Board

As CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, Denis leads an effort to mold the major cities of Pacific Northwest and British Columbia into models of sustainability for a rapidly urbanizing planet. The Foundation applies ecological principles to the design of healthy, resilient human ecosystems. Under his leadership, the Foundation designed and constructed the Bullitt Center—the world’s greenest office building—which it operates as a successful commercial enterprise.

Denis was the principal national organizer of the first Earth Day in 1970, and he took the event international in 1990. It is now the most-widely-observed secular holiday in the world. He is now board chair emeritus of the international Earth Day Network. During the Carter Administration, Hayes was the director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute—since renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Over his career, Hayes has been special assistant to the Governor of Illinois for natural resources and the environment; senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute; adjunct professor of energy engineering and human biology at Stanford University; Regents’ Professor of Natural Resources at the University of California at Santa Cruz; and a Silicon Valley lawyer at the Cooley firm. Denis has been a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC and at the Bellagio Center in Italy, as well as a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Bosch Foundation.

Hayes has received the national Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the Ridenhour Courage Prize, an inaugural Green Swan Award, and the Rachel Carson Award as well as the highest awards bestowed by the Sierra Club, the Environmental Law Institute, the Humane Society of the United States, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Council of America, the Global Environmental Facility of the United Nations, the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, the American Solar Energy Society, and the Commonwealth Club. He has served on dozens of governing boards, including those of Stanford University, the World Resources Institute, the Federation of American Scientists, the Energy Foundation, Children Now, the National Programming Council for Public Television, the American Solar Energy Society, Greenpeace, CERES, and the Environmental Grantmakers Association. In 1999, Time magazine selected Hayes as one of its “Heroes of the Planet.” Life magazine selected him in 1990 as a member of “The Life 100 Most Important Americans of the 20^th Century.”  He has been profiled as “Newsmaker of the week” by ABC News and by the New York Times. Denis wrote Rays of Hope: The Transition to a Post-Petroleum World (WW Norton, 1977) and, together with his spouse, Gail Boyer Hayes, co-authored COWED: The Hidden Impact of 93 Million Cows on America’s Health, Economy, Politics, Culture, and Environment (WW Norton, 2015).

While Harriet Bullitt passed away in April 2022 at the age of 97, her memory as a multi-talented entrepreneur and long-time supporter of the arts and environmental conservation in the Pacific Northwest will live on. She and her sister assumed leadership of KING Broadcasting Company, founded by their pioneering mother, Dorothy, from the mid-1940’s until sale of the company in 1989. Harriet founded Pacific Northwest Magazine (now Seattle Magazine) and Pacific Search Press. She was the developer, owner and CEO of Leavenworth’s Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat, which opened in 1995. Reprising her interest in broadcasting, in 1999 Harriet founded KOHO FM radio in Leavenworth, purchased the Lake Chelan station, KOZI, and created the Icicle Broadcasting Company. In 1988 she founded the Icicle Fund, a charitable foundation supporting the arts and environmental protection in the upper Wenatchee Valley. Ownership of the Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort transferred to the Icicle Fund in 2019 to operate in perpetuity. Over the years, Harriet served on many boards, including the Seattle Pacific Science Center, The Nature Conservancy, Reed College, Icicle Creek Music Center, Icicle Creek Watershed Council, and National Audubon.

Mark Edlen is Co-Founder and Chairman of Gerding Edlen. He is recognized for his expertise and success in creating sustainable communities in mixed-use commercial, residential, educational and retail developments. For 20 years, Mark led the firm’s vision and growth with the belief that the path to preserving the environment leads directly to a new urban reality, where transformative buildings and quality assets foster communities. In his words, cities are the solution for a growing population. Since 1996, when Mark co-founded the firm with his good friend, Bob Gerding, who died in 2009, Gerding Edlen has grown into a leader of sustainable real estate investment, developing and owning more than 75 LEED certified buildings throughout the Western United States, Boston and Chicago. Gerding Edlen originated the 20-minute living concept and established a set of criteria called Principles of Place—where community plays a pivotal role alongside design and technology in the success of their properties. Mark is committed to developing buildings that attain net-zero energy use and embraces the fundamental philosophy of community that integrates neighborhoods, educational institutions and builds strong business, government and community partnerships. Mark and his wife, Ann are actively involved in the Portland community and are deeply committed to education, healthcare, the arts, sustainability and the built environment. They believe that as engaged citizens we must always be asking, how can we add to our community, what is our responsibility to the livability of the built environment and how can we help less fortunate Oregonians attain their dreams. They share these values with their three grown children, their spouses and two grandchildren. In addition to his role as a trustee for The Bullitt Foundation, Mark is as a member of the Board of Directors for Ecotrust and currently serves on the Portland Development Commission. Mark earned a BS degree and MBA in Finance from the University of Oregon.

Rod Brown is a founding partner of Cascadia Law Group PLLC, a Seattle law firm that specializes in environmental law. He is the principal author of Washington’s Superfund law, the Model Toxics Control Act, and has worked for years to reform and improve the environmental regulatory system in the Pacific Northwest and in Washington, D.C. Brown serves on several non-profit boards in addition to the Bullitt Foundation. He is a director of the National Audubon Society, as well as a past president of the Seattle Audubon Society, and is a recent graduate of Seattle Audubon’s Master Birder program. He is married to an environmental scientist, and has a daughter who is a climate policy analyst.