Speakers

Returning Speakers

Steve Bender

Steve Bender is the President and founder of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach; he is the D- 5320 Environmental Chair and Past President of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach Sunrise. He also chairs the Rotary Zone 26-27 water conference, “Source to Sea.” He was part of the Sustainability Leadership Program’s Advisory Board at the University of California-Irvine, was President of the Newport Bay Conservancy, and appointed to Vanguard University’s “Ethics in America” Board. Steve was a founding Director for the US Green Chamber and Co-Founder of Rotary’s Global Climate Pledge program. Steve sits on the board of the Rotary Climate Action Team (RCAT) Network, he is the D5320 Director of Environmental and Sustainability Rotary Action Group and travels the globe speaking to Rotary clubs, promoting, and educating members on environmental issues and projects. Steve is the CEO of Sea 2 Sky Solutions, a consulting company based in Newport Beach, CA and Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Dave Rice

Dave Rice is the President of United Nations Association Orange County Chapter, where he focuses on the Local 2030 program to apply the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the world to the Orange County community. He is also a leader in the Southern California Secular Coalition to bring leaders together for mobilization on advocacy, social causes, and community building. Dave is also a member of Congressman Mike Levin’s Talk Force on Nuclear Waste at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. He previously worked in the corporate technology industry for 25 years and 10 years in consulting.

Anssi Mikola

Anssi Mikola runs a company currently cleaning rivers of plastic waste in The Philippines, Ghana, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India. A serial entrepreneur by profession and a shipbuilding engineer by education, he is a specialist on the causes of river plastic pollution i.e. badly working waste management systems in developing countries. The solutions being implemented include all the necessary interventions to stop plastic pollution of the oceans both in the short run i.e. setting river cleaners into rivers and running them, medium run i.e. establishing recycling infrastructure to treat low value plastics and in the long term i.e. creating land based waste collection systems. The end result is being able to offer local municipalities river cleaning systems for which they do not need to provide funds for. This is done by building blended financing packages benefiting from both commercial and CSR funding from large brands.

Don Bender

Don Bender is Senior Advisor to Rotary Global Service Club’s Democracy in a Box, which promotes civic literacy, engagement, and civil discussions based on the Rotary model. He is a co-creator of Rotarians for the American Promise, which developed a presentation to Rotary clubs to demonstrate the civic and business argument for greater engagement by Rotarians in bridge building and peacebuilding within their communities, once again utilizing existing Rotary principles. Don is also a member of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach.

Andrew Siegel

Andrew Siegel is the Dallas Mayor’s Environmental Commission and Representative of District 10 and has served in this position since April 2022. The members of this commission advise the City Manager and City Council on implementation of the Comprehensive Environmental & Climate Action Plan (CECAP). The CECAP is a roadmap that outlines activities the city will undertake to improve quality of life, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for the impacts of climate change, and create a healthier and more prosperous community. It builds upon understanding of future impacts of climate change, other environmental challenges facing Dallas, and the data from greenhouse gas inventories. The CECAP leverages existing City efforts and builds upon an active public outreach and engagement effort to solicit input from businesses, community organizations, residents, and stakeholders, to foster effective and equitable change.

Past Speakers

Mark Maloney

Mark Maloney served as the 2019-20 Rotary International President with the theme “Rotary Connects the World”. A member of the Decatur, Alabama Rotary club since 1980, Mark has served as an RI director; Foundation trustee and vice chair; and aide to 2003-04 RI President Jonathan Majiyagbe. He also has participated in the Council on Legislation as chair, vice chair, parliamentarian, and trainer. He was an adviser to the 2004 Osaka Convention Committee and chaired the 2014 Sydney Convention Committee. Now, he is currently serving as a Trustee of the Rotary Foundation and will be Chair of the Trustees in 2024-25.

Ian H.S. Riseley

Ian H.S. Riseley is Chair 2022-23, Trustee 2019-23, Rotary Club of Sandringham, Victoria, Australia. While RI president in 2017-18, Ian H.S. Riseley challenged every Rotary club to plant one tree per member as a way to increase Rotarian involvement in environmental issues. He estimates at least three times that many were planted, likely more than 3 million trees. “I was really thrilled at the way in which the Rotary world embraced my request,” he says. “Everywhere we went, they were planting trees.” Riseley is a chartered accountant and principal of Ian Riseley and Co., a firm he established in 1976. His honors include the AusAID Peacebuilder Award from the Australian government in recognition of his work in East Timor and the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the Australian community, the Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award, and the Service Award for a Polio-Free World. Riseley and his wife, Juliet, a past district governor, are Rotary Foundation Major Donors and Bequest Society members. They live on seven hectares at Moorooduc, where they practice their personal philosophy of sustainable and organic living. Ian will not be able to join our event but we wanted to recognize him for his service. Accepting the award for Ian will be Don Mebus.

Don Mebus

Don Mebus served as the Rotary International Director for Zones 25 and 26 from 2006-08. He has been a Rotarian since 1974. Don’s father and grandfather were both members and past presidents of the club. For District 5790, he has led a GSE Team to Germany, worked on a committee for shipment of medical supplies to Children’s Sanatoriums in Soci, Russia, and was a delegate to the 1998 Council on Legislation. Following the COL in India, he and Carolyn traveled to Nepal where they participated in an National Immunization Day (NID). In Zone 26, he has been the coordinator for Member Education, area coordinator for Community Concerns, Task Force Coordinator for Avoidable Blindness, National Permanent Fund Advisor, and Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator. He has served several times as Zone Trainer for incoming District Governors as well as the operating chair for the Zone Institute in Fort Worth, Texas.

Dan Ouweleen

Dan Ouweleen is the current District Governor for Rotary District 5320. He joined Fullerton Rotary in 2007, and has served in Rotary as President of the club in 2016-17, President of Fullerton Rotary Foundation in 2018-20, Vice President in 2011-13, Youth Chair establishing CSUF Rotaract club partnering with Placentia Rotary, and Global Grant Chair. Dan is a two-time Rotarian of the year in his club. Professionally, Dan is part owner and President of PacMin Inc in Fullerton CA, a company that provides visually dynamic marketing solutions to the aviation and aerospace industry and other event related industries. Dan has a 40- year history as an international sales and marketing professional in the aerospace and semiconductor industries.

John Curtis

John Curtis will be the District Governor of D-5810 for 2023-24, and is a member of the Rotary club of Rockwall. John is married to Janie, his wife and sweetheart of 60 years. They have two adult children and a grandson. John joined Rotary in 1988 in California and became club President in 1994. In a previous district John and his wife were co-chairs for Youth Exchange. In District 5810, John has served as Interact Co-Chair, Youth Services Chair, AG and DDF Chair. John is a member of his church Vestry, and has been both Junior and Senior Warden. He has chaired his city’s Parks and Architectural Review Boards and the Rockwall Housing Development Corporation Board. He also sat on the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Texas Board and was President of the Dallas Assembly of the Brotherhood of St Andrew. John earned his Bachelor and Master Degrees in Civil Engineering at Cornell and his MPA at Cal State. Though retired, he still carries his Professional Engineering licenses in Texas and California. He is a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Captain Paul Watson

Captain Paul Watson is a marine wildlife conservation and environmental activist. Watson was one of the founding members and directors of Greenpeace. In 1977, he left Greenpeace and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. A renowned speaker, accomplished author, master mariner, and lifelong environmentalist, Captain Watson has been awarded many honors for his dedication to the oceans and to the planet. Among many commendations for his work, he received the Genesis Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1998, was named as one of the Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century by Time Magazine in 2000 and was inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. in 2002. He was also awarded the Amazon Peace Prize by the president of Ecuador in 2007. In 2012, Captain Watson became only the second person, after Captain Jacques Cousteau, to be awarded the Jules Verne Award, dedicated to environmentalists and adventurers. In 2022, Captain Paul Watson continues his fight for marine wildlife conservation with the new Captain Paul Watson Foundation.

Michelle Thatcher

Michelle Thatcher is the CEO and Co-Founder of the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce. Utilizing her 25 years of non-profit sustainability & business leadership experience, she and her team have developed a national advocacy, networking, and education platform for green businesses and chambers. With the arrival of Covid-19, Michelle created the Global Climate Pledge to help reach out to citizens, businesses, NGO’s, worldwide to address the climate crises. Prior to her roles at the Chamber, she worked with numerous environmental organizations in advocacy, served as Executive Director of the Seminole Soil and Water conservation district for four years and then moved to serve for 5 years as Executive Director of the Association of Florida Conservation Districts, a non- profit organization for the state’s 63 Soil and Water Districts, representing over 350 elected officials. Michelle is a Proud member of The Rotary Club of Newport Beach and sits on Rotary- RCAT and GLP boards.

Hadley Willman

Hadley Willman serves as the Assistant Director at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Initiative for Climate Leadership and Resilience, Director of the University Climate Ambassador Program at the Global Climate Pledge, Conference Manager at Engineers for a Sustainable World, and Administrative Coordinator at the Rotary Climate Action Team (RCAT) Network. She is also a member of the Rotaract Club of Newport Beach. Hadley graduated in 2022 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in Environmental Management and Protection, and Political Science. Her passion within the climate movement lies in connecting stakeholders and bringing new people into the fold through thoughtful education and engagement, thereby leading to meaningful collaboration for a greener future.

Lori Cloutier

Lori Cloutier serves as a Co-Chair of the Plastic Solutions Task Force, a part of Rotary’s Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group. The task force is working to address root causes of plastic pollution, and to help develop a global network to rethink and influence how we create, use and dispose of plastic. She served as the Executive Director of the Rotary Club of Oakland for 25 years, and then joined Poulsbo Rotary as a “civilian” member. There, she chairs the Trash Talk Task Force which helps produce “Near-0” Waste events, and collects single-source plastics for landfill diversion projects. To date, the committee has kept 100’s of pounds of expanded polystyrene out of landfills and turned into crown molding and picture frames, and more than 50,000 pounds of polyethylene into composite decking - but even as these recycling efforts took place, more than 11 million tons of plastic waste entered the ocean each year, and plastic production increased dramatically.

Jana Koebel

Jana Koebel is a plastics consultant, traveler, nomad, animal lover and environmentalist. She has traveled the world and experienced first-hand the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution which led her to take action and found Seas & Straws. By spreading knowledge and awareness about plastic and promoting plastic-free products as well as sustainable hotels and travel, she hopes to change our thinking and understanding of today’s throwaway society. She is also a plastics consultant, assisting hotels, businesses, offices, and individuals around the world to reduce single-use plastic, improve the sustainability of their operations, and make a measurable contribution to protecting our blue planet.

Rachel Wright

Rachel Wright is the Rotary, Education, and Communication Coordinator for the Global Climate Pledge, where she is a lead for the Rotary, Agriculture, and Ocean Protections team. Rachel also is head coordinator for the Rotary Reefs Project working in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Newport Beach. Rachel is also a member of the Rotaract Club of Newport Beach. She will be graduating in spring of 2023 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in Environmental Management and Protection with a minor in Restoration Ecology. Rachel is passionate about environmental restoration, environmental justice, and intentional consumption of resources.

Jon Kaufman

Jon Kaufman is a passionate believer that generational poverty can be ended throughout the world if the poor gain access to opportunity. Since 2012, Jon has tackled this impossible dream by joining Rotary International and directing H2OpenDoors, a project that has since installed 45 water purification plants in 15 countries. Many of these water facilities have become enterprises to create revenue for the essential social services of the communities. In 2020, Jon co-founded Global Water First as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation. Raising seed capital from fellow Rotarians and other friends, they launched several new enterprises in Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, and continue to gather investment towards a goal of creating 1000 water enterprises in the next five years, largely run by women.

Terri Main

Terri Main is a member of the Rotary Passport Club of the Central Coast of California, where she serves as Community Services Chair, and is a member of the Rotary Climate Action Team (RCAT) Network leadership committee. Terri and her husband Charlie own and operate The Main Company Inc, a general contracting firm, and are focused on using their experience and expertise to advocate for climate action and climate friendly practices in the building industry. Terri and Charlie have made connections with Rotarians in Uganda and are proud to support their efforts to improve schools and to help young women finish their education. Terri currently serves as an advisor to a local non-profit on housing affordability projects, and as President of The Endowment for the Advancement of Children advisory board, a local education non-profit.

Kelly Hauge

Kelly Hauge is the President of the Rotary Club of San Francisco Evening. Kelly is passionate about making a positive impact in her communities. Her life’s work is focused on researching and supporting political engagement and civic discourse through the lens of political psychology. When she’s not exploring the complexities of political behavior and political systems, Kelly enjoys scuba diving and is committed to protecting the environment through her involvement in various reef restoration and reforestation projects. She believes that small actions can lead to big changes, and is always looking for ways to make a difference in the world around her.

Vicki Nichols Goldstein

A lifelong ocean advocate, Vicki Nichols Goldstein earned a Master’s degree in marine policy from Yale University. Working for NOAA, she cowrote the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Designation documents and served as NOAA liaison to the California Sanctuary sites. For 10 years, Vicki was the Executive Director of Save Our Shores and served on a number of state, national, and international councils and working groups. Vicki founded the Colorado Ocean Coalition in 2011 and rebranded it to the Inland Ocean Coalition in 2017, whose mission is to create an inland movement that builds land-to-sea stewardship. Vicki was the Executive Director for 10 years and now is the Director of Special Projects. Vicki brings her experience of ocean protection, networking, and the belief that community-based ocean conservation can occur any place in the county.

Richard Hardiman

Richard Hardiman is the founder and CEO of RanMarine Technology, a Netherlands based USV (Unmanned Surface Vessels) company. In 2016 Richard embarked on his most ambitious project yet, developing a waterborne drone that harvest plastic waste from the worlds ports, harbors, rivers and marinas in an effort to reduce the effects of plastic pollution on the Earth’s oceans. Richard’s company now produces the WasteShark, which has been exported globally. Added to the WasteShark’s ability to collect waste, and excess algae growth, RanMarine has now also pioneered the collection of live data from water-borne drones, to measure water health quality. Richard is a former journalist, broadcaster and Tedx speaker. Recently Richard became the recipient of the international AACSB Business Schools most Influential Leaders Honoree award in the category of CSR and Sustainability

Dr. Bricia Elawar

Dr. Bricia Elawar is married to past District Governor Shab Elawar. She is a graduate of UACJ Mexico and a dentist. She has participated in over 30 clinics at the “Thousand Smiles,” and over 20 clinics at the “Mil Sonrisas,” cleft lip and cleft palate projects throughout Mexico. She is the President and Founder of the Rotary E- Club Save Our Planet, District 5330. She has served in Rotary as: Club Global Grant Chair, Club Foundation Chair, Vocational Chair, Governor Assistant, RAGFP Member of Rotary Action Group For Peace, WASH Member of Water and Sanitation Rotary Action Group, and ESRAG Member. She is the President and Founder of The Initiative of Cleaning El Río Grande river. She received the District 5330 Women in Rotary Hero Award for 2016-17 and Humanitarian award of the year from the Black Culture Foundation in 2018. She is also a member of the United Nations Association of the USA.

Shab Elawar

Shab Elawar grew up in poverty in Lebanon, where he survived a civil war, before immigrating to the US in 1978. He got his B.S. degree from Chico State University and his Master of Structural Engineering degree from Long Beach State. He is married to Dr. Bricia. He works as a private real estate investor. He has been in Rotary since 1997, where he has served as/ins: A/G, International and Matching Grant Director, Youth Exchange Officer, Polio Chair, Grant Oversight Committee, District Governor, RI President Representative, District International Director, District Global Grant Chair, Endowment Fund, International Service Chair Champion, Board of Directors for Rotary Action Group For Peace, and more. He has participated in over 550 Global Grants. He is the recipient of the Service Above Self award from Rotary International, Humanitarian award of the year from MANNA Foundation, and Humanitarian award of the year from the Black Culture by Foundation.

Jack Barker

Jack Barker is an inventor and President of Innovative Water Technologies. As a manufacturer of state-of-art water tech equipment, the Colorado Chamber of Commerce just named the SunSpring as the Coolest Thing Made in Colorado. From community water purification systems to large scale systems that send and purify water over distances of hundreds of miles, Jack and his team of water technicians can solve any water issue presented to them. Jack lives near his giant factory in Rocky Ford, Colorado, and employs a large team that has been deployed throughout the United States and across the globe, many times with Global Water First and H2OpenDoors, infrastructure partners for Rotary projects for the past 13 years. Jack holds every water certification in the State of Colorado, one of just a handful of water professionals who can make that claim.

Peter Fiekowsky

Peter Fiekowsky, author of Climate Restoration: The Only Future That Will Sustain the Human Race (2022), is an MIT-educated physicist and Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist with 27 patents. He has 30 years’ experience as a citizen lobbyist for poverty and climate issues, and over the past decade has been working to build the organizations required to ensure the survival and flourishing of humanity. Fiekowsky’s mission is to leave a world we’re proud of to our children. To that end he has founded a number of organizations including the Foundation for Climate Restoration, Methane Action, the Stable Planet Alliance, which is working to restore a sustainable population, and the Climate Restoration Safety and Governance Board.

Mike Zoltowski

Mike Zoltowski worked in corporate portfolio analytics for 25 years with companies like Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, and has since pivoted all his time to focus on tackling our climate crisis. Mike is currently developing an analytics marketplace named Fairness 4 that focuses on finding fairness for the most pressing issues humanity faces today. Fairness 4 works with industry leaders to build custom applications for nontechnical people to evaluate the question, “what is fair?” We aim to deliver time series performance analytics to find fairness 4 our people, planet, and future. Mike currently works with several technology companies: Opturo, SpeedTrack, New Volt Solutions, and Just Bio Fiber.

Bill Shireman

Bill Shireman is a serial social entrepreneur, policy innovator, and conflict mediator who brings together capitalists, activists, conservatives, progressives, and other unusual bedfellows to overcome challenges that often divide them. As President of the non-profit Future 500, he invites Greenpeace, ExxonMobil, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Mitsubishi and other corporate and environmental leaders to work together. To tackle political polarization and help revitalize democracy, Shireman co-chairs with Trammell S. Crow, the Donor Roundtable and its citizen recruitment initiative, In This Together. He helps philanthropists use best-in-class proprietary data, analytics, deliberative polling, and communication tools to mobilize pragmatic “solution citizens” behind practical policies that work.

Angela Eifert

Angela Eifert has had a dynamic career in both financial services and fundraising for humanitarian efforts globally. Having spent 10+ years in both industries, she is keen on business models that make an impact. Angela is passionate about connecting people and organizations to create scalable and strategic partnerships that solve big issues for people and the planet. Serving as Director of Global Connections at Alight, her work brings in critical funds and resources for the organization’s mission as an international humanitarian organization supporting refugee communities globally

Tami Mulcahy

Tami Mulcahy is an advocate for all things water. She worked locally with GreenTown Los Altos to spread the word about stormwater pollution and pushed for policy changes to maximize rain capture. Gravely concerned about the impact of plastic on marine ecosystems, she joined ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group), through its Plastic Solutions Task Force. This past year Tami has worked closely with Lori Cloutier, co-leader of the Plastic Solutions Task Force, to build awareness. As a prior physical therapist, she finds the health ramifications particularly deserving of a bullhorn. Tami is also a singer songwriter whose song Part of the Solution is a call to everyone to “be...part of the solution.”

Anastasiia Romanova

Anastasiia Romanova is the CEO and Founder of Mosqitter, a smart software-driven pest-insect control solution that protects people from mosquito bites by imitating a living being. Anastasiia founded Mosqitter in October 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine, after facing in Florida the crucial harm mosquitoes, the deadliest animals in the world, bring to our planet. Mosqitter’s eco-friendly technology is introduced and in full operation on four continents, protecting people in large areas from mosquitos. Before founding a hardware startup Anastasiia worked as an executive director in global brands distribution and manufacturing companies. Anastasiia is a visionary leader who dreams of a world with no dangerous diseases, a mission Mosqitter pursues while decreasing the amount of chemicals that are commonly used to treat pest-insects.