John Andersen is founder and President of Greenleaf Advisors, LLC, where he advises businesses, institutions, and communities on strategies that advance their sustainable development. John’s thirty-plus years of experience, serving businesses, capital clients, nonprofits, governments and institutions, demonstrates that it takes effective engagement across these sectors to achieve sustainable growth and solve complex problems.

His current clients include regional governmental entities seeking to protect water resources, renewable-energy companies, private-equity investment firms, nonprofits, energy research institutions, and industrial-materials recycling and waste-energy recovery companies.

Previously, John was an International and Managing Director at Jones Lang LaSalle, where he managed the company’s national land business and its strategic expansion into China. He was also the Great Lakes Director of The Nature Conservancy, where he worked across the region’s scientific, business, and government sectors to advance biodiversity conservation. John is a faculty member at DePaul University, where he teaches Sustainable Value Creation in the Kellstadt Business School.

Additionally, John is President of Greenleaf Communities, a nonprofit research entity that recruits and organizes multi-disciplinary teams of scientists to investigate environmental influences on health and apply that knowledge to improve industrial practices and public policies. John holds an AB in Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ben Bezark is a Director at Greenleaf Advisors and Greenleaf Communities where he works with clients to meet their business and environmental objectives. He joins Greenleaf from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute where he led the development of operational systems and technologies to facilitate the growth of the Cradle to Cradle Certified® Products Program to thousands of products from over 600 companies around the world. Ben brings experience in operational and technology management, product design and development, and circularity and waste reduction.

Ben holds his MS in Product Design and Development Management from Northwestern University and B.S. in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont.

Katie assists with research, outreach, and communication efforts across Greenleaf's priorities - land, water, material, and energy. She also supports the company’s communication and administrative needs. To advance sustainable water solutions, Katie works with Opti to bring innovation to stormwater management in Illinois. She works on sustainable energy with Intelligent Generation to assist in their development and analyze potential renewable energy projects. Her agricultural research focuses, in part, on the soil and water benefits derived from the use of gypsum as an agricultural amendment. She coordinates outreach and organization for the Healthy Soils for Healthy Waters symposia series including outreach and speaker engagement. Katie has conducted literature reviews on the agricultural and environmental benefits of gypsum and a white paper on microgrids.

In addition to her work at Greenleaf Advisors, Katie is Program Manager at our sister nonprofit organization, Greenleaf Communities, where she leads our agricultural and healthy soils work and provides support to program areas of climate and water.

Katie graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and a minor in Business. She graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with an MS in Environmental Management and Sustainability.

Francine leads Greenleaf’s water projects as well as applied research and policy analysis on climate, water and urban planning.  She conducts outreach communications with partners, clients and stakeholders.

Francine brings a decade of international experience in water research, governance and urban resilience with think tanks and policy centers in Europe, Latin America and Africa. She is completing doctoral studies at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, with a dissertation on multi-scalar water governance in Mexico City and São Paulo, Brazil.  She currently conducts water research across Latin America with a team at the University of California, Davis and is lead author on the Water and Cities Chapter of the 2020 United Nations’ Global Environmental Outlook report providing guidance to world governments and organizations. Francine graduated from New York University with a BA in politics and from the University of Amsterdam with a Research Master’s in international development.