GoGreen Conference Austin

2012 Keynote Speakers

Evan Smith | Editor in Chief, CEO, The Texas Tribune

Evan Smith is the Editor in Chief and CEO of The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan digital news organization based in Austin. The Tribune's deep coverage of Texas politics and public policy can be found at its website, texastribune.org; in the pages of the New York Times; and in newspapers and on TV and radio stations across the state. In not quite two years in operation, the Tribune has won two Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, a general excellence award from the Online News Association and a Knight-Batten award for innovations in journalism. Before co-founding the Tribune, Evan spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly, including eight years as Editor and a year as President and Editor in Chief. On his watch, Texas Monthly twice won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.

Trennis Jones | Senior Vice President, CAO/CRO, Seton Healthcare Family

Trennis Jones is a senior executive serving one of central Texas’ largest and most successful non-profit organizations, and for the past four years he has been responsible for risk management, security, organizational development, talent management, diversity, and human resource services which include benefits, employment, compensation, and health insurances. His commitment to making healthcare accessible to the most vulnerable people in his community stretches back to August of 1998 when he began his work serving on the Seton Board of Trustees until ultimately joining the organization in 2007. Prior to joining the Seton Healthcare Family, Trennis spent 5 years as Senior Vice President/National Managing Director for the Higher Education Market of AIG VALIC, one of the nation’s largest companies specializing in retirement planning services. Preceding his time at AIG, he was a principal with Barclays Global Investors, the world’s largest tax exempt money manager as well as Chief Human Resources Executive for the University of Texas System’s nine academic and six medical institutions.

Trisa Thompson | VP, Corporate Responsibility, Dell Inc.

Trisa Thompson is the Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Dell, with responsibility for Dell’s global giving and sustainability. Previously at Dell, Trisa served as Vice President, Legal, for the Global Operations, Marketing and Product Groups, and was a member of the Legal Team for 12 years. She was the founding co-chair of the Women’s Networking Group, W.I.S.E., at Dell, and also serves on the PRIDE Executive Board. She is also a member of the Global Giving and Sustainability Councils. Trisa joined Dell in June 1998 from the Washington, D.C. office of Seyfarth, Shaw. Trisa was a partner with Seyfarth in its Government Procurement Law practice. She specialized in federal, state, and local procurement law and litigation. Outside of the office, Trisa has served on the Annual Campaign Committee for the United Way in Central Texas for several years in different roles, and is a past Chair of the Women’s Giving Network and a member of the Community Forum. She is a founding and former member of the Austin/San Antonio Chapter of the Texas General Counsel Forum. Trisa also serves on the Advisory Board for Law and Technology News. She also serves on the Capital Campaign Board for Zachary Scott Theatre, and is a past President of the Board of that organization. In addition, she is the chair of the Board for KLRU, and formerly served on the Board for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the board of I Live Here, I Give Here, an Austin organization promoting philanthropy in Austin. Trisa was a 2005 finalist for the Profiles In Power award from the Austin Business Journal. Trisa is the 2008 recipient of the United Way’s Volunteer of the Year Award.

Cris Eugster | Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, CPS Energy

Cris Eugster is the Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer for CPS Energy, serving the greater San Antonio community. He leads the transformation for CPS Energy to drive greater energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, distributed generation, and consumer participation and involvement. Prior to coming to San Antonio, Cris was the first Chief Officer for Sustainable Growth for the City of Houston, reporting to Mayor Bill White. Previously, Cris was a Partner with McKinsey & Company an international management consulting firm. He received his PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and his BS in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University.

2012 Featured Speakers

Joe Wilzbacher | Innovation Engineering Leader, Samsung

Joe Wilzbacher has been in Austin, TX for the last 12 years spending all of them working at Samsung Austin Semiconductor. He has an engineering background and currently leads cost reduction and "Green Fab" projects for the site. He also leads a group of Innovation Engineers who analyze operational data driving improvements in productivity. Joe is an MBA candidate in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, CA. In addition to managing a carbon emissions reduction effort, Joe is also developing a long term sustainability plan for the site. Mr. Wilzbacher earned bachelors degrees from Washington University (in St. Louis) in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. He is expected to graduate with an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School in May of 2012.

Catherine Brown | Facility Manager, Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Catherine has been the Facility Manager for Texas Mutual Insurance Company for the past 12 years. Their offices are located in Austin, Dallas, Lubbock and Houston. She manages two Texas Mutual owned and occupied buildings and three lease spaces as well as physical and surveillance security, strategic facility planning, facility operations, building operations, parking, mail, freight, copy shop, gym and cafe services. She holds the Facility Management Professional designation and is a member of BOMA-Austin and IFMA-Austin.

Karl Rábago | Vice President, Distributed Energy Services

Karl R. Rábago joined Austin Energy in March 2009. As Vice President of Distributed Energy Services, he leads the utility's energy efficiency, green building, market research, key accounts, electric transportation, and emerging technology groups. He also serves as Austin Energy's executive sponsor to the Pecan Street smart grid demonstration project. Rábago has more than 20 years experience in electric utility policy and regulation. Karl chairs the board for the Center for Resource Solutions and helped create the "Green-e" Certification program for renewable energy products. Prior to joining Austin Energy, he was director of global regulatory affairs for the AES Corporation and director of government affairs for AES Wind, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Energy, was Texas' first Hispanic Public Utility Commissioner for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, was Sustainability Leader with NatureWorks, LLC, a pioneering bioplastics company, and was Managing Director and Principal at the prestigious Rocky Mountain Institute.

Jessica King | Division Manager, Strategic Initiatives Division, Austin Resource Recovery, City of Austin

Jessica Kingpetcharat-Bittner is the Strategic Initiatives Division Manager for Austin Resource Recovery, a City of Austin Service. The Strategic Initiatives Division is responsible for Zero Waste program development, commercial waste reduction assistance, education and outreach, marketing, and long-range planning to implement the City of Austin's Zero Waste Strategic Plan. After graduating from Trinity University with a Bachelor in Political Science and a minor in Environmental Studies, Jessica worked as a legal assistant in the Litigation Division of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In 2002, she received her Master in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School at the University of Texas and turned her attention to local environmental policy.

Jose Beceiro | Director of Clean Energy, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

Beceiro works directly with Austin regional cleantech stakeholders including the City of Austin, Austin Energy, the UT Austin Clean Energy Incubator, the Austin Chamber Clean Energy Council, the State of Texas, and cleantech industry stakeholders in a collaborative effort to build Austin's clean energy ecosystem into the "Clean Energy Capital of the World." Beceiro also serves as a founding board member of the Pecan Street, Inc. organization. Pecan Street is the nation's most advanced smart grid research consortium initiative. As the organization's board treasurer, Beceiro coordinates with other board members representing the City of Austin, Austin Energy, Environmental Defense Fund, and UT Austin on executing the Pecan Street mission of designing a new smart grid energy delivery system and utility business model in Austin, TX.

Paula Austin Ivey | President, The CSR Group, LLC

The CSRG has played a leadership role globally in this rapidly evolving field. Paula's has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies on Sustainability/CSR Strategy, supply chain management, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability Reporting, and CSR Communications. She has extensive knowledge of the leading metrics of sustainability and is currently writing a book on Supply Chain Responsibility with her publisher, Berrett-Koehler. Paula has been on the faculty at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas as well as held numerous speaking engagements nationally and internationally.

Tim Mohin | Director, Corporate Responsibility, AMD

Tim Mohin joined AMD as the Director of Corporate Responsibility in December 2009. In this role, Tim is responsible for the development of the company’s corporate responsibility strategy, oversees program execution, and heads the company’s cross-functional corporate responsibility advisory council. Tim also co-chairs a multi-stakeholder, industry-wide effort to assist with the implementation of federal legislation requiring the elimination of conflict minerals in electronics products. Prior to joining AMD, Tim led Apple’s Supplier Responsibility program; spent 12 years in multiple sustainability management positions with Intel Corporation, and worked for ten years in the Federal government with both the U.S. Senate and U.S. EPA. Tim serves on the board of directors of Net Impact and the Green Grid. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology from the State University of New York and a Masters degree in Environmental Management from Duke University.

Catlin Whitington | Planner, South by Southwest Festivals

Catlin Whitington is a planner with South by Southwest Festivals and Conferences and has a BA from the University of Texas at Austin in Urban Studies. He has worked to produce events in public places in Austin, Texas for 9 years and studied the effects of temporary infrastructure shock and peak demand that results from the influx of attendees during large events, particularly how events create downstream markets for service providers in waste management.