BOARD PROFILES
Special Advisors:
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.
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.
Michael Freed, Director
Owner, Passport Resorts LLP
Mike Freed jointly owns and operates Passport Resorts LLC, a hotel management company based in San Francisco. Founded in 1998 with Peter Heinemann, the company has an ownership interest in and operates three hotels: Post Ranch Inn, Cavallo Point – the Lodge at the Golden Gate, and The Sea Ranch Lodge. In addition, Passport Resorts formerly had an ownership interest in and operated the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort and the Hotel Hana-Maui. Passport Resorts is known for developing and operating award-winning resorts that promote environmental and social responsibility, support sustainable development, and offer a luxurious and soulful guest experience. All share a reverence for the land, community and local culture.
The Passport properties have won many prestigious hospitality awards, including Post Ranch being named in 2005 as #1 hotel and resort in the world by Condé Nast Traveler’s readers. The resorts have also received numerous green honors: Cousteau Fiji and Post Ranch were ranked respectively as #1 and #3 environmentally friendly accommodations in the world by TripAdvisor. The Fiji resort was also named #1 – Resorts/Lodges Worldwide on Condé Nast Traveler’s Green List, and garnered one of five ISLANDS Magazine Global Sustainable Tourism Awards. Cavallo Point, which opened in July 2008, was honored as one of 10 New Green American Landmarks by Travel+Leisure, and earned LEED Gold certification. It is the first national park lodge and the first hotel on the National Register of Historic Places to gain LEED Gold Certification.
Mike has helped start two travel-related charitable organizations. The Savusavu Community Foundation focuses on health, education, culture and the environment in the local Fijian community. The Good Night Foundation raises funds for non-profit organizations both worldwide – in the areas of health, environment, poverty alleviation and education – and locally, in conjunction with participating hotels’ designated beneficiaries.
Mike earned his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley in 1977 and his Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Santa Barbara.
Mary-Elizabeth Gifford, Director
The Farm of Pantrepant
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 is a seasoned entrepreneur, having raised more than $100mm in early stage capital for multiple social enterprises, ranging from clean energy, organic/local food production, sustainable tourism, and durable medical devices over a 25 year period of time. Tom founded Canopy Development (www.canopydevelopment.com) in 2004 and brings more than 20 years of community-focused real estate development and project finance experience to the company.
For the ten years prior to founding Canopy, Tom served as US Managing Director of the Trust for Sustainable Development (www.tsd.ca) and VP Corporate Development of the Loreto Bay Company (www.loretobay.com), a TSD affiliate company. The Villages of Loreto Bay, a series of seaside villages planned for 6,000 homes and a 5,000-acre natural preserve in Baja California, Mexico, is the largest sustainable resort community under development in North America. Tom managed the initial financing for the 2.6 billion dollar project and also served as the first Sustainability Officer for Loreto Bay, helping establish the Loreto Bay Foundation and drafting the aggressive sustainability standards for the project.
Prior to his work for TSD and Loreto Bay, Tom worked as a Program Director for the Rodale Institute (www.rodale.org) a non-profit organization that works with people worldwide to achieve a regenerative food system that renews and improves environmental and human health.
Dan Martin, Ph.D., is an experienced and innovative international grantmaker, educator, and conservationist. His work has included many years of engagement with nature conservation, sustainable economic development, public policy for education and development assistance. That work has taken him to more than 100 countries in most regions of the world.
He has worked at four private foundations: Markle Foundation,Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation (where he served as President), MacArthur Foundation, and Moore Foundation.Martin is currently consulting on the design of an environment program for the new Margaret A. Cargill Foundation in Minneapolis.
Among his many non-profit board assignments, he is currently a trustee of Knox College, the Phelps Stokes Fund, the Costa Rica-United States Foundation, and a member of the governing Council and a Vice President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Switzerland. He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in international politics and political theory from Princeton University.
Roberto Murray Meza, Director
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.
Michael Robbins
Founding Partner, The Tourism Company - Canada
Michael Robbins has over 30 years experience as a tourism consultant, having worked throughout Canada, as well as in the US, New Zealand/Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. With an environmental planning educational background it has been natural for Michael to focus his professional career on planning and developing more sustrainable tourism models. He began his career in 1979 with a large Canadian multi-disciplinary company (Marshall Macklin Monaghan), moved to New Zealand to work for a similar type of company for 3 years, and then founded his own boutique management consulting firm in 1994. Michael is a recognized expert in strategic planning and marketing, feasibility assessments for new tourism ventures, business planning, and master planning for tourism resorts and attractions. He has a particular interest in tourism as a form of economic empowerment for indigenous peoples and has worked on a wide range of assignments with First Nation, Inuit and Maori entrepreneurs.
Michael has past experience on public and private boards as well as charities including: Cara Operations, Blue Mountain Watershed Trust, SMARTRISK, Enerworks, Osler Bluff Ski Club, and helped to found the Ontario Ecotourism Society. He is currently a Trustee with the Pete Crompton Foundation. Through the public foundation Tides Canada, Michael has a donor directed fund (7th Generation Fund) providing assistance to various aboriginal tourism and environmental conservation initiatives across Canada. Michael lives in Toronto, Canada with his Peruvian partner and her children, and has three grown children from a previous marriage. His sport passion is international masters alpine ski racing.
Nick Simmonds, Director
Manager/Director, GoldenEye Resort and Head of Operations, Island Outpost
- Jamaica
An international hotelier from South Africa, Nick has worked in 19 different countries around the world and brings a uniquely global point of view to any project. He is known for his skilled approach to hotel management, as well as for his success with the operation of prestigious destination spas.
Most recently Nick served as General Manager of Cotton House in Mustique, where he was a driving force behind the transformational renovation that enhanced the resort through contemporary style and impeccable service, while retaining its original authenticity and sense of place.
Prior to this, Nick was Hotel Manager at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos, where he was intricately involved in the opening and launch of the resort and accompanying spa, and in staking its ongoing reputation as a must-visit destination. Nick is a gifted linguist who speaks Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans, in addition to his native English. His other career assignments have placed him everywhere from the remote African bush, where he began his career in hospitality by working as a guide, to New York City’s Upper East Side, where he worked for Private Worldwide Property Portfolio.
Robert Zimmer, Consultant
Zimmer Associates International 
Mr. Zimmer is co-founder of Zimmer Associates International, a luxury sustainable design firm, and has over 25 years of executive experience in the global hospitality and real estate development industry. His past projects are routinely ranked among the world’s finest.
Mr. Zimmer is a recognized leader in the field of sustainable development and design. He employs a holistic approach to development that emphasizes the integration of each property with its natural environment, and the interconnectedness of all disciplines in the planning process. His hallmark is creating luxury properties that are site sensitive - fusing both the building and the operation within a distinctive cultural and physical setting that furthers long-range environmental and economic sustainability. Mr. Zimmer is also a recognized leader in the expanding arena of eco-tourism.
From 1979 to 1988, Mr. Zimmer was founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rosewood Hotels, Inc., a hotel organization whose properties are described as extraordinarily innovative. As Rosewood CEO, he had total responsibility for the development and operation of all of rosewood’s projects and is acknowledged as the creative force behind their success. In addition, his special expertise in the development and execution of food and beverage concepts and operations is demonstrated by the acclaim afforded his distinctive restaurant.
Mr. Zimmer’s design legacy is evident in luxury properties around the world.
SPECIAL ADVISORS
Mark Spalding, Director
President, The Ocean Foundation
Mark J. Spalding, President of The Ocean Foundation, concurrently serves as the Executive Director of the St. Kitts Foundation and the Fundación Bahía de Loreto A.C. Both of these subsidiary foundations are the philanthropy arms of sustainable resort developments.
Mark has also served as a consultant to Rancho La Puerta spa/resort and its foundation regarding the conservation of the Tecate River Valley, and as an advisor to Kerzner International Limited to assist its formation of the Kerzner Marine Foundation. He is the co-author of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation's study on ecotourism, and conducted green hotel evaluations in India.
Mark chairs the Council of the National Whale Conservation Fund, and is an active member of the marine working group, Baja California group, and coral reef group of the funders' organization, the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. He has served as a member of the Environmental Grants Advisory Committee of FINCOMUN (Tijuana’s Community Foundation). He was a professor of international law and policy at UCSD’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies for 10 years before bringing his extensive experience with the legal and policy aspects of ocean conservation to The Ocean Foundation’s grantmaking strategy, evaluation process, and development of sustainability standards for coastal development.
Keir D. Gumbs, Legal Advisor
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.
Michael E. Conroy, Consultant
Colibri Consulting / Austin & Oaxaca
Certification for Sustainable Development
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
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.
Dr. Pamela Peeke, Health and Wellness Advisor
MD, MPH, FACP
Dr. Pamela Peeke is an internationally recognized expert, physician, scientist, and author in the fields of nutrition, stress, fitness and public health. Dr. Peeke was the first physician elected to the ISPA board of directors and during her tenure she facilitated the introduction of spa medicine to professionals in the healing arts as well as the media.
Dr. Peeke serves as Chief Medical Correspondent for Discovery Fit & Health TV, where she is featured on the award winning National Body Challenge series and is the host of Could You Survive? As Chief Lifestyle Expert for WebMD, Dr. Peeke’s multimedia healthy lifestyle program, Everyday Fitness with Dr. Pam Peeke, is followed by over 50 million WebMD members, including viewers of CBS's Early Morning Show where she serves as WebMD's expert. Dr. Peeke is the New York Times bestselling author of four books, including Fit to Live and Body for Life for Women. She is a regular in-studio medical commentator for the national networks, contributing editor for national magazines including Fitness, Glamour and Prevention, and is a member of Oprah’s O Team of medical experts.
The American College of Sports Medicine named Dr. Peeke the national spokesperson for their global Exercise IS Medicine campaign. She has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine as one of America’s leading physicians. Board certified in internal medicine, Dr. Peeke also holds dual master's degrees in public health and public policy.
She was the first senior research fellow in the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine, is a Pew Scholar in nutrition and metabolism, and holds the position of Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland. Dr. Peeke is senior advisor to the US Surgeon General with whom she is implementing the Surgeon General Walks for a Healthy and Fit Nation. A triathlete and mountaineer, Dr. Peeke is known as the "doc who walks the talk" and is the founder of the Peeke Performance Center for Healthy Living™.