Board of Directors
David Arkin, Secretary
David Arkin AIA, has taught and lectured on the subject of sustainable design for over fifteen years. He and his wife Anni Tilt are the principals of Arkin Tilt Architects, a firm specializing in energy and resource efficient design.David and Anni are founding members of the California Straw Building Association (CASBA). He is past-President of Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR). A licensed architect, he spent four years as project architect and planner with Van der Ryn Architectsmost notably on the Real Goods Solar Living Centerand apprenticed with Obie Bowman at Sea Ranch. David and Anni live with their two children in a 100 year old solar and wind-powered home in Albany, CA, where he currently serves as a planning and zoning commissioner.
Jaynellen Kovacovich, MA
Jaynellen comes from a farming background with expertise in herbology, permaculture and raising farm animals. She has over 25 years of elementary and high school teaching and administrative experience. Jaynellen has a passion for teaching children about the environment and has spent much of her career coordinating environmental education and ecology programs for middle school and high school students throughout the Bay Area. In 1993, Time Magazine and Amway nominated her for the Earth Teacher Award for her contributions as an environmental educator. Jaynellen co founded Earth Team, an environmental network for Bay Area teens in 2000. She served as the coordinator of Earth Day 2000 for Sonoma County and continues to organize Earth Day events in the North Bay. Jaynellen is active in teaching youth about solar education through hands on experiences. She helps coordinate the Junior Solar Sprint competition each year for teens in northern California. Currently, she serves on two non-profit boards. She is on the board of directors for the Solar Living Institute as the Educational Chairperson and a board member for Earth House Center, a center for sustainability in Oakland, California.
Oliver Meissner
Oliver is Principal and Founder of The CONSILIO Group, a Washington DC based government relations firm. He has close relationships with top officials in the U.S. Congress, Department of Energy, Department of Defense and the Obama Administration. Specifically he works with the United States Senate (Senators and Senate Committees such as Appropriations, Armed Services, Energy & Natural Resources, Environment & Public Works, Commerce), the United States House of Representatives (House Members and House Committees such as Appropriations, Armed Services, Energy & Commerce, Science & Technology), The White House (the President, Council on Environmental Quality), and with appointed officials and others at the Pentagon, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of the Interior and others. Oliver specializes in U.S. Government funding and legislative support for technology related companies. He sits on the board of directors for the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California. Oliver Meissner co-founded laser optics company Onyx Optics, Inc. in 1992 and served from 1995 to 2005 as its CEO. At Onyx he developed the market for the companys proprietary adhesive-free bond crystal based optical components, primarily for high power solid-state lasers. Oliver fostered relationships with as well as with members of Congress, enabling multiple multi-million dollar direct contracts. Oliver is author or co-author on a number of awarded and pending patents, primarily in the optics field. He has a Bachelor of Arts - Music degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jeff Oldham
After 12 years of electrical contracting work, Jeff Oldham worked 18 years for Real Goods as lead tech and manager and has owned his own Solar Contracting business, Regenerative SOLutions, for the last 4 years. He has been living off-grid with solar and hydro power for over 30 years. In 1993 he was selected as one of the coordinators of the Dream Team for The Greening of The White House project, and was responsible for Plugloads/Equipment and Renewables. He has taught classes in all aspects of sustainable development and RE. Currently, his work is 60% off-grid and 40% grid-connected with about half of it international, primarily in Latin America.
John Schaeffer, Founder, Board President
John has been exploring renewable energy and sustainable living since graduating from UC Berkeley in 1971. Over the last 32 years, he founded and grew Real Goods Trading Company as its President from a garage start-up to the foremost global source for tools and information on renewable energy and sustainable living. In 1995 he created the Solar Living Center in Hopland, California, a 12-acre educational demonstration site. He founded and remains Board Chair of the educational non-profit Solar Living Institute dedicated to promoting renewable energy through inspirational environmental education. He continues as President of Real Goods Solar, Inc., now a public company (NASDAQ: RSOL), that has installed more solar than any other company in the U.S. with over 6,000 homes solarized. John has received numerous awards including Small Business Person of the year, Most Environmental Catalog from the Direct Marketing Association three years running, and has been twice nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year. John lives with his wife Nancy remotely in Mendocino County, California in a natural home built mostly from recycled materials in the middle of a permaculture off-grid oasis powered by solar and hydro-electric, where John and Nancy also raise grapes, olives, fruit trees, and an abundant vegetable garden organically and biodynamically.
