Executive Staff

President, CEO & Founding Chairman

Chief Operating Officer (COO) 

Senior Vice President, Education & Research 

Senior Vice President, LEED 

Senior Vice President, Business Technology Transformation 

Senior Vice President, Global Policy & Law 

Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications 

General Counsel 

Vice President, Market Development 

Vice President, Residential Market Development 

Vice President, Conferences and Events 

Vice President, LEED Resource Development 

Vice President, LEED Technical Development 

Vice President, Finance and Administration 

Vice President, Community 

Vice President, National Policy 

S. Richard Fedrizzi
President, CEO & Founding Chairman

Rick Fedrizzi, founding chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1993, was appointed President & CEO in April 2004. Under his leadership, the Council has tripled its membership, broadened its influence, and cemented its role as a leadership voice in the global sustainability movement. 

The evolution and extension of the internationally recognized LEED Green Building Rating System to all building types and expansion of LEED certification and accreditation through the spin off the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), of which Rick is chairman, has helped build in speed and capacity to the organization.  Collaboration, through work with the Clinton Global Initiative, the International Codes Council, AIA, ASHRAE, ASID, ASLA, BOMA and IFMA has broadened the base of green building. Expanded outreach and education, advocacy support for public policy initiatives, and a heightened emphasis on green building’s role in social equity progress are part of Rick’s vision for the organization.  In 2009, Rick Fedrizzi and the USGBC were recognized as visionaries in sustainability by the National Building Museum, which awarded them an Honor Award. A founder of the World Green Building Council, Rick is now an active member of its board.  He also serves on the board of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative.

Prior to his appointment, Rick was with United Technologies Corporation (UTC), before establishing Green Think, an environmental marketing organization.    He serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Indoor Environmental Quality (NYIEQ) Center and The Environmental Project™,  as an Advisory Council member for Planet Green, and is an active alumnus of Syracuse University, where he received his MBA degree. Rick received his BS from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. 

Chris Smith
Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Chris joined USGBC in June, 2005 to help the organization meet the challenges created by rapid growth.  As COO, Chris provides organizational leadership and management of finance, human resources, technology and administration.  Prior to his arrival, he facilitated the sale of Washington, DC based architecture firm Ai, in which he was CFO/COO and a partner since 1998.  His experience also includes similar senior management responsibilities in a commercial real estate services firm and a systems integration company.  Chris began his career in banking, where he specialized in branch management and commercial lending. 

A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Chris has been active in the community for over 20 years, serving as a Director and Treasurer of both St. Luke’s House and the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce as well as President of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rotary Club.  He is a graduate of Duke University, and earned a Master of Science in Organization Development from  American University/National Training Labs (AU/NTL).

As Senior Vice President of Education & Research for the U.S. Green Building Council, Rebecca Flora directs USGBC’s far-reaching education program and expanding research initiatives. Rebecca has been deeply involved in USGBC’s growth and development as an active volunteer, providing leadership to USGBC’s board as outgoing chair, to the core committee of LEED for Neighborhood Development, and as chair of the host committee of Greenbuild 2003 in Pittsburgh.

She has served on the Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition, and recently was an advisory board member for the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Sustainability Initiative, and a board member of Phipps Conservatory and the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development. Additionally, she has been an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management.

A LEED AP, Rebecca holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Science from Plattsburgh State University of New York.

As Senior Vice President of Global Policy and Law, Roger Platt is responsible for managing policy and legal aspects related to the increasingly global adoption of the LEED green building certification program. Platt’s role includes managing an international portfolio of policy development relationships, including the World Green Building Council Policy Committee and the United Nations Environment Programme, among others, supporting policy initiatives in countries where LEED is becoming the dominant rating system tool for delivering high performance buildings.

Platt also oversees USGBC’s proactive engagement in U.S. Policy and legislation development among federal and state agencies, on the Hill, in state capitals, city halls and county commissions across the country, as well as through the alliances USGBC has forged with other NGOs and public-private initiatives. This includes advancing USGBC’s views to these constituencies on the benefits of green schools, green affordable housing, sustainable communities, and mitigating the impact of buildings on climate change.

Platt joined USGBC after 15 years as senior vice president and counsel with the Real Estate Roundtable, which represents the leaders of America’s top public and privately owned real estate entities on public environmental and non-profit organizations to advance responsible public policy.

Before joining the Real Estate Roundtable, he was a consultant to President Clinton’s then newly formed Corporation for National and Community Service. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of San Francisco School of Law. He is a member of the California and District of Columbia bar associations and a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), where he chaired the ULI sustainable Development Council form 2001-2004, and current serves as assistant chair of the ULI Responsible Property Investment Council.

Throughout her 30-year career, Judith Webb has been a sought-after senior counselor on messaging, marketing and managing brand development strategies that deliver awareness, acceptance and results for organizations and the executive teams that drive them. She amassed a portfolio of experience through corporate, non-profit and four agency engagements that allows her to apply her strategic-thinking skills for a variety of clients across multiple sectors. A University of Georgia J-school grad, Judith chairs the Environmental Sector chair of PRSA and is a member of the the Urban Land Institute and a founding member of the GreenEarth PR Network. She lectures widely on communications theory, and provides spokesperson training and executive-level coaching to some of the leading names in green business.

Susan Dorn is General Counsel for the U.S. Green Building Council and its credentialing subsidiary, the Green Building Certification Institute. A nationally recognized expert in legal and governance issues for non-profits, she joined the organization in 2009 after two years as outside counsel to the organization provided from Dorn & Hanson, where she had been a founder and managing partner since establishing her firm in 1996.

A 1985 graduate of Antioch School of Law, a public interest law school, Susan is a noted writer; she is co-author of a booklet published by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards entitled The Nonprofit Board's Guide to Bylaws; one of the authors of The Licensure and Certification Mission: Legal, Social, and Political Foundations; a contributor to the American Bar Association’s Tax-Exempt Tool Kit; and a regular contributor to numerous legal and risk management publications.

She is also a sought after speaker on the issues of governance, voluntary certification, and accreditation, as well as governmental regulation and licensure. Susan is a member of the bar in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and an assessor for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

As the Vice President for Market Development at the U.S. Green Building Council, Doug Gatlin has oversight for deploying the family of LEED rating systems in all the major commercial market segments and for managing overall customer relations for LEED and the Council’s new pilot initiative, the Portfolio Program.

Doug has 16 years experience in energy and environmental policy and has worked on climate change response strategies and voluntary pollution prevention programs for most of his career. He has authored publications on climate change mitigation strategies, energy efficiency program design, and energy efficiency project financing.

Prior to joining USGBC, Doug worked at the US EPA for nearly 10 years. For most of his tenure there, he served as Team Leader for the ENERGY STAR Commercial Buildings program, spearheading numerous activities including the launch of the first vertical sector marketing strategy, a new public sector program for governments, K-12 schools and universities, an energy efficiency financing initiative, and the launch of new partnership program with utilities.  From 1992-1996, Doug served as a project manager at the Washington, DC based Climate Institute, where he managed the Energy Smart Cities campaign and helped the U.S. Department of Energy launch the Rebuild America program.

Doug holds a bachelors in political science from Duke University and a masters in public policy from Georgetown University. He lives with his wife and two children in Silver Spring, MD.

Nate Kredich joined the U.S. Green Building Council in March 2008 as Vice President of Residential Market Development. He spent the prior five years working in the production homebuilding environment as the chief operating officer and general manager of Creative Touch Interiors, a national turnkey provider of design center and installation services that he helped to sell to The Home Depot in 2004. Following the sale, Nate oversaw the growth of the company’s California and Nevada operations, and he held various leadership positions within his own local homebuilding association.

Nate’s prior experience also included a position as CEO of a software company focused on the interior design market, where he helped build a searchable interior products database which helped design professionals gather information on sustainable products. He was recently named to the Nominating Committee for the Michael J. Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Building.

Nate received a bachelor’s degree from Emory University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

As the Vice President of Conferences & Events at USGBC for over seven years, Kimberly Lewis manages the direction of the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. As a direct testament to the department’s success, Greenbuild has received the IMEX responsible meeting award and Trade Show Week’s Fastest 50 conference award four times.

Along with the annual conference, the Conferences & Events team coordinates more than 100 committee meetings, summits, roundtables and special events throughout the year. With 12 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Kimberly is a leading speaker for her peers, educating audiences on coordinating sustainably responsible meetings and conferences.

Prior to joining USGBC, Kimberly served as the Senior Meeting & Events Manager of Incentive and Recognition at WorldCom Inc. where she planned both domestic and international sales roll-outs and incentive and recognition contests and events.

Kimberly serves on the advisory boards of convention and visitors bureaus in three cities – Denver, Atlanta and New Orleans – as well as on the advisory board of Starwood Hotels Inc. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication and Political Science from Hood College in Frederick, Md. She is a professional member of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), and the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC).

Mike Opitz is the Vice President of LEED Implementation at USGBC, whose main responsibility is developing and maintaining the LEED submittal documentation requirements and corresponding LEED Online v3 functionality for individual building projects and the LEED Portfolio Program. During his time with USGBC Mike has overseen the revisions to the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance rating system, managed the LEED certification team, and directed ongoing operations of the LEED for Existing Buildings program.

Prior to joining USGBC Mike’s professional career has focused on energy efficiency in buildings, starting with the development of a regional model energy code in Russia in the 1990s that has since been locally adopted by regions constituting 75% of the country. Mike also spent several years at a consulting firm in the DC area where he was responsible for quality assurance and quality control of energy measurement and verification, and also managed an energy performance contract for the U.S. Army covering 700 buildings across five installations.

Mike is a licensed Professional Engineer and a LEED Accredited Professional. He holds dual master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As the Vice President of LEED® Technical Development at the U.S. Green Building Council, Brendan Owens collaborates with volunteer technical committees to refine and evolve the USGBC’s LEED Green Building Rating System. During his time at USGBC, Brendan has led development activities for LEED for New Construction, LEED for Existing Buildings, LEED for Core and Shell and several market specific LEED Application Guides including retail, healthcare facilities and laboratories. Brendan is currently focused on creating the framework for LEED Version 3, a system that promises to be technically more robust and easier to implement.

Brendan is a member of the ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA committee developing Standard 189.1 – Standard for High-Performance Green Buildings and is a delegate to the United Nations Environmental Programme Sustainable Buildings & Construction Initiative (UNEP/SBCI) Think Tank on Benchmarking Sustainable Buildings. He represents USGBC on the steering committee for the Advanced Energy Design Guide series and the Green Guideline for Healthcare. Prior to joining USGBC, Brendan worked designing and implementing performance contract based energy conservation projects in existing buildings. Brendan also managed the energy conservation program for a 100+ building campus.

Brendan is a LEED Accredited Professional and a licensed Professional Engineer. He received his Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

As Vice President of Finance and Administration, Dave Witek manages the Accounting Department, monitoring the organization’s financial processes and internal controls, and ensuring financial statements are prepared and reported in accordance with GAAP. He maintains the relationship with the auditors, and oversees the budget preparation, corporate investments and the payroll functions. His administration functions for USGBC include business insurance and real estate capacities.

Dave joined USGBC in September 2006 as the Controller. Prior to joining the Council, he served as Operational Controller for the start up company InPhonic and as the Director of Accounting for their prepaid mobile phone division, Liberty Wireless. Before that, Dave managed several accounting departments at TeleCorp, another start up telecom corporation.

Dave received his bachelor of science in accounting from Syracuse University and his M.B.A. in Information Technology at Loyola College in Maryland. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

As Vice President of Community for the U.S. Green Building Council, Richard directs USGBC’s programs for its national and international members and chapters across the country, a vibrant and diverse community which offers unlimited new opportunities for connecting individuals and businesses with the people, information and ideas they need to be part of the rapidly growing green building movement.

As a volunteer with the U.S. Green Building Council, Richard founded the Maine Chapter and served as its first chair. Under his leadership, the group advocated for the second executive order requiring LEED for state buildings in Maine, collaborated on the first green affordable housing standard in the country with Maine State Housing, and certified the first LEED home in the country in Freeport.

Nationally for the U.S. Green Building Council, Richard has served on the Upper Northeast Regional Council, Chapter Steering Committee, the National Board, and the Executive Committee as the Board Secretary.

Richard is a registered architect and holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from Rice University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech. As a principal with WBRC Architect-Engineers in Maine from 2000-2008 he served as the environmental consultant for the first LEED building at the University of Maine; designed a building for the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory that is LEED Gold certified; designed the Presque Isle Middle School, the first high-performance school in Maine; consulted on sustainable master plans for the College of the Atlantic and Maine Maritime Academy. From 2008 to 2009, he was a project architect with the Minneapolis office of Perkins+Will, working in LEED projects around the world and on sustainability and master planning consulting for higher education institutions. He lives with his wife and two children in St Paul, Minnesota.

For 10 years, Jason Hartke has been a voice in Washington, D.C., for clean energy and the environment. As Vice President of National Policy, Jason works to advance the U.S. Green Building Council’s national policy agenda and deliver the integrated environmental, economic and social benefits of green building policy solutions. In addition, he helps establish and oversee USGBC advocacy programs in sustainable communities, green schools and affordable housing. For the past five years, he has managed efforts that helped result in the passage of historic federal investment in green building and a tripling of green building policies at the state and local level. He has also built innovative collaborations with other organizations, such as the Sierra Club, the Center for American Progress, and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.

Among his varied background, Jason served in the Clinton Administration, working in the West Wing of the White House in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, a policy and outreach team that serves as the president’s liaison to state and local elected officials throughout the country. While there, he promoted the president’s policy initiatives and worked closely with governors, mayors, state legislators and other state and local policymakers. As a reporter with the Connection Newspapers, Jason covered state and local politics, real estate, land use, and community affairs, winning multiple awards. Jason serves on the board of the Babylon Project, a small non-profit focused on spurring the uptake of municipal residential retrofitting programs modeled on the success of the seminal program developed in Babylon, N.Y.

Jason received his Ph.D. in public policy from George Mason University. He holds his master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.