Charisse McAuliffe
Founder and CEO

Passionate, determined, selfless and visionary are four adjectives commonly used to describe Charisse McAuliffe. A graduate of the College of Charleston in South Carolina with a degree in mass media communications, Charisse began her career working as a segment producer and field producer for Warner Brothers/Telepictures and as a production manager for ASAG Productions where she worked on shows for MSNBC, A&E, MTV and CBS. Following a position as a broadcast producer for various advertising agencies and production companies, she decided to get her real estate license and began brokering commercial real estate projects. It was at that time that she discovered her passion for all things green. Starting with green building practices, Charisse explored other areas of the sustainable lifestyle and found this knowledge to be life changing. In 2006, Charisse moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado, where, upon her arrival, she began to pursue her environmental calling, which would eventually be known as GenGreen. She made it her life's mission to make it easier for people in Colorado, the U.S., and hopefully one day the world, to live their sustainable lives easier.

Charisse was named one of the top 40 business leaders of under 40 for 2008 by the Northern Colorado Business Report and was named one of the "Hottest CEO's of Cool Green Companies" by TreeHugger.com in Spring 2009. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association and Northern Colorado USGBC and when she's not working to save the planet, she's spending time with her two daughters, Kylah and Abigail.

More about Charisse...

• Book on my bedside table: Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff and Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
• I would invent: A machine that every time you put a dollar in it, ten would come out the other end.
• Number One environmental pet peeve: The use of bottled Aquafina or Dasani water at any event.
• First thing I did when I woke up this morning: Turned on cartoons for my 5 year old, gave her some milk, and crawled back in bed for 15 more min.
• Favorite cartoon character: Lisa Simpson

Desmond Yap
CIO

Desmond Yap is a new media developer with a unique and diverse career. His technical accomplishments include the creation of professional web systems from dynamic and engaging interactive sites to full-featured e-commerce and intranet systems. Leveraging a unique balance of marketing, design and development skills, he helps businesses and organizations build on their solid reputations. Desmond studied psychology with an emphasis in art therapy at the University of Northern Colorado before transferring to Colorado State University to study computer information systems. Utilizing this unique skill-set, he blurs the lines between design and development to deliver software and web services with feature-rich, usable interfaces. He also brings a wealth of experience in the e-commerce industry having created a complete web-to-print solution that is used for corporations, educational institutions and organizations alike. If he's not working on the next big thing for GenGreen, he's probably on his bike!

More about Desmond...

• Book on my bedside table: a really thick programming book, most likely.
• Number one environmental pet peeve: Food waste. Food has an enormous carbon footprint that a lot of people don't realize. There are so many hard-working people involved in growing, maintaining, distributing and selling the goods and I think they deserve a lot of recognition and the food they produce deserves a lot of respect.
• Last thing recycled: The aluminum foil from my Big City Burrito.
• Blended or on the rocks? Rocks...with salt.
• I would have dinner with: Ryan Leech

Jim Feehan
CFO

Jim Feehan has over 20 years of experience in accounting and finance. Jim's career began with a large international accounting firm and since leaving public accounting he has worked with entities ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 entities. He has experience with a broad number of industries and financial situations and brings a seasoned perspective to business. Jim graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Nebraska University and earned a Master of Taxation from the University of Denver. His formative years in an agricultural community instilled a strong belief in preserving the natural beauty of the environment and he is happy to put his financial expertise to work for a company that feels the same.

More about Jim...

• I would have dinner with: Abe Lincoln. First of all, he was a great story teller, and he had to deal with one of the most critical issues that ever faced our nation.
• Favorite cartoon character: Bugs Bunny.
• I would live during: The Revolutionary War, an incredibly exciting time.
• First thing I did when I woke up this morning: Went for a run.
• Blended or on the rocks: No favorite - I'm a beer guy.

David Pearson
Vice President of Business Development

David is an energetic, passionate and creative individual who aspires to live life in a continuous state of growth and service. A self-taught philosopher, keen observer of the human condition and avid outdoorsman, David was struck at an early age by the profound connection between inner awareness and our outer world and the way in which both affect each other. This observation inspires him daily to cultivate a healthy interior world, which in turn helps create a healthier external world and environment. David believes we all have the ability to heal the planet through hundreds of small choices we make each day and that we can have a blast while doing it.

In 2005, David merged his passion for conscious living into his professional life by co-founding zaadz.com, a dynamic social networking website with a purpose, and serving as its COO and VP of Business Development until its acquisition by Gaiam, Inc. in August 2007. David spent the next year as Director of Operations and Business Development at Gaiam, working to transform zaadz into Gaia.com, which continues to grow and thrive. Born with an entrepreneurial spirit, David feels most energized when he is creating and building something new. Thus, he is extremely excited and honored to serve GenGreen as its VP of Business Development.

In addition to working with conscious companies, David enjoys laughing, sharing good times with family and friends, spending time in nature, and making the most of every moment.

More about David...

• Books on my bedside table: Conscious Business by Fred Kaufman, The Simple Feeling of Being by Ken Wilber, and Nature, Man and Woman by Alan Watts.
• Number one environmental pet peeve: The lack of attention given to the huge footprint created by our food choices, namely meat and dairy factory farming and commercial fishing.
• I would invent: Kind of like a pace maker, but an inner peace maker.
• If I could live in any other time period: It's all happening here and now. "Now is the time and we are the ones we have been waiting for." ~Hopi Elders
• Muppets for Fraggles:Muppets! Although, I'm not sure that I agree with Kermit. It's a lot easier to be green than we think.

Boyd Cohen, Ph.D
CEO

Boyd is a recovering academic having taught sustainable entrepreneurship most recently at Simon Fraser University. He is a serial green entrepreneur with past projects including Recollective Consulting and Visible Strategies. Also known as BelugaBoyd, he's a LEED-accredited professional and consulted on the Athlete's Village for 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Boyd serves on the communications committee for the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace in Vancouver. He's an avid snowboarder and mountain biker.

More about Boyd...

• Guilty Pleasure: Travel. As a green business guy this is an ongoing struggle ... a desire to see the world or need to work with partners in other parts of the world and the desire to reduce, not increase, my footprint
• Favorite gift you have given: Ring for my wife (it was not a blood diamond!)
• East coast or West coast: West coast
• My favorite hiking trail: St. Lucia. On our honeymoon my wife and I went to the summit of one of the twin peaks (Pitons) and as we arrived a rainbow unfolded across the sky. Great photo opp and made it worth our while for the trek down.
• Environmental pet peeve: People buying homes in the suburbs-kills the planet, higher rates of obesity as people required to use their vehicle more, and reduces quality of life because suburbs generally lack culture and a sense of community
• I would invent: To deal with my guilt of travel I would invent a carbon-free plane that runs on solar power and has a small wind turbine (imagine how much energy you could harness traveling at 30,000 feet and 500 miles per hour!)
• I'd like to have dinner with: The Dalai Lama

Ron Williams
President

Ron has founded and managed several independent media companies including serving as CEO and Editorial Director of Alternative Media, Inc. and Dragonfly Media. An advocate for media democracy, he was the first board chair of the San Francisco-based Independent Media Institute which operates AlterNet.org. Ron currently serves as a director of Denver based-Free Speech TV. He recently founded hyper-local, green directory and social networking site happyfrog.ca, which merged with 3rdWhale in November 2008, now a subsidiary of GenGreen Digital Media.

More about Ron...

• Book on my bedside table: What Would Google Do?, Jeff Jarvis
• My favorite hiking trail: Reef Bay Trail, Virgin Islands National Park, St. John, USVI (highlights: my favorite tree, then the petroglyphs next to the dragonfly pool, with a deserted beach at the end.)
• One film on my top ten: Groundhog Day, works on so many levels–a splendid zen comedy/romance
• Favorite Winter Activity: Costa Rica
• Guilty Pleasure: A wee dram of Dalwhinnie
• Environmental Pet Peeve: Hummer parked at the farmer's market
• I'd like to have dinner with: My wife

Allison Inouye
Software Developer

Allison graduated in 2009 from British Columbia Institute of Technology where she received a diploma in Information Systems with a specializaton in Java. At HSBC she worked on internal Java applications before coming to 3rd Whale, now GenGreen Digital Media. Her experience with mobile technologies began with J2ME, which she used to create small mini-games, and has since worked on the Blackberry and Android.

More about Allison...

• Book on my bedside table: The Ice House, by Minette Walters
• Guilty Pleasure: Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Favorite Winter Activity: Snowboarding at Cypress Mountain, BC
• Last movie I watched: Office Space
• First thing I did when I woke up this morning: Hit snooze