Bill Frerking
Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Georgia-Pacific LLC
Bill Frerking is vice president and chief sustainability officer of Georgia-Pacific, one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of tissue, packaging, pulp, paper, building products and related chemicals.
Bill was named to the newly created position of chief sustainability officer in November 2007. As CSO, he is responsible for Georgia-Pacific’s overall sustainability efforts, including working with the company’s business units and procurement and staff groups to develop and implement sustainability strategies, goals, measurement and reporting. He also represents the company in sustainability discussions with customers and other groups.
Bill joined Georgia-Pacific in 2006 as chief counsel for the company’s building products businesses. He had previously been with Koch Cellulose, where he had served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary since 2004. Prior to that, he held positions in the law department of Koch Industries Inc. and other Koch companies, focusing on environmental compliance. Frerking was the primary architect of the changes Koch companies made beginning in the mid-1990s in how they approached environmental compliance. He then helped apply that same approach to all compliance areas as Koch companies developed compliance offices in each of their businesses.
Before joining Koch in 1996, Frerking was in private legal practice in Kansas City, Missouri, for 10 years, where he did securities and mergers and acquisitions work before specializing in environmental law. He remains a member of the Missouri Bar, the State Bar of Georgia and the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ben Jordan
Sustainability Strategist, Coca-Cola North America
Ben Jordan is currently working as a Sustainability Strategist for Coca-Cola North America, focusing on environmental sustainability for the Company’s North America brands. He recently transitioned back to Coke from a Loaned Executive role at Sustainable Atlanta, the initiative that came about in 2007-2008 as the manifestation of Mayor Shirley Franklin’s desire to make Atlanta a recognized leader on sustainability. In that capacity, Ben worked to publish the first “sustainability report for Atlanta,” to be released in March.
In his time at Coca-Cola, Ben has worked in both the North American and global organizations, traveling to over 20 countries. Most of his career has been spent in the Environmental arena, working on both internal operational issues and relationship-building with key stakeholders. Ben has participated actively in Coca-Cola’s involvement with a number of leading environmental organizations. Currently, Ben sits on the Board of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, the State Council for State YMCA of Georgia, and the FoodPAC Environmental Technical Committee, which advises Georgia state government on strategic investments in environmental technologies for the food and beverage industry.
Ben has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Ben’s childhood on a peach farm in rural Georgia led to his interest in conservation and his career in the environmental field. Ben lives in Decatur, Georgia, with his wife, Mary Beth, and sons, Jack and Parker, where he formerly served on the Vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany. He was recently nominated to the City of Decatur Environmental Sustainability Board by Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd.
Lynnette McIntire
Director of Corporate Reputation Management, UPS
Lynnette McIntire is director of corporate reputation management at UPS. As a senior manager in the Corporate Communications group, she is responsible for communicating UPS’s sustainability program externally and internally. This role includes direct mail, advertising, interactive communications, customer communications and public relations. Her team also creates the annual sustainability report and interacts with assessor and activist groups.
She is a member of the Corporate Sustainability Steering Committee, chaired by five members of the company’s Management Committee, and she is the communications representative on the Corporate Sustainability Working Committee. She co-chairs one of company’s sustainability subcommittees that encompasses issues and reporting around philanthropy, human rights, diversity, community engagement and employer of choice.
She has been with UPS 11 years.
Miriam Burgess
President, Board of Directors Network
Miriam Burgess is President of the Board of Directors Network (BDN), a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the number of women on corporate boards and in executive leadership. In addition, Miriam is a Vice President in the Atlanta office of Aon Consulting, a global leader in human capital consulting, outsourcing and insurance brokerage services. Her primary responsibilities include developing and managing client relationships, assisting clients with human resources issues, and bringing resources and new ideas to them in order to help them achieve their business objectives.
Miriam has over 20 years of experience in managing client relationships, business development, account management, communications consulting, retirement consulting and corporate benefits management. For the last seven years, she has served as a relationship manager and account manager at Aon Consulting. Prior to joining Aon, Miriam was a sales consultant and communications consultant at another large HR consulting firm. Earlier, she held corporate benefits management and administration positions at AFC Enterprises, Medaphis Corporation (currently McKesson), Home Depot and National Service Industries (currently Acuity Brands). Her first position involved retirement/actuarial consulting at another large HR consulting firm.
Miriam holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was also the co-founder of the Aon Atlanta Women’s Network Group.