Board of Directors

Our board provides expertise in fundraising, program development, and strategic guidance.

Chair: Nicholas A. Shufro, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC

Nick works in the Sustainability, Washington Federal, and Governance Risk Compliance practices at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Prior to joining PwC, he worked for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, United Technologies Corporation, and the US-Asia Environmental Partnership. He has more than 20 years of experience in management and performance reporting for the energy, financial, and environmental health and safety sectors. Nicholas sits on the boards of several nonprofits, including Boundless Playgrounds, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Calm Air Visibility Unlimited, and the Executive Committee of White Water to Blue Water. He holds a Masters of Environmental Management from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and an MBA from New York University.

Vice-Chair: Kathrin Winkler, EMC Corporation

As Vice President of Corporate Sustainability for EMC, Kathrin is charged with providing vision and leadership in the development and implementation of EMC's strategy for environmental and social sustainability. Kathrin works with functional leaders in EMC's Green Business Leadership, a cross-functional virtual team that champions company-wide environmental initiatives, to ensure the integration of sustainability principles in day-to-day operations. She founded and sponsors the company's Engineering Green Team and its Design for Environment program, which are driving leadership designs in environmental stewardship and energy efficiency throughout EMC's product portfolio.

Secretary: F. William Green, MD

Bill is coordinator of the Subcommittee on Renewable Energy and Sustainable Design for Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. Since leaving his practice of gastroenterology and hepatology at University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, much of his time has been directed to promoting sustainability with respect to natural resources and ecosystems. He and his wife have spent many months over the past decade as volunteers in Guatemala on a variety of projects including some with EcoLogic's local partners. Bill holds a BA in philosophy from Bowdoin College and an MD from Boston University and continues to work toward Spanish proficiency.

Louise Bowditch

Louise is the director of Seed Haiti and a trustee of the Blossom Fund. She has been an activist for two thirds of her life, and a donor for the last twenty years. Trained as a lawyer, Loise's work focused primarily on Central America and Haiti. Along with leaders of the Haitian organized peasant movement, she started Seed Haiti in 1998, an organization which supports cooperative, sustainable, economic development in rural Haiti. Ms. Bowditch retired in 2005 and spends much of her time tending olive trees on a small farm in Abruzzo, Italy.

David Barton Bray

David is Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Director of the Institute for Sustainability Science in Latin America and the Caribbean at Florida International University in Miami. From 1989-1997 he was Foundation Representative for Mexico for the Inter-American Foundation IAF, and for three years worked for the IAF in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay. He is widely published in academic and popular sources, including the New York Times, on natural resource management in Mexico and was recently the lead editor of The Community Forests of Mexico: Managing for Sustainable Landscapes (University of Texas Press, 2005). He has received research funding from the Ford, Hewlett, and Tinker Foundations and the US Agency for International Development. He recently gave talks on his and his colleague’s research to high-ranking Chinese forestry officials in Beijing and to forestry officials at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., as well as for the Director of the National Forestry Commission in Mexico.

Fernando Bolaños Valle

Since receiving his MBA from Southern Methodist University, and serving as the Chairman and Chief Excetuve Officer of AgroAmerica, Fernando has helped build one of the leading diversified agricultural companies in Central America with interests including tropical fruits, transportation, and logistics. The company also holds strategic partnerships in the movie exhibition and restaurant businesses in the region. AgroAmerica has operations in Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama. Fernando was previously a professor of Business Strategy at two of the leading universities in Guatemala. He was president of the “Cámara de la Libre Empresa” (Free Enterprise Chamber), Member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the Guatemalan-American Chamber of Commerce, and Chairman of the Guatemala Chapter of the Young Presidents´ Organization. He has held numerous board positions in non-profit organizations throughout the region. He is also trustee of Fundesa (Fundación para el Desarrollo de Guatemala), Valle de Los Angeles Orphanage, and other non-profit organizations. He serves as President of his family foundation "Fundación José Fernando Bolaños,” leading the implementation of the "Better Families Program" in 19 communities throughout Guatemala, benefiting more than 50,000 people thus far (particularly women and children).

Pat Goudvis

A documentary filmmaker and photographer by profession, Pat also has a long history as a donor and supporter of human rights and sustainable development efforts, particularly in Central America. In 1977, she traveled to Guatemala for the first time and to this day maintains strong personal and professional ties to the country. She has produced several independent documentaries there including, "Under the Gun: Democracy in Guatemala", and "If the Mango Tree Could Speak", which portrays ten adolescent children growing up in the midst of war in Guatemala and El Salvador. Her films have been broadcast on US public television and other media channels internationally, and also used in schools and universities; Pat is currently a member of New Day Films, a cooperative of social issue filmmakers. She has been involved with EcoLogic since 1995 when she worked as a field producer for a short documentary on EcoLogic’s first project in Punta de Manabique, Guatemala. Pat earned a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts and an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She is fluent in Spanish and is based locally in Cambridge where she lives with her two children who are originally from Guatemala. From September 2011 until mid 2012 she and her children are living in Antigua, Guatemala, where she is working on a follow up video to "If the Mango Tree Could Speak."

Lauren L. McGregor

Lauren is an experienced executive with over 20 years of corporate legal experience. She was corporate counsel with United Technologies Corporation based in Hartford, CT, where she counseled clients on a number of business issues, including global supply management, energy, and environmental matters. Lauren left UTC to attend Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where her advisors were Gus Speth and Dan Esty. She was also a Teaching Fellow for Private Investment and the Environment. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Connecticut Forest and Park Association and the EcoLogic Defense Fund and a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, Connecticut Energy Assurance Planning Project Committee (DOE/NETL). She is the founder of The Clean Dirt Report, a food, farm, and fuel news website, which covers international health, environment, social, and governance stories related to sustainable agriculture and clean energy. Lauren is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago Law School, and Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is licensed to practice law in Connecticut and California and was a member of the Connecticut Bar Association Professional Ethics Committee and the Vice Chair of the American Bar Association International Energy and Resource Transaction Committee.

Fernando Paiz

Fernando is past Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Central America. He and his family have been shareholders and operators of the largest supermarket chain in Central America (550 modern supermarkets in 5 countries) for many years. A controlling interest in this business was sold to Wal-Mart Stores in 2006, and at that time Fernando became Vice Chairman. Prior to working for Wal-Mart, Fernando held various leadership positions in the Paiz Group, the family real estate development and holding company. Fernando is also currently president of Mangos, S.A., a diversified agricultural products concern based in Nicaragua and president of Melonicsa, a large farming enterprise growing rice and other commodities in Nicaragua, he is former founding president of Convergence Communications, the first internet and cable TV operator in Guatemala and of Petco International, the first company to introduce and produce PET bottles in South America. Presently, he presides over Genera Group, a real estate development company in Guatemala. Fernando is a member of other international business and philanthropic boards and community organizations including the Paiz Foundation, which supports education and the arts in Guatemala, the Maya Route Conservation Foundation, Heinneman Foundation and Zamorano University in Honduras. Fernando is the founding president and former director of the Central America-US Chamber of Commerce in the State of Florida.

Shaun Paul

Shaun co-founded EcoLogic in 1993 and currently serves as its Founding Director. Shaun has extensive experience in rural Latin American economic development, environmental protection, and natural resource management. Prior to launching EcoLogic, he served as a field representative for social service organizations working in Central America. Shaun has also held positions with the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization Liaison Service, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Inter-American Foundation. He has an MA in natural resource and development economics from the University of Michigan and a BA in international relations from American University. He is fluent in Spanish and was designated a Next Generation Leader Fellow by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2001.

Jabes Rojas

Jabes leads the nationwide corporate partnerships program for ALPFA, an organization that partners with Fortune 500 Companies to recruit, retain and develop top Latino business talent. Since joining ALPFA in 2006, Jabes has overseen a doubling of the corporate development revenues invested to ALPFA by Fortune 500 Companies. Prior to joining ALPFA, Jabes worked at John Hancock's Office of Community Relations as Senior Manager of Contributions leading the funding of nonprofits by the company nationwide and managing the employee matching gifts program and employee volunteer program. He has a growing track record of experience for engaging the business goals of top companies with the unique goals of non-profits to produce mutually beneficial results. Jabes has an MBA from Boston College and an MA in Policy, Planning and Finance from the London School of Economics as well as a BA from Brandeis University. He was born in Guatemala and immigrated to Boston at the age of eleven. 

Dianne Saenz

Dianne manages all external communications strategy and efforts for Oceana's North American campaigns. Oceana, an international ocean conservation group, employs staff in North America, South America, Central America and Europe. She has also worked as a professional communicator for Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, Fenton Communications, Friends of the Earth, Calvert Group socially and environmentally responsible mutual funds and Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dianne also helped launched the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research grantee of the Pew Charitable Trusts focused on native and foreign born Latinos in the United States. She served as its first director of communications, managing all aspects of the Center's communications strategy and branding. Dianne also worked as a consultant for former National Institutes of Health Director Harold Varmus, MD, and Stanford University's Patrick Brown, MD, to publicize the open access scientific website Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology and PLoS Medicine.

Dan Tunstall

Dan is a Director of bilateral and Multilateral Relations at the World Resources Institute (WRI). His principal interests are in the areas of environment and development indicators, state of environmental reporting, ecosystem assessments, and information policy. He works closely with a number of African Institutions in policy dialogues at national and sub-national levels. Dan is also Acting Director for International Cooperation within Development Department. From 1970-75, Dan worked for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and developed the first federal government set of social indicators, and from 1976-81 worked at the President's Council on Environmental Quality during which time he developed its initial report on environmental conditions and trends. He was also Manager of Information Sources and Product Planning for Mead Data Central and has been a consultant for a number of government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations. Dan graduated from Northwestern University in 1963 with a degree in biology and received a Masters degree in international relations and economics from Columbia University in 1968. He also served for two years in the Peace Corps in Melaka, Malaysia from 1964-66.

back to top