Overview

Tom Szaky is founder and CEO of TerraCycle, a global leader in collection and repurposing of complex waste streams. TerraCycle operates in 21 countries, working with some of the world’s largest brands, retailers and manufacturers to create national platforms to recycle products and packaging that currently go to landfill or incineration.

Through TerraCycle, Tom is creating circular solutions for hundreds of waste streams such as cigarette butts, dirty diapers and used chewing gum that otherwise have no path to be recycled. TerraCycle operates the largest supply chain for ocean plastic in the world, partnering with companies to integrate this material into their packaging.

In January 2019, TerraCycle, along with 25 top consumer products companies and retailers announced a new circular shopping platform called Loop that enables consumers to shop for household products in durable, reusable packaging. Launched in May in Paris, France and the mid-Atlantic and northeast U.S., Loop is a key step in helping to end the epidemic of waste that is caused by 'single use' consumption.

Tom and TerraCycle have received hundreds of social, environmental and business awards and recognition from a range of organizations including the United Nations, World Economic Forum, Fortune Magazine and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Tom is the author of four books, “Revolution in a Bottle” (2009), “Outsmart Waste” (2014), “Make Garbage Great” (2015) and “The Future of Packaging” (2019). Tom created, produced and starred in TerraCycle’s reality show, “Human Resources” which aired on Pivot from 2014-2016 and is syndicated in more than 20 foreign markets on Amazon and iTunes.

Living sustainably has always been a core belief and practice of Mahesh Ramanujam. Growing up in India where much of the population around him faced economic and environmental hardships, Mahesh learned from a young age to make do and be grateful for what things he had and to give what he could to others so they could share in his resources. This is the philosophy that Mahesh brings to U.S. Green Building Council and Green Building Certification Inc. — maximize the resources you have today so there is abundance for many tomorrow. Mahesh believes in the power of people to change the world for the better, and that true global market transformation can be achieved by working together to build healthier and more sustainable communities, where buildings perform at a higher level and human health and wellness is prioritized and enhanced. In his dual roles as President and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Green Business Certification, Inc. (GBCI), Mahesh leads and empowers hundreds of employees across the globe and thousands of volunteers across USGBC’s ever expanding community to help realize USGBC and GBCI’s mission and vision. Mahesh brings a true passion for people, global sensibilities and strategy, and an entrepreneurial leadership approach to USGBC and GBCI’s rapidly expanding and diversifying teams, as well as their respective suites of best-in-class products and offerings. Mahesh has a wide range of expertise including organizational leadership, consensus building and negotiation, global business and market development, marketing and communications, technological innovation and enterprise platform development, and organizational excellence. Before becoming CEO of USGBC, Mahesh served as USGBC’s Chief Operations Officer and as Chief Information Officer prior to that. Prior to joining GBCI in 2009, Mahesh was COO of Emergys Corp., a business technology-consulting firm that leverages emerging technologies to deliver business transformation to its clients. Over a period of 11 years, Mahesh successfully led various business transformation programs at IBM and Lenovo. Mahesh currently sits on the Advisory Council of the International WELL Building Institute and the Board of Directors of GRESB. Mahesh graduated from India’s Annamalai University with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Frank McDonald started his journalistic career shortly after graduating from University College Dublin with a BA in history and politics, as a freelance New York correspondent for the Irish Press. He worked as a sub-editor and reporter for the paper before joining the Irish Times in 1979, becoming Environment Correspondent in 1986 and Environment Editor in 2000.

A regular contributor to radio and television programmes, he won an Outstanding Work in Irish Journalism award in 1979 for a series of articles in the Irish Times entitled “Dublin: What went wrong?” as well as the Lord Mayor’s Millennium Medal for highlighting good contemporary architecture in the city, and the Green Leader Award at the annual Green Awards.

Frank was conferred with an Honorary DPhil by Dublin Institute of Technology (2006), made an Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (2010) and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2011). He was also a Press Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in 2008, and a founding member of the Academy of Urbanism of Great Britain and Ireland.

He is author of several books including “The Destruction of Dublin” (1985), “Saving the City” (1989) and “The Construction of Dublin” (2000) and joint author with Peigín Doyle of “Ireland’s Earthen Houses” (1997), with James Nix of “Chaos at the Crossroads” (2005), which documented the environmental destruction of the Celtic Tiger era, and with Kathy Sheridan of “The Builders” (2008), profiling the developers and others involved in the boom and bust. 

His autobiography, “Truly Frank: A Dublin Memoir,” was recently published by Penguin Ireland.