Portland, Ore. – The Green Building Initiative, Inc. (GBI) is pleased to announce the election of Dr. Amlan Mukherjee, P.E., Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Michigan Technological University, as Chair of its Board of Directors. Officers and three new directors were also elected effective December 2022.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Mukherjee as GBI’s chair of its board of directors,” said Vicki Worden, President & CEO of GBI. “Dr. Mukherjee is a long-time advocate of sustainability and life cycle thinking and a key influencer of programs and policies that impact low carbon procurement. He brings energy and passion along with years of technical expertise in Civil Engineering. We are fortunate to have a fierce advocate for science and data as GBI supports our community by validating sustainability initiatives, including new decarbonization tools that will be released in 2023.”
“I’ve been incredibly impressed with GBI’s growth and contributions during my six years of tenure on the Board,” said Mukherjee. “It is a pleasure and an honor to lead the organization during a period where validating sustainability, wellness measures, and resilience issues are of critical importance at a global level.”
For over a year, Dr. Mukherjee has been assisting the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as a Life Cycle Assessment Technical Specialist, working with the FHWA as they integrate life cycle thinking and sustainability into their procurement and pavement management. Dr. Mukherjee was also recently appointed to the federal General Services Administration (GSA) Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee (GAP FAC). In this role, Dr. Mukherjee will provide expert counsel to GSA as they seek innovative solutions to acquisition policy and ways to address the highest priority federal acquisition challenges.
As a Professor at Michigan Technological University, Dr. Mukherjee teaches courses in infrastructure Life Cycle Engineering, Construction Scheduling, Digital Project Delivery, and Construction Modeling & Simulation. He has published articles in numerous Engineering and Construction journals, including the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (ASCE), Automation in Construction, Computing in Civil Engineering (ASCE), and Performance of Constructed Facilities (ASCE). Dr. Mukherjee currently holds professional memberships with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Construction Research Congress (CRC). He has been involved with the construction research and education community for the last 12 years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University at Buffalo, (SUNY) and a B.E. in Civil Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India.
Dr. Mukherjee follows GBI’s prior chair, Kathy Loftus, who was the organization’s first woman chair. Loftus supported GBI in its global expansion efforts, achievement, and celebration of certifying more than 500 million square feet of building space, and the creation of its first diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) policy. Loftus will serve as Immediate Past Chair for the 2023 calendar year.
GBI’s Membership voted on December 1, 2022, to approve the 2023 Executive Committee Slate under one-year terms:
Chair: Dr. Amlan Mukherjee (Professor – Department of Civil Engineering, Michigan Technological University)
Immediate Past Chair: Kathy Loftus (VP, Strategic Construction Projects, Energy and Facility Services, Retail Business Services)
Chair Elect: Tim Thiel (Sustainability & Public Affairs North America, Covestro)
Treasurer: Luis Perez-Soto (VP, Treasurer, Lennar Financial Services)
Secretary: Alison Hoagland (Principal, Mackenzie)
Director: John Lister (Principal, JL Architects)
Director: Douglas Tucker (Director, Industry and Government Relations, Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc.)
GBI is also pleased to announce the approval of three new Directors, effective December 2022, under three-year terms:
Dain Hansen (Executive Vice President of Government Relations at IAPMO)
Randy Mortensen (Sr. Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing at Leviton)
Sumayyah Theron (Director of Sustainability at Cyclone Energy Group)
The new directors join eight returning directors that include:
Consolato Gattuso (Director of Engineering at Piedmont Office Realty Trust)
Sara Greenwood (Principal, The Greenwood Consulting Group)
Tehmina Husain (Sustainability Consultant, Merrick & Company)
Andrea Rutledge (President & CEO, Construction Management Association of America)
Brenda Steinhauer (Quality Manager, W.A. Richardson Builders)
Meagan Sykes (Sustainability Consultant, Solterre Design)
Simon Turner (Founder, Building Cognition)
Robin Yochum (Energy Program Manager, Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy)
With the election of three new directors, the GBI Board of Directors now seats 18 voting directors. The officers and board of directors provide strategic direction and guidance over the growth and expansion of GBI’s mission, impact, environmental objectives, and governance principles.
MEDIA CONTACT: Megan Baker, Assoc. VP, Engagement, megan@thegbi.org, (971) 256-7174