Carol Sanford, author, The Responsible Business
Carol Sanford has been leading major change efforts in both Fortune 500 and new-economy businesses for more than 30 years. Carol has published dozens of works in 10 languages, and is the author of The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability and Success (March 2011), which was shortlisted for Best Business Book of the Year. Central to Carol's philosophy and approach is a fresh look at what makes an organization truly responsible. She believes that business can and will play a major role in creating a better world, and has worked with businesses for four decades who have successfully done so by building great businesses.

Amee Quiriconi, Creative Concrete Concepts & Tiger Mountain Innovations
Ameé Quiriconi is the inventor of Squak Mountain Stone™, a recycled content countertop product that is consistently featured in national publications and on television as one of the top “green” countertops in the country, including Popular Mechanics’ “Best in Green Design″ and Builder Magazine ”Readers’ 50 Favorite Products of 2010.” Today, Ameé’s new company, Creative Concrete Concepts, is producing leading-edge recycled-content products for both interior and exterior environments in partnership with other local businesses to source low-cost recycled aggregates. Ameé has a M.A. in Environment and Community and a B.S. in Architectural Engineering.

Melissa Feveyear, Terra Bella Flowers & Seattle Wholesale Growers Market
Melissa Feveyear founded Terra Bella Flowers on Phinney Ridge, one of the nation's first flower shops to focus on locally and organically grown flowers. She has degress in environmental studies and hazardous waste management as well as certification in floral design. To increase the strength of local growers and retailers, she joined forces with local flower farmers to found the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market Cooperative. Melissa and the Grower's Coop have been featured in Sunset magazine, NPR, and with Cisco the gardener.

Kim Armstrong, Washington Green Schools
Kim is Co-Executive Director for Washington Green Schools (WAGS). In partnership with Meredith Lohr, Kim worked as a consultant for WAGS through the state-wide launch of the program. Kim is also  a co-founder and Principal of Sound Footprint, a sustainability consulting firm serving schools and organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Kim's previous experience includes operating her own socially-responsible business and serving as a management consultant for two multinational firms, Accenture and Arthur D. Little.  As a consultant, Kim facilitated transformational change in organizations. Kim holds a B.A. in Economics and an MBA.

Dani Cone, Fuel Coffee & Hi-Five Pies
Dani Cone has two great loves: coffee and pie. She attended Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where she studied business economics. She opened her first of three Fuel locations in March 2005. As an aficionado of the café experience, she was the perfect person to author the book “Tall Skinny Bitter: Notes from the Center of Coffee Culture,” published by Sasquatch Books in April 2009. In 2008 she launched High 5 Pie, a wholesale business and retail pie cafe Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, which has been featured on the Martha Stewart Show, New Day NW, the Food Network, Food & Wine Magazine, Bon Appetit, Sunset Magazine, and was voted Seattle Magazine’s 2011 Reader’s Pick Best Pie Shop.

Julie O'Brien, Firefly Kitchens
Born in Alaska, Julie spent her childhood harvesting fresh seafood, picking ripe berries, foraging for wild greens, and learning everything she could from her parents and community about the local food system. In 2007, Julie was introduced to and stunned by the wonders of fermented foods while working on her certificate in Nutritional Therapy. In 2010, Julie cofounded Firefly Kitchens with Richard Climenhage, launching with four fermented products at Seattle farmers markets. Within a year Firefly was on the shelves of Central Co-op, PCC, Whole Foods, and several other stores in the area. Firefly kitchens has two products--Yin Yang Carrots and Cortido Kraut--that have won Good Food Awards.  Julie’s true love is sharing healthy foods (especially kraut) with any and all.

Tonya Mosley, New Naturalista
Tonya “NewNaturalista” is an award winning television reporter and multi media journalist.  She tells stories for a living, but what she loves most about her job is the discovery. She’s currently working on a documentary about the deeply rooted relationships black women have with food, weight and sexuality and how they intertwine. Tonya lives in Seattle, WA but was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Her heart can be found in both places.

Stephanie Ryan, B Lab
Stephanie Ryan currently works as a Senior Associate with B Lab, a non-profit that certifies businesses that create beneficial social and environmental impacts. Her 25 years experience as a consultant has been focused on developing organizational learning capacities. In the mid '80s she worked for Innovation Associates with Peter Senge, author of the best-seller The Fifth Discipline. She is the co-executive producer of BeComing, a documentary featuring a cross-generational and ethnically diverse circle of ten women engaged in the deeper questions of their lives. She holds a B.A. from Trinity College, Hartford, CT with a double major in Economics and International Relations.

Sharon Hall, Express Credit Union
Sharon Hall is Chief Executive Officer of Express Credit Union, a non-profit financial institution founded in 1934, with a mission to provide affordable financial services to low- and moderate-income people, and in doing so, help them build assets and achieve financial stability. Sharon leads the strategic vision, mission and impact development of the company. Sharon brings her credit union systems and accounting experience from her role as Chief Financial Officer for the Washington Credit Union League. In her 11 year tenure there, she was responsible for protecting the assets of the trade association, its for-profit wholly owned subsidiary, League Service Inc., and the related Washington Credit Union Foundation.

Michelle Rupp, NRG Insurance
Michelle Rupp is the second generation owner of NRG Insurance, an insurance brokerage located in Seattle since 1942. NRG is a Mayor’s Small Business Award winner and was first recognized as a business leader in sustainability in 1998 with a Waste Wise certification with the Department of Ecology. She was awarded Washington State Agent of the Year in 2002, and NRG was National Trusted Choice Agency of the Month in October, 2011. NRG has won awards for its sustainability practices as well as their best practice insurance operations, and is a six-year award winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Workplace Flexibility award. In 2008 Michelle created an “agency of the future” with Safeco Insurance Company: Safeco Instore by NRG: Seattle. Michelle has served on national committees and boards for various insurance associations, companies and local not-for-profits. 

Betsy Power, Culinary Collective
Betsy Power is the co-founder and CEO of Culinary Collective, a specialty food importer that works with small-scale producers of all-natural cultural food from Spain and Latin America. A strong proponent of responsible business, in 2004 Betsy co-founded Highwater Research, a socially responsible investing research organization in San Francisco. Betsy is trained as an architect with a focus on green design and community-based development, and has worked with communities in Eastern Washington, Mexico, and Ecuador. In 2008, she launched Rooted Foods, a seal of transparency for traditional foods that connects the consumer back to the producer and supports self-sufficient communities worldwide.

Marta Kappl, House of Fashion
Marta Kappl is an internationally known fashion designer, renown for creating custom clothing from studios in San Francisco, St. Helena, California and most recently in Seattle. She is also a wardrobe and image consultant who applies her expertise in fashion, sensitivity to client's lifestyles, and understanding of psychology to all her designs. She is the founder of House of Fashion, a local designer's incubator and retail boutique in Belltown that aims to spark a local fashion design and production renaissance in Seattle.

Laura Culberg, Sweatbox Yoga & Capitol Hill Entrepreneurial Women
For the last ten years, Laura has been teaching and practicing Bikram Yoga at The SweatBox where she is co-owner. Prior to that, Laura was a social worker and co-founder of Powerful Voices, an organization specializing in work with adolescent girls. In early 2011, inspired by established women-owned businesses and new business owners, Laura founded CHEW, Capitol Hill Entrepreneurial Women, a collaborative organization with a mission to make Capitol Hill the best place in the United States for women to do business.

Dune Ives, Milepost Consulting
Dune Ives, Ph.D. brings 17 years of experience helping private, utility and non-profit clients define, measure and achieve their organizational objectives with a keen focus on lasting behavior change. In addition to consulting, Dune is on Faculty with Presidio Graduate School where she teaches in the MBA program on the topic of climate change strategy development and the impact of organizational culture on lastingness of sustainability efforts. She serves on Congressman Jay Inslee’s Clean Technology Policy Development Committee, is a member of Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s organization The Climate Project and is a founding member of the Green Sports Alliance and the Seattle 2030 District.

Jessica Neu, Blue Sky Cleaners
Jessica Neu is Marketing Director for Blue Sky Cleaners, the only Seattle-area dry cleaners using the only truly toxin-free method currently available. She has parlayed a personal passion for protecting the environment into Blue Sky, by establishing workplace protocols based on a clear message of sustainable business practices. Jessica is dedicated to helping consumers find a balance between convenience and eco-friendly lifestyle choices. She has found the greatest success when using grassroots marketing campaigns to educate the public on what it means to be environmentally sound and lives by her motto, “we only save what we understand."

Lara Feltin, Biznik
As the Cofounder and CEO of Biznik® - biznik.com - an online community for independent businesses, Lara Feltin has spent the last seven years building Biznik into an award-winning social media company connecting over 80,000 forward-thinking business people nation-wide. Biznik is a powerful networking platform for meeting peers who send each other support, referrals, education, recommendations, inspiration, and opportunities for collaboration. In October 2008, Lara was named one of Seattle's top 25 most innovative entrepreneurs by Seattle Business Monthly, and included in Seattle Magazine's Power Players list of most influential people. In 2009 she was named among Seattle's Top 100 Women in Technology by Techflash.

Tammy Dunakin, Rent-a-Ruminant LLC
Tammy Dunakin is the owner and chief goat wrangler of Rent-a-Ruminant LLC.  Tammy’s company provides eco friendly/green vegetation management utilizing her goat herds. Started in 2004 on Vashon Island, this innovative, sustainable business has grown from 10 goats to over 130 of the voracious, cute munchers.  Customers range from government agencies such as Navy Sub Base Bangor, local and state government, cities, ports, schools, large and small business enterprises and private land owners. Tammy recently developed a licensure for her business model and is now growing her business throughout the United States and Australia through her licensees. Rent-a-Ruminant has been covered by The Colbert Report, ABC News Nightline, NPR,  and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few.

Lara Hamilton, Book Larder
Lara Hamilton spent the first 15 years of her career in high tech, leaving that life to pursue a career in food.  In 2011, she opened Book Larder, a cookbook shop in upper Fremont that offers a selection of new, collectible, and imported books as well as author events and classes.  She is also the owner of Kim Ricketts Book Events, a literary event company founded by her friend Kim Ricketts in 2003. Lara lives in Seattle with her husband and 2 children.