Executive Certificate Program Success Stories

Rich Goode, Senior Director of Sustainability, Alcatel-Lucent

"I wouldn't have this job today if it weren't for the Presidio Executive Certificate program," says Rich 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 Certificate program was the best career decision I've ever made."

Prior to joining the Presidio Executive Certificate 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 Certificate program as a golden opportunity to fuse his professional goals with his passion for sustainability. As his final project in the program, Goode pitched the upper management team at Alcatel-Lucent on implementing cost-saving 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 Certificate program, Leilani Latimer, Director of Sustainability Initiatives at Sabre Holdings/Travelocity, is using what she learned to lead her company and her industry to a sustainable future. She 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 Certificate 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 yield the company a positive 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 Certificate program, he launched a sustainability-focused 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.

In this role, Olson is able to leverage his experience as a high technology manager and strategic thinker. 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 systems thinking models and dashboards.

"The Presidio Executive Certificate program was a great way to broaden my perspectives of the challenges of climate change, environmental 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, garnering the insights of the lecturers, working through the course materials and engaging in a hands-on project helped me become an effective leader in the sustainability field."

Ken Eskenazi, CEO, Innovation to Industry

Prior to joining the Presidio Executive Certificate 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 Certificate 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.