Our People
Through our established and expanding relationships with our global network of professionals in the business of sustainability, we draw upon our support of experts for projects and services as appropriate to our client’s needs. The following bios are a small but representative sample of the experience we bring.
Erich Schwartz – Founder and President
A senior executive and seasoned entrepreneur with a strong background in Sustainability, Erich has been providing effective leadership and international project/business management for over 15 years. Erich’s approach to the “Business of Sustainability” began in the 1980’s when he taught the principles and concepts of global warming, population growth, and resource depletion. Since then, he acquired a Masters Degree, and honed his consulting skills and business savvy to transform non-performers from expense-burdens to efficient, process oriented, and profitable businesses. His global client base includes national governments, Fortune 500 corporations, mid-size companies, municipalities, and non governmental organizations. His focus is to take his unique skill set and apply them to one of the greatest challenge facing modern businesses, which is to transform into Sustainable Businesses that develop healthy triple bottom lines.
Aron Bjornson – Supply Chain Management Lead
Aron is highly skilled at helping businesses create and tell their sustainable stories. Building on his Bachelor of Commerce, his work includes providing strategic marketing direction to socially responsible companies and innovative organizations that promote sustainability. His blend of strategy, hands on operational knowledge, and community engagement ideally positions him for helping companies pursue Sustainability to become more profitable. He has played integral roles in creating a market-leading triple bottom line culture. He is highly successful at building core customer bases through deep community engagement, working on the shop floor, leading supply chain management, retail design, brand design, website building, and crisis management.
Erica Groshler - Change Management Lead
Erica knows an organization’s commitment to creating a sustainable culture inherently implies change. Erica brings a wealth of experience in supporting organizations change and transform their cultures. Erica combines evidence-based techniques along with practicality in helping her clients address their challenges. Known for her enthusiastic, highly professional and compassionate approach, she is regarded as being able to pinpoint exactly our client’s needs. Erica possesses a BA in Industrial Relations from McGill University, and an MA in Educational Technology from Concordia University.
Alexandra Henriques – Senior Sustainability Consultant
Alexandra is focused on concrete results. She draws upon her Masters Degree in Arts and hundreds of hours of Professional Development to create innovative sustainable business solutions. She has been a lifelong educator at the College, University and Adult Education level, as well as in Outdoor Education. Alexandra also brings over 20 years of experience in curricula and materials development, delivering effective educationals and workshops, and a lifetime of pursuing sustainable practices. Her extensive knowledge and practice in sustainability and wellness is leveraged to benefit businesses’ competitiveness. Her approach is practical, eye-opening, and delivers immediate results.
David Laulainen – Director Business Development
For more than 20 years, David has worked with clients in the environmental, health and wellness, and natural products fields. He strives to connect businesses with people who want to create a positive social or environmental impact. Developer of a three step brand positioning process, David places a high value on the importance of branding, key messages, and engaging visuals to influence and encourage individuals and businesses in moving toward more sustainable practices. He is a firm believer in the power of businesses for making positive change, and in marketing’s potential as being the instrument to inspire behaviours that lead to greater sustainability.
Marionne Lugay – Community Liaison
Marionne has been enthusiastic about sustainability since her involvement with Schools on Board where she participated in environmental research aboard the CGSS Amundsen in the Arctic Circle. It was the combination of this enthusiasm and her drive to make a difference that led her to the University of Victoria where she graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce. Her previous experience includes working with the Family Self-Sufficiency asset development program at Burnside Gorge Community Centre, assisting in the development and translation of the Healthy Eating for Seniors DVD and handbook, and creating marketing and communications plans for an entrepreneurial consulting company. Marionne strives to make a positive impact in her community by facilitating the Bring Your Own Bottle Campaign at UVic, securing speakers for the Sustainable Business speakers series, and participating in the Not-for-Profit team for the Jeux de Commerce West Business Case Competition. Marionne continues to help businesses and organizations move towards greater sustainability with the Greenomics team.
Monika Marcovici – Sustainability Transformation Strategist
Monika’s career spans more than 15 years, and she is one of a rare breed that can take the deep technical dive and focus on strategy. Her corporate career began in Europe with high tech giants, until she transitioned to Vancouver BC, where she focused on Digital Media. Always an innovator, she founded a productions company that focused on interactive corporate communications that created online communications strategies and websites alignment for clients such as the BC Yellow Pages and ICBC. Monika identified her need to align her professional career with her sustainability values and built a client base of mostly environmental organizations such as Greenpeace International. Realizing that working with Environmental Organizations is only part of the solution, she has since expanded into the business community wherein she brings her understanding of best business practices within a sustainable framework. Her background and education are as diverse as her skills and talents. Born in Vienna, Austria, she is fluent in French, German and English, and holds a degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. She also holds a post graduate degree in Information Systems from the University of Geneva, courses in graphic design at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and certificate from Bainbridge Graduate Institute.
Karen Peterson – Marketing and Communications Strategist
Karen Peterson understands the value of a triple bottom line as reflected in her performance in retail, wholesale, importing and manufacturing as an owner/operator and as a consultant. Clients have ranged from independent retailers to food importers to musicians and designers. Project based work includes Merchandise Concession Operations for the Corporation of Expo 86 and Business Liaison Services to the Canada Line Rapid Transit Project since 2005. Karen has been active in the business community of Vancouver, currently serving as a director with Easy Park and as Past President of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA), an association of over 8000 members representing 2500 properties in 90 square blocks of downtown. Chairing a committee dedicated to the improvement of Granville Street downtown for 7 years, she helped rekindle interest in events and parades downtown by spearheading the annual Celtic Festival and St. Patrick’s Parade which has grown in attendance from 30,000 in the first year to over 300,000 today. Karen also sits on the 2010 Business Readiness committee.
Allyson Rogers – Sustainable Tourism Industry Lead
Ms. Rogers has over 20 years experience in the realm of eco tourism and best practices for sustainability. From luxury sailing charters in the Caribbean to eco adventure in BC’s backcountry, she has always lived and worked very close to Nature. An entrepreneur with a pioneering spirit, she is sole creator of the Siwash Lake Ranch, a family farm and BC wilderness tourism operation that has garnered the highest eco-rating possible within the industry. Siwash has starred in BC’s Small Business Profile 2009, in the Ministry of Agriculture’s “Fields for the Future Campaign” and very recently, in a project to help demonstrate and deploy clean energy technologies in remote BC, supported by the Province’s Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund.
Allyson’s passion for environmentally responsible living and land stewardship drives her values-based lead towards a triple bottom line, for nurturing people, planet and profit in the process of conducting sustainable business. She is a graduate of UBC, past president and current board member of the BC Guest Ranchers’ Association, and a sector liaison for GO2 (BC tourism’s human resources agency). As owner and operator of a world-class, off-grid tourism destination, she is an inspiring role model and compassionate mentor, bringing to the Greenomics team a unique and practical perspective for helping corporate leaders (and BC’s tourism industry in particular) to engage in the business of sustainability.
Nick Saman – Vice President Operations
Nick has spent the bulk of his career as a professional “change agent” instigating and facilitating change as an external consultant, and later as an operations executive. Working at the forefront of the quality management revolution for Philip Crosby Associates, the quality management consulting firm established by author and quality guru Philip B. Crosby; Nick worked with the Senior Executives of clients to understand and install the Crosby concepts, systems, and tools to achieve process improvements and cost reductions in the US and the UK.
The fundamental transformation in mindset and business practices that is required to make Sustainability a routine aspect of business life and culture is dramatically similar to what must be done to achieve continuous quality improvement within an organization. The obstacle preventing companies from embracing Sustainability is the same thing that challenged companies when confronting Quality: the reason for pursuing either goes beyond the obvious, inherent notion that it’s “the right thing to do”, and must be understood as “the smart thing to do” for competitive business and financial advantages.
Nick graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications. He has published articles in various industry magazines over the years including: Quality Observer, Airline Executive, CircuiTree, and Air Cargo World. He has been a member of the American Society for Quality, and the HR Forum of the American Electronics Association.
Andrea Shalinsky – Workshop Lead and Train the Trainer
Andrea’s approach to life has been to encompass all aspects of a business which includes economic, social, and environmental. She achieves this by building businesses that contribute to society, protect the environment, and maintain financial viability. A seasoned Instructional Designer, Andrea combines her Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of Instructional Design with over 10 years of field experience to create systems and processes to manage both unforeseen and anticipated project challenges. She specializes in training design and development and has done work for various audiences including transportation, public utilities, government, software development, and primary metals. Andrea brings a broad range of training design, development and delivery skills and knowledge.
Valerie Thai – Graphic Artist
Valerie Thai specializes in art direction, print design and illustration for various non-profits, arts and culture organizations, as well as socially conscious and sustainable companies. With over ten years of design experience, she has had the opportunity of designing magazines, books, posters, as well as various marketing and branding materials.
Valerie was the award-winning Head Designer and Art Director of Adbusters Magazine for 5 years running. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Design from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.
Deacon Tong – Sustainability Business Analyst
Deacon believes that in order for a company to be truly successful, a viable sustainable business strategy must exist. With a Bachelor of Business Commerce, combined with his business plan development experience, he strives to provide guidance and advice to businesses and organizations that seek to increase their return on investment, while considering social, environmental, and economic factors. Deacon has written numerous proposals and business plans within the Aboriginal community and now focuses his efforts to support sustainable growth. Before joining Greenomics, Deacon interned at a consulting firm specializing in sustainability as a Sustainability Assistant, primarily researching best sustainable practices within several industries.
Tim Turner – Creative Change Lead
Tim provides exceptional brand and communication services for discerning clients with a penchant for sustainability. Even though he has both a Bachelor of Commerce and a Law Degree from Canada’s top schools, his real passion is in public consultation, creative messaging, and leading large scale projects. He has excelled in executive production, account management, and creative oversight for a variety of clients locally and internationally. He has helped companies build their image through logos and stationary, creative poster campaigns, multimedia, and television commercials. He has gained international exposure as the producer and creative director of the award winning documentary, Adele’s Wish. His focus on building compelling stories has been acknowledged through many awards including Silver at the Houston Film Festival, Award of Excellence and Award of Distinction from GRAPHEX, and the Gold Award at Worldfest Film Festival in Public Service. He also achieved 1st Place, at the Medical Marketing Association awards. Tim runs the gamut from helping boutique operations, to assisting international businesses seeking to convey their message in a compelling fashion.
