Our Approach

Our Team

Scott Cooney, Principal of GBO, is the author of Build a Green Small Business (McGraw-Hill)

Scott Cooney Scott is the principal of GreenBusinessOwner.com, advising businesses on executive strategy and implementation of sustainable principles as a driver of business success. Scott is an author, professional public speaker, sustainable strategy advisor and serial eco-entrepreneur who has started, grown and sold several green businesses. Scott's book, Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), has been hailed by green business professionals, including Horst Rechelbacher (founder of Aveda), as a great starting point for aspiring eco-entrepreneurs to understand the wealth of opportunities available in the green economy for entrepreneurs, no matter what level of formal education or startup capital they have.

Scott was strategic sustainability advisor for Wells Fargo's Small Business Insight Series. He has given keynote addresses for multiple conferences (including North Coast Green and the Santa Fe Alliance Earth Day Conference), workshops, and academic events, and conducted social entrepreneurship workshops for a wide variety of audiences. Scott worked as project manager for global sustainability consulting firm Saatchi & Saatchi S, whose clients included Johnson & Johnson, NBC Universal, Frito-Lay, Wal-Mart, a Public Utility, and the City of Tallahassee. Scott brings this wealth of knowledge implementing sustainability tools on a Fortune 5 level to the small business community, where his heart truly lies. Scott is a Phi Beta Kappa who holds a double Master's Degree (Business Administration and Conservation Biology).

Scott also feels it is very important for businesses and their owners to 'walk the walk.' Scott is an avid cyclist, a vegetarian for his entire adult life, commutes car-free, grows a bountiful organic garden in his sunny backyard in San Francisco, and conducts free or low cost educational workshops like the Bay Area Green Business Meetup group.

Eve Cowen
Eve Cowen, Ed.M., Principal: Eve has spent her career founding & growing companies, programs and organizations that aim to better the world through education and environmental endeavors. Most recently, Eve Founded and served for more than five years as the Executive Director of The Future Leaders Institute (FLI), which to date has opened the door for thousands of students at dozens of high schools to be social entrepreneurs through her accredited Passion to Action™ curriculum. Through FLI, young people combine their personal passions and visions for a better world to create real world sustainable change.

Eve is a regular speaker at conferences and panels such as Bioneers. FLI was regarded by Van Jones as "one of the best kept secrets in education, and a powerful answer to some of society's most vexing problems, including dropout rates, poverty, community engagement, and childhood obesity." Eve has served in a leadership capacity on startup and growth initiatives within many companies, including The Student Conservation Association, Revolution Foods and Outward Bound. Eve joined GreenBusinessOwner.com to help expand social entrepreneurship globally.

Bill Roth Bill is the author of The Green Secret Sauce, founder of Earth2017, and is a green business coach with 20+ years experience and served as Entrepreneur Magazine's green business coach for several years. Bill is an active blogger for the green business online magazine TriplePundit, covering topics as diverse as electric cars and the smart grid to reader surveys on the world's coolest Green CEO and interviews with some of the real movers and shakers in the green economy. Bill served as co-presenter at the recent Green Business Owner Boot Camp. Previously, Bill was Senior Vice President at Pacific Gas & Electric Energy Services, but like the rest of the team, found a higher calling in helping launch the green economy through coaching sustainable entrepreneurs.

Elli Sharef
Elli has broad experience in management consulting working for McKinsey and Company in New York, Sao Paolo, Sydney and Munich. Her clients have included major retailers, railroad companies, banks and non-profits. Elli is a graduate of Yale University and the winner of the 2005 Yale $50,000 Entrepreneurial Competition. She started her own small business in 2003 and is most interested in helping start-up owners transform their dreams into concrete and profitable businesses through fact-based planning and analytical decision-making. Elli is currently working on helping a major university expand its outreach program to underserved communities and diversifying its offerings to help meet the needs of the new economy. After working with large companies for the majority of her career, Elli is happy to be finally working on her true passion, sustainable entrepreneurship.

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