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Internal Advisory Board
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Internal Advisory Board

Allen Burton, Ph.D.
Professor and Director
Cooperative Institute for Limnology & Ecosystems Research

Dr. Burton is the Director of the Cooperative Institute of Limnology and Ecosystem Research sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He holds joint appointments as Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Michigan. His research on aquatic ecosystem stressors and ecological risk assessment has taken him to all seven continents and Visiting Scientist positions in New Zealand, Italy and Portugal. Recently he was the President of the international Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry and served on National Research Council and U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board committees. He has served on numerous national and international boards and panels with over 200 publications. Currently he is the Co-Editor in Chief of the journal Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry and leads the university's Sustainable Waters Initiative.

hoffman Andrew J. Hoffman, Ph.D.
Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise
Director, Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise

Andy Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan; a position that holds joint appointments at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources & Environment. Within this role, Andy also serves as Director of the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. Professor Hoffman's research uses a sociological perspective to understand the cultural and institutional aspects of environmental issues for organizations. In particular, he focuses on the processes by which environmental issues both emerge and evolve as social, political and managerial issues. He has written extensively about: the evolving nature of field level pressures related to environmental issues; the corporate responses that have emerged as a result of those pressures, particularly around the issue of climate change; the interconnected networks among non-governmental organizations and corporations and how those networks influence change processes within cultural and institutional systems; the social and psychological barriers to these change processes; and the underlying cultural values that are engaged when these barriers are overcome. He has published over ninety articles as well as nine books, which have been translated into five languages. Among his list of honors, he has been awarded the Connecticut Book Award (2011), the Aldo Leopold Fellowship (2011), the Aspen Environmental Fellowship (2011 and 2009), the Manos Page Prize (2009), the Faculty Pioneer Award (2003), the Rachel Carson Book Prize (2001) and the Klegerman Award (1995). His work has been covered in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Scientific American, Time, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and others. Andy serves on advisory boards of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, TRIRIGA Software Solutions, Earth Portal, Center for Environmental Innovation, and Canopy Partnership, as well as the editorial board of Organization & Environment.

Gil Omenn Gilbert Omenn, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Public Health and Director of the Center for Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics and the Proteomics Alliance for Cancer Research
University of Michigan

Gilbert Omenn is Professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Public Health and Director of the Center for Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics and the Proteomics Alliance for Cancer Research at the University of Michigan. He served as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and as Chief Executive Officer of the University of Michigan Health System from 1997 to 2002. He was Dean of the School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine and Environmental Health, University of Washington, Seattle, 1982-1997. His research interests include cancer proteomics, chemoprevention of cancers, public health genetics, computational biology, science-based risk analysis, and health policy. He was principal investigator of the beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) of preventive agents against lung cancer and heart disease; director of the Center for Health Promotion in Older Adults; and creator of a university-wide initiative on Public Health Genetics in Ethical, Legal, and Policy Context while at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He served as Associate Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget, in the Executive Office of the President in the Carter Administration.

He was in the intramural program of NIH in the Anfinsen Lab in 1967-69 as a LCDR in the USPHS. He has had NIH grants over four decades. He served on the National Cancer Advisory Board, the NHLBI Advisory Council, the Society of Fellows for the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the Director’s Advisory Committee of the CDC. He is a director of Amgen Inc. and Armune Biosciences Inc. He leads the Plasma Proteome Project for the international Human Proteome Organization. He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2006. He was elected an Ambassador of the Research!America Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health, serves on the advisory board for the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School, and is active in numerous international health and science policy initiatives.

Omenn is the author of 487 research papers and scientific reviews and author/editor of 18 books. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and the American College of Physicians. He chaired the presidential/congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management (“Omenn Commission”), served on the National Commission on the Environment, and chaired the NAS/NAE/IOM Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy. He received the John W. Gardner Legacy of Leadership Award from the White House Fellows Association in 2004 and the Walsh McDermott Medal from the Institute of Medicine in 2008 for long-term contributions to the IOM and the National Academy of Sciences.

He is active in cultural and educational organizations, a musician and tennis player. Omenn received his B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton, M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School, and Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Washington.

Shobita Parthasarathy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Shobita Parthasarathy is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan. She holds a BA (Biology) from the University of Chicago, and Masters and PhD degrees (Science and Technology Studies) from Cornell University. Her research focuses on the governance of emerging science and technology, with a focus on areas that have uncertain ethical, social, environmental, health, legal, and political implications. She is the author of numerous articles and a book entitled, Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007). She is working on her second book, which compares the politics of patents on life forms and traditional knowledge in the United States and Europe.

Martin Philbert, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Public Health
Professor, Environmental Health Sciences

Prof. Philbert’s research activities include experimental neuropathology, nitrocompound-induced encephalopathies, mitochondrial mechanisms in non-neuronal cell death, and development of Nano-Optical Chemical Systems for in vivo physiology. He is engaged in the development of optical nanosensors for intracellular applications in in vitro toxicology and dynamic nanoplatforms for the early detection and treatment of brain cancers. His research group is among the first to perform toxicology tests on polymeric nanoparticles for a variety of applications.

Don Scavia, Ph.D.
Director, University of Michigan Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute

Dr. Scavia is Graham Family Professor of Sustainability, Professor of Natural Resources & Environment and Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability. He combines numerical models and integrated assessments to understand the impacts of land use on coastal and freshwater ecosystems, is on the Board of Directors of the Great Lakes Observing System, advisory boards for the Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Healing our Waters Great Lakes Coalition, and on the NWF Great Lakes Leaders Council. He was SNRE Research Dean, Michigan Sea Grant Director, NOAA Cooperative Institute Director, and Editor for Estuaries and Coasts and Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. He holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Environmental Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Michigan, has published over 70 articles in the primary literature, and led development of dozens of interagency scientific assessments and program development plans.

Frank Yates, Ph.D.
Professor of Arthur F. Thurnau, Psychology, and Marketing and Business Administration
University of Michigan

Frank Yates is an Arthur F. Thurnau professor, a professor of psychology, and a professor of marketing and business administration at the University of Michigan. In addition, he is the coordinator of the Decision Consortium, which is a University of Michigan-wide association of faculty and students whose scholarship has significant decision making elements to it. The main focus of Yates’s research has been decision making, with emphases on risk, ambiguity, judgment accuracy, and decision management. Yates is a past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and is the associate editor (and co-founder) of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

Thomas H. Zurbuchen, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs, Professor for Space Science and Aerospace Engineering,
College of Engineering, University of Michigan

Prof. Thomas Zurbuchen is the Associate Dean of Entrepreneurial Programs in the College of Engineering. In this function, he oversees entrepreneurship-focused classes and academic programs; grants focused on translating research to commercialization, and also programs supporting ventures by faculty and students. Zurbuchen is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science where he does research on the robotic exploration of space. He holds a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious U.S. Presidential Early Career Award. Zurbuchen has served as part of National Research Council activities and on numerous advisory panels to NASA, NSF and the Department of Labor.

External Advisory Board

James S. Bus
Director of External Technology, Toxicology and Environmental Research and Consulting
The Dow Chemical Company

James S. Bus is Director of External Technology, Toxicology and Environmental Research and Consulting at The Dow Chemical Company (1989-present). He previously held positions as Associate Director of Toxicology and Director of Drug Metabolism at The Upjohn Company (1986-1989), Senior Scientist at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology (CIIT, 1977-1986), and Assistant Professor of Toxicology, University of Cincinnati (1975-1977). Dr. Bus currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Hamner Institutes (formerly CIIT). He has also has served as Chair of the American Chemistry Council and International Council of Chemical Associations Long-Range Research Initiatives; the USEPA Office of Research and Development Board of Scientific Counselors (1997-2003) and Chartered Science Advisory Board (2003-2009); the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors (1997-2000); the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research Science Advisory Board (2004-2010); and the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST; 2005-2011). He serves as an Associate Editor of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology,and on the Editorial Boards of Environmental Health Perspectives and Dose Response. Dr. Bus is a member of the Society of Toxicology (serving as President in 1996-97), the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Conference of Governmental and Industrial Hygienists, and the Teratology Society. He is a Diplomate and Past-President of the American Board of Toxicology and a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (member of Board of Directors, 2008-present; Vice-President and President, 2010-2011). Dr. Bus received the Society of Toxicology Achievement Award (1987) for outstanding contributions to the science of toxicology; the Society of Toxicology Founders Award (2010) for leadership fostering the role of toxicology in improving safety decisions; Rutgers University Robert A. Scala Award (1999) for exceptional work as a toxicologist in an industry laboratory; and the K.E. Moore Outstanding Alumus Award (Michigan State University, Dept. Pharmacol. And Toxicol.). He received his B.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Michigan (1971) and Ph.D in pharmacology from Michigan State University (1975) and currently is an Adjunct Professor in the Dept. Pharmacology and Toxicology at that institution. His research interests include mechanisms of oxidant toxicity, defense mechanisms to chemical toxicity, relationships of pharmacokinetics to expression of chemical toxicity, and general pesticide and industrial chemical toxicology. He has authored/co-authored over 100 publications, books, and scientific reviews.

Shaun Clancy
Director, Product Regulatory Services
Evonik Shared Services North America, Evonik Degussa Corporation

Shaun Clancy is Director of Product Regulatory Services for Evonik Degussa Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of Evonik Industries of Germany. His focus at Evonik is on management of chemicals and communication of their hazards, exposures and risks and how these are used to support product stewardship and compliance with pertinent laws.

Shaun is a chemist, did his undergraduate work at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York and performed his doctoral studies at Northwestern University. He chairs the American Chemistry Council's Health, Product & Science Policy Committee and Nanotechnology Panel, and represents Evonik on the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates Chemical Risk Management Committee and the Nanotechnology Small & Medium Enterprise Coalition. Dr. Clancy is active in the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee 229 (ISO TC229) on Nanotechnologies and is the convener of Task Group 2 on Consumer & Societal Dimensions of Nanotechnology. He participates in the Nanotechnology Committee of the Business & Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD and is the industry lead to Steering Group 6 of the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) on Cooperation on Risk Assessment and Exposure Assessment.

Maria J. Doa, Ph.D.
Director, Chemical Control Division
United States Environmental Protection Agency

Maria J. Doa is the Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Chemical Control Division in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. She leads activities for the assessment and management of a wide range industrial chemicals, including nanoscale materials, under the Toxic Control Act. She is the United States lead for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials.

Previously, she was the director of EPA’s National Program Chemicals Division. She led EPA=s lead paint program and toxics programs on PCBs, mercury, asbestos, and phthalates. For all these programs, her focus was on activities that result in risk reduction, including working to eliminate lead poisoning in children. She was the co-chair of the United Nations Environment Program and World Health Organization Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead in Paints and led the United Nations Environment Program Mercury Products Partnership. She also led EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory Program – a key community right-to-know program about toxic chemicals.

Maria holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Adam M. Finkel
Senior Fellow and Executive Director, Penn Program on Regulation and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health
UMDNJ School of Public Health

Dr. Adam M. Finkel is one of the nation’s leading experts in the evolving field of risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis, with 25 years of experience improving methods of analysis and making risk-based decisions to protect workers and the general public from environmental hazards. He is currently Executive Director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he is also a Senior Fellow, and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Public Health. From 2004 to 2007, he was a Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Finkel was Regional Administrator for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Denver, Colorado, responsible for regulatory enforcement, compliance assistance, and outreach activities in CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, and WY. From 1995 to 2000, he was Director of Health Standards Programs at OSHA headquarters, and was responsible for promulgating and evaluating regulations to protect the nation’s workers from chemical, radiological, and biological hazards. Dr. Finkel has published more than 40 articles on risk assessment and management in the scientific, legal, and popular literature, and was co-editor of the book Worst Things First? The Debate over Risk-Based National Environmental Priorities (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1994), and of the book Import Safety: Regulatory Governance in the Global Economy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009). Previously, he was editor-in-chief of the weekly newsletter “Hazardous Materials Intelligence Report” and an advisor to “Universo Veintiuno,” a research group in Mexico City studying hazardous waste and air pollution problems. From 1991-1994 he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Risk Assessment for Hazardous Air Pollutants, and authored a major portion of the committee’s study Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment. From 2006-2008 he was a member of the NAS committee that produced the report Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment.

Adam has received the David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health from the American Public Health Association, for “a career in advancing science in the service of public health protection.” He holds an Sc.D. in environmental health sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an A.B. in biology from Harvard College, and is a Certified Industrial Hygienist. He lives in Pennington, New Jersey, with his wife Joanne (a clinical psychologist) and 11-year-old daughter Maia; he is also a professional singer and choral conductor.

David Goldston
Director of Government Affairs
Natural Resources Defense Council

David Goldston became Director of Government Affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group, in July 2009. Prior to that, he had spent more than 20 years on Capitol Hill, working primarily on science policy and environmental policy. He was Chief of Staff of the House Committee on Science from 2001 through 2006. After retiring from government service, Goldston was a visiting lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2007 and at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in 2008 and 2009. From 2007 through November 2009, he wrote a monthly column for Nature on science policy titled “Party of One.” Goldston also was the project director for the Bipartisan Policy Center report “Improving the Use of Science in Regulatory Policy,” which was released in August 2009. He authored a chapter in The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook (Stanford University Press, 2011). He serves on the National Academy of Sciences’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and has served on numerous panels of the Academy and other organizations preparing policy reports. He holds a B.A. (1978) from Cornell University and completed the course work for a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Pennsylvania.

George M. Gray, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health
George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Sciences

George M. Gray, Ph.D. is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Sciences. From 2005 to 2009 he served as the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development and the Science Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to joining EPA George was Executive Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and a member of the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health.

George’s primary research interests are risk characterization, risk communication and the role of science in policy-making. In government service he focused specifically on continued scientific excellence in EPA research, advocated the continuing evolution of EPA approaches to analysis and strongly encouraged programs that provided academic research to support the EPA’s mission. Areas of particular emphasis included nanotechnology, ecosystem research, the role of advances in toxicologic approaches in toxicity testing and risk assessment, and promoting sustainability.

He has published on both the scientific bases of human health risk assessment and its application to risk policy with a focus on risk/risk tradeoffs in risk management. His professional service includes serving as a Councilor for the Society for Risk Analysis, and on the Risk Assessment Task Force, Congressional Task Force and Communications Committee of the Society of Toxicology. Other service includes a Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Food Advisory Committee, NIEHS National Advisory Environmental Health Science Council, and an IOM Committee evaluating the components of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food packages.

George holds a B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Michigan, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Toxicology from the University of Rochester.

Dan Greenbaum
President and Chief Executive Officer
Health Effects Institute

Dan Greenbaum joined the Health Effects Institute as its President and Chief Executive Officer on March 1, 1994. In that role, Greenbaum leads HEI's efforts, supported jointly by US EPA and industry, with additional funding from US DOE, Federal Highway Administration, US AID, the Asian Development Bank, and foundations, to provide public and private decision makers – in the US, Asia, Europe, and Latin America - with high quality, impartial, relevant and credible science about the health effects of air pollution to inform air quality decisions in the developed and developing world.

Greenbaum has been a member of the U.S. National Research Council Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology and vice chair of its Committee for Air Quality Management in the United States. He recently served on the NRC Committee on The Hidden Costs of Energy and serves currently on their Committee on Science for EPA's Future. Greenbaum also chaired the EPA Blue Ribbon Panel on Oxygenates in Gasoline which issued the report Achieving Clean Air and Clean Water and EPA's Clean Diesel Independent Review Panel, which reviewed technology progress in implementing the 2007 Highway Diesel Rule. In May 2010, Greenbaum received the Thomas W. Zosel Outstanding Individual Achievement Award from the U.S. EPA for his contributions to advancing clean air.

Greenbaum has over three decades of governmental and non-governmental experience in environmental health. Just prior to coming to HEI, he served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection from 1988 to 1994, where he was responsible for the Commonwealth's response to the Clean Air Act, as well as its award-winning efforts on pollution prevention, water pollution and solid and hazardous waste. Greenbaum holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from MIT in City Planning.

Dr. Brian Ivanovic
Senior Vice President
Swiss Re

Brian provides leadership and support to Swiss Re's North American Longevity Research & Development area and to Swiss Re's Global Life Applied Research team. He is a board certified family physician and epidemiologist, with 14 years of reinsurance industry experience. His team conducts insured lives research that assists Swiss Re in the establishment of pricing assumptions and in understanding emerging risk trends affecting health. His research has been published in the Journal of Insurance Medicine and North American Actuarial Journal and a number of Swiss Re’s client publications.

Prior to his insurance industry experiences Brian completed a Fellowship in Academic Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and spent six years teaching medical students in Des Moines and Milwaukee. He began his medical career as a Flight Surgeon in the US Air Force.

Terry L. Medley, J.D.
Global Director of Corporate Regulatory Affairs and Advocacy
E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co.

Terry is the Global Director of Corporate Regulatory Affairs and Advocacy, E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. His unit provides, at a senior level, business product approval support, external representation, and leadership on regulatory policy, regulation interpretation/compliance and product regulatory advocacy issues.

Prior to joining DuPont, he was Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - a science and regulatory agency charged with protecting the health of the U.S. plant and animal resources. He also served as Acting Administrator of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. He played a central role in the development of the U.S. Federal regulatory policy for biotechnology, and he directed development of the U.S. Government’s first biosafety regulations for the development and commercialization of transgenic plants and microorganisms. He has served on numerous committees reviewing the biosafety of biotechnology products, environmental risk assessments and the environmental health and safety aspects of intentionally engineered nanoscale materials. He is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, National Research Council’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology and Chair of the Business Industry Advisory Committee Nanotechnology Committee at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He is a member of the American Chemistry Council Health Products Science Policy Committee and past Chair of the Nanotechnology Panel. He served two terms as a member of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, National Research Council’s Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. He was a member of the 2010 Working Group for the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology reviewing the National Nanotechnology Initiative. He was the DuPont project lead for the development of the DuPont-Environmental Defense Fund Nano Risk Framework.

Terry graduated from Amherst College and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Virginia.

Dr. Ellen Peters
Department of Psychology
The Ohio State University

Dr. Peters is a Professor in the Psychology Department at The Ohio State University. She conducts basic and applied research in judgment and decision making. She has also worked extensively with the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration to advance the science of human decision making as it applies to health and health policy.

In her research, Dr. Peters focuses on how affective, intuitive, and deliberative processes help people to make decisions in an increasingly complex world. She studies decision making as an interaction of characteristics of the decision situation and characteristics of the individual. She has three major strands of research. First, her research interests in decision making include number processing and the study of individual differences in numeracy and an intuitive sense of numbers. In recent publications, Dr. Peters and colleagues have focused on the roles of numeracy and intuitive number sense with respect to how individuals process and use numeric and non-numeric sources of information in decisions. A second central strand of research concerns how affect and emotion influence information processing and decisions. Affect appears to have multiple functions in judgment and decision processes (as information, as a common currency, as a spotlight on information, and as a direct motivator of behaviors). Third, she is interested in how information processing and decision making change in complex ways across the adult life span. She is also generally interested in issues of risk perception and risk communication in health, financial, and environmental contexts, including how to present information to facilitate its comprehension and use.

Ajay Royan
Director at Clarium

Ajay Royan is a macro investor and entrepreneur. Since partnering with Peter Thiel in 2003, Ajay has led a successful portfolio of growth investments as managing director at Clarium, a macro investment firm based in San Francisco. Ajay’s areas of specialization include energy, critical resources, financial infrastructure, and national security, including related technologies. Most recently, he guided Clarium to success as a founding investor in Latin America’s largest private energy company.

Ajay has been a recurring guest lecturer on macro investing at Yale, a participant in the Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Global Markets, and a member of the Oslo Freedom Forum. He regularly contributes to lectures and conferences on individual freedom, entrepreneurship, and macro finance.

Ajay grew up in Abu Dhabi and earned his BA at Yale. He lives and works in San Francisco.

Hilary Sutcliffe
Director of MATTER

Hilary is the Director of MATTER, an EU based think tank which focuses on promoting Responsible Innovation, particularly the appropriate use of new and emerging technologies, such as nanotech, biotech, genomics, synthetic biology and geoengineering.

MATTER's approach seeks to encourage the appropriate use of new technologies for social benefit, promote strong governance and the involvement of stakeholders, to make new technologies work for us all. Its multi-stakeholder steering group and collaborative, independent approach make it an important voice in this critical area.

Her expertise includes governance, public involvement, multi-stakeholder initiatives, corporate responsibility and communications. She previously developed the Responsible Nano Code - a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a principles-based code of conduct for companies involved in the development of nanotechnologies and created the internet pilot www.nanoandme.org, funded by the UK government for the general public. In addition to blogging, she also writes on responsible innovation (including for the European Commission), stakeholder engagement and corporate responsibility and new technologies.

Hilary was previously a non-exec director of the Ethical Investment Research Service, spent over 10 years on Amnesty UK Business Group. In addition to the External Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Risk Science Centre she sits on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Innovation Research Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.