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Meet the Faculty
Karen Fleming, MBA Program Director
Associate Professor of Business; MBA, Harvard University; AB, Dartmouth College
In 2004, Karen co-founded Coates Walker, Inc., a manufacturer of custom wood-based products made with sustainable, non-toxic materials, that has since built a reputation for LEED certified/environmentally responsible construction, one of the fastest growing segments of the construction market. As Senior Vice President of Marketing at Seventh Generation, the leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally responsible products for the home and a leader in socially responsible business, she helped double the rate of revenue grown while managing expenses; sales grew from $13 million to $50 million in 4 years.
Prior to working at Seventh Generation, Karen also worked as Vice President of Marketing at Stonyfield Farm, Inc., where she oversaw all company planning and management and helped build sales from $44 million to $80 million. She is adjunct marketing and branding instructor and member of board of advisors for the Business Center at the University of Vermont School of Business, and a charter member of the Organic Trade Association Marketing Committee, and has spoken at the Harvard University School of Business, University of Chicago School of Business, Vermont Women's Business Owner Network, Natural Products Expo West, and other venues.
She has renovated/built six personal residences in the past 16 years, and is currently in the process of designing a seventh home based on solar power and other green design principles.
President John F. Brennan
President, Professor of Business & Economics; MBA, Harvard University
Before coming to Green Mountain College, President Brennan served for 10 years as Dean of the Sawyer School of Management at Suffolk University in Boston, where he introduced 17 new graduate degree programs and also led the school into a pioneering, complete online MBA curriculum, the first in New England and among the first in the nation. From 1984 to 1991, Mr. Brennan was the F. William Harder Professor of Management at Skidmore College, the first endowed professor in Skidmore's history, and the founder and director of the Executive Leadership Institute. Prior to his full-time career in higher education, Mr. Brennan pursued his business career as Chairman of the Board of the H.T. Hackney Company and, for 15 years, as Chairman of the Board of Chemical Separations Corporation, an environmental research and manufacturing company in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He currently serves on the boards of directors of the Timberland Company, a New York Stock Exchange company, Data Storage Corporation and Litecontrol Corporation. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and an AB from Williams College and has been awarded two honorary degrees.
Steven Letendre
Associate Professor of Management & Environmental Studies; Ph.D., University of Delaware
His research involves the economic analysis of emerging environmental technologies and the development of policies and regulations to promote a sustainable energy future. He has been researching and writing in the areas of sustainable energy and alternative transportation for over ten years. Dr. Letendre has been involved with a small group of researchers investigating the technical requirements and benefits of integrating battery and hybrid electric vehicles with the utility grid, referred to as vehicle to grid (V2G). A large study of the V2G potential in California was funded by the California Air Resources Board – the California government agency responsible for air quality issues. In addition, Dr. Letendre has collaborated with colleagues from the State University of New York's Atmospheric Research Center and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to investigate the value of solar energy in various niche markets. He is also interested in the role of the non-profit sector in promoting sustainable energy. He sits on the board of SolarFest (www.solarfest.com), a small, local nonprofit providing energy education through the performing arts. He also is an active member of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, the American Solar Energy Society, and Renewable Energy Vermont.
Jacob Park
Assistant Professor of Business & Public Policy; M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prof. Jacob Park, who has taught at Green Mountain College since 2002, specializes in the teaching and research of global environment and business strategy, corporate social responsibility, business ethics, and community-based entrepreneurship and innovation. A former financial journalist with Fortune Magazine, global environmental policy advisor to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and a United Nations research specialist on Asian environmental and urban development issues, he worked as a senior research consultant and Japanese and Asian equity specialist in the Governance and Socially Responsibility Investment Group of ISIS Asset Management, a London-based investment company. An editorial/review board member of the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Business Strategy and the Environment and the Greener Management International, his most recent book is the "Ecology of the New Economy: Sustainable Transformation of Global Information Technology, Communication, and Electronics Industries" (Greenleaf Publishing, 2002). He is currently working on two edited books, "Sustainable Global Governance", and "Ecological Modernization & Asia-Pacific."
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Bill Prado
Assistant Professor of Business and Economics; Chair, Department of Business & Economics
Bill Prado earned his MBA in International Business and Finance from New York University in 1986 and his B.A. from Stony Brook. He completed his D.B.A. with a doctoral dissertation on "The Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty."
Dr. Prado has over fifteen years of experience in international business and finance – specifically in asset-based, credit-secured and sales/export financing. His background in structured finance, risk management, trade/export financing, tax-based leasing and commercial banking began with five years as an international banker, financing Fortune 1000 companies’ exports. Dr.Prado has worked for manufacturers, financing their communication and transportation equipment exports for over a decade. In addition, he has worked as a subject matter expert in the fields of accounting and finance.
Rebecca Purdom
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Law & Policy; J.D., Vermont Law School
Before coming to Green Mountain College in 2001, Prof. Purdom worked for two years as Director of Development and Marketing for Merck Forest & Farmland Center in Rupert, Vt., handling management and fundraising of the 3,150-acre nonprofit conservation organization. Prior to that she spent two years as an associate attorney at Witten, Woolmington, Bongartz & Campbell, P.C., in Manchester and Bennington, Vermont, and at a variety of other legal positions in Vermont and New England. She has worked as an editor and reporter at The Ashland Daily Tidings, Ashland, Ore, serves on the Board of the Nature Conservancy of Vermont, and other Vermont conservation boards. On sabbatical for the 2007-’08 academic year, she will teach in adjunct positions at Vermont Law School and in South America.
Spence Putnam
Adjunct Professor of Business
From 2002 to April 2007, he was the Executive Director to Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, the largest and oldest organization of its kind in the country, helping the association grow to over 650 member businesses accounting for $4 billion in annual sales. Prior to that, he served on the board of VBSR for five years while working as General Manager of Danforth Pewterers in Middlebury for two years. Before Danforth Pewterers he was Vice President of Operations at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company for twelve years, where he helped lead the company through its transition from a manufacture company to a specialized gift company. He led the Cooperative Education Program at the University of Vermont for seven years, and has been active in local and civic affairs, including service as a member of the boards of the United Way, CommunityAction, Agency on Aging, The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and the UVM College of Agriculture Advisory Board.
Additional MBA Faculty:
Steven Fesmire, Associate Professor of Philosophy & Environmental Studies; Ph.D., Southern Illinois University
Paul Hancock, Professor of Economics; Ph.D., New School for Social Research
Frank Pauzé, Associate Professor of Business & Economics; MBA, Boston College
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