Truckee, California
Jeremy Jones, 36, the Founder and Executive Director of POW has been a professional snowboarder for over 15 years and is widely regarded as one of the best big mountain snowboarders in the world. Nine times voted “Best Big Mountain Rider of the Year” by Snowboarder Magazine and has starred in over twenty snowboard movies worldwide.
Pacific Palisades, CA
Chris is responsible for all operational activities for POW, overseeing the strategic growth of the organization as well as fundraising and corporate partnerships. For the past 15 years, Chris worked for large west coast advertising agencies and was most recently the VP, Marketing for Teton Gravity Research.
Venice, California
Savannah manages the “Hot Planet/Cool Athletes” program and our relationship with professional athletes. Before coming to POW, Cowley worked at Octagon Sports Marketing, where she did PR and client management for snow sport athletes and served as a press attaché to Gold Medalists at Winter X Games and the Vancouver Olympics. Cowley also headed up Squaw Valley USA’s Media and Public Relations department with a focus on environmental communication, helping boost Squaw Valley’s environmental record.
Truckee, California
Jennifer McVey has worked in the snow & action sports industry since 1997 and received her MBA from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management in 1998. Working for Icelandic company Nikita Clothing brought her awareness to melting glaciers and in 2009 she completed a Certificate in Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School. Currently Director of Sales for the House of Marley, she is particularly proud of the company’s commitment to sustainability.
Olympic Silver Medalist, Four-time X-Games Champion and co-founder of Nice Reusables/ALEX Bottle
Gretchen Bleiler is one of the most accomplished female snowboarders in the world. As a top to her incredible list of medals and contest wins, Gretchen won the silver medal in Women’s Halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy and set a Guinness World Record at the 2010 Winter X Games for “Most Winter X Games Gold in Women’s Superpipe Finals” (4). In early 2010, Gretchen returned to compete in her 2nd Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, holding one of the four female spots on the US Olympic Snowboard Team. Gretchen was also chosen as one of “10 Women to Watch in 2010″. August 2010 marked a new phase in her entrepreneurial exploration. Together with her husband Chris, Gretchen debuted her reusable/sustainable products company, Nice Reusables/ALEX Bottle: www.alexbottle.com.
Chris Davenport, of Aspen, Colorado, is widely regarded as one of the premier big mountain skiers in the world today. Among his many skiing achievements, in 2007 Chris became the first person to ski all fifty-four of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in less than one year. A two-time World Champion, he has numerous first descents of peaks around the globe under his belt, and recently guided and skied on Mt. Everest. Chris has been featured in more than thirty ski films. He is also a TV commentator for ESPN, ABC Sports, and Outside Television, and is an Olympic and World Cup announcer for ski racing events. Chris is also the author of two beautiful coffee-table books that celebrate North America’s mountains, Ski The 14ers and Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America.
Director of Marketing & Communications, Surfrider Foundation
Matt is a twenty year veteran of the action sports industry. After starting out in the mid 1980s as a buyer for skate retail giant CCS, Matt spent much of the next decade leading sales and marketing efforts for two of the most prestigious ski areas in the country; Mammoth Mountain in California and Telluride in Colorado. In 2002, Matt made the jump into the world of environmental non-profit by taking up the reigns as the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Surfrider Foundation. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in linguistics from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in several magazines including Thrasher, Powder, Transworld Surf, Happy and GOOD Magazine.
Owner, Backbone Media
A Midwestern boy who bounced in and out of the country as a youth, Penn left his Wall Street job as a municipal bond trader in 1989 to relocate to Colorado. The renaissance ski bum lifestyle – making snow, race crew and a raft/climbing guide – led to a job as the Advertising Director at Climbing Magazine in 1992. Penn founded Backbone Media, an agency specializing in social media, public relations and media planning in 1997, and recently co-authored 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America with Chris Davenport and Art Burrows. Penn lives in Basalt, CO in a log cabin with his wife Kirsten and four tow-head kids, and serves on the North American Advisory Team for POC and is an Ambassador for 1% for the Planet.
Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego
Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, is an internationally renowned historian of science and author. Her research focuses on consensus and dissent in science: How do scientists decide when a fact is “established?” How do they judge how much evidence is sufficient to deem something scientifically demonstrated? And what happens when scientists can’t agree? Her 2004 essay “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” (Science 306: 1686) has been widely cited in the mass media throughout the world, including in the Royal Society’s publication, “A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change,” in the Academy-award winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, and in Ian McEwan’s novel, Solar. Her opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Nature, Science, The New Statesman, and elsewhere. Her latest work, Merchants of Doubt, How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to Global Warming, with co-author Erik M. Conway, was shortlisted for the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and has recently been released in paperback.
Vice President, Sustainability, Aspen Ski Corporation
Previously a research associate in corporate sustainability at Rocky Mountain Institute, Auden has been a trailer insulator, burger flipper, ambulance medic, Outward Bound instructor, high school math and English teacher, freelance writer, and Forest Service goose nest island builder. An avid outdoorsman, Auden has climbed Denali, North America’s highest peak, and kayaked the Grand Canyon in winter. His writing has been published in Harvard Business Review, the L.A. Times, Scientific American and Salon.com, among other places, and his work has been covered in Businessweek, Fast Company, Travel and Leisure, Outside, and other media. Auden was named a global warming innovator by TIME magazine in 2006 and in 2007 he testified to Congress on the impact of climate change on public lands. He lives in Basalt, Colorado with his wife Ellen and their children Willa and Elias.
SVP, Operations, Earthjustice
Kristine recently joined Earthjustice as senior vice president of operations, bringing with her a wealth of experience in non-profit management and a passion for the environment. Previously, she served as the executive director of the international water advocacy organization Waterkeeper Alliance in New York, NY and before that was vice president for finance and operations at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, MA. In addition to her environmental background, she had a successful career at the flagship public broadcasting station WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston, MA, in a number of administrative and management roles. She holds a Master of Arts in policy and planning from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Science from Boston University. Her passion for environmental and justice issues stems from her rural Maine roots and deep belief that everyone has the right to a healthy environment.
Director of Sustainable Operations at Grand Targhee Resort
Having worked her way from the mid-west to Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and most recently, Idaho, Christina has ten years of experience working in sustainability-related capacities, four of those in the ski industry. She now heads Grand Targhee Resort’s comprehensive sustainability initiative and is helping to change the culture and awareness at the Resort and the greater Yellowstone region. She has a passion for all things winter, but can be found surfing or climbing during mud season.
Sr. Director, International Brand Communications, Converse
The intersection of brand, business strategy and environmental responsibility has been a passion of Strick’s for years. Prior to joining Converse, Strick worked at a design and innovation firm IDEO – helping businesses create positive impact through design. Strick also previously served as Chief Marketing Officer at 1% for the Planet (1%FTP). 1%FTP is a non-profit organization that inspires companies around the world to donate at least 1% of their annual revenue to environmental initiatives. There are now more than 1,400 member companies in 40 countries, collectively contributing more than $20M to nearly 2,500 environmental groups on an annual basis. Strick lives in Boston, MA with his wife Leanna and two children, Ruby and Freddy.
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