Event

Join the Penn Alumni Water Forum for a Fireside Chat with Ramanan Raghavendran, Managing Partner at Amasia, Chair of the Board of Trustees at the University of Pennsylvania, and Penn Alumnus - EAS'89, W'89, LPS'15, alongside Thomas Kolster, Mr. Goodvertising, Author, Marketing & Sustainability Advisor, and an International Keynote Speaker. Their conversation will be moderated by Marissa Rosen, the Founder and Principal Consultant of Climate Social and Penn Alumna - MES’12. 

Ramanan and Thomas will discuss behavior change and the water-climate nexus, focusing on individual personal behaviors and how we can all take steps toward sustainable best practices. Behavior change plays a large role in creating pathways to reducing the carbon footprints of major corporations and impacts water conservation and climate change at both the individual and organizational levels. Their conversation will discuss how impact investing in sustainable ventures, which often intersect with the water sector, will bring a more regenerative world.

Speakers

Ramanan Raghavendran (ENG'89, W'89, LPS'15) is the Managing Partner of Amasia, a thesis-driven global venture capital firm investing in climate and sustainability companies. He co-founded Amasia with a fellow Penn alumnus in 2013.

Mr. Raghavendran serves on the Board of SF Goodwill and the Advisory Council of the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University. Over the years, he has been a seed funder and board member of several NGOs and remains closely associated with Magic Bus, an NGO that works with 500,000 at-risk children in South Asia.

At Penn, Mr. Raghavendran is Chair of the Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee. He also serves on the Board of Penn Medicine and its Executive Committee. In addition, Mr. Raghavendran is Chair of the Board of Advisors of the School of Arts and Sciences, serves on the International Advisory Board of Penn's Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), and is on the Asia Leadership Committee. He is the Alumni Global Coordinator of the Penn Alumni Interview Program, as well as a member of the Penn Libraries' Orrery Society. Mr. Raghavendran supports the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Penn Libraries, and a variety of efforts within Alumni Relations.

Thomas Kolster is a frontrunner and one of the most recognised thinkers globally where marketing, business and sustainability meet. He continuously challenges the status-quo with his vocal, and often provocative, views on values, purpose, and leadership. In an over-crowded do-good market, people don’t buy your values or your “why”, but rather who you can help them become. 

Thomas has:  

• Written two books: Goodvertising & The Hero Trap 
• Delivered keynotes and workshops in +70 markets for clients like Facebook, P&G and IKEA and at conferences such as TEDx, SXSW and more. 
• Judged top-awards such as Jury President at D&AD and Jury at Cannes Lions. 
• Delivered longer training programs with universities and the likes of Cannes Lions and D&AD.

Moderator

Marissa Rosen is the founder, owner, and principal consultant of Climate Social LLC, where she designs networking strategies to build compelling brands, implements media campaigns, promotes high profile events, and engages communities that proactively create positive impact.

Since 2015, Climate Social has delivered customizable solutions that meet her clients' goals and reflect their values through bespoke solutions in social media, public relations, copywriting, branding, video production, podcasting, and website development.

The micro-agency has partnered with mission-driven for-profit and nonprofit organizations across sectors and industries, including South Pole, Net Impact, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, US Farmers and Ranchers in Action, Fermata Energy, WeSpire, Kontoor Brands, EarthShift Global, Forest Trends, WholeWorks, Biomimicry 3.8, Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, LanzaTech, LanzaJet, Phin, Green Wave, Responsible Alpha, and more. 

Prior to founding her own company, Marissa worked at TriplePundit where she was publicly recognized for leading engaging corporate responsibility-focused Twitter Chats with executive leaders, garnering millions of impressions per hour. Marissa previously directed marketing for the US Department of Energy’s Energy Efficient Buildings Hub stakeholder engagement programs and consulted with startups affiliated with the Wharton Small Business Development Center.

She has contributed to regional and national publications including the Huffington Post, has been featured in several podcasts and headlined the Environment+Energy Leader series launch, and is a multi-year promotional partner of prominent events including Sustainable Brands’ annual flagship conference and the Wall Street Green Summit, the longest running sustainable finance event in the world. 

She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications (B.A.) from the University of Missouri, and a Masters’ in Environmental Studies (M.E.S.) from the University of Pennsylvania.