SI-MBA Learning & Connection Summit

Day 1 | Friday, June 12 

Silver Pavilion; Alumni Hall, 61 Summit St, Burlington, VT 05401 

5:00 - 6:30 PM

• Welcome & Opening Remarks 

• Networking Reception (Light refreshments will be served.)

Day 2 | Saturday, June 13

Kalkin Hall, 55 Colchester Ave, Burlington VT 05405

• 8:30 AM | Breakfast & Registration
• 9:20 AM | Welcome, State of the School, & Dean's Recognition
• 9:40 AM | Keynote Speaker: Kyle Clark of BETA Technologies
• 10:20 AM | Networking Activity
• 11:00 AM | Three Optional Career Resource Sessions
• 11:30 AM | Buffet Lunch in 3 locations
• 12:30 PM | 
  • Climate Tech & Clean Energy Innovation (Room 004) 
  • Career Pivots & Portfolio Careers (Room 007)
• 1:25 PM | 
  • Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance (Room 004)
  • Deep Tech, AI & The Future of Work (Room 007)
• 2:15  PM | Break + Remarks from Vikas Anand
• 2:40 PM | A conversation with Jeffrey Hollender
• 3:30 PM | Applied AI + Sustainability Workshop
• 4:35 PM | SI-MBA Reflections
• 5:15 PM | Closing Remarks + Reception (Light refreshments will be served.)

Parking

Friday, June 12

Event Location: Alumni House Silver Pavillion at 61 Summit St, Burlington, VT

• Street Parking is available on Maple Street or on Summit Street between Main and Maple
• Allen House Lot: 461 Main St, Burlington, VT
• Jacobs House Lot: 146 S. Williams St., Burlington VT
• Document

  FRIDAY-Reception-Parking-Opportunities.pdf (404.45 KB)

Saturday June 13

Event Location: Kalkin Hall at  55 Colchester Ave, Burlington, VT

• Main Parking: Votey Parking lot at 55 Colchester Ave. Burlington,. ,VT
• Overflow Parking:
  • 23 Mansfield Ave, Burlington VT 05405
  • Waterman Parking Lot, 85 S. Prospect St, Burlington, VT 05405
• Document

  SATURDAY-Votey-Overflow-Directions.pdf (355.19 KB)

Transportation

• Burlington International Airport (BTV) is just 10 minutes from campus. 

• Local transportation options include uber and lyft rideshare, taxis, and Green Mountain Transit buses.

Hotel Recommendations

DoubleTree by Hilton Burlington 

Rates: 
6/11: $154 UVM rate 
6/12 & 13: $199 

To secure rooms contact Nick Fisher at Nick.Fisher2@Hilton.com or 802-865-6693. 

Courtyard Burlington Harbor 

Rates: 
6/11: $209 UVM rate 
6/12 & 13: $439 

To secure rooms call the Marriott at 802-864-4700 and ask for the front desk. 

Note: All the above rates do not include applicable taxes and are based upon availability. 

• Dress Code 
  Business casual is recommended for all sessions and networking events. 

• Dietary Needs 
  We aim to provide inclusive meal options. Please indicate any dietary restrictions during registration. 

Other questions? Check back here for updates or reach out to John Kim at john.kim@uvm.edu,  802-636-7314 (m) or on LinkedIn.

Jared Alvord ‘20, Global Director, Renewable Energy & Sustainability Advisory at World Kinect 

Jared is the Global Renewable Energy and Sustainability advisory business at World Kinect, delivering renewable energy and sustainability advisory services to corporate clients through a team of 29 energy executes located in NA, EMEA, APAC and Australia.  

With over 15 years in renewable energy and sustainability, he has held leadership roles in origination, business development, M&A, and finance across technologies and solutions such as solar, storage, EV infrastructure, and clean fuels. He has supported the origination of over $1B of project value, and has developed, financed, and built over 250 MW of clean technology projects. 

Prior to World Kinect, he held roles at Nextera Energy, Skyview Capital, and Conergy, and founded Mad River Solar, a solar and storage development firm. He holds an MBA in Sustainable Innovation and a BS in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont. He is also active in his local community, serving as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. 

• Panelist: Climate Tech & Clean Energy Innovation 

Madeline Brumberg ’18, Chief of Staff, Sustainable Credit Partners 

Madeline Brumberg is an operations and impact professional with experience across program management, climate finance, entrepreneurship, and environmental consulting. She currently is the Chief of Staff at Sustainable Credit Partners, a green commercial mortgage start up, where she helps to scale the company, underwrite loans, and build the systems.  Madeline is also involved with Generalist World, helping convene and celebrate multidisciplinary professionals who thrive across functions, industries, and ambiguous problem spaces in the Boston area. She brings a strong background in stakeholder engagement, data-driven program design, and creating clarity in complex, fast-moving environments. 

• Panelist: Career Pivots + Portfolio Careers 

Vanessa Chumbley ’22, Manager of Strategy, fello. 

Vanessa Chumbley is a strategic operator with 15 years of experience bridging high-level strategy and systems thinking with on-the-ground tactical execution. Her career started with an immediate pivot – after 12 years dedicated to classical music and earning a BFA in Violin Performance, she pivoted to stage management, spending almost 10 years as a stage manager for some of the country’s top performing arts organizations, including The Juilliard School, Santa Fe Opera, and Houston Ballet. Her second career pivot came in the wake of the COVID pandemic, leading her to SI-MBA in the fall of 2021. After graduating, Vanessa was hired as the inaugural Project Manager for Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment, the world’s first center dedicated exclusively to behavioral science and behavior-centered design for the environment. She currently works as the Manager of Strategy for Fello, a leading disability services organization serving communities across Maryland. Vanessa lives in Baltimore with her husband and their 15-year-old black lab mix, Max. 

• Panelist: Career Pivots + Portfolio Careers 

Kyle Clark, President & CEO Beta Technologies

Kyle Clark is the founder and CEO of BETA Technologies, where he leads all technical and strategic components of the business including design, test and certification strategy, and commercialization of the ALIA aircraft platform. He also serves as a test pilot for BETA’s experimental aircraft.

Prior to founding BETA in 2017, Kyle co-founded iTherm Technologies and later served as Director of Engineering at Dynapower Company (now Sensata Technologies Holding PLC (NYSE: ST)), where he created and managed an engineering team that designed, manufactured, certified and deployed power systems ranging from 100 kW to 36,000 kW. Kyle holds patents in the areas of production of electrical aircraft and associated batteries or related technologies.

Kyle earned a bachelor’s degree in materials sciences and engineering from Harvard University. Kyle is a pilot and certified flight instructor with over 4,000 hours in fixed-wing and rotorcraft aircraft including a type rating in the Embraer Phenom 300. He has completed over 200 test flights in electric aircraft.  

Keynote Speaker 

Dror Etzion, Professor, Steven Grossman Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business,  University of Vermont Grossman School of Business

Dror Etzion is the Steven Grossman Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business at the Grossman School of Business, University of Vermont, and a Research Fellow at Reichman University. His research program focuses on “grand challenges”: the unyielding, intractable problems that characterize the Anthropocene. Simply put, he is trying to understand if — and how — organizations can be a force for good

• Facilitator: Climate Tech & Clean Energy Innovation

Emily George ’22, Project Leader, BCG 

Emily George is a Project Leader at BCG, a global strategy and management consultancy, based in New York City. She works at the intersection of sustainability and finance, helping banks, private equity firms, and multilateral development banks tackle financed emissions, climate strategy, and ESG benchmarking. Emily helped establish and scale climate-focused capabilities within BCG’s financial benchmarking business, including work on the ESG Data Convergence Initiative in private equity and building carbon accounting foundations in emerging markets. Outside of work, she enjoys soccer, art, travel, and exploring New York’s food scene. 

• Panelist: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance 

Chani Guthrie ’24, Program & Communications Manager, Levine Impact Lab 

Chani's role centers on bringing together the different components of LIL's programming, including the annual retreat, virtual workshops, communications, and grant management. She brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit program management, events, operations, and finance. Chani is passionate about building resilient communities, conservation, sustainable food systems, and clean energy. Having worked in both the nonprofit sector and small businesses in Vermont, she loves finding creative solutions to make a positive impact. When she's not working, you can find her outside with her dog, traveling, or enjoying quality time with friends and family.

• Panelist: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance 

Stu Hart, Lecturer of Strategy, University of Michigan; former Co-Director of SI-MBA from 2015-2019

Stuart Hart is one of the world's top authorities on the implications of environment and poverty for business strategy.  He is Professor in Residence at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. He was the founder of the Erb Institute’s dual master’s program in the early 1990s and then went on to hold faculty positions and launch centers for sustainable business at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, where he is S.C. Johnson Professor Emeritus. Most recently, Hart was Professor and Steven Grossman Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business where he was co-founder and director of the school’s new Sustainable Innovation MBA Program and still serves as Distinguished Fellow.      

Professor Hart has published over 100 papers and authored or edited nine books, with over 60,000 Google Scholar citations. His work has appeared in leading scholarly journals, including Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Management Science, as well as leading practitioner journals, such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Academy of Management Executive, Strategy+Business, and Foreign Affairs.

His 1995 article "A Natural Resource-Based View of the Firm" is among the most highly cited academic works in the field of sustainable business. In addition, he wrote the seminal article "Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World," which won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in Harvard Business Review in 1997, and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability. With C.K. Prahalad, Hart also wrote the path-breaking 2002 article "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," which provided the first articulation of how business could profitably serve the needs of the four billion poor in the developing world. With Ted London, Hart is the author of Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid. His best-selling book, Capitalism at the Crossroads, published in 2005, was selected by Cambridge University as one of the 50 top books on sustainability of all-time; the third edition of the book was published in 2010.  His new book, Beyond Shareholder Primacy: Remaking Capitalism for a Sustainable Future was published by Stanford Business Books in 2024 and was a finalist for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Regenerative Business for 2025.

Stuart Hart has received numerous honors and awards for his work in the area of sustainable enterprise. In addition to the 1997 McKinsey Award, his 2001 paper "Do Corporate Global Environmental Standards Create or Destroy Market Value? (with G. Dowell and B. Yeung) won the Moskowitz Prize for outstanding research in the field of socially responsible investing. In addition, he was recognized as a "Faculty Pioneer" by the World Resources Institute in 1999 for his work in integrating environmental and social issues into the management education curriculum. In 2002, he won the Gerald R. Barrett Award as the faculty member who contributed the most to the MBA Program at UNC through his scholarship, teaching, and service. And, in 2014, he received the inaugural Distinguished Scholar Award from the Academy of Management’s Organizations and Natural Environment (ONE) Division.

He has served as consultant, adviser, or management educator for dozens of corporations and organizations including S. C. Johnson, Natura, Unilever, Pepsico, Dow,  DuPont, General Electric, Trane Technologies, Griffith Foods, Cemex, Ford, Caterpillar, Novelis, Philips, Novo Nordisk, the World Economic Forum, and the Clinton Global Initiative.  He is an internationally recognized speaker and has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses on the topic of sustainable business around the world.

Stuart Hart earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester (General Science), Master's degree from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Environmental Management), and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (Planning and Strategy).

• Panelist: SI-MBA Reflections

Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation

Jeffrey Hollender is co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation, which he built into a leading natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. Seventh Generation was sold to Unilever in 2016, Hollender remains on the Board of Directors. Hollender is also the founder and former CEO of Sustain Natural, that developed and marketed sustainable feminine care products for women. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor of sustainability and social entrepreneurship at the Stern Business School, New York University and a mentor as the Executive in Residence at Stern. Hollender also serves as a mentor to numerous small business and business school students through SKU and Unreasonable. 

Hollender is also a former Board Chair of Greenpeace US; and the co-founder and former CEO of the American Sustainable Business Network, a coalition of business leaders committed to progressive public policy. In addition, he serves on the Boards of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Aquavitea, Vermont Cheese Products and the Sustainability Advisory Board at Morgan Stanley. He is the author of his seven books, including The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win and Planet Home. 

On March 26, 2026 Fast Company Books will publish Hollender’s newest book, Built for a Better World; How Seventh Generation Pioneered a Movement That Changed the Purpose of Business.

Visit him at JeffreyHollender.com or MadeForABetterWorld.com

Carly Joos ’22, Head of Community, Suffolk Technologies 

Carly Joos is Head of Community at Suffolk Technologies, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in construction, real estate, and infrastructure technology. In this role, she leads marketing, events, public relations, and external engagement -- building an ecosystem of support for the firm's portfolio companies. She also founded Boston Built Week, a decentralized annual gathering that brings together built world industry leaders and innovators each November. Before Suffolk Technologies, Carly led partnerships for Cleantech Open Northeast, an early-stage climate tech accelerator, and was the first sales hire at LearnLux, an early-stage fintech startup. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration with concentrations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University, and an MBA focused on sustainable innovation from the University of Vermont. 

• Panelist: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance 

John Kim, Graduate Programs Career Advisor + Part-time Lecturer, Grossman School of Business, University of Vermont

John Kim is the Graduate Programs Career Advisor and an Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Previously he served as the Head of Impact and Strategy at 1Row, a boutique marketing and consulting firm focusing on purpose-driven start-ups, nonprofits, and other ventures. Before this, he spent 10 years in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (environment/social/governance) roles at The Walt Disney Company and Herman Miller (now MillerKnoll). Prior to that he worked at Lipman Hearne, a branding and marketing agency focused on the nonprofit sector, supporting higher education institutions, large foundations, and member associations. 

Earlier in his career, John served in the Peace Corps in Morocco, worked on food insecurity impacting communities in the Washington, DC area and South Africa, and evaluated programs for the United Nations World Food Programme in Malawi. He’s also the creator of the blog, Virtuous Cycle, which highlights changemakers using bikes to do good, serves as an advisor for zero-emissions last-mile delivery company, Coaster Cycles, and is a board member of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR). 

He received his master’s in public policy (MPP) from Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and his bachelor’s from Cornell University. He lives with his family in Montpelier, VT.

• Facilitator: Career Pivots + Portfolio Careers

Emily Listowich ’25, Associate Brand Manager, Seventh Generation 

Emily Listowich is a Brand Manager on the Laundry team at Seventh Generation, where she helps lead portfolio strategy and innovation -- partnering cross‑functionally across R&D, supply chain, marketing, sales, and agency teams to turn purpose‑led strategy into commercially competitive products. 

A 2025 graduate of the SIMBA program, Emily’s background is rooted in nonprofit development and fundraising, as well as adventure and documentary film production. She brings that mission‑driven, execution‑focused lens into her work in CPG, and is energized by roles at the intersection of brand strategy, execution, and purpose. 

• Panelist: Career Pivots + Portfolio Careers 

• Facilitator: A conversation with Jeffrey Hollender

Jeff Lue ’19, Operations & Finance Manager, Council Fire 

A systems designer, financial steward, and operations leader, Jeff has helped grow businesses from the ground floor and bridged the gap between strategy and execution across industries ranging from management consulting to circular sanitation. He is currently the finance and operations manager for Council Fire, where he spends his time creating operational systems and financial tools while fostering a fun, human-centered and empathetic work culture. Simultaneously, he is actively building his portfolio career around his various skillsets and interests.    

• Panelist: Career Pivots + Portfolio Careers    

Rochelle March, Co-Founder & Principal, PPWA + Part-time Lecturer, SI-MBA, Grossman School of Business 

A sustainability expert, eco-quant, and presenter on ESG and data science topics, Rochelle has over a decade of experience calculating impact, designing sustainability strategies and applying machine learning to ESG products for a range of clients worldwide, from the largest tech companies to financial start-ups. Career highlights include creating one of the first datasets regarding corporate impact on the United Nations SDGs and being issued her first patent on an ESG ranking methodology. She is an MBA adjunct professor at University of Vermont, S&P Global alum and former Dun & Bradstreet Global Head of ESG Product. 

• Panelist: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance 
• Panelist: Applied AI + Sustainability Workshop

Elias Pereira ’24, Energy Innovator at Green Mountain Power 

Elias Pereira is an Energy Innovator at Green Mountain Power, where he works with commercial and industrial customers on clean energy projects, electrification, pilot programs, and new ways to make the grid more flexible and resilient. He has spent his career exploring how business, policy, and technology can work together to move climate solutions forward. Outside of work, you can usually find him shooting hoops or exploring Lake Champlain. 

• Panelist: Climate Tech & Clean Energy Innovation 

JD Popp ’22, Business Development Manager, Greencrown Energy 

As Business Development Manager at Greencrown Energy, I lead growth initiatives that help multi facility commercial and industrial organizations take control of energy costs, reduce consumption, and drive decarbonization.  

I focus on building strategic relationships, identifying market opportunities, and translating complex energy challenges into clear, executable energy management plans. My role sits at the intersection of energy strategy, client advisory, and partner development, ensuring Greencrown delivers measurable financial and operational value to every engagement. 

• Panelist: Climate Tech & Clean Energy Innovation 

Laury Saligman ’16, Managing Director, Clean Energy Venture Group; Part-time Lecturer, Impact Investing, SIMBA, Grossman School of Business 

Laury Saligman, a proud graduate of the second SIMBA cohort in 2016, currently teaches Impact Investing in the program. She is also a Managing Parnter of Clean Energy Venture Group and a Venture Partner with its sister fund, Clean Energy Ventures.. She is active in the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem, mentoring with several accelerators and incubators. Previously, she worked in the government, non-profit, and private sectors, including two start-ups and a Fortune 500 company. In addition to her MBA, she holds an MS in Environmental Health Sciences from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Georgetown University. 

• Panelist: Climate Tech & Clean Energy Innovation 
• Facilitator: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance 

Chuck Schnitzlein, Program Director, One Year MBA Program, College of Charleston; former Academic Director of SI-MBA (2019-2024)

Chuck Schnitzlein provides strategic guidance and direction for the MBA program in alignment with the College’s mission and values. He is dedicated to working closely with faculty, staff and students to continuously strengthen and improve the program. Schnitzlein earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Lawrence University. He received an MS in economics from University of Wisconsin - Madison and completed his Ph.D. in Business Administration/Finance from Washington University.

• Panelist: SI-MBA Reflections

Dean Sanjay Sharma, Grossman School of Business

Dr. Sharma has been the Dean of the Grossman School of Business since July 1, 2011. During his tenure, he has been responsible for raising over $100 m for the naming of the school as the Grossman School of Business in 2015, 8 new endowed chairs and 3 new endowed professorships, the doubling of the business school building Kalkin Hall with the addition of Ifshin Hall which was completely privately funded by alumni, launching a new Sustainable Innovation MBA program in 2014 that has been consistently ranked #1 or #2 in the U.S. by The Princeton Review and #1 in the U.S. and #2 in the world by Corporate Knights, a large increase in undergraduate and graduate student scholarships, the creation of a student success center that advises, supports, and provides career services for placement success of students, and the launch of a Cooperative Education program in Fall 2025. The undergraduate curriculum was revamped in 2013 as a matrix of concentrations and themes that has led to substantial improvements in selectivity, higher academic quality students while substantially increasing enrollments. The school was ranked amongst top 3 in the US and top 9 in the world in the Positive Impact Ratings released at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020.

Dr. Sharma came to UVM with a unique background in both: academic and the private sectors. Prior to UVM, he was the Dean of the John Molson School of Business (JMSB), Montreal (the largest English language business school in Canada). Prior to JMSB, Dr. Sharma held the prestigious Canada Research Chair in Organizational Sustainability and was Professor of Strategy in the School of Business & Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University. He also founded and served as the first director of the CMA Centre for Responsible Organizations, an interdisciplinary center focusing on research and practice in the areas of organizational sustainability, corporate social responsibility, ethics, environmental management, social issues, and corporate governance.

He has over 16 years of senior management experience with global corporations and more than two decades of senior leadership experience within higher education. He is the Vice-Chancellor of the International Academy of Management—a Global think tank of invited thought leaders and business leaders, serves on the Board of the Global Responsible Leadership Initiative, on the Advisory Board of the College of Business, University of Sharjah, the Advisory Board of the ISCTE Business School, Lisbon-Portugal, amongst other Boards.

A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Sharma has won several competitive research grants and has expertise in corporate environmental strategy, corporate sustainability, competitive strategy, stakeholder engagement and organizational innovation. His research has been widely published in top management journals including the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management Discoveries, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Marketing, among others. He has written and co-edited 9 books on corporate sustainability. His book written for scholars and practitioners titled Competing for a Sustainable World: Building capacity for Sustainable Innovation published in 2014 was the runner up for the Best Book on Organizations and the Natural Environment Award at the Academy of Management in 2015. His research monograph (co-authored with Pramodita Sharma) Patient Capital: The Role of Family Firms in Sustainable Business was published by the Cambridge University Press in 2019. His latest co-edited book Pioneering Family Firms’ Sustainable Development Strategies was published by Edward Elgar Academic Publishing in March 2021.

He has won several prestigious awards for his research including the Academy of Management ONE Divisions’ Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), Academy of Management SIM Division’s Best Dissertation Award (1996), two Best Paper Awards at the Academy of Management 1997 and 2005, and a Best Paper Award at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada 2003. He was named the 2018 Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow by the Syracuse University Sustainable Enterprise Partnership of the Whitman School of Management, the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the Syracuse University Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems.

In his role of institutional leadership in helping develop a new field of scholarship, he has been invited to participate in a number of international and national research bodies such as the Canadian National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment (Greening of the Curriculum Committee); the US National Academies (including the National Science Foundation) Taskforce on Environmental, Social and Behavioral Research; the Research Advisory Board of the Oikos Foundation for the Economy and Ecology at University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; and the Corporate Sustainability Advisory Committee at the Houston Advanced Research Centre, among others.

Dr. Sharma has received several awards. These include being named Dean of the Year by AACSB BGS in 2024. For his impacts on the practice of management and sustainability and building more responsible and sustainable businesses he has been recognized as the Corporate Knights Rising Scholar Award, the Aspen Institute Pioneer Award, and inclusion in India Abroad's Power List of prominent Indians contributing to positive impacts on Canadian and global society.

Tim Silman ’15, Director, Innovation Programs at Lonely Whale + Startup Advisor 

Tim Silman is Program Director at Lonely Whale, a US-based NGO focused on market-based ocean conservation and innovation. Most recently, Tim led Lonely Whale’s Unwrap the Future program, which included the TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize and Accelerator, focused on scalable and biologically degradable alternatives to thin-film plastic. Prior to leading the prize, Tim was a Senior Manager at XPRIZE focused on strategic partnerships and innovation design, and worked as a researcher and consultant for government, philanthropic, and private sector clients for over a decade. 

• Panelist: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance 

Srini Venugopal, Director, Sustainable Innovation MBA Program, Donald and Gabrielle McCree Endowed Professor of Business, and Associate Professor at the Grossman School of Business.

Srini Venugopal is an Associate Professor and holder of the Donald and Gabrielle McCree Endowed Professorship of Business at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Srini’s research demonstrates how social innovation can serve as a potent tool in providing wellbeing enhancing solutions in contexts of poverty. He has published 20 articles on the subject of social innovation based on field data gathered from diverse contexts of poverty spanning five continents. Srini is an award-winning researcher and teacher. His research has won discipline-wide awards from the American Marketing Association and the Association of Consumer Research. For his teaching efforts, Srini was voted the professor of the year by SI-MBA students for three years in a row. 

Prior to pursuing an academic career, Srini led a technology-based social venture in India. His venture was focused on delivering education services to low-income consumers in rural India. Committed to being an engaged scholar, he continues to lead an education-focused social enterprise called Diya that operates in several low-income neighborhoods in South India. 

• Panelist: SI-MBA Reflections

Emily Vogt ’19, Director of Venture Development, Venture Partners at CU Boulder 

Emily is the Director for Venture Development within Venture Partners at CU Boulder. She oversees a comprehensive series of training programs for university researchers designed to help researchers to develop entrepreneurial and business skills while evolving their ventures from ideation to traction with investors, partners, and the market. Emily joined CU Boulder Venture Partners from her work catalyzing local startup investment with Rockies Venture Club. Through RVC, one of the largest angel investing groups in the country, she managed education and community events, led the Women's Investor Network, and managed a venture capital fund investing in early-stage startups across industries.  

Prior to her work with Rockies Venture Club, she worked for a number of startups and small businesses in the tech and outdoor travel industries. She then completed her MBA with a focus on sustainability and impact investing at the University of Vermont's Sustainable Innovation MBA program, where she worked on a number of sustainable investing projects creating impact strategies in public and private markets. She also founded the school’s Women in Business group to promote women in sustainability leadership.  

Emily is a graduate of Brown University and University of Vermont Grossman School of Business 

• Panelist: Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance