Alumni Biographies (2009)

Brewster is focusing his work at Michigan on entrepreneurship and financing environmentally-oriented technologies and businesses. Prior to graduate school, he was an Associate with Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting in Seattle, a firm dedicated to helping public agencies improve management programs and achieve better environmental results. Before moving to the northwest, Brewster was a management consultant with A.T. Kearney based in Sydney, Australia. Brewster spent his first summer internship with DTE Biomass Energy focused on carbon markets for landfill gas-to-energy.  Building on his 2008 internship, he is currently working with Plymouth Management Company, an Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm.  Whenever possible, Brewster creates time for international travel having spent significant time on six continents.  He graduated from Middlebury College with a dual degree in Economics and Environmental Studies.

Joe’s background is in climate change and corporate sustainability strategies. As an Associate with GreenOrder, a sustainability consulting firm, he managed projects for clients that included General Electric, General Motors, and Office Depot. Most notably, Joe played an integral role in developing and executing GE’s ecomagination initiative. His responsibilities included creating the ecomagination certification process, performing product eco-assessments, producing marketing claims, and guiding business units through ecomagination certification.
At Ross, Joe is studying finance and strategy in the energy industry. His specific areas of interest are carbon finance, renewable energy development and new venture investing.
Joe holds a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Policy and Behavior from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. He loves live music, paddles wood-canvas canoes better than he rides a bike, and has a severe weakness for good food and drink.

Matt is interested in general management and sustainable transportation, specifically how transportation can
help address social issues. Prior to grad school, Matt spent seven years working for a defense contractor focusing on non-metallic materials issues. He was a program manager and lead technical point of contact for several government contracts.  Matt holds a BS in Material Science and Engineering along with minors in Chemistry and Mathematics from Virginia Tech.

Ali seeks to study the relationship between the adoption of sustainable business practices and economic tools designed to quantify and internalize the costs associated with climate change and ecosystem services. He currently holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from The University of Cincinnati. Ali has worked as an environmental consultant and a project manager for Ohio EPA where he managed the restoration of 500+ acres of hazardous waste sites. In 2001, he was awarded Ohio EPA’s highest honor – The George P. Garrett Award for Professional Excellence. Ali also played guitar for a band that toured Europe 4 times and helped found an independent record/CD label currently valued at $8 MM. He enjoys cooking, running, playing backgammon, and reading about evolutionary psychology.

Tiffany is focusing on Finance and Real Estate Development and is pursuing the Real Estate Certificate Program through the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Prior to attending Michigan, Tiffany was a Senior Financial Analyst in Real Estate Finance for the Gap, Inc. Before joining the Gap, Inc. she was a Treasury Financial Analyst for Catellus Development Corporation (now Prologis) in San Francisco, CA. She also worked for the Ford Motor Company in Pleasanton, CA as a Supervising Credit Analyst. Tiffany holds a BBA in Information Systems from The George Washington University, studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain and speaks Spanish. She is a member of the Junior League of San Francisco and the Urban Land Institute.

Matthew focuses primarily on strategy and marketing, especially in the area of sustainable food systems and sustainable development. He brings to his studies over ten years of experience managing his family-run specialty food retail business and consulting for producers of organic, fairly traded coffee and cane sugar as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru. During his career at Michigan, Matthew performed consulting projects in marketing and strategy for the nonprofit organizations Population Services International, the United Way, and Growing Hope as well the Fortune 500 organizations Pepsico and Ecolab, Inc. He spent his first summer internship as a Packard Environment Fellow creating a sustainable seafood marketing plan for the Seri Indians of northwest Mexico and his second internship designing a stakeholder engagement strategy for Ecolab, Inc. His Master’s Project work studied for-profit, environmentally mission driven companies, and will soon be published under the title Hybrid Organizations by Greenleaf Publishing. Matthew graduated from DePaul University in Chicago with a BA in International Studies. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, hiking, downhill skiing and spending time with his beautiful wife and daughter.