Sustainable Furnishings Council

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Board of Directors

Position Title: President

Name of Person: Jeff Hiller

Employer: PROaction Marketing Group

Body:

Jeff is a founding Board Member and current President of the Sustainable Furnishings Council, the #1 organization in green furnishings. A published writer on sustainability, he has been keynote speaker for numerous professional and academic organizations including High Point Market, Las Vegas Market, ASID, ADAC, SCAD, and NYSID. Jeff is also a Senior Partner in JB Training Solutions, a leading management skills training company, and sole owner PROaction Marketing Group, a marketing services company based in Austin, TX working with home furnishings wholesalers and retailers across the country. Formerly VP Marketing/Four Hands, a 3-time Inc 500 Fastest Growing company; owner The Arrangement, a thriving retail furniture chain; Marketing Director/Houston Rockets NBA franchise; and VP Account Director/Leo Burnett, a Top 5 national ad agency.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Steve Freeman

Employer: Room & Board

Body:
Steve Freeman is Vendor Resource Manager of Room & Board where he has contributed to the environmentally-focused philosophies and practices of the company in his 27-year career. As a lifelong Minnesota resident, he has been inspired to preserve the environment. Freeman enjoys canoeing in Northern Minnesota, showing his Keeshond dogs at AKC shows with his wife, and working on his 5 acres of woodland.

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Position Title: Secretary

Name of Person: Greg Harden

Employer: Harden Furniture Company

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Gregory Harden is president and CEO of Harden Furniture Company. Harden’s career has been established through years of experience in management positions, acting as Director for New York Design Center REIT and American Furniture Manufacturers Association. Harden is also a citizen member of the New York State Environmental Board. He enjoys skiing and is a coach with the NY Ski Education Foundation in Lake Placid.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Mark Comolli

Employer: Rainforest Alliance

Body:
Mark Comoli heads up the Rainforest Alliance's forestry marketing program which includes SmartSource, sales and market development. He leads a team focused on making significant impacts in sustainable forestry through educating and engaging the paper and packaging, furniture green building industries around the world. Mark has global contacts within the certified marketplace and unmatched knowledge of how to construct durable certified value chains. He attended Oregon State University and Pennsylvania State University.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Peggy Burns

Employer: Circle Furniture

Body:
Peggy Burns, Queen Bee of Circle Furniture, oversees the buying of all product lines as well as managing the design direction for the company's stores. Known for promoting bold color and rich textures in the store offerings, Peggy has helped to set Circle Furniture apart from its competitors with its strong merchandising of quality furniture and decorative accessories. Peggy serves on numerous boards of directors, regionally and nationally. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She presently lives in Concord, Massachusetts with her husband Richard. She enjoys sailing, bicycling and spending time with her children Erica and Max

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Kathryn Fernholz

Employer: Dovetail Partners

Body:
Kathryn is Executive Director of Dovetail Partners, a non-profit environmental organization that provides authoritative information about the impacts and trade-offs of environmental decisions, including consumption choices, land use, and policy alternatives. Kathryn has worked on development and forest management issues in a range of roles. With a consulting firm, Kathryn was a member of the environmental services department where her work included natural resource inventories, comprehensive planning, environmental impact assessments and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). While working for the Community Forestry Resource Center, Kathryn developed and managed a group certification project for family forests and worked to increase local capacity to provide forest management and marketing services that are compatible with certification standards. Kathryn is also an experienced forest certification lead auditor. Kathryn has been a leader within the forestry community in the Upper Midwest through her service as Chair of the Minnesota Society of American Foresters and her appointment to the Minnesota Forest Resources Council. Kathryn served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Blandin Foundation's Vital Forests/Vital Communities Initiative, and currently serves on the Minnesota DNR's Stewardship Committee, and the Forests for the Future Committee. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the Forest Guild, and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences Alumni Society. In 2011, Kathryn joined the NSF Joint Committee on Dimensional Stone Sustainability and became a member of the Board of Directors for the Sustainable Furnishings Council. Kathryn has a B.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Minnesota, College of Natural Resources and also studied at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, MN and Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Mitchell Gold

Employer: Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

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In 1989, Mitchell Gold and his business partner, Bob Williams, created a furniture company in Taylorsville, North Carolina (www.mgandbw.com). Today, Gold and Williams head a nationally recognized company with over 750 employees and a 700,000-sq.-ft. factory with a family friendly-work environment that includes an on-site not-for-profit daycare center (the first of its kind in the residential furniture industry). There is also a growing chain of freestanding Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams stores across the country and internationally in cities including New York; Washington, DC; Greenwich, CT; Boston; Atlanta; Miami; Houston; Nashville; Ann Arbor; Portland, OR; Los Angeles; San Juan; and Mexico City.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Mary Jane Grigsby

Employer: Adesso Designs

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Mary Jane Grigsby is founder and owner of Adesso Interior Design and Novelty Green, Inc. Both companies are dedicated to sharing the message of environmental sustainability and stewardship through messaging, education, practice, and specification of product and design. Mary Jane’s work has been widely published, won both local and national awards, and been showcased on magazine covers. She currently is President-Elect of NCIDQ (National Council for Interior Design Qualification) and will begin her term as President on January 1, 2012. Some of her previous positions include ASID National Board Member, IDCEC International Board Member, and member and Chair of the Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design, appointed by both Governors Bush and Christ.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Mike Italiano

Employer: Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS) and Capital Markets Partnership

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Mike Italiano is President and CEO for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS) and Capital Markets Partnership. He founded the Capital Markets Partnership, MTS, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Risk-Based Corrective Action (RBCA) Leadership Council, and American Society of Testing & Materials (ASTM) Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment. Mike has been responsible at over 200 waste sites for expert testimony, litigation, cleanup, settlement, and scientific and technical analysis. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Christina Nicholson

Employer: Williams-Sonoma Group

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Christina joined Williams-Sonoma, Inc. in 1999 in the Direct Marketing Department focusing on email and online marketing. While working in marketing she returned to school four years ago to study Sustainable Design at U.C. Berkeley which led to her current role at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. as Director of Sustainable Development. Prior to her time at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. she held a position as a Financial Analyst at Gap Inc. Direct. Christina earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from The Ohio State University.

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Position Title:

Name of Person: Bernadette Upton

Employer: EcoDecor Inc.

Body:
Bernadette Upton, F ASID, LEED AP, CAPS, is principal for EcoDecor Inc., an eco-friendly interior design and furnishings firm, resource and educational center, in Palm Beach, Florida. A lecturer and consultant specializing in environmental interior design since 1982, Upton is also a professional member of ASID and Past President for the Florida South Chapter. She was a founding member of the National ASID Sustainable Design Council, and the first interior designer in Florida to become LEED Accredited with the USGBC. She is a member and certifier for Florida Green Lodging and the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC). She is an ASID Fellow.

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Position Title: Founder

Name of Person: Gerry Cooklin

Employer: South Cone

Body:
Gerry Cooklin founded the Sustainable Furnishings Council to transform the home furnishings industry and to help preserve the world’s forests. As founder and CEO of South Cone, a FSC certified residential furniture manufacturer, and Peruvian non-profit organization PaTS, which promotes sustainable forestry and encourages community members to become artisans and business people to create a sustainable living for their families, Cooklin finds himself in a unique position to influence manufacturers, retailers, conservation institutions, trade press, suppliers, and others to promote sustainability in the residential furniture industry. Cooklin is a strong naturalist and lover of the outdoors. He lives in Lima, Peru.

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Staff

Position Title: Executive Director

Name of Person: Susan Inglis

Employer: Sustainable Furnishings Council/From the Mountain

Body:
Susan Inglis is Executive Director and a founding member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council. She has led SFC to work with industry leaders to establish criteria to gauge the sustainability of furniture products and practices; develop programs for educating all sectors of the industry; and gain over 500 members in its short lifetime. Inglis is also founder and owner of From The Mountain, a company that develops, sources, and manages production of hand-made goods and furnishings. Inglis is an active member of WithIt, which recently awarded her the 2009 WOW Educator Award. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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Position Title: Program Coordinator

Name of Person: Nancy Carnes

Employer: Sustainable Furnishings Council

Body:
Nancy Carnes comes to SFC with extensive management experience, mostly in the publishing and medical field, and a dedication to restoring and creating balanced ecosystems. She has a degree in Forest Management, is an instructor in Permaculture, and has taken Transition Initiatives training. During her five years as a monastic contemplative, she also has come to believe that balance includes silence and solitude, a honing of priorities, a slowing down, and local community and resilience. She is grateful for the opportunity to help SFC increase the scope and effectiveness of all of its programs.

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Position Title: Membership Development Intern

Name of Person: Heather Seaman

Employer: Sustainable Furnishings Council

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Heather is an undergraduate student of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, interested in pursuing a career in non-profit management. She is excited to have been working with the SFC since August 2011 and plans to continue to advance the mission of a sustainable future with the SFC for the duration of her time at UNC. Heather is an avid horse-back rider, pictured at left with her horse, Cody.

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