Steering Committee

Bridgett Luther works with the Institute to promote the exchange of ideas, innovation and solutions that will grow a new global economy. The Institute works with manufacturers to move their products and practices to a more sustainable, healthy, socially responsible, and economically advantageous approach grounded in the Cradle to Cradle® methodology, principles and values. 

Previously Bridgett has served Governor Schwarzenegger as California’s Director of the Department of Conservation, overseeing a budget of $1.4 billion and 700 employees in 14 offices around California. She directed the oversight of oil, natural gas, mining and geothermal industries, the beverage container recycling and farmland protection programs. Prior to moving to California, she ran land conservation programs and sold real estate. Her first job was as a sales rep for Procter & Gamble. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Business.

Read Bridgett Luther's Advisor Spotlight to learn more about her accomplishments and commitment to sustainability.

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.

Diane Vrkic, President, Waypoint Building Group- Building on over 10 years of experience in the real estate, energy & sustainability and process reengineering sectors, Diane founded Waypoint Building Group as the next generation real estate services firm focused on delivering deep energy efficiency retrofits for commercial buildings.  Most recently, Diane was Global Chief Operating Officer of Energy and Sustainability Services (ESS) at Jones Lang LaSalle.  Prior to ESS, Diane was head of Product Strategy & Practice Development for the firm’s Strategic Consulting business unit.  Diane is currently the sitting Chair of the Department of Energy’s Commercial Real Estate Energy Efficiency Alliance Existing Building.  She is active in advancing investor sustainability principles and is a current member of the Urban Land Institutes Responsible Property Investing Council.  Diane holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Chemistry and Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from Fordham University.

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.

In addition to managing and reviewing appraisals and a wide variety of commercial property types, he is also the primary appraisal manager for LEED designed and high performance real estate collateral. These valuations can also include solar photovoltaic arrays and other types of on-site distributed power systems. Since early 2006 he has been the appraisal/valuation representative of the bank’s Environmental Initiative Team. To date Wells Fargo has extended over $3.25 billion to high performance / “green” real estate. Prior to being an appraiser he was a commercial leasing and sales agent based in Santa Monica for a total more than 20 years in commercial real estate. He currently chairs the USGBC LA Chapter’s Commercial Real Estate & Finance subcommittee and holds a B.A in Mechanical Engineering and Economics at the University of Kentucky, is a General Certified Appraiser, and has a CA Real Estate Sales license.

During his 29 years with DWR, Mr. Guivetchi has worked on numerous projects with the Central District, the Bay-Delta Office, the Division of Environmental Services, and the Division of Planning and Local Assistance. In his current assignment, he managed the DWR staff work and the public comment process for the California Water Plan, Update 2005. He is also working on the 2009 update to the water plan, the Delta Vision initiative to develop a vision and strategic plan for sustainable management of the Delta and Suisun, and the FloodSafe initiative to develop a sustainable flood management system and reduce flood risk.

Ms. Galley has more than 23 years of commercial real estate finance experience in US and European markets, having financed more than $4 billion in transactions. She is Treasurer of the US Green Building Council’s Northern California Chapter through 2011 and oversees Galley Eco Capital, which consults on green finance and investment programs around the world. Under Ms. Galley’s leadership, Galley Eco Capital received recognition from Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, for designing unique funding mechanisms that not only supported the development of a proposed carbon neutral district, but would also help transform Finland to a low carbon economy.

Nehemiah Stone is an Energy Consultant at the Benningfield Group, with primary interests in multifamily and affordable housing, efficiency program design, building performance research, energy policy, economics, and codes and standards.  After tenures in the private sector and the California Energy Commission, Nehemiah entered the consulting world in 1998 where he designed, launched and ran California’s first utility-funded multifamily new construction energy efficiency program.  He has consulted on multifamily issues with most of California’s larger utilities, the CEC, the CPUC, and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee for over ten years, including leading efforts to establish virtual net metering for PV on multifamily buildings. 

He manages Benningfield Group’s contract to assist TCAC with training and quality control on CUAC analyses for LIHTC projects.  He leads the IOUs’ Compliance Improvement Advisory Group, and has led the project to improve the exam and certification process for CABEC’s Certified Energy Analyst.  He is also the lead contractor to the CEC on the state’s efforts to improve energy efficiency in the existing residential sector – AB 758.

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.

Sean focuses on corporate advisory and tenant representation work.  He has over 15 years of real estate consulting and brokerage experience with both owners and users of real estate. He has previously held senior positions at the real estate practices of Ernst & Young and Navigant Consulting. Sean has proven expertise with transaction advisory work including buy side and sell side due diligence, leasing transactions, and capital market transactions. He has significant experience in project management assignments ranging from fee based development, site selection, and portfolio optimization (including sustainability and energy efficiency). His clients have included public and private real estate companies, developers, brokerage firms, private equity investors and major corporations.