Steve Westly is a Managing Partner of The Westly Group, a venture capital firm that invests primarily in clean technology companies. Prior to founding The Westly Group, he served as the Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer of the state of California. Read more about him below.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. My parents.

Q. What comforts you?

A. People who are passionate. Particularly if they have some data behind them.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. I’m not as creative as I used to be. I need to be more creative.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

A. Luckiest person in the world.

Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?

A. My hero is Gandhi. He changed the destiny of an entire nation, and he did it in such an inspiring way — with so little.

Q. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?

A. I grew up here, and it brings back all my great memories of being a kid.

Q. How are you different from who you were 10 years ago?

A. I have kids and kids change everything.

Q. What is the best advice you have ever received?

A. To treat people well.

Q. What music have you listened to today?

A. The Beatles.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. Jesus.

To read more about Westly’s keynote speech, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

Lisa Margonelli directs the Energy Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation. Her book about the oil supply chain, Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank, was recognized as one of the 25 Notable Books of 2007 by the American Library Association. Below, she tells us more about herself.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. Definitely a five-dollar pony. I grew up on a farm in Maine, and our neighbor was selling it. My father and I went and got it on Christmas when I was nine years old.

Q. What comforts you?

A. Those Emergen-C drinks. Before I was doing policy, I traveled a lot. I spent a lot of time in Nigeria, Iran, Chad — tough places to travel. If you arrived really late or things got really screwed up and after a long day, you can’t figure out where the food is, two Emergen-Cs are the most delicious thing.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. Early in the morning or when I’m on a deadline.

Q. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?

A. The smell in January and February of all the flowers. I grew up in Maine, and in January there were really high snow banks all around. I got on a Greyhound bus to Boston to take a flight here, my first time coming to California. I got off the plane and there were birds and bottlebrush flowers and this amazing smell and I thought, “Ah, California.”

Q. What is the best advice you have ever received?

A. A friend of mine went to Dollywood to do an interview, and Dolly Parton walked in wearing this amazing bright pink jumpsuit and really high Lucite heels. My friend said, “I wish I could dress like that.” And Dolly said, “You could, if you just would.”

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. I like fancy olives.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning?

A. If things were going well, I’d be running. If things were not going well, I’d be procrastinating, getting cleaning done.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. Dolly Parton.

To read about Margonelli’s panel on green jobs, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

Michael P. Wilson is a research scientist at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, and Acting Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. His work linking green chemistry with chemicals policy helped launch the California Green Chemistry Initiative. Read more about him below.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. The thing that comes to mind is the confidence in ideas and their ability to change the way things are. That was the way my mother lived her life.

Q. What was the last thing that inspired you?

A. A lecture given at UC Berkeley by a recently-awarded doctoral candidate. He spoke to a room of about 200 chemistry majors about their role in the future of global survival and health and sustainability, and they just lit up an applauded. That was so different from my experience as a chemistry student. It seemed divorced from the world.

Q. What comforts you?

A. I’ve been involved for many years in various movements for social change. I am comforted by the recognition that our work is part of a continuum. We don’t have to get it all done in our lifetimes, much less in the course of a week or a day.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. When I’m finally rested, and when I’m learning and around people who love to learn and ask questions.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

A. Idealistic, practical, motivated, loving, community-oriented.

Q. What is your favorite cocktail?

A. I’m more of a beer drinker — anything dark enough to hold a spoon upright.

Q. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?

A. The wind, the bay, the fog, and, being a former firefighter, the fire department.

Q. How did you get into trouble as a child?

A. One day I took everything that was under the sink and in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I emptied all the jars into a coffee can and stirred it around. That was the one time I remember being spanked by my mother. I think she was mostly worried about my health. I just wanted to look at the colors and see what would happen.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. My 15-foot sailboat.

To read more about Wilson’s panel, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

Sunil Paul is an entrepreneur and investor in clean energy and transportation companies. He is founder of the Gigaton Throwdown, a project to educate and inspire entrepreneurs, investors, and policy makers to think big about climate solutions. Read more about him below.

Q. What is the greatest gift you have ever received?

A. My kids.

Q. What is the last thing that inspired you?

A. One of the last things that inspired me is also one of the first. I was a Boy Scout back in Tennessee, and we would camp on farms. Every place we went, we would do something for the farmer, in exchange for using the land. That stayed with me — the idea that we’re only here for a limited amount of time and we should do more than just consume.

Q. What comforts you?

A. A big bowl of kitchari.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. I’m pretty creative in the shower. Or when I’m just looking off into the distance.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

A. “I want to be able to create things.” And, apparently, “I’m not a rule-follower.”

Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?

A. An early explorer.

Q. How did you get into trouble as a child?

A. Pushing boundaries of what was acceptable for a kid to do. When I was four I decided I was going to drive, and managed to get the car out into the street. I couldn’t do anything else because I couldn’t reach the pedals.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning?

A. Lately in Tahoe, but otherwise, helping make a good, leisurely breakfast.

Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?

A. Write more.

To read more about Paul’s panel on green jobs, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

Kathy Gerwig is the Environmental Stewardship Officer for Kaiser Permanente, responsible for making the healthcare company’s work more environmentally sustainable. Read more about her below.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. Meeting the person who ended up being my husband.

Q. What was the last thing that inspired you?

A. I was inspired yesterday at a Senate hearing on federal chemical reform. That sounds really boring, but it looks like we might get bipartisan support for it after 34 years without.

Q. What comforts you?

A. I don’t have a hard time mellowing out. I like to read and hang out with my cat.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. When I’m in nature. I get most of my good ideas climbing a hill at a ridiculously slow pace.

Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?

A. I can’t imagine being the people who are my heroes.

Q. What do you like most about San Francisco?

A. Being on top of any of the hills and being surrounded by water.

Q. How did you get into trouble as a child?

A. I would like to blame any trouble I was ever in on my older brother. He took it as his job to get me into trouble.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. My bicycle. It exceeds my capability.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning?

A. Riding up Grizzly Peak on my bike.

To read more about Gerwig’s panel on green jobs, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

Joseph Oldham is Sustainability Manager of the City of Fresno and chairman of the Fresno Green Team.  He is directly responsible for implementing Fresno’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy.  Read more about him below.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. Life.

Q. What was the last thing that inspired you?

A. My brother’s death a month ago. We’re only here for a short period of time and it’s our responsibility to do the most that we can while we’re here.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. At 5.30 a.m., when I’m in my living room having my coffee, just thinking.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

A. A person with a purpose.

Q. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?

A. The grandeur of the buildings, and how it’s all very compact.

Q. How did you get into trouble as a child?

A. Thinking I knew more than I did.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. I love to fly. I’m a pilot.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning?

A. If the weather’s clear, in an airplane.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most want to meet for dinner?

A. My wife.

To read more about Oldham’s panel on green jobs, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

Tracey Grose led the development of a taxonomy of “green industries” and a database of firms providing goods or services aimed at reducing or reversing environmental harm. She also led a nationwide analysis on behalf of the Pew Charitable Trusts for the Clean Energy Economy report. Read more about her below.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. I like simple things. Flowers and hugs.

Q. What comforts you?

A. A good night’s sleep.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. When I walk out of a modern art museum.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

A. Tenacious, compassionate, curious, loyal.

Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?

A. Eleanor Roosevelt.

Q. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?

A. At the top of every hill you have a new vista.

Q. What is the best advice you have ever received?

A. Take a deep breath.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. A spa getaway.

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?

A. I loved skiing as a kid. My mom couldn’t keep me in the lodge, and I would follow her down all the black-diamond trails.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning?

A. Behind my newspaper.

Q. What music have you listened to today?

A. Pink Martini.

To read more about Grose’s panel on green jobs, click here.

*Photo by Mabel Jimenez.

John A. Rich, Professor and Chair of Health Management and Policy at the Drexel University School of Public Health, applied to Dartmouth on a whim — at the advice of his eye doctor. When he was accepted early decision and went to visit campus with his father, Rich learned that going to Dartmouth had been his father’s hope as well. “My dad had gone to Howard undergrad, and that was really the only choice he had, being an African American man in Washington, DC,” Rich said. “He got an application to Dartmouth, but the tuition at the time was $400. It was unimaginable that his family could pay.” Rich, author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time, told us more about himself before taking to the podium to talk about the impact of violence on the lives of young African American men.

Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. I’m a fan of musical scores. I particularly like Thomas Newman, who wrote the score to The Shawshank Redemption. I usually have that as my background music.

Q. When do you feel most creative?
A. I feel most creative when I am around people who are not afraid to say what’s true.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Someone who cares about justice.

Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?
A. This is going to sound paradoxical, but I would want to be someone in South who was marching against injustice in the 1950s and 60s. It’s easy to say that now, I know, but I’m fascinated by the costs that people have to reckon with to be courageous. I wonder where I would have stood in that fight.

Q. What is the best advice you have ever received?
A. My dad died of a type of leukemia. I was running a marathon for charity, for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I was nervous about whether I would finish the race. A psychiatrist who was also running said he could help me with anxiety. He developed a mantra that got me through the race, and I just said it ontinuously to myself: “I’m running my race.”

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Riding the sleeper train with my father from New York to Washington, DC to visit my grandmother. I remember walking into Grand Central Station at midnight, I must have been five years old and I wasn’t supposed to be up that late.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I love food.

Q. What is the last habit you tried to kick?
A. Making lists for everything. Now I have one iPhone list, so I don’t have little stickies everywhere.

Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
A. Give up the salaried job and just live the modest life.

Q. What teacher or professor changed your life?
A. Professor William Cook at Dartmouth College. He was an English professor and one of the few African American professors that I had. It was he who led me to want to major in English, and he taught me that writing was about memorable language.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you most want to meet for dinner?
A. Nelson Mandela.

To read about Rich’s lecture, click here.

*Photo by Francisco Arcaute.

Julia E. Sweig is the Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America studies and director for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Most recently she is the author of Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know. Before taking the podium to discuss the book, Sweig told us a bit more about herself.

Q. What was the last thing that inspired you?

A. Juanes, the Colombian singer whose concert in Havana I was marginally involved with putting together. I was blown away by him in every way. He’s become a great friend.

Q. What comforts you?

A. Lox and bagels.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. Early in the morning.

Q. What is your favorite thing about Los Angeles?

A. The light.

Q. What is the best advice you have ever received?

A. It was from my Grandpa Sam, and I was about nine years old. He said to me — and I forget about what — “listen to everybody and then do what you want.”

Q. What is your greatest weakness?

A. It’s probably my biggest strength, too, which is that I overthink.

Q. What’s the last habit you tried to kick?

A. Overstuffing my suitcases when I travel.

Q. What do you wake up to in the mornings?

A. Black tea with two percent milk.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. Ubiquitous.

Q. What teacher or professor changed your life?

A. Saul Landau, who was a professor at UC Santa Cruz in the early 1980s, and who is the first person who ever sent me to Cuba.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most want to meet for dinner?

A. It would be two people: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

To read about Sweig’s discussion on Cuba, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.

Gregg Easterbrook was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, but has lived with his former foreign service officer wife on most every continent. But, he says, “My favorite place on Earth is Seattle, and my wife refuses to move there.” Easterbrook, author of Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed, reveals more about himself below.

Q. What’s the last habit you tried to kick?

A. I’ve tried to kick spending far too much of my life watching football on TV, and it just hasn’t worked.

Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?

A. A glass of cold beer at the end of a long day.

Q. What do you do to clear your mind?

A. I’m an inveterate hiker. There’s a forest preserve I can reach by walking from my house. I spend a lot of time walking in the forest.

Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?

A. Attend swank parties. I hate parties.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. But.

Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?

A. Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A. A playwright.

Q. What is your favorite cocktail?

A. I’d take a glass of cabernet.

Q. If you could live in any other time, when would it be?

A. I’ve argued intellectually that the answer to that question is the current year. The arrow of history is positive — this year is better than any previous year. There are other times I’d like to visit, but there is no time before this year that I would like to be alive.

Q. Whose talent would you like to have?

A. I tried to play the piano and I was terrible at it, so any good piano player.

Q. What teacher or professor, if any, changed your life?

A. I’m a graduate of Colorado College. I had a political science professor there, Fred Sondermann. He was a contemporary and friend of Henry Kissinger — they got out of Germany at the same time and went into political affairs. If Fred Sondermann had been the National Security Adviser to Richard Nixon instead of Henry Kissinger we would have lived in a happier country.

Q. Who would you want to write your biography?

A. Jennifer Aniston — then we could spend some time together.

Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?

A. My children.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. George Bernard Shaw.

To read about Easterbrook’s talk, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.