Brief Greenstar Biographies Bios

Charlie Gay is the co-founder of Greenstar. His expertise includes solar cell manufacturing and international business.

He began his industrial career in 1975 designing solar power system components for communications satellites at Spectrolab, Inc. a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft Co. He joined ARCO Solar in 1978 where he established the research and development program, and was project leader for the commercialization single crystal silicon wafer technology from laboratory to mass production. He served in various leadership positions ranging from Director of Research to President of the company.

In 1990 he became President and Chief Operating Officer of Siemens Solar Industries where he was responsible for increasing company sales into 110 countries and expanding the development of thin film solar technology to three continents.

From 1995 to 1997, Gay served as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL is the world's leading laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and technology. His responsibilities included management of an annual budget of more than $235 million and 1,000 employees.

In 1998, Dr. Gay served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ASE Americas, the third largest solar cell manufacturer in the United States. He was responsible for commercializing silicon ribbon as a starting material in the manufacture of photovoltaic solar panels. The success of this has led to the establishing the world's largest factory for solar cell production at 60 megawatts in size.

Charlie Gay co-founded Greenstar in late 1998. He serves as President of Greenstar Foundation and as a senior executive with Greenstar Corporation, which develops, distributes and licenses digital products produced by people in solar-powered villages. Greenstar communities include the West Bank, Jamaica, India and Ghana, with new sites planned for Tibet and Brazil. Dr. Gay has personally supervised much of the design and field work connected with this program, which has been recognized for its innovation by the World Bank, the Stockholm Challenge, the Technology Empowerment Network and the Tech Innovation Awards.

Since 2001, Dr. Gay has held a series of executive positions at Applied Materials, the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor manufacturing, services and automation software. As President of Applied Solar, Dr. Gay is responsible for positioning Applied Materials and its solar efforts with the energy industry and technical community, and with governments around the world. As Chairman of the Applied Solar Council, he leads a cross-company forum to assure cohesiveness on solar-related initiatives.

Dr. Gay has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He is holder of numerous patents for solar cell and module construction and winner of the Gold Medal for Achievement from the World Renewable Energy Congress.

Key background websites:

NREL -- http://www.nrel.gov
Spectrolab -- http://www.spectrolab.com
Siemens Solar -- http://www.siemenssolar.com
ASE Americas -- http://www.ase-international.com/english/about.html
Applied Solar -- http://www.appliedmaterials.com/technologies/solar

Energy Issues Blog
by Charles Gay

Peter McKenzie is the Asia Regional Director of Astropower, a leading solar power component maker. He is currently resident in Singapore, and is one of the co-founders of Greenstar, serving on the Board of Directors of the Foundation.

Recently, he managed the Solar Technology Consulting Co. (STC) based in Boston, and Hyderabad. STC's efforts centered around the development and implementation of sustainable financing tools for photovoltaic power systems. He established a multi-organizational marketing network to develop packaged solar products for remote and rural populations not being served by reliable electric services.

A native of Australia, Mr. McKenzie graduated from the Western Australia University of Technology. He has served in a progression of photovoltaic businesses dating back to the mid-1970's, when he was stationed in Papua New Guinea, and installed the first complete PV-powered microwave telecommunications system in the world. These communication units used solar power with a diesel backup generator. Such a hybrid combination remains the most common form of integrating renewables into village power today and forms the core concept of Greenstar.

In 1979 Peter began to assist Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) in initiating its solar program activities. He managed the regional field offices for ARCO Solar and Siemens Solar in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. His experience in these organizations includes leading successful efforts to secure financing for solar projects involving the International Finance Corporation (affiliated with the World Bank) in the U.S., GTZ in Germany and JICA in Japan for projects in Bangladesh, Philippines, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Nepal and India.

Michael North is the founder of North Communications (1986) and co-founder of Greenstar Corporation (1999). North Communications is a leading public access network company which has built hundreds of electronic commerce solutions that deliver complex transactions to the general public through public access touchscreens.

The company's clients include the states of California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Washington, and Florida, the U.S. Congress, Los Angeles and San Diego Counties, Northrop, Cadillac, City of Chicago, New YorkCity, Citizens Bank, Microsoft, IBM, BellSouth, GTE, MCI, Sears, Hewlett-Packard, Andersen Consulting, Social Security Administration, Veterans Administration, Medicare, U.S. Postal Service, the Republic of Singapore, Brisbane Australia, and others.

As President and CEO, Michael initiated a strategic relationship with billionaire broadcasting and telecommunications investor John W. Kluge of Metromedia Company, New York, who now serves on the Board of Directors.

North Communications has received many international awards for its work, including the Gold and Silver Cindy (Cinema in Industry), the Kennedy School of Government/Ford Foundation (twice), and the Byte Invision Award (twice). Michael speaks extensively to industry and professional groups, including the Library of Congress, the National Science Foundation, the Congressional Forum on Social Security, the General Services Administration, and the International Telecommunications Union. He serves as a judge on the annual Global Information Infrastructure Awards and is a founding member of The Standard for Internet Commerce.

Michael now serves full-time on the Board of Directors of both the Foundation and the Corporation, and serves as President of Greenstar Corporation.

Jonathan Lash has led the World Resources Institute as its president since 1993 and co-chaired the President's Council on Sustainable Development and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development's High-Level Advisory Group on Environment. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Greenstar Corporation, and as an advisor to Greenstar Foundation.

Jonathan Lash is President of the World Resources Institute (WRI), an independent organization that provides solutions to global problems of environment and development. WRI seeks to improve the quality of human lives and opportunity by working to reverse the rapid degradation of ecosystems, halt human caused climate change, and catalyze changes that expand prosperity while reducing the use of materials and the generation of wastes. WRI works with partners in more than 50 countries to expand people's access to information and decisions about the environment and the use of natural resources, building collaboration among political, business, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders around the world.

From 1993 until 1999, Mr. Lash served as co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development -- a group of government, business, labor, civil rights, and environmental leaders that developed visionary recommendations for national strategies to promote sustainable development. He also serves on various national and international committees. These include the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Round Table on Sustainable Development; Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee of the United States Trade Representative; Tata Energy and Resources Institute; Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation; China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development; Pew Environmental Health Commission; Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth; and Dow Chemical Company's Corporate Environmental Advisory Council.

Mr. Lash is also a Board member of the Institute for Sustainable Communities and the Wallace Global Fund.

For two years before joining WRI, Mr. Lash directed the environmental law and policy program of the Vermont Law School. From 1987 to 1991, he headed the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, having served the previous two years as Vermont's Commissioner of Environmental Conservation. During his tenure in Vermont government, Mr. Lash helped write a score of innovative statutes on issues ranging from pollution prevention and solid waste management to protection of pristine streams.

A former Peace Corps volunteer and federal prosecutor, Mr. Lash served as senior staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) from 1978 to 1985, litigating on issues related to public lands, federal coal leasing, strip mining, energy conservation, and synthetic fuels, and wrote several books on environmental topics.

A former career officer in the U.S. Navy, Larry Seaquist is the founding Chairman & CEO of the non-profit Strategy Group, an international, independent "do tank" devoted to the design and demonstration of practical conflict prevention strategies. His "PeaceGames" are upside-down wargames which enable senior policy makers, business leaders, and citizens to explore looming conflict situations and devise concrete peacebuilding campaigns. His "Grey Teams" also use advanced simulation techniques to probe the perspectives and motivations of the many different actors whose complex cooperation-competition dynamics fuel ongoing crises.

His current projects include the development of pioneering conflict prevention mechanisms in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The roster of Strategy Group clients and program sponsors include the UNESCO's Director-General, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Kyrgyzstan's State Secretary and Foreign Minister, the President of Jordan's Institute of Diplomacy, the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, and Science Applications International Corporation.

During his naval service, Larry commanded a number of warships including the battleship USS IOWA. His service as a security strategist in the Pentagon included assignments as Director of Policy Research in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During the Gulf War he was Acting Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning. In the Pentagon, he created the strategy of "counterproliferation"-the framework for countering the post-Cold War explosion in international arms trafficking. A member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, he is an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, an elected Director of Americans for the Universality of UNESCO, and a Senior Policy Advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO.

His enthusiastic support of the Greenstar innovations stems from his years of personal experience creating new approaches to self-development in the Middle East. Working in Jordan with UNESCO, a number of local organizations, the Armed Forces leadership, and other national leaders and with officials in Israel and Palestine, he created the "Self-reliant Communities" pilot projects which are now demonstrating fresh approaches through which local communities can take charge of their own economic and social development enroute genuine security.

Mr. Gill is President and Founder of Penfield Gill, Incorporated, a consulting firm specializing in New Media communications, marketing, and strategic planning. The firm also provides its clients with special scouting services: people, ideas, and companies. Mr. Gill is also a Nishi Fellow, and one of the original founders of Greenstar.

From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Gill was Director of Special Projects in the Office of Media Affairs at The White House, where he was a key member of the communications innovations team which introduced electronic publishing, public access email to the President, and, in October 1994, the first White House web site -- Welcome to the White House; http://www.whitehouse.gov.

Previously, he was a consultant to the 1992 Clinton/Gore presidential campaign, responsible for all public access e-mail and electronic publishing activities. Mr. Gill is a frequent speaker on the history and future of information technology and new media. He has also been a senior product manager at Lotus Development Corporation, and was the founding president of Computer Access Corporation.

Janet Poley is widely recognized as a leader in developing collaborative distance education initiatives both nationally and internationally. In 1994 she was named one of the 100 outstanding information technology leaders in government, business and academia by Federal Computer Week.

Dr. Poley is president and CEO of ADEC, a distance education consortium of 50 state universities and land grant colleges. She has arranged partnership and joint programs with Sigma Xi and the National Science Foundation, focusing on national science policy and teaching improvement. She is frequently called upon by USAID, the World Bank and other international organizations for program design and educational planning related to distance education. In 1998 she testified on behalf of higher education before the President's Committee on Public Interest Obligations for Digital Television.

Dr. Poley has been involved in training, technical assistance, program design and evaluation in more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. From 1988 to 1994 she was Director/Deputy Administrator for Communication, Information and Technology (CIT) of the Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Prior to 1988 she held a number of positions in international development and training within USDA. She served as Program Manager for the USAID funded Training for Rural Development projects living in Tanzania from 1980 to 1986. In recognition of her international contributions, Dr. Poley received the U.S. Congress' Excalibur Award, the Secretary of Agriculture's Award for Diversity and USDA Administrator's Award of Excellence.

Currently the principal of NGI Associates, Director of the Center for Next Generation Internet, and staff consultant to General Magic, Inc. A highly visible and well-known global enterprise strategist, public official, organization leader, consultant, lecturer, and author in both the Internet and telecom worlds -- with a career spanning 30 years of diverse positions in the business, public, and education sectors, in many different facets of the computer networking, telecom, publishing, and mass media industries, domestically and internationally. This includes employment with: General Magic, Sprint International, Horizon House, Pan American Engineering, General Electric, Evening News Association, the Federal Communications Commission, the International Telecommunication Union, Cape Canaveral City Council, Internet Society, MIT, and NY Law School.

He is an engineer-lawyer who also actually extensively uses and innovates with many of these technologies, whose forté is following a broad diversity of strategically important developments at detailed levels and turning them into business opportunities; who is also recognized at the White House in the USA. and internationally for analyzing and shaping the global commercial, public policy, legal, economic, and societal directions.

He is currently active in the following international organizations: Agent Society (co-founder, current President), Internet Law and Policy Forum (founding member and Executive Board), and the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (Board), and participated in Internet projects preparing reports by the Aspen Institute, the Rand Corp, the Register of Copyrights, the President's Framework for Global Electronic Commerce task force, and the Harvard Kennedy School GII Project. He also serves on diverse advisory and editorial for-profit and non-profit boards including: Aloha Networks, Inc., IEEE Internet Computing, WWW Consortium, Center for Democracy and Technology, Georgetown University Communication, Culture and Technology Program, PAAM 98 - International Conference and Exhibition on The Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agents, and Telecommunications Policy magazine (ten years). Featured twice in the Washington Post, and listed in the 1996 roundup issue of Inter@ctive Week as one the 25 "Driving Forces of Cyberspace."

Grey Burkhart joined Booz Allen Hamilton, a global leader in management and technology consulting, in September 2001 to help develop a Commercial Information Assurance practice. He also coordinates the National Security Team's contributions to the company's homeland security activities in support of both the public and private sectors.

Burkhart previously served as CEO of Orientation.com, the world's first global network of licensed local and regional multi-lingual Internet portals, offering country- and region-specific information on the Web in 17 languages.

Grey also spearheaded the revitalization of United Press International by creating a global news agency that balanced breaking news, in-depth information gathering and relevant analysis. He saw the venerable, 90-year-old newswire through a period of significant restructuring and its subsequent sale.

As an Intelligence Specialist in the United States Navy, Burkhart managed collection operations, directed strategic and technical analysis programs, and played a fundamental role in the development of Information Warfare.

And as the founder and CEO of Allied Communications Engineering, Inc., he applied his skills to infrastructure development projects in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. With bases of operations in Moscow and Damascus, Burkhart consulted for government agencies and private companies and represented major American companies in overseas markets.

Burkhart has written extensively about information technology in developing countries, about the effect and utility of export controls, and about the national security implications of the worldwide proliferation of information technology.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree from the University of Southern California.

see Booz Allen Hamilton: http://www.bah.com

Dr. Kern has twenty-six years experience working with photovoltaic systems and their interconnection to electric power systems. Presently he serves both as a Visiting Research Engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Laboratory for Energy and the Environment and as President of Irradiance, Inc. a consulting firm supporting programs aimed at commercializing PV system installations. He also serves as a director of the Solar Energy Business Association of New England. Until April 2002 he was Director of Engineering for Schott Applied Power Corporation, formerly Ascension Technology. At MIT Dr. Kern lectures in wind and solar energy as part of MIT’s subject 10.319j Sustainable Energy, is guiding MIT’s Solar Power Initiative and is collaborating with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and General Electric Company to launch a program in deep water offshore wind power.

Dr. Kern has participated in photovoltaic system research, development, and engineering projects across the United States and in Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines and India. At Irradiance, he is currently consulting with an electric utility in the Philippines and the International Finance Corporation regarding the installation of megawatt-scale PV systems to support clean electric power development in developing countries and with a construction company building an 150+ kW advanced, thin film building integrated PV roof for New York City Transit.

As founder and president of Ascension Technology (1987-1999) he oversaw the installation of over 200 grid-connected photovoltaic systems, totaling over two megawatts. These projects range in size from a 350-watt residential ac module to 100-kW systems installed for a wind farm developer in Tamil Nadu, India and at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. The earliest of these installations were projects co-funded by the EPA, EPRI and electric utilities across the country to demonstrate the feasibility of grid-connected systems and to determine the air emission offsets derived from this clean power source. In these and many subsequent projects, system-monitoring equipment was developed under the supervision of Dr. Kern and supplied to Ascension Technology projects and sold to other system integrators. As part of the UPVG-Team UP program, Dr. Kern oversaw the design and installation of photovoltaic systems across the US from Hawaii to Massachusetts and many states in between. Prior to the sale of Ascension Technology to Applied Power Corporation, Ascension Technology introduced their SunSine AC module and launched a residential PV program with Massachusetts Electric Company. Similar programs were continued under Dr. Kern’s direction as a director and vice-president of Applied Power Corporation (1999-2001).

Before founding Ascension Technology in 1987, Dr. Kern was a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty and research staff. He joined the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Photovoltaic Field-Test and Applications Project in 1977 and was promoted to Assistant Group Leader in 1980. In 1979 he planned and then managed the U.S. Department of Energy's Residential Rooftop Photovoltaic Systems Project. From 1982 until 1987 he directed photovoltaic systems development activities at the MIT Energy Laboratory.

Before entering the solar photovoltaic power field in 1977, Dr. Kern’s professional activities were centered in the field of Ocean Engineering, particularly regarding the dynamics of floating ocean structures for the control of oil spills. During the mid-1970s he was an Assistant Professor at MIT’s Department of Ocean Engineering.

A Senior Member of the IEEE, Dr. Kern has been a member of the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee on Dispersed Storage and Generation. During the 1980s he helped develop the IEEE Guide for Interfacing Dispersed Storage and Generation with Utility Systems. He has been a consultant to the Electric Power Research Institute on photovoltaic applications and has served on the Science and Technology Review Committee for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Solar Radiation Resource Assessment Project. Dr. Kern is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. He earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael McDonald is a doctor of public health with a specialization in health policy and administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. McDonald is president of Global Health Initiatives, Inc., chairman of the Medical Technology Policy Knowledgeways project, immediate past chairman of the IEEE medical technology policy committee for the United States, and past Director of Health and Telecommunications for the Koop Foundation. Dr. McDonald has been engaged in the design and execution of several health software and health information systems projects over the past fifteen years. In 1986, he designed and implemented one of the first interactive media distribution of personal health information into the home and the workplace via ISDN and videotex.

Dr. McDonald has worked for numerous US government agencies (e.g., FDA, NCI, OMB, OASH, ODPHP, NIST, NTIA, OTA, CDC, NSF) on projects related to health promotion, health information systems, and the social impact of the information infrastructure. He has supervised several health system projects for corporations, cities, counties, hospitals, and insurance companies.

In his work at the Koop Foundation, Inc., Dr. McDonald managed the Health Information Infrastructure Consortium, a group of approximately 110 key leaders from the health sector, computing, telecommunications, employers, and consumer groups He was the principal investigator on two large research and development efforts funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. One of these was HOLON, which focused on building a middleware architecture with a health object repository and intelligent agents to democratize the production of health applications.

Dr. McDonald has been a consultant in developing a design for the health information infrastructure in Africa through the auspices of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Outer Space Agency, and the European Space Agency. He is now working with the Pan American Health Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Health Organization to help develop an extensible and scaleable health information infrastructure.

David holds a Ph.D. from MIT, and has had a diverse career in research and development, in settings ranging from academic/industrial research, to orporate management, to advising corporate management on issues of technology and business strategy. Roles have been centered around innovation and new product development, especially in software and communications systems architectures.

David's contributions have ranged from developing ideas and inventions to open new markets, to management of product development efforts involving teams of up to 200 people, to corporate strategy development in assembling the technical elements of strategic deals, alliances and partnerships. Currently, David is an independent consultant and entrepreneur, involved in projects that are focused on network access, network-based collaboration and network-based commerce.

Past positions include senior scientist at Interval Research Corporation (1992-1996); Vice President, R&D and Chief Scientist at Lotus Development Corporation (1985-1992); Vice President, Research and Exploratory Development and Chief Scientist, Software Arts Products Corporation (1983-1985); Asst. Prof. of Computer Science and Engineering and Head of Computer Systems Structure Group, Laboratory for Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978-1985).

David has been responsible for development of a number of significant commercial software products, including the overall architecture and code base of all versions of Lotus 1-2-3 introduced since 1989, and coordinated the technical activities involved in a number of corporate mergers. In addition, he holds a number of patents.

David was an early contributor the standards for the Internet TCP/IP protocols in the mid-'70's, and has advised organizations such as National Academy of Sciences, Office of Technology Assessment, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and other policy bodies on issues of intellectual property in software and privacy of computer records. He serves on advisory boards to a number of commercial and non-profit activities.

Dr R K Pachauri, an engineer turned economist and environmental scientist, is the Director of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi. He was recently elected to a six-year term as Chairman of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the premier worldwide group, working under the United Nations, charged with understanding the impact of global climate change.

Under Dr. Pachauri's guidance, TERI is playing a major role in influencing the government policy in fields of energy and environment.

Dr Pachauri was Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA where he obtained a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and in Economics. Later, he was a Visiting Faculty Member in the Department of Economics and Business. He was a member of Senior Faculty of the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad and Director, Consulting and Applied Research Division.

He is a Visiting Research Fellow, The World Bank. He is a part time Adviser to the Administrator for Energy and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).

Dr. Pachauri is associated with many committees of the Government of India which include Panel of Eminent Persons on Power, Ministry of Power; Core Planning Group (Delhi Vision - Core Planning Group); Advisory Board on Energy (ABE); National Environmental Council; Oil Industry Restructuring "R" Group. Dr R K Pachauri is Vice Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) He has been active in several international forums dealing with the subject of climate change and its policy dimensions.

Dr. Moidu works with the Medical Center of Boston International, Inc., a medical group that is dedicated to coordination of care for complex clinical problems. People from around the world are brought to the United States for care by physicians primarily from the nine teaching hospitals in the Boston Area. On occasion, patients are also sent to Sloan-Kettering and the Cleveland Clinic.

The Medical Center's Telemedicine program is designed to smoothen the flow of patients, reducing their waiting time in US hotels. It reduces the flow of patients for whom there is no known cure. The system is also designed to enhance follow-up care of the patients. On the panel are clinical experts from Harvard Hospitals, New England Medical Center (Tufts) and Boston University.

MCBI - Medical Center of Boston International. Offices in Boston are in the New England Baptist Hospital Campus. The Center assists in management of a hospital in Athens, Greece; they are developing a clinic in Riyadh, and have offices in Jeddah, Karachi, Abu Dhabi, Delhi and Nikatsu (Japan). A center is planned soon for Rio de Janeiro, and there are active patients from all over the world: Greece, Spain and UK from Europe and the Middle East, including the Palestinian Authority, Asia and Latin America.

Stephen Wheeler is a senior business executive with a successful track record in building organizations in the entertainment, technology and graphic arts industries.

He successfully expanded a special effects lighting company, Laser Media, into a multi-million dollar global supplier of lighting systems for the entertainment industry. He personally negotiated contracts for laser lighting of major music tour groups including Electric Light Orchestra, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson.

Under his direction, Laser Media established joint venture partners in Japan, Europe and South America. The company installed major lighting systems for Disney's Epcot Center, Six Flags Theme Parks, Stone Mountain and the 1984 Olympics Summer and Winter games.

Mr. Wheeler also assisted in the development of a patented coherent light source system later spun off to create a medical device manufacturer, Cogent Light Systems.

In 1984 Stephen established Pacific Graphics, the first high-resolution Postscript imaging facility in Southern California. Under his leadership the company became Apple Computer's first commercial non-store computer reseller to the Graphic Arts industry in America. He pioneered technical innovations in multimedia and internet products for the creative arts industry as well as introduced first digital offset printing operation in Southern California.

Stephen is a graduate of Michigan State University, with B.SC, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

Mark is president and partner of The Dutko Group, one of the most influential public policy lobbying and public affairs consulting groups in Washington, DC.

He began in the U.S. Senate as a legislative assistant for energy and environment issues. Drawing on his degrees in Theology and Public Policy, combined with his 'Hill' background, he manages the energy and environment policy practice for The Dutko Group.

Mark's Capitol Hill career started with Illinois Senator Alan J. Dixon. In his capacity as environmental advisor, Mark worked extensively on the 1990 Congressional rewrite of the Clean Air Act. He has also been active in other legislative debates, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and other solid waste issues.

He continues to use his unique educational formation and legislative experience to advance enhanced public policy management.

Mark is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of St. John's University; he holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. He is a member of the Democratic Business Council and the Democratic National Committee, and co-chair of the New Democratic Network.

David is President of National Strategies, Inc., which he founded in 1985 following eight years of service on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives.

From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Aylward was Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection and Finance, which had jurisdiction over federal communications regulation, the U.S. securities industry and financial markets, and a variety of federal consumer protection legislation. From 1977-1981 he was Legislative Director to U.S. Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colorado), then a member of the House. In that position, he handled budget, environmental and energy legislation, as well as communications policy.

In the 1970's he practiced contracts law with the firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Mr. Aylward held senior positions in two presidential campaigns, and managed four congressional campaigns.

He received a BA from Dartmouth College in 1971, and a JD with High Honors from The National Law Center of The George Washington University in 1976, where he also served on the Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. He is married and has three children. The son of a US Foreign Service Officer, he was born in Beijing, China, and raised in the Far East.

Jim is the founder and former chairman of Global Information Infrastructure (GII) -- an executive information and education business that advances the successful application of Internet technology in business, government and education. GII programs include the annual GII Awards which recognize the those who are using the Internet to create extraordinary results. USA Today calls the GII Awards "a cross between the Oscars and Baldrige Awards of the Internet" and United States Vice President Al Gore calls GII "an innovation that is important to our future."

Jim led the initial development of "The Standard for Internet Commerce" -- a non-technical standard that will specify the capabilities and best practices that any business or organization must implement to provide higher levels of customer satisfaction, privacy and security.

Prior to GII, Jim was a founding partner of Access Media Inc. -- an information and media company -- where he engineered the acquisition of GII by SOFTBANK, the world's largest technology-related education and content company. GII is now a business unit of Ziff-Davis (NYSE: ZD).

Among his public sector activities, Jim was invited by General Colin Powell to participate in the historic Presidents' Summit for America's Future where he served as an advisor on the use of the Internet and led a session on the Role of Technology for the Summit's delegates. Jim received from General Powell the America's Promise "red wagon" in acknowledgment of his contribution to the betterment of America's children. Jim also served on American Canvas, created by National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Alexander to ensure a legacy for the arts in America.

He holds a degree in Economics and Latin American Studies from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Fuad Abulfotuh is one of the leading experts on solar power in the Arab world. He is former Senior Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab, US Department of Energy. Fuad holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Reading University, UK and Cairo University. He is Director of the Middle-East Center for Energy & Environment Technologies, sponsored by the Arab Academy for Science & Technology, Alexandria, Egypt.

He has served on the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, and on the Faculty of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Special professional fields of expertise, in which he has lectured and written professional papers and academic books, include solid-state electronics, solar cooling, thin film phenomena, electro-optical properties of solids, and analytical equipment.

Dr. Abulfotuh was supervising engineer for the initial Greenstar installations at Al-Kaabneh, and heads Greenstar's technical and investment activities in the Middle East.

He says, "Greenstar is a vehicle that can bring together isolated communities in some of the most remote parts of the world, providing them with the means to experience the latest advances in telecommunication, telemedicine and ecommerce. I look forward to the opportunity of bringing together the technology and people from around the world with the goal improving the quality of life."

Also see the Suntainer which Dr. Abulfotuh helped to design and install in Alexandria.

As Manager of Strategic Marketing, Ecommerce, for the US Postal Service, Chuck has been one of the most influential and creative thinkers in the field of government and cyberspace for the past several years. He specializes in identifying and proving the value of emerging business opportunities, and is the originator of several significant government eCommerce services for USPS.

A typical assignment for Chuck was as Strategic Consultant and Deputy Board Member to International Data Post, Copenhagen, Denmark (1996-1998). This is an international company that works on global technology solutions for all the post offices in the world.

Another position Chuck recently held was member of the National Information Infrastructure's (NII) Committee on Applications & Technology, Privacy Work Group. He is co-author of "Electronic Commerce in the NII", a strategy paper for federal government. He was recognized as one of the 100 most influential figures in Washington's information technology community, when he received Federal Computer Week's Federal 100 Award in 1995.

Chuck is a past member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee Member, Maryland Information Technology Center. Privately, he is also the founder or co-founder of several emerging .com companies.

Chuck has a strong interest in American history, and acts as conservator of Oak Hill Farm (established 1773), Facquier County, Virginia (a Virginia historic landmark). This is the ancestral home of Chief Justice John Marshall, the third Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

About Greenstar, Chuck Chamberlain says: "Greenstar will help the world break the negative cycle of economic and cultural isolation by replacing it with a positive cycle of networked human contribution. This evolution will subsequently expose equally powerful negative paradigms that the Greenstar community can help solve."

In her best-selling book Buffettology, Mary Buffett and co-author David Clark share the investment principles that she learned as a member of the family of legendary investor Warren Buffett. She has lectured extensively at financial investment conferences, has been a guest on on CNN, The Catherine Cryer Report, Bloomberg and numerous financial syndicated radio shows.

Ms. Buffett has extensive management experience in the music industry, with Columbia Records and Playboy Music. She was executive director of an MCA affiliate record label with 15-20 album releases per year, responsible for 90 employees.

For almost a decade, she was the President and co-founder of Independent Sound, a commercial music production company serving the advertising and film industries. The company provided music for such movies as Dances with Wolves and for commercial clients such as Infiniti and the California Milk Advisory Board.

In 1992, Mary co-founded Superior Assembly Editing Company, where she is currently the CEO. Superior provides full post-production services to clients such as IBM, Nike, Coca-Cola US/Japan, Apple Computers, AT&T, Disney, Compaq Computers. Their work in the movie industry includes editing for The Game, and The Fight Club, music videos for Madonna, Michael Jackson and Don Henley.

Mary Buffett is also Vice Chairman of Creative Consultant & Management, which provides creative and production services for advertising in Pacific Rim markets, for clients such as Shiseido, Coca-Cola Japan, Toyota, Clairol, Isuzu and Samsung, and she is a partner in Analog Ventures, a consulting firm that provides strategic advice to growing companies.

Peter Varadi holds a Ph.D. in physico chemistry from the University of Szeged, Hungary. In 1968 he became the head of the Communication Satellite Corporation's chemistry laboratory in Clarksburg, Maryland. In this function he also worked on basic research into photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, which was used to power satellites.

In 1973 he co-founded Solarex Corporation, to develop the utilization of solar cells for terrestrial applications. Solarex was a pioneer in this field, and by 1983 it was the largest photovoltaic manufacturing company in the world, employing over 600 people, with operations and factories in four continents. The company was sold to Amoco (now BP Solarex), and Dr. Varadi was retained as a consultant to assure its future growth. Today, Solarex has global market share of 20% , with projected revenues over $200 million for 2000.

In 1994, Dr. Varadi was asked by the European Union to head a study group on the financing of renewable energy projects, with specific emphasis on photovoltaics. This study indicated that one of the difficultues in financing renewable energy projects is quality assurance.

To correct this problem, Dr. Varadi initiated the Photovoltaic Global Approval Program (PV GAP), a non-profit organization located in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal of PV GAP is to establish a global system to test, audit, inspect, approve and maintain high quality and reliability of PV products, systems and installations. He serves as Chairman of this vital international organization.

In 1996, Dr. Varadi was asked by the German state of Nordrhein Westphalia to participate in a study, with two German companies, to evaluate the possibility of establishing a large PV solar cell factory in Nordrhein Westphalia. The study resulted in the establishment of a 25 MWp (expandable to 100 MWp) solar cell manufacturing facility in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Dr. Varadi is highly respected in Europe and America as a passionate spokesman for renewable energy. He writes articles and lectures widely, to promote its finance and utilization.

Mr. Krishan Lal Chugh is one of the most respected businessmen and financiers in India, with wide activities around the world. After a successful business career, he is concentrating his decades of experience on bringing new economic and social resources to the most needy people on the Indian sub-continent.

Mr. Chugh was Chairman of India Tobacco Company (ITC Group) from 1991 to 1995. Under his leadership, ITC became one of India's leading corporations in turnover, profit, and market capitalisation. It also became one of India's largest exporters, and is now diversified into tobacco, paper, agricultural products, hotels and other services. In1994, he was selected by Financial World as International CEO of the Year from Asia.

He currently serves as Chairman of Capital Fortunes, a business and project advisory services company providing a range of financial services including in specialist areas such as infrastructure, privatisation, overseas trade and technology collaborations. He brought Capital Fortunes into the Greenstar India venture, and co-ordinates other investors and government resources in India to focus on the Greenstar mission. He was instrumental in securing the participation of Chief Minister Naidu of Andhra Pradesh in Greenstar's launch.

About Greenstar, Krishan Lal Chugh says, "Indians have always excelled at entrepreneurism and innovation, and our technology capabilities are respected around the world. But it's important, as India takes its place in the global interconnected community, that we do not lose contact with our roots, and that we recognize our responsibility to the millions of Indians who remain in our tribal and rural villages. It is the people of these villages who in the past have sacrificed their educational opportunities in favour of the more fortunate, highly educated Indians of today. The Greenstar movement will bring power and energy into these forgotten villages and propel them on the road of progress. Greenstar provides a roadmap for building this connection, not as a charity, but as a true joint business venture in which the people of the villages themselves earn a recognized value in the larger world."

Ernest J. Wilson III has wide experience in both international affairs and information/communications issues. He has served in senior positions in the Clinton/Gore White House, the U.S. Information Agency, the private sector and in the academy. In addition to serving as the Director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) at the University of Maryland, Dr. Wilson is also Associate Professor of Government and Politics and Afro-American Studies and a Faculty Associate in the School of Public Affairs. He is a Senior Advisor to the Global Information Infrastructure Commission.

Wilson has been involved in international affairs for many years, combining scholarship and writing with applied programs and projects in Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Wilson directed the Center for Research on Economic Development at the University of Michigan, where he taught for ten years. Wilson's scholarship focuses on international political economy and public policy. He is the author or editor of several books and studies on the political economy of international oil, the global information revolution, and on economic reform in developing countries. His most recent work, National Information Infrastructure Initiatives, was co-edited with Brian Kahin and published in 1997 by MIT Press.

In 1993-1994 he served as director for International Programs and Resources on the National Security Council at the White House, where his responsibilities encompassed foreign assistance and international economic programs as well as the reform of U.S. international broadcasting, including Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and Radio Asia. He also established and directed the Policy and Planning Unit in the Office of the Director of the U.S. Information Agency. In 1994 he was asked to help create the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC), a new private sector organization of 40 CEOs and government leaders from around the world. He served as deputy director of the GIIC in 1994-1995.

Bill Yerkes earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. After serving in the United States Army, he went to work for Chrysler, at the Chrysler Institute graduate engineering program in Detroit.

Moving to The Boeing Company in the 1960's, Bill built the Boeing Kent Space Environment Laboratory in support of the Apollo lunar landings. Moving to Los Angeles, Bill became President and CEO of Spectrolab. There he was responsible for developing the solar array left behind on the moon by Apollo 11, along with space batteries, xenon pulse solar simulators and "Night Sun" searchlights for helicopters.

Next, Bill founded Solar Technology International, which developed low-cost terrestrial solar cells and modules. After several successful years, he sold STI to Atlantic Richfield, and then served as President of ARCO Solar, building the company into the largest photovoltaic manufacturer in the world.

Bill then returned to Boeing, working on gallium-arsenide RF and photonic components in a new facility he designed. After ten years with the Boeing Space Division, he moved to one of Craig McCaw's companies, Teledesic. Teledesic is dedicated to building a low-earth-orbit worldwide network of Ka-Band communications satellites.

Bill was one Teledesic's first employees, and served in the critical post of electric power systems manager for Teledesic's 800 satellites. He developed low-cost space power systems and electric propulsion Hall thrusters for orbit raising. He also promoted the testing of lithium-ion batteries to replace nickel-based batteries for spacecraft.

Bill is involved today with neighborhood electric vehicles, battery technology, solar cell development, and transit-on-demand. He also assists Greenstar with its telecommunications applications, as an Ambassador.

Ms. P.R. Rajeswari directs Pragna Consultants, a division of Capital Fortunes, and represents Greenstar from an executive office in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh India.

She is a social worker with broad experience in crisis intervention in rural communities, working the fields of community mental health, empowerment of women, child prostitution, suicide prevention, children's rights, and adult education. Her strength lies in her ability to bring people from different fields together for a common cause.

She is a founding member of Sahaya, a suicide prevention organization in Hyderabad, and served as Secretary for 'Befrienders India,' a national suicide prevention network in India. She is a co-founder of Sri Krishna Sitamahalakshmi Foundation, a charitable institution aimed at community services.

Rajeswari's assignments have been ambitious, including work with UNICEF, the Empowerment of Youth program established by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, educating NGOs and college students on the topic of social work for Divya Disha, the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare, and St. Joseph's Edcuation Society.

Pragna, the company she established and heads as chief executive, is a research, data collection unit and statistical arm of Capital Fortunes Ltd., a financial consultancy and advisory services company situated in Hyderabad with branches in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.

Since its inception in 1992, Capital Fortunes has built its strength as a proactive, growth oriented, progressive organization with a corporate culture that strives towards achieving professional excellence through strategic thinking.

One sample project directed by Rajeswari was a socio-economic study in the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh: a Cyclone Hazard Mitigation Project. This study is an effort to look deep into the lives of rural people and their communities. The areas examined includes occupations of people, health problems and the economics of health expenditure, preparedness for cyclone management, warning systems, rehabilitation facilities, credit needs, and the political atmosphere within communities

Another project, for the Ministry of Rural Development of Andhra Pradesh, covered the impact of the Ministry's programs on rural folk, improvement in the living standards of the people due to the programs, community participation and overall program effectiveness.

Rajeswari was instrumental in helping to establish Greenstar's first activities in India, in Parvatapur Andhra Pradesh. She also helped to establish Greenstar India, an independent company making investments in people, energy and culture in the sub-continent.

Rajeswari comments, "I trust the ability of ordinary people to make radical changes, not to their lives only, but to the society as a whole. They have a great capacity to laugh at problems and take life as it comes. This can not happen with practice, but it is an inner strength. I came across Greenstar by sheer chance due to my official position, but can see a lot of similarity in my goals and Greenstar's goals. If Greenstar can provide a window of opportunity, the lives of people in third world countries can see a better tomorrow, and that is a dream many of the us at Greenstar share."

David A. Braun is a leading attorney in the entertainment practice of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld in Los Angeles, one of the largest law firms in the US, with offices worldwide.

Mr. Braun's practice includes the representation of composers, recording artists, publishing companies, record labels, record producers, motion picture producers and television production companies.

Mr. Braun was formerly chief executive officer of PolyGram Records in the United States, and served as president of the New York Chapter of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has had a decades-long involvement in the careers of Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Jose Feliciano, Manhattan Transfer, George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Brian Wilson and Diana Ross, among others.

Mr. Braun is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, lecturing on the entertainment industry. He has also taught a course on the music business at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of "Phonograph Record Industry," a monograph for the New York State Bar Association. He served on the board of visitors of both Columbia College and Columbia Law School, and is a member of the New York Bar and California Bars.

David is the originator of many of the practices used today in the music field, in the areas of music rights, distribution management and licensing. He serves as an Ambassador to Greenstar, a company that is building a worldwide gallery of music and arts from traditional cultures.

About Greenstar, David Braun comments: "Greenstar is one of the most unusual fusions of entertainment, media, technology, social and cultural entrprises that I've ever seen. I'm looking forward to helping Greenstar realize its ambitious business goals."

Osei Darkwa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Jane Addams College of Social Work. He has been with the University since 1995. He teaches courses in social work research, social welfare policies and services, and intergroup relations in a multicultural environment.

His research, writings and publications focus on computer applications in education, health, international social policy, aging, and distance education. Osei has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals about the application of information technology to education, health, and socio-economic development in Africa.

Professor Darkwa has participated and presented papers at numerous information technology conferences and at workshops in a number of countries such as the Botswana, Ghana, India, South Africa, and the United States of America. He consults with international development agencies in exploring the establishment of community learning centers and multipurpose community telecentres in designated countries in Africa.

He is the initiator of the Asante Akim Multipurpose Community Telecentre (AAMCT), a solar-powered center which uses computers and information communications technologies to empower rural communities and promote the social, cultural and economic growth of the people in the Asante Akim district, in Ghana.

Click here for a view of some of the people and places in Patriensah, Ghana...Osei's home village, where he is a member of the traditional community leadership. It is this village which will soon be the site of Greenstar's investment in Ghana.

He is the founder and President of the Ghana Computer Literacy and Distance Education, Incorporated (GhaCLAD), a non-profit organization (based in Chicago) committed to the inclusion of Africa in the mushrooming global information technology revolution.

In May of 1998 Dr. Darkwa led an initiative to organize the first International conference on information technology in Ghana. Dr. Darkwa chaired the GhaCLAD International Program Committee which planned the GhaCLAD 2000 conference in Accra, Ghana, July 26-29, 2000.

The transition to an information society may lead to growing inequality, because not all people, regions and states are able to avail of its opportunities equally well. Osei comments:

"A famous African proverb says 'Until the lion writes it own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.' Greenstar's work ensures that the tail of the hunt glorifies the hunted, not the hunter. Greenstar believe in investing in real people."

Walt Ratterman
email: trcwalt@aol.com

Walt Ratterman serves as vice president of Knightsbridge International, a humanitarian aid organization. Through this small volunteer group, Walt has helped to deliver food, medical, agricultural, energy and communications assistance to people in remote parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Philippines, and Afghanistan.

He and his associate, Ed Artis, have made four successful trips into challenging areas of Afghanistan since 9/11, on one trip delivering two large Sun Ovens to villages there on behalf of Greenstar and Rotary International. Click here for details of this expedition.

Walt believes that we need to do more to spread the use of renewable energy to the developing world. He is a participant in a new solar panel manufacturing company, Thai-Photovoltaics, committed to bringing economical solar panels to the developing world market with a special corporate commitment to provide a significant percent of their production to charitable and humanitarian groups.

Recently, Walt teamed with Green Empowerment as an International Technical Adviser in Renewable Energy. Green Empowerment has long been promoting micro-hydro power capability for villages, emphasizing community development and social leadership. They are also including solar electric and water pumping technologies in the mix. Projects currently underway or in planning are in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Nicaragua.

Walt Ratterman worked from 1970-1985 for a large national electrical construction company on industrial projects in the western United States and Alaska. Projects included all types of major power plants including coal, oil, geothermal, and large hydro. He formed an electrical and instrumentation division on the North Slope of Alaska performing work on the oil fields for ARCO and SOHIO.

Walt was recently appointed a Greenstar Ambassador and believes strongly in what Greenstar is doing: helping communities to preserve their indigenous cultures while providing an opportunity to gain access to some of the uplifting elements that electricity can bring. Showing that this can be done with new, clean, renewable energy will help illustrate the direction that the developed world needs to be following.