Mural created by students of Escuela Superio de Formación Artística Mario Urteaga - Cajamarca, Perú

Board of Directors 2011

Green Empowerment's Board of Directors has a long history of involvement with, and commitment to, access to clean water, renewable energy, and social justice issues all over the world.

Back row (left to right): Richard Benner, David Van't Hof, Peter Murchie, Francie Royce, Michael Royce, Marc Heisterkamp and Ben Vitale. Front, center: Kathy Fry, Katrina Gonzalez Yuen, and Eli Lamb. Not present: Linda Boise.

David Van't Hof, Board Chair

David Van't Hof is an attorney at Lane Powell PC with a focus on renewable energy, climate change, and sustainability. He spent the previous seven years as the Oregon Governor's Sustainability Policy Advisor. In that role, he led the Governor's Sustainability, Climate Change and Renewable Energy Initiatives. Prior to working for the Governor, Mr. Van't Hof practiced natural resource law for Stoel Rives LLP and before that, he served as a judicial clerk to the Oregon Supreme Court. At Stoel Rives, Mr. Van't Hof directed the firm's pro bono asylum law practice. Mr. Van't Hof has served on the board of several Portland nonprofits and he was one of the founders and Board Chairman of Hands on Portland, a nonprofit volunteer organization. Mr. Van't Hof served in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, and has traveled extensively in developing countries.  Mr. Van't Hof is married to Susan and has two children, Anya and Zeke.

Michael Royce, Founder

Michael Royce is a social justice activist, attorney, energy consultant, writer and nonprofit executive. Mr. Royce was a trial lawyer from 1979-1995 with the firm of Royce, Swanson, Thomas, and Coon. He has had extensive experience with founding and leading non-profit organizations, including provision of legal and general corporate advice. He has served as a Director and President of the Magrath Energy Corporation, a Canadian renewable energy company, from 1986 to 2006. He founded Green Empowerment with others in 1997 and served as Executive Director from 1997 until July, 2006, and as Chair of the Board since 2006. He has led or participated in human rights delegations to El Salvador and Nicaragua, served as Vice-President of the National Lawyers Guild, organized a cooperative for traditional crafts in Kentucky, personally participated in international development projects in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, Indonesia, Borneo (Malaysia), and the Thai-Burma border, and served on the boards of various environmental organizations. He has a deep commitment to internationalism and the environment based on principles of social justice and equality.

Francie Royce, Secretary

Francie Royce spent over 23 years with the City of Portland in various positions from City Planner, Annexation Coordinator to Project Manager focusing on alternative transportation programs and policy development. While completing her Masters of Urban and Regional Planning, she interned with Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo in Costa Rica. For many years she has been an activist and board member with a wide range of community and international groups, including leading a successful effort to temporarily raise the Business Income Tax to support public schools, the Zimbabwe Arts Project, and Oregonians Against the War. She is also a founding member of both the Portland-Corinto Sister City Association and the npGreenway, a trail advocacy group. Since leaving regular employment she has been delighted to have some free lance travel articles published and to contract as an event coordinator for a non-profit.

Kathy Fry

Kathy Fry recently moved back to the US after living for 25 years in the South Pacific working with community development NGOs, including the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International and Counterpart International. She has a masters in International Management and Administration from the School for International Training and is currently working at Mercy Corps as the Regional Program Director for Latin America. Kathy's experience in program development and evaluation, as well as institutional fundraising has been a great help to Green Empowerment.

Richard Benner

Richard Benner serves in the Office of Metro Attorney and advises Metro on urban growth management and transportation. Between 1991 and 2001 he served as Director of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, the state agency that oversees the Oregon statewide land use planning program. Before that, he was the Executive Director of the Columbia River Gorge Commission during the time (1987-1991) the commission developed a management plan for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. He spent 12 years as Senior Staff Attorney with 1000 Friends of Oregon. Mr. Benner currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Oregon Law School.

Linda Boise

More on Linda Boise soon.

Marc Heisterkamp

Marc is a green building and sustainable business leader with a passion for bringing together disparate stakeholders and bridging industry divides to find profitable and innovative ways to use business for environmental and social benefit. Marc is a Vice President and Sustainability Manager at Bank of America where he is responsible for green leasing and LEED for Existing Building programs on a 120 million square foot real estate portfolio. Previously Marc served as Director of Commercial Real Estate at the U.S. Green Building Council with primary responsibility for the growth of LEED in the office, retail, hospitality, and industrial sectors. Marc’s work in obtaining high profile portfolio level commitments to green building from major retailers, hoteliers, and investors brought over 1 billion square feet of LEED registrations to the green building movement.

Marc has a Bachelors of Science in Biology & Natural Resources and a Masters in Business Administration. He is a proud Pacific Northwest native and resides in Portland, OR with his wife Heather.

Eli Lamb

Eli is now working to develop a strong microhydro business in Oregon. Active also in promoting Oregon tax reform centered on taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels. In addition, Eli consults in green tech and web development, seeks investments in green technology and renewable energy, and is a founding partner in Social Venture Partners Portland. Eli considers as specialties-- research, writing, financial analysis, and energy economics and policy, enabling him to develop and compare alternative approaches to economics and energy policy. After 20 years managing systems software development at AT&T, Sun Microsystems, and Intel, Eli received a graduate certificate in Energy Economics and Policy from Portland State University.

Peter Murchie

Peter Murchie has worked for the World Health Organization, the International Joint Commission, the Policy Consensus Initiative/National Policy Consensus Center and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) using collaborative approaches to solve environmental health issues. Currently, at the EPA, Peter helped start and led the West Coast Collaborative, a partnership among leaders from federal, state, and local government, the private sector, and environmental groups working to promote sustainable transportation and goods movement along the West Coast. Peter was also the Regional Clean Energy and Green Economy Advisor and member of the EPA Regional Climate Team. Peter recently led an effort at the Policy Consensus Initiative and the National Policy Consensus Center based at Portland State University that supported state and local leaders in using public-private collaboration to implement climate and clean energy strategies and projects. Peter earned a Master of Public Health and a Master of Science in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan.

Ben Vitale, Treasurer

Ben Vitale is a carbon market expert and an experienced executive, with over 20 years of executive experience in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Before joining The Climate Trust as President, Ben served as Managing Director of the Conservation and Community Carbon Fund at Conservation International (CI), where he worked with the private sector to develop climate change solutions and new financial instruments that create business value and achieve measurable climate change results. He supported the development of conservation carbon projects in biodiversity hotspots around the world including Ecuador, China, and Brazil. Ben has served as an adviser for Ecosystem Marketplace, the Chicago Climate Exchange, and Patagonia Sur, among others. Ben holds a Master of Management degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a B.S. degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.