Mitra Ardron - Resume

mitra@mitra.biz
0414-648-722 mobile
skype: mitra_earth
Can work legally in Australia, Europe, US and India
www.mitra.biz and www.mitra.biz/blog

Objective

To take Sustainability to scale, by working with new and existing businesses - especially "cleantech" businesses - to improve their environmental, and economic sustainability.

Skills

As you can see from my skills and experience I work on the interface between Technology, Sustainability, and Business or Management.

Management

24 years of management experience - both at the company and the project level.
Experienced at turning ideas into documents and businesses
Experienced at most aspects of a business: Business and Financial Planning; Legal; Capital Raising; Product Development
Experienced at communicating between the business team and the engineering or technical teams. Speaking to each in the language they understand.
Have managed internationally distributed and cross-cultural teams
18 years experience building social capital and community
Technical assistance in the sales cycle, ensuring that the company sells the best it can deliver- and no more than that.
Experience in evaluating projects and proposals for feasibility.
Frequent public speaker.

Technical

Extensive knowledge of the internet since its early days
Familiarity with most technologies related to sustainability.
Ability to rapidly learn and understand new technologies.
Standards committee experience (co-author of several internet standards)
Experience designing complex systems.
Experienced at managing engineers, programmers, and all kinds of technologists
Co-author of two patents

Sustainability

Familiar with the language and concepts of sustainability and sustainable business
Well connected in sustainability circles, in Australia and the US
Able to blend an understanding of the technical, business and political aspects
Able to work with businesses to navigate the competing requirements of sustainability and business success

Professional experience

Natural Innovation: 2004-present: Owner, business development and consultancy for sustainable ventures;
Beyond Building: 2007/2008: CFO and General Manager of Beyond Building Energy, pioneering affordable residential solar photovoltaics;
Zeo International (formerly Zelfo): : 2005-present: co-founder and director of a bioplastic manufacturer;
Natures Child Wholesale: 2004-2006: co-founder of a manufacturer and wholesaler of natural baby products;
Papyrus Australia: 2003-2004: Acting CEO of a manufacturer of paper from banana trees; wrote business plan, capital raising
ACE Byron: 2003: Project officer, Byron Community Knowledge Management Project;
Net Deva: 2002: CTO (Chief Technology Officer) for a Contact Management System;
Flycode: 2000-2001: CTO for a Peer to Peer video sharing portal; developed spec; developed and managed a team in India. Negotiated with partners and key customers and part of the core management team.
iCulture 1999: Acting CTO for a portal for Cultural Creatives and Sustainability.
Alexa: 1999: Consultant on a number of projects.
SGI 1997-1998: Consultant
Paragraph International 1996-1997: CTO (Networking), business / development interface; managing distributed team (Russia/US); cleaning up the company for sale to SGI;
WorldMaker 1995-1996: Co-founded a VRML startup, and consulted for IBM, Sony, Black Sun and others. This company was merged into ParaGraph International, co-authored VRML 2.0 standard.
Worlds Inc 1994-1995: Chief Network Systems Architect, first 3D Internet chat system and VRML
Mitra Internet Consulting 1994: Consulting for clients including WAIS; CMP Publications and Sports Network
Pandora Systems 1989-1994: Vice President of Engineering, responsible for Pandora's technical direction, and most of it's major contracts including: AOL's first gateway to the internet and Sovam - Russia's first ISP;
IETF 1993-1996: Active membership of standards setting committees for the Internet.
Association for Progressive Communications 1988-1989: Co-Founder and first Technical Director, responsible for replicating the experience of GreenNet and IGC (PeaceNet and EcoNet) to new countries.
GreenNet 1984 - 1988: Founder and Director. Grew this network for Environment Peace and Social Justice to the largest non-profit network in Europe. Integrated it with IGC (PeaceNet, EcoNet) in the US.
Consulting 1981 - 1985: Consulted on a number of communication projects for a variety of clients
British Telecom 1978 - 1981: Engineering management trainee, and development at their research centre, won scholarship to Cambridge University..
Cambridge University 1979-1981: Masters Degree in Computer Science - including one year of Chemistry, Physics and Material Science.

Sustainability

I have been actively involved in Sustainability, both as a thread through my professional work, and in a voluntary capacity, highlights include.

Natural Innovation consults only to clients with a commitment to sustainability.
2006-present: On the advisory board for Gaia University an accredited, distributed, higher education institution delivering bachelors and masters in various sustainability subjects.
2005-present: Zeo International (formerly Zelfo) makes a mouldable material from waste fibers such as paper.
2003-present: Actively involved in efforts towards sustainable business, in particular actively involved with the US based SVN (www.svn.org) and founding and coordinating the Byron Sustainable Ventures Network, a regional network of businesses committed to sustainability and Byron Green Drinks.
2005: Co-convenor, Downshifting Downunder (www.downshifting.net.au), co-organiser of its launch conference, focussed on catalysing a movement away from consumerism to simpler, richer living;
2005: Natures Child develops organic products, and manufacturers fairly in India and Australia.
2004: Business devlopment of Papyrus Australia, a sustainable paper alternative.
2002: Ongoing consulting jobs for EcoNet, APC and Greenmarketplace.com,
2002-present: Consulting and advice (paid or pro-bono) with Greenleap, Regenesis, BayFM, Southern Cross University, Slingfings and others.
2002: Member of Byron Innovators Network's mentoring panel
2002: Moderator of the mailing list for the Australian National Intentional Communities Association
2001-2005: Part of the Core Group of the Rural Landsharing Community Association
2001-2003: Organizing talks on Sustainability by visiting speakers including Declan Kennedy, Sarah West and David Holmgren, Peter Harper.
2001-present: Communications officer for Tyagarah Progress Association also known as Tyagarah Sustainable Community Alliance (www.tyagarah.org)
2002: Designed and developed the prototype of a web site for offsetting carbon emissions, later launched as Climate Friendly.
1999: Acting CTO of iCulture, a sustainability oriented portal
1990-1992: With a small group, published Options magazine, a quarterly local magazine (50 pages, circulation 5000) covering sustainability.
1989-1994: Part of a small group that provided support with media coverage and internal newsletters at Environmental conferences.
1988: Co-founded the Association for Progressive Communications, as an alliance of progressive ISPs and information providers (now recognized by the United Nations etc) (www.apc.org)
1985-1989: Created GreenNet - Europe's Environment, Peace and Social Justice information service and ISP in 1985 (gn.apc.org)

References

Mark Graham: Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Global Communications (EcoNet) and Vice President of iVillage.com. (formerly president of Pandora)
Alf Wheeler: CEO, Zeo International
David Wyatt: Chair, Papyrus Australia

Contact details on request

See also my "Claims to Fame" for a less formal run through of the highlights of my career..