With more than 25+ years of experience in the materials science industry, Murali Sethumadhavan is a leader in scientific and business innovation. He was one of the key members of the business development and R&D organizations at Rogers Corporation, where he currently works as a consultant since retiring in September 2021. Murali was instrumental in setting up Rogers’ Innovation Center in Burlington, MA, created as a partnership between Rogers and Northeastern University. In addition, Murali is a co-founder of Young Einstein’s Science Club (YESC), a science education organization founded in 2005. YESC aims to promote scientific curiosity among young children through creative teaching methods. Beyond Benign and YESC have formed a strong collaboration to teach sustainability principles to children K-12. Murali is a huge advocate of sustainability practices in both professional and local communities. He strongly believes that Beyond Benign’s work will have a huge impact on the future of sustainability and looks forward to helping achieve Beyond Benign’s mission through his new role. Murali holds a PhD in Polymer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Masters in Materials Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. He has 30+ patents and patent applications in the fields of materials science and polymer engineering.
Dr. Jacob Foster
Jake founded STEM Learning Design to support innovative program design and powerful student learning experiences. He partners with organizations to redesign both educational programming and with architects on the design of school buildings. As past STEM leader at the Massachusetts Department of Education, Jake engaged for more than a decade in education policy, STEM programming, professional development, and strategies for systemic school change. He was a lead developer and writer of the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Standards and standards for Digital Literacy and Computer Science. Jake was a member of the Next Generation Science Standards writing team, and Massachusetts’ representative for the NGSS development process collaborating with 22 other states. Jake began his 25-year career in STEM education teaching high school science, including chemistry, physics and ecology, then supporting teacher development as a middle school coach and teacher educator.
Margaret Morey-Reuner
Margaret Morey-Reuner is a 20-year marketing leader who specializes in strategic planning and communications. She brings extensive experience in the development of global brand campaigns focused on building awareness for product and corporate sustainability initiatives that drive economic, environmental and social impacts for key stakeholder groups. Margaret is the director of marketing for portfolio brands at Quality Bicycle Products. Previously, she was a member of Timberland’s global brand marketing organization for 10 years, leading the launch of its Nature Needs Heroes campaigns and Earthkeepers footwear and apparel product launches. She also led Timberland’s award-winning Haiti-based sustainable agroforestry collaborative and social enterprise model that benefits a 3,000+ member smallholder farmer cooperative through for-profit tree nurseries, agricultural export markets, and rural farm businesses. The program’s non-profit community development arm, the Smallholder Farmers Alliance, aids reforestation, literacy, and environmental education.
Margaret currently serves on the board of directors for Impact Farming and Big City Mountaineers. She has also served as a panelist/presenter at Ethical Corporation Responsible Business Summit; Sustainable Brands; and US Chamber of Commerce Circular Economy conferences. She was also a member of the Clinton Foundation’s “No Ceilings” Delegation to Haiti. Margaret earned both a Masters of Sports Administration and Bachelor of Science in Sport Sciences from Ohio University.
Jennifer Gresham
Jen Gresham has a varied career spanning education, conservation, leadership and technology. She started her career in environmental education with Mass Audubon and moved to a variety of regional and global conservation organizations. Included in that was 3 years overseeing the New England Roots & Shoots office for the Jane Goodall Institute and a decade as the Director of Education for Zoo New England. An interest in having a greater impact on public education sent Jen to Vermont where she worked with the Agency of Education, overseeing the distribution of federal funds for disadvantaged students and child nutrition programs, among other things. An interest and significant experience in project management brought her back to Massachusetts where she entered the Workday ecosystem in higher education. Jen is now at Simmons University focusing her attention on strategy and systems through technology solutions.
Jen is thrilled to be a member of the Beyond Benign board, getting back to her roots in environmental education and sustainability.
Perkins, Rose
“I’m passionate about serving on the Beyond Benign Executive Board because I believe in the power of chemistry to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems. BB is focused on ensuring the next generation of scientists have the right skills to advance progress in a more sustainable way.”
For more than 30 years, Rose Perkins has advocated for environmental protection and sustainable development. She led, developed and implemented worldwide sustainability strategies and programs for several multinational companies including, Rohm and Haas, Dow and DuPont. Rose is a passionate and collaborative leader who believes that business, can and should, be used be a force for good. Rose strived to foster cross-business collaboration and advised global leadership teams to advance the integration of sustainability across companies and with key stakeholders. Her most notable work included the development and implementation of decade-long sustainability goals that integrated and amplified business and corporate strategies.
Rose received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University where she got her first appreciation for the power of chemistry in society. She is committed to advancing education on sustainability and green chemistry, as evidenced by her volunteer work as a STEM Ambassador at Dow, serving two terms as a corporate advisory board member for Net-Impact, and her current role as an executive board member for Beyond Benign.
Warner, Dr. John
John is a distinguished research fellow at the Zymergen Corporation where he is helping to design and create commercial technologies inspired from nature consistent with the principles of green chemistry. He is one of the cofounders of the field of green chemistry, coauthoring the defining text and articulating the 12 principles of green chemistry with Paul Anastas.
With nearly 300 patents, he has invented solutions for dozens of multinational corporations. His inventions have also served as the foundation for several new companies. Examples include: Collaborative Medicinal Development (ALS therapy), Hairprint (hair color restoration), Collaborative Aggregates (asphalt warm mix rejuvenators), Ambient Photonics (lowlight indoor photovoltaic devices for IoT and BIPV).
John has over 100 publications providing foundational work in the fields of noncovalent derivatization, polymer photochemistry, metal oxide semiconductors and synthetic organic chemistry. John has received prestigious awards as an academic (PAESMEM – President G. W. Bush & NSF, 2004), industrial chemist (Perkin Medal – Society of Chemical Industry, 2014), inventor (Lemelson Ambassadorship – Lemelson Foundation & AAAS) and for governmental chemicals policy (Reinventing Government National Performance Review – Vice President A. Gore & EPA, 1997). He received the American Institute of Chemistry’s Northeast Division’s Distinguished Chemist of the Year for 2002 and the Council of Science Society President’s 2008 Leadership award. Warner was named by ICI Services as one of the most influential people impacting the global chemical industries. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and named one of “25 Visionaries Changing the World” by Utne Reader. He serves as Distinguished Professor of Green Chemistry at Monash University in Australia. He serves as the Global Chair for the Center for Sustainable and Circular Technologies at the University of Bath. In 2017 the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and The Technical University of Berlin announced the naming of “The John Warner Center for Green Chemistry Start-Ups” in his honor.
John received his BS in Chemistry from UMASS Boston, and his PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University. After working at the Polaroid Corporation for nearly a decade, he then served as tenured full professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell (Chemistry and Plastics Engineering). In 2007 he founded the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, with Jim Babcock (a research organization developing green chemistry technologies), and Beyond Benign with Amy Cannon (a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education). He now advises several international organizations and in 2020 began working with the Zymergen Corporation.