Event Partners

Ken is CEO of MBDC, the groundbreaking design chemistry firm William McDonough co-founded with German chemist Dr. Michael Braungart. Since joining the firm in 2000, Ken and MBDC have helped leading companies like Berkshire Hathaway’s Shaw Industries (for which the U.S. EPA awarded him the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award), Method, Herman Miller, Steelcase, Centria, Owens Corning, Dow Chemical Company, Procter & Gamble, Alcoa, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service profitably implement the Cradle to Cradle framework for continuous improvement and, in many instances, proceed to implement the Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM Program, which was conceived and developed by MBDC and then gifted to the nonprofit Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute in 2010. The program guides improvement towards products that are: made with materials that are safe for people and the environment; designed so all ingredients can be reused by nature or industry at high levels of quality; manufactured with clean sources of energy; and produced in ways that protect and enrich water supplies and advance social and environmental justice. Ken has led MBDC’s pioneering work around redefining product quality—characterizing down to the parts per million and including effects on ecological and human health—which has permanently transformed the conversation around materials and the built environment and later became the basis for the information transparency movement today.

Prior to joining MBDC, Ken worked in global multinational companies in a variety of technical and business roles for over 30 years. In the late 1980s he developed the first environmental packaging strategy for SC Johnson in Europe and as European Marketing Manager he evaluated green marketing of cleaning products with consumers. In 1992, as Global Director of Sustainable Product Innovation at SC Johnson & Son, Ken was responsible for worldwide environmental product stewardship, the oversight of corporate environmental goals and metrics, and the direction of SC Johnson's Worldwide Business Council on Environment. He worked closely with other companies in the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. Under Ken’s direction, SC Johnson made great strides in eco-efficiency and green chemistry, reporting results that continue to be widely recognized for their environmental leadership today.

Ken has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Applied Chemistry from Brunel University, (West London, UK) and a Masters in Business Administration from Brunel/Henley Management College (Oxford, UK).

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