Stanford University
Showing 1-6 of 6 Results
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Elizabeth "Bhe" Balde
Assistant Director of Student Services, Change Leadership for Sustainability
Current Role at StanfordAssistant Director of Student Services for Sustainability Science and Practice Coterminal Mater's Program
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Mike Lin
Lecturer, Change Leadership for Sustainability
Biohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeltlin/
Mike Lin is an investor, engineer and serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in design thinking, startups and venture capital. Mike is a Lecturer at Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability where he teaches SUST 234: Integrative Design, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital for Sustainability.
Mike is also co-founder and General Partner at Dangerous Ventures. Dangerous invests in early-stage startups building a more sustainable and resilient future. Dangerous focuses on scalable systems-transforming solutions that empower people, the planet and society to be more resilient and thrive in a rapidly changing environment.
He was previously a Partner at Big Idea Ventures, a climate fund investing in plant-based food and alternative protein. Prior to working in venture capital, he was Founder and CEO of Fenix International, a renewable energy and fintech startup that currently powers over 9.5 million people across nine countries. He raised over $45M in venture capital and venture debt, developed patented energy technologies and forged strategic partnerships with the world’s largest mobile telecoms including Vodafone, Orange and MTN. Fenix grew to over 350 employees and was successfully acquired in April 2018 by Engie, one of the world’s largest utilities, and continues to operate under ENGIE Energy Access.
Mike believes that business can be a vehicle for positive change and combines his passion for social and environmental prosperity with design thinking, business strategy and new product development. He is a serial entrepreneur and worked at Makani Power (acquired by Google) and Squid Labs, a startup studio (Instructables, acquired by Autodesk). He has worked with Apple on climate change and environmental technologies, Al Gore on the “Inconvenient Truth” presentation and lectured courses on green design and entrepreneurship at Stanford and Yale.
Mike has six patents, has received over $1.7M in grants from the US Environmental Protection Agency and UK Government, awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Aspen Institute, BusinessWeek, and Popular Science, and has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, Wired, The Guardian and others. Mike earned an MS and BS in Mechanical Engineering and Product Design from Stanford University.
He is an Eagle Scout, a champion Junior Olympic Archer and co-founder of the Stanford University Archery team. He enjoys spending time with his family outdoors mountain biking, growing food, and cooking over an open fire. -
Burke E. Robinson
Lecturer, Change Leadership for Sustainability
BioBurke Robinson has been an adjunct faculty member at Stanford for more than 20 years. He teaches a graduate course each spring, The Art and Science of Decision Making, in the Sustainability Science and Practice Program, School of Sustainability.
When we make high-quality decisions, we improve the probability of outcomes we want. By combining the art of qualitative framing and structuring with the science of quantitative assessment and analysis, we will have pragmatic ways to: identify those core issues driving the value of our decisions, craft an inspirational vision, create viable alternatives, mitigate biases in probabilistic information, clarify both tangible and intangible preferences, develop appropriate risk/reward models, evaluate decisions for a broad range of uncertain scenarios, appraise values of gathering additional information, and ensure commitment to implementation plans and budgets.
Common-sense rules and decision-making tools provide the essential focus, discipline, and passion we need for clarity of action on big, important decisions – from personal choices to organizational decisions about business strategies or public policies. A normative approach prescribes how decisions can be made defensible using a logical basis of deliberative reasoning when we face a dynamic, complex, and uncertain future world. Transformational change can then implement the optimal decisions by following a dynamic process of project management.
Students in his course have the opportunity to frame, structure, assess, and analyze their personal career and lifestyle decisions for the initial 5 years after leaving Stanford. Key factors often include net discretionary income, savings and investments, macroeconomic trends, job satisfaction, personal life satisfaction, avocation pursuits, and relationships with family and friends.
Burke is also an avid Stanford sports fan and supporter of the many scholar-athletes on campus. As a Decision Coach, he advises and mentors students and others as they make significant life decisions about undergraduate majors, graduate programs, internships, career jobs, entrepreneurial ventures, and professional sports opportunities.
For more information and his CV, please see his personal website http://www.burkerobinson.com
