We are living in an unprecedented time of evolutionary change. We are being asked to heed the call to evolve, to transform, to reimagine our world. Many facets of society are ripe for creative rework – from climate rehabilitation, to societal and racial healing, to trans-partisan politics and media, and transformative education. Now is the time for us to come together, to draw upon the creativity and resiliency of all people to address these pressing needs.

When I look back over my career, I realize I’m not really a business person or politician or educator. At heart, I’m a change agent and believe every one of us can make positive change. A change agent is someone who can see others as whole and perfect and powerful. I believe those who recognize and call forth the greatness in others will be the architects of our future. Your greatness is being called...

As for me, let’s start at the beginning…

I grew up in a rural logging town in northwest Washington state. My dad was a truck driver turned entrepreneur who built a small trucking company and perhaps catalyzed my entrepreneurial inklings. Having little idea what I wanted to do in life, I became a Chemical Engineer and moved to Silicon Valley to work in technology. I realized fairly quickly that engineering was not for me – I was drawn instead to the big picture questions of strategy, markets, customers and culture, more to leadership than to technical details. Business school seemed like a grand adventure and the right next step, so I was fortunate to make my way to Harvard Business School.

While at HBS, I became an accidental entrepreneur. An idea that started as a class project grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go. I spent hours in the Shad computer lab writing a software prototype, refining the plan, and mustering the nerve to decline second year interviews. I left HBS with $80,000 in debt, no job, no home, no car…but a burning idea and a business plan! The next 5 months were devastating as I trooped up and down Sand Hill Road accumulating rejection after rejection from venture capitalists.

Learning to summon resilience and courage, despite my own doubts and fears, was a lesson that has served me repeatedly over the years…and eventually produced a willing venture capitalist!

I’ve had the great fortune to live many careers in one lifetime. After spending 10 years as a technology entrepreneur and executive, I co-founded the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at UC Berkeley and had the privilege of teaching many bright young entrepreneurs. I love helping innovators who dream big and put themselves out there to make things happen.

I’m very proud of the team at Ygrene. Our innovative financing model has been used to upgrade over 83,000 buildings, eliminating over 2 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere, creating over 37,000 jobs, providing over $4.3B in economic stimulus to our communities, and generating enough clean energy to power over 1 million homes for a year. It still amazes me.

During this incredible journey, I’ve been a lifelong student of numerous spiritual, psychological and neurological modalities, with a particular love of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and their archetypes and symbols. I love exploring how the stories, symbols and beliefs from our culture, and the wiring of our brains and bodies, affect the way we see and interact with the world.

I’ve also been a lifelong student of the world’s wisdom and mystical traditions, with deep study of the yogic traditions, Kashmiri Shaivism, Shiva Siddhanta, Tantra and the Tamil Siddha lineage of southern India. Out of this exploration was born a now 20+ year meditation practice, from which I’ve had the great honor and privilege to teach numerous meditation retreats, conscious leadership courses, and transformational workshops.

Leadership to me is breaking through our conditioned patterns and beliefs to become more present and to cultivate more sustainable ways to live on this earth – with more love, joy, beauty, harmony and divinity. As my mentor taught me so many years ago, “the only enduring power is love.” You can rule over people by force, but the only true path to healing our planet and creating a sustainable, thriving world for everyone is through leadership and service sourced in love.

 I look forward to changing ourselves and our world for the better, together, in love.