Our Board

Directors

Jim Epstein

Founder and president of Ecselance International, a micro enterprise development organization. Prior to his work with Ecselance International he was managing director of the International Institute for Sustainable Development at Colorado State University. His previous experience was in engineering management at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies.  Jim is currently a member of the CASE (Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise) advisory board.

Asad Aziz

A recent addition to Colorado State University's Department of Management, Asad Aziz joined CSU after more than two decades of international business experience in the technology industry.  Originally from Pakistan, Asad has also served as a consultant to JP Morgan Partner's nanotechnology venture fund and advised technology and triple bottom line ventures.  Asad holds a BSEE, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in Strategy and Entrepreneurship.  Asad teaches and advises students in CSU's GSSE (Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise) MBA program and consults with the Rocky Mountain Innosphere.

Greg Herman

Greg is a retired HP executive, formerly VP of Supply Chain for the Desktop PC business.  He worked 20 year in Fort Collins, Colorado, 4 years in Barcelona, Spain and 7 years in Vancouver, Washington in the printer business.  Active in community service - past president of Congregation Har Shalom, certified Court Appointed Special Advocate, board member of CSU Center for Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise and Clean Engines. Inc. startup.  Greg has 3 children college age and older and lives with his wife Trudy in Fort Collins, Colorado.  He enjoys biking (favorite ride is Triple Bypass), music and skiing.

Kris Boesch

Kris has been a resident of Fort Collins, Colorado for the past 8 years, and she and her husband have four children attending CSU, Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, and Lincoln IB program.  Professionally, she is the founder of Choose People, a nationwide certification for companies with happy employees.  She and her husband also own Exodus Moving & Storage.  Before Choose People, Kris was the CEO of Exodus Moving and Storage for 5 years.  Prior to that she was a Public Leadership Consultant for Conocer in Boulder, Colorado and Director of Public Relations for Hitachi Power Tools in Atlanta, GA.  She has an MA in Spanish from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. and a BA in Spanish and Anthropology from CU, Boulder.

Edward H. King

Ed has been a resident of Fort Collins, Colorado for the past 5 years.  He and his wife have three children attending school in the Poudre Valley School District: McGraw IB World School, Polaris Expeditionary Learning School and Poudre High School IB Program.  Professionally, he is president of SpectrDigital, Inc. an affiliated company with SpectraDigital Corporation, a Canadian infectious disease research organization in Guelph, Ontario.  He is also president of AMR, Inc. a retail technology consulting company.  Before moving to Fort Collins, he was the head of government and community relations for Walgreen Co. in Chicago for 27 years, and prior to joining Walgreens, he was Chief Legislative Assistant for a United States Senator.  His other experience includes three years as the director of Council of Governments in Oklahoma, and working as an associate in an Oklahoma based law firm.  He has a BA and JD form the University of Tulsa.

Carl Hammerdorfer

Carl is the Executive Director of CASE, created to meet needs and opportunities that came to light while running the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise MBA.  An entrepreneur with twenty-five years of experience overseas and domestically.  Carl began his international career working at the grass-roots level as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa.  A water resources volunteer, Carl's greatest success was the production of a record in Bambara featuring songs about various public health challenges.  He has worked as a water sanitation consultant in Cote d'Ivoire, VOCA Country Director in Warsaw. Polland, and Peace Corps Country Director in Sofia, Bulgaria.  In addition to his international work, Carl has extensive experience forming and launching cooperatives internationally and domestically.  He was co-founder of America's first cooperative business incubator - Cooperative Solutions - building national cooperatives in drywall & roofing distribution, bicycle retail, leasing, and other sectors.

Kathryn Ernst

Kathryn has a BA in International Studies and a BA in Spanish form Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, and an MSBA in Global, Social & Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) from Colorado State University.  After working for a family-owned bicycle tour company for a year, she served two years in the Peace Corps in the Domincan Republic as a Community Economic Development volunteer.  Her work in the DR with an organic coffee cooperative inspired her to research alternative supply chain models that benefit small-holder farmers in the developing world.  During the GSSE program, Kathryn co-founded Organic Oasis, an aquaponics business whose family-sized units increase nutrition and income to bottom of the pyramid families in Lima, Peru via efficient vegetable and fish production.  Kathryn is now the Research Associate for the Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise in the College of Business at CSU, where she helps design new programs that disseminate sustainable business practices to students, entrepreneurs, and businesses.

Gary Amato

Gary Amato is an attorney and entrepreneur.  Most recently, he has advised startup companies on a wide range of business and legal issues.  He has held several positions at Colorado State University in the areas of technology commercializaation and transfer. He has also served as the Director of Business Development at Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) a telecommunications semiconductor company, where he was responsible for private equity investments, M&A and strategic partnering arrangements.  He was formerly a founder and vice president of operations at SiLutia, which was acquired by AMCC in 2000, associate general counsel of LSI Logic, general manager for US operations of Burt Separators, and associate at  Pillsbury Madison & Sutro.  He received both his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and his JD from the University of Virginia.