Kathleen Gilligan, Partner & Co-Founder

For over 25 years, Kathleen’s leadership has built successful organizations. During her career, Kathleen has consistently demonstrated an ability to drive revenue and gain market share in very competitive environments, ranging from early stage, venture backed start-ups to public companies. She has built and managed teams in multiple industries, and she has led global teams through significant change efforts.

As a co-founder of EcoStrategy Group, Kathleen has combined two lifelong passions — environmental issues and technology — by helping companies develop and communicate business-oriented sustainability strategies and bringing clean technologies to market.

Kathleen’s experience includes executive positions at Symantec, AMR Research, and OnDemand, as well as deep expertise in enterprise and channel sales, marketing, and communications. As a consultant, she has focused on revenue acceleration for small businesses, serving as an interim executive and advisory to technology startups and mid-sized enterprises. Kathleen has managed teams as small as two and as large as sixty.

In the past, Kathleen has worked as an executive coach and mentor through the Growth and Leadership Center and Small Business Incubator. She served as a member of the board of directors for Kurant Corporation from 1999-2001. Kathleen is a frequent speaker on sustainability and cleantech. She is a LEED Accredited Professional, and she is currently serving in her third year as the volunteer chair of the Alumni Program for the California Cleantech Open.

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Karen Janowski, Partner & Co-Founder

During her more than 25-year career, KJ has launched over 30 technology products which collectively generated over $500 million in revenue from both business and consumer markets. She has worked with a wide range of technology clients of all sizes, from startups such as Adaptive Planning, LoopNet (now public), Nextance and Siperian, to larger public companies like Adobe, Cisco, Logitech and Plantronics.

Most recently, KJ served as the Managing Director of Evidence-Based Marketing, a consultancy focused on improving the business impact of marketing and “connecting the dots” between marketing activities and business outcomes. Previously, she was founder and principal of marketing consultancy, KJ & Co. KJ’s prior background includes 12 years in VP Marketing roles for Quantum, Resumix, VideoStream, and Electronic Arts. She has been a member of four pre-IPO startup management teams.

KJ’s interest in sustainability dates back to the first Earth Day in 1970, when she was inspired to help establish a recycling center at her high school (before curbside recycling pickup was invented). She is a pragmatic environmentalist and strongly believes in balancing the conservation of natural resources with economic development. She volunteers with Sustainable Silicon Valley, a collaboration of businesses, governments and NGOs identifying and addressing environmental pressures in the Valley. She is a business team and sustainability mentor for The California Clean Tech Open business plan competition and serves on the leadership team of GreenTown Los Altos.

KJ earned a BS from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University. She is currently studying Environmental Studies.