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Who are we?

Leaders transforming Costa Rica towards carbon neutrality.

We are young Costa Rican leaders from diverse backgrounds (lawyers, scientists, managers, architects, engineers, entrepreneurs, etc.) who believe that achieving the carbon neutrality goal will transform our nation’s economy, society and environment for the better. We work with student leaders from Yale University to share international perspectives, insights and resources. We share three key attributes:

Talk is cheap. Costa Rica critically needs leaders who will roll-up their sleeves and work smart to achieve the ultimate goal: carbon neutrality. Our success will be measured simply by one number: how many tons of carbon dioxide did we reduce? Everyone on our team has a track-record of delivering real results.

Climate change is a global challenge that requires local solutions. Our team members have worked on local projects and understand the effect of their actions globally. They bring a wealth of international experiences.

Everyone in our team understands the complexity and enormity of the energy/climate challenge. We also understand the value of hope. We are committed to transforming Costa Rica into a low-carbon economy.

Learn about our team members... and please join our effort!

Mr. Jimenez is a recent M.B.A. graduate from Yale University where he was the Alston Memorial Scholar. At Yale, he led the energy club’s 400% membership growth and assisted with its first energy conference. During an international exchange, he won the “Numero Uno” MBA competition hosted in Bangalore, India.
Prior to Yale, Mr. Jimenez worked for eight years on environmental auditing, due diligence assessments, and ISO14001 issues for many of the world’s largest companies. Through his projects, he delivered marked reductions in air, water and waste discharges from factories in over 25 countries. He was awarded a number of professional certifications and honors, including Professional Engineer licensing and directorship in The Auditing Roundtable.
Mr. Jimenez gained his undergraduate degree in biological engineering from Louisiana State University, where he was a University Chancellor’s and Pegues Engineering Scholar. His senior design project on the combustion of biological materials was awarded U.S. patent no. 6,601,526.
In October, Mr. Jimenez begins work with Shell Oil in London as a strategy manager in the future fuels and carbon dioxide business unit. He will develop and implement strategies on sustainable mobility.

Mr. Jimenez is an avid outdoorsman; his last two ‘serious’ treks have been to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal and Cerro Chirripó in Costa Rica. Roberto Jimenez is a native of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica and is aged 34.

Ms. Tristán is a partner in Futuris Consulting, an environment, health and safety (EHS) consultancy firm she co-founded in Costa Rica in 2007. Futuris has brought into the Latin American market a distinctive approach to consultancy: focusing EHS activities on performance results and not bureaucracy. The firm also provides support for green building developments.
Ms. Tristan participated in Costa Rica’s Peace with Nature Initiative for over a year. She lead the water and environmental quality management working groups. Over the past six years , she has been a member of the International Green Lead Working Group, which has developed standards for sound environmental management of lead acid batteries globally.
Prior to Futuris, Ms. Tristan consulted for leading global organizations over eight years, in the fields of compliance auditing, due diligence assessments, management systems certification, and contaminated land remediation. She worked in over 35 countries.
Ms. Tristan gained her undergraduate degree in geology from the University of Costa Rica. She also holds a PhD in environmental geochemistry from Imperial College (U.K.) where she researched exposure and risk assessment probabilistic modeling in former mining areas.
Ms. Tristan spends most of her free time with her husband and young baby enjoying the Costa Rican outdoors. Emma was born in the UK from Costa Rican parents, and is aged 37.

Mr. Kierszenson is an expert on energy-related technologies and the president of Energia Natural de Centroamerica, a company that provides profitable energy solutions for Central America’s manufacturing sector. The firm focuses on energy saving and self-generation techniques.
Prior to founding Energia Natural, Mr. Kierszenson worked for three years at Energia Sin Fronteras, where he analyzed state-of-the-art renewable energy technologies and provided advice on implementation of these new technologies within the Central American context. For example, he led a notable study on the installation of algae photobioreactors in local fossil fuel power plants in order to scrub CO2 emissions and produce biofuels.
He participated in the development of the Costa Rican presidential decree supporting cleaner vehicles, where he represented Better Place Project and the concept of a network of intelligent electric cars.
Mr. Kierszenson has two technical degrees from the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica (Costa Rica Institute of Technology), as an electronics technician and industrial engineer. During his studies at ITCR, he worked in the university’s material science laboratories and served a student leader within the university’s research and extension department.

Ms. Lang is director of the Programa de Aliados Cambio Climático, an organization she founded in 2007 to educate people on environmental responsibility and climate change by providing a simple and practical mechanism for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions via local reforestation using native species.
For her work on climate change, Ms. Lang has been named an Ashoka Fellow. Ashoka Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs who have been recognized to have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society.
Ms. Lang’s Programa de Aliandos Cambio Climatico has partnerships with a number of organizations including Costa Rica’s Universidad Nacional, Control Union Certifications, GS1, the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (government-run electric utility) and Fundación Corcovado. Over the past two years, the organization has planted over 35,000 trees with the support from over fifty private sector corporations and hundreds of people who have offset the CO2 emissions from their vehicles.
Ms. Lang worked for five years in organic food certifications and as a freelance consultant on environmental issues. She has significant international work and study experience; and she has participated in global climate conferences.
Ms. Lang obtained her undergraduate degree in agricultural engineering with honors from EARTH. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration.
Ms. Lang loves far-flung travel destinations, trekking and tennis. She is a native of Costa Rica, and is aged 34.

Ms. Hortensia Solis is a project manager within the research and development department of Coopedota, one of Costa Rica’s largest coffee cooperatives. She is responsible for the coop’s sustainability-related projects, including the production of ethanol from coffee byproducts, anaerobic digestion processes for wastes, gasification technology for combustion, production of organic fertilizers, and a pilot-project to produce carbon-neutral coffee.
She also leads a regional project to study the potential for energy auto-sufficiency by the coffee industry and its ability to generate and monetize carbon credits.
Ms. Solis is a member of an international alliance of scientists who are evaluating the technologies for the production of ethanol from coffee production by-products. This exclusive group includes leading scientists from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Ecuador’s ESPOL and Colombia’s University of Manizales.
Ms. Solis received a degree in agronomy and natural sciences from EARTH University. Her senior thesis on the supply chain of the coffee industry received the highest honors. In addition, her research into the use of wastewater to produce ethanol was recognized for its innovation by El Financiero, a prominent Costa Rican business journal.
In her free time, Ms. Solis is a practicing coffee barista and treks Costa Rica’s mountains. Ms. Solis is a native of Santa Maria de Dota, San Jose, Costa Rica, and is aged 25.

Mr. Echeverri is the Managing Director for REVA Costa Rica, a firm that commercializes battery electric vehicles. He is a self-described “car enthusiast,” and he loves the outdoors and the latest tech gadgets. It is this intersection of passions that has brought him to start-up the REVA business in Central America.
Mr. Echeverri possesses an impressive track record in business operations and marketing saavy.
In 1994, Mr. Echeverri began his career at Intaco’s purchasing department, however he quickly became responsible for the firm’s special projects.
From 1996 to 2001, he worked with the company formerly known as Cormar (now part of DHL) as lead for the importation project of over $500M in equipment during the construction of Intel’s Costa Rican operations. He later headed export operations to Europe and Asia for the Intel account. As DHL expanded in Central America, he managed operations in Guatemala and Mexico City. In 2001, he took a year off in Vail, Colorado, U.S.A. to reconnect with nature.
Since 2002, Mr. Echeverri has been engaged in senior-level positions within high-technology firms. He has worked in diverse businesses such as computer telephony integration, business intelligence based on VOIP platforms and in dental equipment imports.
Mr. Echeverri main hobby is all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riding in highly complicated terrains; his ATV and faithful companion is named Sam.
Mr. Echeverri was born in Bogota, Colombia, but raised in Brazil and Turrialba (CATIE), Cartago, Costa Rica. He is aged 35.

Pietro Stagno Ugarte, a native of Costa Rica, works as an indepedent architect in San Jose primarily on small private residential and commercial commissions.
Mr. Stagno graduated with a Masters in Architecture from the University Catolica de Chile in 1999 after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1995 and has worked as an architect in several top firms in Costa Rica and Chile since 1992.
His architecture has always focused on green construction, including incorporating renewable energy, passive solar, green materials at residential and small scale levels.
Mr. Stagno also works as a woodworker artist in his spare time on privately commissioned projects and is the father of two young children, who act as a constant inspiration for his work.

Ms. Aburto is a graduate student at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES) focusing on renewable energy systems and business development. She recently interned with Acciona Energia, one of the world’s largest developers of renewable energy, in their Mexico operations.
During her internship, she generated a pricing scheme based on forecasting and scenario analysis. Her work will facilitate the commercialization of wind farms for the self-supply market.
Ms. Aburto believes environmental challenges create great venture opportunities. She is constantly looking for innovations that can capitalize on these opportunities. At Yale, she leads the energy student interest group at FES and has focused the group’s activities on innovation that can lead to venture capital. She also participated in the global social enterprise in Thailand.
Ms. Aburto’s professional trajectory includes experiences in the public and private sectors. She conducted research at the University of Toronto and the Colegio de Mexico.
She coordinated public and private partnerships for the Ministry of Environment in Mexico City. She implemented a corporate social and environmental responsibility campaign for a pharmaceutical company. She has also started up her own business.
Ms. Aburto holds an undergraduate degree (with honors) in environmental sciences and resource management from the University of Toronto.
Ms. Aburto was born in Mexico City, and is aged 29.

Mr. Wu is a Class of 2009 graduate of the Yale School of Management, where he earned a degree of Master of Business Administration. Focused on the environment and energy, Mr. Wu applied his business experience to environmental pursuits throughout his time at Yale. Mr. Wu represented the Yale Energy Club at the Collegiate Energy Association.
Last year, Mr. Wu was selected as a final round contestant in Vestas’ Winnovation, a global business plan competition. He presented his business ideas to Vestas senior management in Copenhagen, Denmark.
During his MBA summer internship, Mr. Wu developed a business model for small-scale carbon sequestration projects on coffee farms. He completing his work in both the business offices in Oregon, USA and the farms of Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Prior to Yale, Mr. Wu worked for six years in the retail industry managing product-based businesses. His management of businesses lines consistently returned record financial results for the company, while his management of operational stakeholders resulted in consistently exceeding service targets for the company.
Mr. Wu’s earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He enjoys cooking in his free time.
Yusing Wu is a native of Iowa City, Iowa, United States, and is aged 30.

Mr. Beaton attends the Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where he will receive his J.D. and Master of Environmental Management degrees in 2010.

At Yale, Mr. Beaton works as an editor for the Yale Journal on Regulation. He also has served as an officer of the Yale Environmental Law Group and was awarded a Sonnenschein Scholars scholarship from the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Mr. Beaton is presently part of a team redeveloping the professional master’s curriculum at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Prior to Yale, Mr. Beaton served as development director of the first biofuels production facility in his native North Carolina. He has also previously worked as a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in development for a U.S. House of Representatives election campaign, and for a private land trust.
A Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, Mr. Beaton graduated summa cum laude, with distinctions in chemistry and research, from UNC Asheville with a biochemistry degree.
An avid cyclist, Mr. Beaton helped the Yale cycling team win its third consecutive Ivy League championship in 2008. When not riding his bike, Mr. Beaton is a passionate outdoor enthusiast, enjoying hiking, backpacking, climbing, mountaineering and just about any other wild adventure.
Mr. Beaton is a native of Leicester, North Carolina in the United States, and is aged 32.

Mr. Pressly is a second year law student at Yale Law School. He is a member of the Yale Environmental Law Association. He is a senior editor of the Yale Journal of International Law, a member of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project Policy Working Group, and a Patton Boggs Public Policy Fellow.
He recently finished work as a legal advisor to the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Liberia. In this capacity, he participated in concession negotiation, authored legislation and international agreements, and worked on developing sustainable policy in both the agriculture and fisheries sectors.
Prior to Yale, he worked in Ghana and New York.
Mr. Pressly graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Georgia in 2006.

Ms. Logan Yonavjak works at the World Resources Institute, an internationally recognized environmental think tank that goes beyond research to provide practical ways to protect the earth and improve people’s lives.
Her research focuses on Southern United States forests, raising awareness about their threats and working to investigate innovative payment for ecosystem service mechanisms to protect them.
Before joining WRI, Ms. Yonavjak worked in various nonprofit organizations in Michigan and North Carolina, in development, strategic planning and project management. She was also an Agent of Change for SustainUS, a nonprofit, non-partisan nonprofit organization of young people advancing sustainable development and youth empowerment in the US. In this capacity, she helped draft youth policy recommendations for the UN Climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia in 2007.
Ms. Yonavjak holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill in Geography, with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems.
She also holds a certificate in Sustainable Agriculture. At UNC, she organized a statewide conference on renewable energy that brought together over 150 citizens, students, and government officials.
Ms. Yonavjak is a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, and is aged 24.
In her spare time, she enjoys playing ultimate Frisbee and almost any outdoor activity.