Rich Goode, Senior Director of Sustainability, Alcatel-Lucent

"I wouldn't have this job today if it weren't for the Presidio Executive Program," says Goode. "Sometimes it's very difficult to change careers when you've been doing the same thing for 20 years. This program gave me the credentials and opened the door to make the change. Joining the Presidio Executive Program was the best career decision I've ever made."

Prior to joining the Presidio Executive Program, Rich Goode was a product manager at the $20-billion corporate giant, Alcatel-Lucent. He knew he wanted a career change and saw the Presidio Executive Program as a golden opportunity to fuse his passion for sustainability with his profession. As his final project in the program, Goode pitched Alcatel-Lucent's upper management on implementing sustainability initiatives. He made such a compelling business case that they created a new position for him, making him head of Climate Change Programs. Eleven months later, Goode was promoted to Senior Director of Sustainability.

Leilani Latimer, Director of Sustainability Initiatives, Sabre Holdings/Travelocity

Like other graduates of the Executive Program, Leilani Latimer, Director of Sustainability Initiatives at Sabre Holdings/Travelocity, is using that learning to lead her company and her industry to a sustainable future. She recently launched the company's first green travel directory to help consumers make informed choices and find the greenest options in the hotel world.

Latimer was attracted to the program's modules that allowed her to start implementing sustainability initiatives in her company immediately. She echoes the sentiment of many other program participants when she says she "needed to get her wheels while driving." Leilani attributes her experience in the Executive Program, and specifically faculty member Bob Willard's "Sustainability Advantage" model, with allowing her to build a business case for sustainability. She ultimately received the endorsement of her CFO through proof that implementing sustainable practices is not only the right thing to do but would conservatively yield the company at least a 1% return.

Michael Olson, PhD, Partner, Sustainametrics

An engineer by training, Olson has worked for Vodafone, Boeing and Stanford Electronics Labs. As a result of attending the Presidio Executive Program, he launched a sustainability consulting firm with several classmates. The company, Sustainametrics, offers profitable green solutions to small and mid-sized organizations as a way to reduce costs and attract more customers.

Olson is an experienced high technology manager and strategic thinker who is comfortable both with theory and the practical operational tasks of business. His current focus in sustainability management includes energy efficiency auditing and engineering, sustainable agriculture practices, product life cycle assessments, and strategy dynamics for sustainability management using system thinking models and dashboards.

"The Presidio Executive Program was a great way to broaden my perspectives of the challenges of climate change, environment preservation and human impact on this ever-smaller-feeling planet," Olson says. "It has helped me to better frame the issues and to engage in more productive discussions about what to do. Investing time in the program experience, garnering the insights of the lecturers, working through the course materials, and engaging in an Executive Program project will help you become an effective sustainability leader."

Ken Eskenazi, CEO, Innovation to Industry

Prior to joining the Presidio Executive Program, Ken Eskenazi spent six years in the sustainable space as co-founder of an award-winning green marketing firm, Clean Agency. During his tenure, he led creative teams to produce integrated marketing campaigns, brand revitalization programs and packaging reduction solutions for a variety of organizations.

But with his experience, he still needed to solidly understand the business case for sustainability and the most effective way to communicate it to the c-suite. Through the Executive Program, Eskenazi says he particularly benefited from the effective communication module; learning to tailor conversations to ensure they lead to the next step or framing email communications to gain the best result were of significant value to him. Eskenazi now runs a company, Innovation To Industry, focused on bringing zero-waste packaging solutions to market.