Speaker Biographies
Session II: RMDZ’s Nexus with Green Business Certification Programs
Shawn Orgel-Olson, Director of Marketing and Performance Standards, California Green Business Network (CAGBN)
Shawn Orgel-Olson is head of Marketing and Performance Standards for the California Green Business Network (CAGBN). He advises the Performance Standards and Marketing Committees of CAGBN.
Prior to joining CAGBN, Mr. Orgel-Olson worked for the City of Santa Cruz on their Operations and Resource Recovery teams where he focused on energy efficiency, resource recovery and the City’s Green Business Program. The City of Santa Cruz boasts some of the highest numbers of certified Green Businesses per capita. His experience working at Disney Consumer Products in their Sustainable Business Practices and International Labor Standards groups provides invaluable corporate sustainability experience. As a Project Coordinator for the Alliance to Save Energy at UC Berkeley he focused on projects that reduced the energy consumption of fume hoods, dormitories and campus vending machines.
Session VI: Recycling Manufacturer Success Stories
Navid Rezaei, Plant Manager, Epic Plastics
Mr. Navid Rezaei follows a distinguished career in management. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California State University Sacramento, Masters in Business Administration from University of Phoenix, and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Grow up in Incline Village NV, and moved to Sacramento for College. In July 2009, he accepted a position as Senior Mechanical Engineer with Zimmer Biomet in Reno, NV where he developed new medical products, injection mold tool design, modify current products, tooling design for manufacturing, oversee laser marking department until November 2013 were he started his new term as Plant Manager with Epic Plastics in Lodi, CA. Under his tenure, Mr. Rezaei oversees day to day operations, employees, production, efficiency, and budget to name a few. He also oversees the environmental side of business, planning engineering and laying out any new machinery, equipment, vehicles and preventative maintenance of the plant.
Jeff Kupets, CFO, Circular Polymers
Jeffrey Kupets is Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Circular Polymers LLC. Circular Polymers recycles carpet in Lincoln, CA and is doubling its plant capacity after receiving a $2 million dollar RMDZ loan from CalRecycle. Mr. Kupets is a 30 year veteran of the financial industry, and served as Managing Partner of a proprietary derivatives trading company in Chicago for the eight years prior to founding Circular Polymers. He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Robert “Bob” Daviduk, CFA, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, rPlanet Earth
Prior to co-founding rPlanet Earth, Bob worked for over 25 years in the financial services sector where he held senior positions at large financial institutions including Wells Fargo, Guggenheim Partners and PIMCO. Bob is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of rPlanet Earth, a green tech/clean tech company that will produce packaging that incorporates post-consumer bottle grade recycled PET into its high quality packaging products. Bob holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance and International Business from New York University where he graduated first in his class. He holds an undergraduate degree from Bucknell University in Accounting with a minor in Management Information Systems. Bob also holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.