Building your Business
Our first gathering in 2019! Join us Friday, March 1st for our first connection event of the year over the breakfast hour. This event’s theme is all around finding success in building and orchestrating a thriving and rewarding business. We’ll have a panel of female business owners sharing their unique success points, or sweet spots, in their business ventures. The panel will be followed by a Q&A wherein you can ask your questions and be a part of the group dialog. Finally, we’ll also be sharing an overview of WIG events for the coming year, inspired directly from participant input!
Coffee, tea and light breakfast fare included with your event registration.
Meet our Panelists:
Kristi Byers, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Kristi’s design eye, technical expertise and consensus-building leadership skills have been honed over her 18 years of project and community leadership experience on commercial, civic, university, K-12, mid- and high-rise mixed-use, residential and master planning projects throughout Southern California and across the U.S.
Sustainable design and healthy buildings have always been a passion for Kristi. She became a LEED Accredited Professional in 2007 and has served as LEED Coordinator or LEED Project Manager on several notable, sustainably-designed projects around the country. Government and corporate clients have sought her expertise for educating their staff about sustainability, greening their building operations, strategizing for building and site purchases and planning for future sustainable renovations.
An active member of the architectural community, Kristi has served on the American Institute of Architecture San Diego Chapter’s Board of Directors in roles that ranged from Public Advocacy Commissioner to President; and the American Institute of Architects California Council Board of Directors, Council Repositioning Committee and Advocacy Advisory Committee. She has been a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Downtown San Diego Partnership, United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW). She is a LEAD San Diego Core Curriculum Graduate and has served as a subject matter expert for the writing of the LEED Exam and the California Architects Supplemental Exam. She enjoys staying connected to San Diego’s academic institutions and has taught as a visiting professor at San Diego State University (2014) and adjunct professor at Woodbury University (2009 – present).
Daniele Horton, LEED Fellow, CEM, MS, AIA, CalBRE
Founder and President of Verdani Partners
Daniele Horton brings over 20 years of experience in corporate sustainability, real estate and project management. Daniele’s expertise, dedication and passion are central to her leadership of the company. Daniele is an architect, LEED Fellow and a Certified Energy Manager. She is currently leading the Verdani team in sustainability efforts for 11 real estate firms totaling over 550 Million square feet of diversified real estate portfolio representing over $275 Billion in AUM. Most of them have ranked among the top ten on GRESB which is a great testament to the success of Verdani’s sustainability programs. As the head of sustainability for Thomas Properties Group for almost a decade she led the LEED certification of TPG’s nationwide portfolio of office buildings in the house and was ranked as the highest environmental performer on GRESB in the Americas in the Office category (2011, 2012 & 2013). With over 60 speaking engagements under her belt since 2008, and industry leadership with 14 organizations, Daniele was named one of the “Top 10 Most Powerful Women in Sustainability” in 2014.
Daniele is also an adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego where she teaches Sustainable Real Estate at their MSRE program and actively participates on several sustainability committees such as NAREIT’s Sustainable Real Estate Council, the GRESB Benchmark Committee, the USGBC National Advisory Council, the ULI Greenprint Performance Committee, the BOMA Sustainability Committee, the Living Building Institute California Congress and the California Sustainability Alliance Green Buildings Committee. She served on local non-profit boards for almost a decade and was the Founder and former Co-Chair for the USGBC-LA Existing Buildings Committee, she also leads the national Existing Buildings subcommittee of USGBC. Verdani recently started a non-profit organization called Verdani Institute for the Built Environment to advance global sustainability adoption in the built environment through research, education, collaboration, and resilience.
Kenda Pollio, AICP
Principal and CEO, Kp Environmental, Inc.
Kenda Pollio founded Kp Environmental, Inc., (KPE) in 2007, a California based women-owned business certified by the California Public Utilities Commission, specializing in Environmental Permitting and Compliance, Utility Development Project Strategic Planning, Public Process Planning and Public Outreach/Relation Efforts. Capabilities include providing technical expertise in all natural resource areas as well as providing GIS and data management services and public and government relations.
As the owner and CEO of KPE, Kenda Pollio serves as a Senior Environmental Planner and Project Manager. She specializes in transmission line and right-of-way assessment, siting, acquisition, permitting, easements, and government compliance. She has provided Project Management and technical expertise for utilities, independent transmission companies, independent power producers, governmental entities. She has analyzed over 200 power plants, electric and gas transmission and substation projects.
She has conducted environmental assessments, public participation programming, land use planning and zoning, and socioeconomic planning. She has obtained federal, state, and local approvals for a variety of projects. She is familiar with local government zoning processes, state regulatory requirements throughout the United States, and federal compliance requirements for EISs, EAs, and ERPs prepared for Western, FERC, BLM, USDA Forest Service, BOR, BIA and COE. She also has specialized in noise and air analysis for a variety of linear corridor projects.
Ms. Pollio has developed Public Participation Programs and facilitated public consultation processes, public workshops and meetings both internationally and domestically. Public Participation Programs have included development of public outreach programs, stakeholder identification and coordination, NGO and elected official coordination, environmental education, development and publication of newsletters, and interface with media and neighbors. She specializes in developing public involvement programs for generation and transmission projects. She has coordinated or attended over 150 public process venues including stakeholder workshops and Open Houses, which total over 950 public process meetings.
She has provided expert witness testimony before the California Public Utilities Commission, Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee, Public Utilities Commission of Wisconsin and the Public Utilities Commission of Texas on over 25 different utility cases.
