Social Enterprises

Moderator: Mike Yam | Host, Pac-12 Networks  
Mike Yam joined Pac-12 Networks at its August 2012 launch after spending nearly four years at ESPN where he served as an anchor on SportsCenter, and was also heavily involved in the network's NBA, college football, and college basketball coverage. Yam currently hosts "Inside Pac-12 Football", as well as anchoring the Pac-12 Football pregame and postgame shows, and "Pac-12: Final Score". Previously, Yam was a regular voice on the radio as co-host of ESPN's "Fantasy Focus Basketball" and a frequent fill-in on ESPN Radio and its affiliate in New York City. Prior to ESPN, Yam had stints as anchor of NBA-TV's "Game Night" and provided daily sports updates on the College Sports Television Network (CSTV). A graduate of Fordham University and winner of the Marty Glickman Play-by-Play award, Yam began his broadcasting career hosting "One-on-One" on WFUV radio in New York.

Yann Brandt | Founder and Editor, SolarWakeup  
Currently, Yann is the Managing Editor of SolarWakeup, which became one of the most influential newsletters and podcast in the solar industry. 5 days a week, solar executives from around the world read Yann's daily summaries that are his need to know topics. He is the CEO Braya Group, a consulting company that helps investors and solar companies remain competitive in an ever-changing environment. To date, Yann has acquired a decade of extensive executive experience in the solar sector and has successfully financed over $400 million dollars of solar projects across the globe. Yann holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. Most importantly, he loves spending quality time with his loved ones. Yann is married and proud father of three children.

Natalie Chou | Basketball Player, UCLA  
Natalie Chou is a student-athlete at UCLA. Chou is a redshirt junior guard on the UCLA Women's Basketball team. Chou initially attended Baylor University before transferring to UCLA after her sophomore year. Growing up in Plano, Texas, she was named a McDonald's All-American as a high school senior in 2016. She is the daughter of Quanli Li and Joseph Chou, and has one sister, Tingting Chou. She is majoring in Sociology.

Herm Edwards | Football Coach, ASU
Former NFL head coach and ESPN Analyst Herm Edwards was named the 24th head coach of Sun Devil Football, as announced by Arizona State University and Vice President of University Athletics Ray Anderson on December 3, 2017. Edwards arrived in Tempe with a football legacy that has impacted thousands, whether as a player, coach, analyst, motivational speaker and author, or community advocate and philanthropist. Herm Edwards and his coaching staff exceeded expectations during his first year in charge of the program, achieving several unexpected accomplishments and garnering national attention. The Sun Devil Football program earned several significant victories under Edwards' watch. A pair of Top-25 teams were knocked off in Sun Devil Stadium, with ASU defeating No. 15 Michigan State and No. 16 Utah. ▾

Tony Finn | Co-Founder, Bike For Humanity
Widely recognized as one of the most innovative and successful Action Sports Executives of the last three decades, Tony has founded multiple wakeboarding companies including Skurfer,and Liquid Force which became the world's #1 brand and sold over two million wakeboards, wakesurfers, wakeskates and kiteboards. Tony is an currently an advisory board member and sales/marketing consultant for Events.com.

Caryl Hart | California Coastal Commissioner and former Director of Sonoma County Parks
An attorney and former Director of Sonoma County Regional Parks, a system of more than fifty parks and regional trails, Caryl was also a member of the California State Parks Commission, appointed by three successive governors and serving from 2000 to 2013. Caryl led the State Parks Commission as chairperson for seven years and was named an Honorary Park Ranger by the California State Park Rangers Association in 2017. Currently serves as a commissioner for the California Coast Commission. Also an attorney, Caryl received her bachelor's degree from Cornell University, her J.D. from the University of San Francisco and her PhD in Environmental Science, Management and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Lewis Johnson | Reporter, Pac-12 Networks
A seasoned broadcaster, Lewis Johnson covers multiple sports as a reporter for Pac-12 Networks. He is one of the few broadcasters who have worked for ABC, NBC, CBS and Turner. Although he has primarily covered football for those networks, he has also assisted in the coverage of the 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016 Olympic Games.

Joe Kennedy | Founder, Citizens Energy, Former US Congressman
Former U.S. congressman, Joe served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 8th congressional district of Massachusetts from 1987 to 1999. He founded and currently leads Citizens Energy Corporation, a non-profit energy company that for decades provided heating oil to low-income and elderly families. The Boston-based firm now develops battery storage and micro-grid projects and owns and operates the largest community solar arrays and the largest low-income community solar programs in the U.S. The eldest son of the former U.S. Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Joe received his bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976 and founded Citizens Energy three years later in 1979.

Maya McClendon | Former PAC-12 Student Athlete and CEO & Founder of Sports Metaphor, LLC  
Maya McClendon is a former Arizona State Volleyball player. She graduated in 2017 with a degree in premed-psychology. She is the CEO & Founder of Sports Metaphor, LLC which is a brand committed to providing innovative and holistic resources to athletes, and is currently working on a mental health mobile app for athletes. She is also an advocate for sustainability and social justice and frequently works with the Green Sports Alliance.

Roger McClendon | Executive Director, Green Sports Alliance  
Roger McClendon is the Executive Director of the Green Sports Alliance. In his role, he leads the Alliance of international sports and stadium executives, as well as sustainability experts, to use sports as a vehicle to promote healthy, sustainability communities throughout the world McClendon is a results-driven executive with deep global experience in the development and deployment of engineering innovation and sustainability/supply-chain management strategies for domestic and international operations. Prior to this role, he was the first-ever Chief Sustainability Officer for Yum! Brands, Inc. Roger created corporate social responsibility strategies, global environmental policies and restaurant sustainability development standards and implemented them company-wide, making the company the second largest developer of green restaurants in the world. ▾

Abel Navarete | Vice President of Sustainability and Community Impact, Columbia Sportswear
Abel is the Vice President of Sustainability and Community Impact at Columbia Sportswear Company where he has worked for the past 18 years. Having joined the company in 2001, he was appointed to his current position in 2017. During his tenure with Columbia Sportswear Company, Abel has spent 5 years located in Hong Kong serving as Director of Corporate Responsibility and Product Compliance. He is currently located in Portland, OR at the company's headquarters. Abel is a graduate of California State University-Fullerton, earning a degree in finance.

Dave Newport | Chief Sustainability Officer, Phase 3 Sports
The director of the environmental center at the University of Colorado Boulder, Dave is a key member of Pac-12 Team Green and is CEO & chief sustainability officer of Phase 3 Sports. He launched the first U.S. college sports sustainability activation with corporate partnership for the Florida Gators when he was UF's director of sustainability in 2002 before joining CU Boulder where he founded the nation's first comprehensive NCAA Division I sports sustainability program, Ralphie's Green Stampede. Dave has helped develop fan engagement partnerships with BASF, Pepsi, Wells Fargo, WhiteWave Foods, The Pantry, Eco-Products and UPS, among other companies, all aimed at influencing fan behavior toward sustainability at home, work and play. He is also the immediate past secretary of the Green Sports Alliance Board of Directors and is a former board secretary of the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Larry Scott | Commissioner, Pac-12 Conference  
Since being named Pac-12 Commissioner, Larry Scott has orchestrated a rebranding of the conference by expanding with the additions of Colorado and Utah, adding a Football Championship Game, transforming the Pac-12 men's and women's basketball tournaments into must-attend events, creating a Student-Athlete Health & Well-Being Initiative to focus on keeping student-athletes as safe as possible and launching a global initiative that has expanded the Pac-12's and its members' footprints around the world, including through the first ever regular season men's basketball game in China. Scott has also led a transformation of the Pac-12's media posture by delivering record revenue, dramatically increasing exposure for women's and Olympic sports, and establishing ever-evolving digital and mobile platforms for Pac-12 content. To achieve these goals, he delivered a landmark media rights agreement with ESPN and FOX and created Pac-12 Networks, the first-ever integrated media company owned by a collegiate conference. ▾

Paul Slovic | Psychology Professor, University of Oregon   
Paul Slovic is a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and a founder and President of Decision Research. He studies human judgment, decision making, and the psychology of risk. He and his colleagues have developed methods to describe risk perceptions and measure their impacts on individuals, industry, and society. His most recent research examines "psychic numbing" and the failure to respond appropriately to mass human tragedies such as genocide and the threat of nuclear war. Dr. Slovic is a past President of the Society for Risk Analysis and in 1991 received its Distinguished Contribution Award. In 1993 he received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association. He has received honorary doctorates from the Stockholm School of Economics (1996) and the University of East Anglia (2005). Dr. Slovic was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.

Marty Turock | Head of Strategic Initiatives, Clean Tech San Diego
After earning a chemical engineering degree from Princeton University, Marty went on to enjoy a 20+ year career with General Electric where he rose to become one of the top global operating managers in the engineered materials business including General Management roles in Canada and Hong Kong. In San Diego, Marty has established a sustainability consulting practice including Cleantech San Diego, SDG&E, and a number of high tech and cleantech start-up companies as his primary clients. Marty has been leading Strategic Field Programs for Cleantech San Diego since it was founded in 2007. Marty currently leads the California Energy Commission EPIC-funded Southern California Energy Innovation Network start-up incubator which supports entrepreneurs across San Diego, Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in accelerating commercial traction for their breakthrough energy innovations. In just 3-1/2 years SCEIN member companies have raised $64 million in follow-on capital.

Bill Walton | Former UCLA student-athlete, NBA player, and ESPN and Pac-12 Networks on-air talent  
Bill Walton is a retired professional basketball player and television sportscaster. Bill has had a prominent career in the NBA with the Trailblazers, Clippers, and Celtics. He was a league MVP and has won multiple NCAA and NBA championships. He remains active in basketball through clinics, camps, coaching, and television commentary with positions over the last 21 years with ABC, ESPN, NBC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, Turner Sports, KCAL, NESN, and the NBA. Walton has also been inducted into the San Diego Breitbard Sports Hall of Fame, The UCLA Hall of Fame, the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, the Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame and the Guinness Hall of Brilliance. In 2007, Walton was named one of the top 10 pundits in America by Forbes as well as one of the top 20 Business Athlete representatives by TSE Sports and Entertainment Group. In 2009, Walton was named one of the top 50 sports broadcasters of all time by the American Sportscasters Association, and named as the inaugural inductee into the Grateful Dead Hall of Honor. Walton is currently the Executive Chairman of Connect SD Sport Innovators (SDSI) and serves on the board of the Junior Seau foundation.

Alan Weisman | Journalist and Author of The World Without Us
An award-winning journalist and author, Weisman's reports have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Discover and on NPR, among many others. He has worked in 60 countries and on all seven continents, reporting about our species' turbulent relationship with the environment that birthed us. His groundbreaking book The World Without Us reached #6 on the New York Times bestseller list, #1 on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list, and was #1 on both Time and Entertainment Weekly's top 10 nonfiction books of 2007. An international bestseller now in 35 languages, it was recently named one of "The 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years" by Slate.

Jamie Zaninovich | Deputy Commissioner/Chief Operating Officer, Pac-12  
Jamie Zaninovich joined the Pac-12 Conference as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer in July of 2014. He is responsible for all aspects of the Pac-12's administrative operations, including television administration, sport management, championships, football bowl relationships, Pac-12 Global, governance, enforcement, compliance, and officiating. During his first two years at the Pac-12, Zaninovich helped guide the conference through unprecedented governance changes, major increases in its international efforts, and continued high-level success of its 23 sponsored sports. To name just a few of his myriad accomplishments at the Pac-12, Zaninovich has overseen the addition of two Pac-12 sports, transitioned the Pac-12 football postseason from the BCS to the College Football Playoff, navigated major changes in intercollegiate athletics governance and rule-making, and overseen reforms to student-athlete benefits and the addition of the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Leadership Team to the Pac-12's official governance structure. ▾