded projects to design and build “zero energy” homes with production homebuilders and to develop methods for making such communities sustainable.