Home > CREST Board of Directors

tom horton Bill Bryan, Ph.D., Chair
Founder, Off the Beaten Path

As founder and Executive Director of the Northern Rockies Action Group in the late 70s, William (Bill) Bryan aided in the start-up and reorganization of many state and regional citizen or public policy development groups. In the late 80s and early 90s, he also served as founder and president of Silvertip Consulting Associates, gave public speeches and taught and lectured across the United States on Natural Resource Management and related challenges. At the close of the 90s, he was retained by the Montana Department of Commerce as a resource contact and speaker for a series of Farm and Ranch Recreation workshops. Bill currently serves as Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Off the Beaten Path, LLC, as well as Executive Director and board member of the Rural Landscape Institute: A Catalyst for Food and Agricultural Integrity in the American West.

Bill holds a B.A. in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire, and both an M.S. in Conservation and a Ph.D. in Resource Planning and Conservation from the University of Michigan. Currently a resident of Montana, he has served on numerous boards and advisory councils in the West dealing with environmental policy and strategic planning. His current positions include seats in the advisory council of Green Travel Magazine and The Yellowstone Business Partnership, and on the boards of Washington D.C.'s Climate Policy Center and the Resource Renewal Institute of San Francisco, California.

Arjona

Roberto Arjona, Director
General Manager, Rancho La Puerta

Roberto Arjona heads a staff of over 400 at North America’s first “destination spa,” as Chief Executive Officer at Rancho La Puerta—founded in 1940 in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico. From its inception, the resort’s mind/body/spirit fitness emphasis has included maintaining a major organic farm on the premises, energy conservation, eco-friendly waste management, and other sustainable methods of providing service to over 6,500 guests a year, all of whom stay one week or more. Prior to Rancho La Puerta, Roberto Arjona held executive positions at The Lodge at Pebble Beach, California, and The Lodge at Torrey Pines, La Jolla, California. Between ranch time and family time, Roberto Arjona is heavily involved in community services--whether it is working in Tecate’s community gardens, or organizing efforts to help school children conserve water and recycle. In an effort to improve living conditions and increase education Roberto Arjona has introduced English and computer classes as well as environmental and sustainable programs and workshops for the more than 400 staff members. Roberto's primary goal is to be able to provide his staff with additional knowledge and tools so they can assist their families and communities. Currently he is working with the community’s environmental project, The Tecate River Project. Additionally he is working with the local and state governments and the private sector to place Tecate as the leader in alternative energy creation in the region. Roberto serves on the Board of Fundacion La Puerta, of Green Spa Network and is an active member of Destination Spa Group, International Spa Association, Slow Foods and LOHAS.

Andy Bill Portrait Andrew Bill, Director
Siera Marketing

An Englishman born and bred, Andrew came to America for the weekend 20 years ago and somehow never left. For the first four years he worked as a journalist, traveling the globe for publications like Newsweek International, Fortune, Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler. In 1990 he founded Siera Marketing, a New York-based company that makes and manages creative marketing tools (brochures, Web sites, trade- and customer-loyalty programs, branding, e-mail marketing campaigns, newsletters, etc.) for the travel industry. Clients include tourist boards (Australia, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Austria, France), hotel chains (Marriott, Shangri-La), publications (The New York Times) and resorts (Peter Island, Mustique, Curtain Bluff).

In 2005, Andrew started looking for ways to apply his experience and skills to another, better purpose. Given his life-long passion for places where nature is the teacher, ecotourism was an obvious fit. Since then he has started consulting for TIES, and is now a Board Member for CREST. His new initiative is Earthsong Adventures, a collection of tour operations designed to support and incubate ecotourism initiatives in areas of the world most in need of conservation. The first company in the collection, Earthsong Dominica, will begin operations this winter season.

Robert Breech, Director
David E. Kelley Productions

Bob Breech works with David E. Kelley Productions, an Emmy Award winning producer on Picket Fences, L.A Law, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal and The Practice. Bob met Kelley in 1986 when they came together to work on L.A. Law. Bob was a practicing attorney for many years, having earned his B.A. from Stanford and his J.D. from Loyola University School of Law, but had left his practice to obtain an MFA in producing at University of Southern California (USC). He worked briefly in documentaries, did a couple of features, and then moved into television. His main responsibilities deal with the creative execution, overseeing a team of writers, but he is involved with every aspect of production including editing the final version that is then screened by David E. Kelley. During his years working with Kelley, Bob has won seven Emmy Awards.

Rich Franko portrait Richard Franko, Treasurer
Mithun

Richard Franko is an architect and principal at Mithun, an integrated design practice of architects, landscape architects, interior designers and planners in Seattle, WA. He has a strong interest in the integration of sustainable strategies into the design, construction and lifecycle of the built environment. He has been a leader in two LEED Gold certified projects, including an environmental learning center for children that functions on weekends as a 90 bed corporate retreat center. He was a leader on the sustainable master plan for a 35 block neighborhood in Portland Oregon that received a National AIA and ASLA award in 2005. He has lectured internationally on Mithun's environmentally based work, and is currently writing a chapter on "Sustainable Building Design" for a new ULI book on sustainable communities. He is excited to bring this experience to resort design, and learning from the work that has been done in Costa Rica.

Mary-Elizabeth Gifford, Director
Island Outpost

A spa industry expert known for her work in organic luxury, natural beauty, and global sustainability issues, Mary-Elizabeth Gifford has worked for some of the world’s leading destination spas as well as on the green side of the beauty and skin care business.

Deeply rooted in agriculture, Mary-Elizabeth serves on the Board of Directors of Demeter-USA, the biodynamic agriculture movement considered beyond organic, and on the Board of Directors of Steller, a U.S.D.A.-authorized certifier of Organic farmland. She is a past Director of the International Spa Association and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Washington National Spa Alliance.

A native of New York City, she graduated from Brown University with honors and had a year of post-graduate study at Harvard University, where she was an Affiliate of Harvard’s Nieman Foundation of Journalism.

She has presented at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, the Global Spa Summit, the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) Forum, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her family.

Tom Horton, Director
Canopy Development

Tom Horton brings more than 20 years of development and project finance experience to Canopy Development. To focus on leading the Canopy team, Mr. Horton recently departed his position at The Trust For Sustainable Development where he served for 8 years as US Managing Director and as VP of Development of the Trust project, Loreto Bay. In his capacity as VP of Development for the Loreto Bay Company, Tom Horton was responsible for developing the securities offering and completing the initial 22 million dollar equity financing for the Loreto Bay development. Tom also served as the first "Sustainability Officer" for Loreto Bay, helping to establish the Loreto Bay Foundation and drafting the aggressive sustainability standards for that project.

Tom currently also provides advisory services to Landquest Development, LLC. Landquest identifies, purchases, and permits more than 20 properties annually on the eastern seaboard of the United States. These properties are utilized for major residential and mixed-use urban and suburban developments on behalf of the public home building industry. In his capacity with Landquest, Mr. Horton has advised on a variety of financing strategies and affected a joint venture between Landquest Development and Institutional Housing Partners, a major real-estate finance company working on behalf of CalPers and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance as well as other large institutional investors.

During his career, Tom has developed and managed technology and land development projects in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Belize. At the Rodale Institute, Tom created the Consultative Group for Regenerative Enterprise, providing management and business services to organizations engaged in sustainable development.

Alexi Huntley Portrait Alexi Huntley, Director
Nature Air

Alexi Khajavi received his degree in Anthropology and Latin American Studies from the University of California. Mr. Khajavi has over 15 years experience in Latin America and the tourism industry. He has worked in PR with Global Exchange, as a publicist for Communication Works, and as Director of Marketing for Naturegate. From 2001 to 2003, he served as the Mountain Region Director for Burton Snowboards’ non profit organization. For the last four years he has served as VP of Sales & Marketing for NatureAir, a regional airline based in San Jose, Costa Rica.

NatureAir flies 74 daily flights to 17 adventure and nature destinations in Central America. This year, more than 110,000 passengers will travel Central America on NatureAir, the premier Central America airline for adventure travel, luxury vacations and eco tours. By name and by nature, NatureAir is committed to the environment, and is proud to be the world's first and only zero emissions airline. As airlines and their engines are a major source of carbon emissions, NatureAir implemented a year long analysis of their total carbon emissions for each route and aircraft. The company chose two sustainable programs in Costa Rica which provide clean energy through solar and wind farms, and since January 2006 they have offered a completely zero emission flight for all their passengers.

Roberto Murray Meza portrait Roberto Murray Meza, Vice Chair
AGRISAL
San Salvador, El Salvador

Roberto Murray Meza has been President of the Board of Directors of Agrícola Industrial Salvadoreña -AGRISAL since 1999. AGRISAL is an important Salvadorian Consortium of Industry, Hotel, Automotive and Agricultural Businesses of national and regional companies.

He is also President of the Business Foundation for Social Action (FUNDEMAS), a foundation dedicated to promoting Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Competitiveness in El Salvador. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Business for Social Responsibility, of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington D.C. and of TechnoServe, a US organization that promotes business solutions to rural poverty in Africa and Latin America. In May 2006, Roberto was nominated as member of AccountAbility Council based in London, and he joined The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) in 2006.

He is Honorary Consul of Ireland in El Salvador. In January 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences by the Salesian University of Don Bosco in El Salvador.He holds a degree in Economics from the Yale University, as well as an MBA from Harvard University, and an MA in Literature from Middlebury College.

Dennis Pinto, Director
Managing Director
Micato Safaris

Dennis Pinto represents the second generation of Pintos at Micato Safaris. In 1982, Dennis established the New York office of the safari outfitter his parents founded in East Africa some forty years ago. A graduate of Stanford University, he was in banking for several years before the irresistible lure of the family’s hospitality business brought him back to his original calling. At Micato, he expanded the company, launching tour operations in India and South Africa, and co-founded Micato’s nonprofit arm, AmericaShare, dedicated to the support of orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa. Under Dennis’s leadership, Micato has won numerous awards, most recently as a World Savers Award finalist by Condé Nast Traveler. Also in 2008, Micato Safaris won an unprecedented sixth consecutive title as World’s Best Tour Operator by Travel + Leisure magazine. Dennis resides in New York City with his wife, Joy Phelan-Pinto, and their two young safari enthusiasts.

Consultants to the Board of Directors

Keir D. Gumbs, Lawyer
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP

Keir D. Gumbs is an associate with Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC. Mr. Gumbs advises public and private companies, non-profit organizations, institutional investors and other clients in corporate, corporate governance, securities regulation and transactional matters. Mr. Gumbs' career includes six years of service with the SEC, where, immediately prior to joining Covington & Burling in 2005, he served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Roel C. Campos. In that position, he advised the Commissioner on a variety of matters arising under federal securities law with an emphasis on corporate finance issues under the Securities Act of 1933, issuer reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, corporate governance developments, and SEC enforcement actions. Prior to serving as Counsel to Commissioner Campos, Mr. Gumbs spent five years as a staff attorney and later a Special Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. As a staff attorney he reviewed registration statements, periodic reports, and transactional filings by companies in the Consumer Products, Computers and Online Services, Utilities, and Chemicals industries. As a Special Counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel, Mr. Gumbs provided interpretive advice and guidance regarding federal securities laws to outside counsel and staff attorneys in the Division of Corporation Finance. Mr. Gumbs is a frequent author and speaker on matters affecting the public companies, including topics such as shareholder proposals, the proxy rules, corporate governance, SEC rulemaking and other matters. His work with CREST is also pro bono.

Mike Conroy portrait

Michael E. Conroy, Consultant
Colibri Consulting / Austin & Oaxaca
Certification for Sustainable Development
503 Cater Drive, Austin TX 78704
Phone: (512) 326-1456
Cell: (914) 374-0631
Skype: michaelconroy8044
Email: michael.conroy@earthlink.net

Dr. Michael E. Conroy is an economist who taught Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Texas from 1971 to 1996 and who spent the past 12 years working for two U.S. private foundations, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. From 2003 to 2006 Dr. Conroy has also had an appointment as a Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

At the University of Texas, Dr. Conroy taught and wrote about Latin American political economy, urban and regional economics, and the global economics of sustainable development. At the Ford Foundation, his work focused on the development of advocacy-led certification systems that encourage and reward higher social and environmental accountability on the part of corporations worldwide, with special emphasis on sustainable forestry, fair trade in agricultural commodities, sustainable tourism and ecotourism, responsible mining, and sustainable finance. At the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, his work has focused on global governance, including support for new mechanisms of governance for the global commons and new global accountability for multinational corporations.

Dr. Conroy’s latest publication is: Branded! How the ‘Certification Revolution’ Is Transforming Global Corporations, New Society Publishers (Spring 2007).

Karen Lewis, Ecotourism Charter Club Chair
Lapa Rios Ecolodge
Box 025216-SJO 706
Miami, FL 33102-5216
Phone: (202) 329-9107
Email: karenlewis04@mac.com

Karen Greiling Lewis was nurtured in Minneapolis with mid-American values. She participated in Girl Scouting and the American Field Service (AFS) student exchange program and from 1968-70 was a Peace Corp Volunteer teacher in Kenya. For over 20 years, Karen was a professional keyboard musician and music educator in Minnesota and holds degrees in music and geography from the University of Minnesota. She raised two children and her diverse life experiences proved instrumental to pioneer ecotourism, an innovative travel concept sustaining land conservation and the well being of local people.

In 1990, Lapa Rios co-founders John and Karen Lewis took their bird watching avocation to a contributory level and purchased over 1,000 acres of tropical rain forest in the Osa Peninsula, SW Costa Rica. They created Lapa Rios to maintain this bio-diverse reserve and to use only the land as an economic-educational vehicle to sustain the Osa community. Separation from familiar comforts and self-sacrifice was requisite for early wilderness survival yet by commitment to education and operational improvements the adventure of sharing ecotourism values with locals and like-minded travelers defines today’s present success.

In 1991, the Lewises formed La Asociación de Educacíon, a Lapa Rios guest-supported foundation, to build a community-based school. This travelers’ philanthropy project continues to build and maintain several Osa primary schools. In 2005, she was elected to The International Ecotourism Society’s board of directors. Karen and John, with the assistance of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Costa Rican-based CEDARENA Land Trust, aided Costa Rica’s Osa Campaign by creating the Peninsula’s first conservation easement to legally protect their 920-acre Lapa Rios Reserve donation in perpetuity. Karen now lives part-time in Seattle and Costa Rica, and shares her experiences developing Lapa Rios at educational conferences.