Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods' Advisors

Lewis M. Rothstein

Professor of Oceanography
University of Rhode Island
lrothstein@gso.uri.edu
http://www.po.gso.uri.edu

Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods has had the good fortune to benefit from Dr. Rothstein’s insight and advice on climate, tropical weather patterns and the evolving Carbon Credit Economy. Climate change is an issue that will grow in importance as governments are forced to deal with its effects. Tropical hardwood tree farms are one of the most efficient commercially viable terrestrial sinks of carbon.

Research
Current research interests include biogeochemical/ecological - physical interactions on climate change scales, and impacts of climate change on tropical cyclones. Other research interests include the large-scale ocean circulation (specifically the subtropical/subpolar gyres), and coupled air-sea interactions on various scales (intraseasonal, interannual and interdecadal). Dr. Lewis M. Rothstein, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, is internationally recognized for his work in designing computer models of the fundamental processes associated with the large scale ocean general circulation and ocean ecosystems on time and space scales relevant to global and regional climate dynamics and extreme ocean and meteorological weather events, including hurricanes.

Educational Background

1983 - Ph.D., Physical Oceanography; University of Hawaii, Honolulu

1979 - M.S., Physical Oceanography; University of Hawaii, Honolulu

1975 - M.S., Ocean Engineering; University of Massachusetts, Amherst

1973 - B.S., Mechanical Engineering; University of Bridgeport

Dr. Rothstein was recognized, by the Director of the National Hurricane Center, for his “pioneering work” in the incorporation of sea surface temperature variability into coupled ocean-atmosphere models for forecasting hurricanes. This work resulted in a 30% improvement in hurricane intensity forecasts, one full category on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is one of the single largest increases in precision in the recent history of official National Hurricane Center models.

After six years of collaborative research, federal grants of about $2 million, and exhaustive testing through several hurricane seasons, the model that was co-developed by Professor Rothstein is now an official component of the National Hurricane Prediction System used to forecast Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico tropical storms and hurricanes.

He was the lead-PI of a 5-year, five million dollar program entitled “PARADIGM: The Partnership for Advancing Interdisciplinary Global Models”. The PARADIGM consortium was a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary effort (observers and modelers, ecologists and physicists, biogeochemists and numerical specialists) funded by the National Ocean Partnership Program committed to building and deploying new, advanced models of ecology and biogeochemistry for understanding and predicting the future states of the ocean. The models and fundamental process understanding derived from PARADIGM are now important components of most of the major climate models, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Los Alamos National Laboratory climate models, among many others. It was the first of its kind for organizing a climate modeling program of, and for making significant contributions to the fields of: interdisciplinary data fusion, synthesis and validation; ocean ecosystem model development; high-resolution basin scale and regional process studies; focus sites (i.e., regional test-beds) and numerical method development (including data assimilation).

Dr. Rothstein served as the editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research, one of the premiere journals in oceanography. He was a two-term member of the U.S. Science Steering Committee for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, was the Chairman of the numerical modeling working group for the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative program, has served on numerous other national and international scientific committees, and has served on review panels for the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He has delivered numerous invited lectures worldwide at international meetings as well as at oceanographic and atmospheric research and educational institutions and has chaired the committees of eleven doctoral students. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and the private sector.

He is the Science Director of the Metcalf Institute whose mission is to promote clear and accurate reporting of scientific news and environmental issues; to strengthen understanding and working relationships between members of the scientific community and members of the news media; and to provide opportunities for beginning journalists to learn, on both a formal and an informal level, how to improve their skills in marine and environmental reporting.

Dr. Rothstein co-founded Accurate Environmental Forecasting, Inc., a company providing natural catastrophe (hurricane) modeling services to the insurance and reinsurance industry, serving as its President and Co-CEO.

He has authored or co-authored over 70 articles and book chapters on these topics and others, including: co-editing a major collection of El Nino research papers entitled "The TOGA Decade: Reviewing the Progress of El Nino Research and Prediction" that summarized our understanding of El Nino at that time; the lead author of “Modeling Ocean Ecosystems” a forward looking review of the challenges and solutions for modeling the complexity of the ocean’s ecology and biogeochemistry; and co-author of “From genes to ecosystems; The ocean's new frontier” that examined the central role of ocean microbiology and genetics for understanding fundamental ocean ecosystem processes.

Director, URI Regional Earth System Center

MISSION: To enhance overall societal wellbeing (health, financial, environmental) by utilizing the best scientific information and technology to achieve optimal policy decisions with maximum stakeholder commitment for coastal environmental management, clean energy development, freshwater and land resources protection, and human health while accelerating regional economic growth.

INTRODUCTION: Many of today’s societal challenges are complex; no one or even few disciplines can claim the breadth of expertise for seeking actionable solutions. One prime example is global change, which today is expressing itself most prominently as an anthropogenically driven global climate warming, with significant regional, state and local consequences. This particular challenge distinguishes itself in that to meet it we must find integrated regional ‘Earth System’ societal resource management solutions that seek the expertise of natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, economists and political scientists in directed teams for research, education, and outreach to both the public and private sectors.

THE CENTER: The Center will serve to integrate existing institutional strengths in coastal and inland environmental management, energy, freshwater resources, and human wellbeing. This integrated research, educational and public/private sector outreach Center will focus on local, state and regional resources. The centerpiece activity of RESC will be the development of ‘integrated assessment models’ (IAMs) that will both ‘downscale’ global observations and interpolate/extrapolate regional observations for analyzing the complexity of interactions among humans and the natural climate system to further our understanding and, ultimately, to predict the future state of our regional Earth System. RESC will begin by ‘downscaling’ existing global Earth System management tools for studying the causes of local, state and regional climate change and potential social and environmental consequences, with a focus on the regional resources identified above. RESC will ultimately need to address the full feedbacks inherent in the nonlinear Earth System by quantifying the “upscale” impacts of those regional changes on the global Earth System. Through an interacting suite of computer simulations that are informed by observations from the evolving regional climate observatory, RESC will integrate climate science, technology, economics, and social policy into forecasts that will inform solutions to pressing issues in regional climate change science, ‘green economy’ investment and climate policy.

Tiffany McCormick Potter

Carbon and Environmental Assets Analyst

President of Streamline LLC

Tiffany has 12 years of experience in carbon markets, environmental law and policy, and forest science. Tiffany founded Streamline LLC, a consulting practice managing information, communication, and capacity building for private or public sector entities that develop eco-assets. The company streamlines project development and monetization of credits in carbon markets and mitigation and endangered species banking. She is also founder of Ecoanalytics, a company that provides for market intelligence for environmental markets.

Formerly, Tiffany was a Senior Analyst for Point Carbon, which launched a new trading analytics tool for North American carbon markets that is used by major banks, hedge funds, and governmental branches of US Government. Prior to that, she was a Director at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. In addition, Tiffany has served as a delegate to the World Assembly of the United Nations, as a biologist for the National Park Service, and biological technician to the US Forest Service. Tiffany holds a B.S. in Forest Biology from the University of Vermont and a Master’s of Environmental Management from Yale University.

Stephen M. Nimz

Certified Arborist
Honolulu, Hawaii
steve@stevenimz.com
www.stevenimz.com

Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods

Stephen Nimz is a tremendous resource. His knowledge of Hawaiian Forestry species is recognized both locally and nationally, making him a valuable part of our botany community. He has a lifetime of accumulated experience devoted to the care and protection of Hawaiian Trees in municipal, residential, commercial and preservation settings.

Educational Background
Certified Arborist/Municipal Specialist
Certified Tree Risk Assessor
American Society of Consulting Arborists Academy 2005
Certified Arborist
B.S., Tropical Agriculture, University of Hawaii 1970
Minor Agriculture Economics and Horticulture, University of Hawaii 1970
Associate Agriculture Science, Lake Michigan College 1967
Associate Science, Orchard Management/Horticulture, Michigan State 1967

Present Positions
Chief Consulting Arborist for Steve Nimz & Associates L.L.C., a Consulting Arborist Service based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

President of Certified Erosion Control, Hawaii, a full service Erosion Control Contract business.

Previous Businesses
Vice President and Co-Founder of Agriculture International, Inc. specializing in tropical trees, horticulture and livestock production in Hawaii and the South Pacific.

Chief Arborist/Manager of The Tree People, a division of Agriculture International, Inc. Specializing in tree pruning, removal, transplanting and disease control.

Manager of Aqua Pacific specializing in irrigation and sprinkler installation.

Vice President of Hawaii Tropical Plants and export nursery and plant production company.

Founder of Chip-It, Inc. a recycling green waste and equipment rental company.

President/Co-Founder of Hawaiian Earth Products specializing in the recycling of green waste into compost.

Professional/Trade Affilations:
Steve Nimz has been a member and past president of both the Landscape Industry Council of Hawaii and the Aloha Arborist Association. He has served on the board of directors of the Society of Commercial Arborists and is a member of the International Society of Arboriculture and the American Society of Consulting Arborists.

Community Participation and Awards:
Through the years, Steve Nimz has been an active part of tree preservation in Hawaii, participating on Arborist Advisory Committees for the protection and care of exceptional trees. He is a lifetime member of the Outdoor Circle and has received their Award of Merit. As part of the ISA Arborist Tree Certification Program he has worked as a Proctor and Tree Work Certification Examiner. He has received awards from the State of Hawaii, the City and County of Honolulu, professional societies, private conservation organizations and is an Honorary Chapter Life Member of the International Society of Arboriculture.

IBIS Consulting Group

http://www.ibisnest.com
info@ibisnest.com

The IBIS Group has had a long-standing relationship with the principals of Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods. Over the years, The IBIS Group has developed a network of European institutional investors that specialize or consider a part of their investment strategy investing in US equities.

IBIS has formed working relationships with a number of highly qualified boutique Investment Banks, whose expertise include structuring and obtaining corporate financing, locating acquisition targets or merger candidates and bringing private companies public.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT / STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS:
Through their network of industry experts, IBIS has been instrumental in assisting companies obtain strategic partners domestically and abroad, creating new marketing channels for their existing products, and/or outsourcing parts of their operations.

Dina Lyaskovets

Partner

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Dina grew up under the Soviet regime. She graduated Kiev University in 1992 with a bachelor degree in Micro Biology. In 1993 Dina made a transition to the Western world by immigrating to the United States, where she was employed by Idexx Labs., in Westbrook, Maine. Idexx Labs (IDXX: Nasdaq) was a successful publicly trading company with generous a employee benefit plan. There, the concept of the stockmarket was introduced to her, when she received Idexx’s stock options as a part of her total compensation package. That was the beginning of what turned into her next true passion: financial markets.

After moving to Southern California, Dina enrolled in a MBA program at Chapman University in Orange, CA, while working at various trading, M&A and securities firms, gaining first hand knowledge of the Securities Industry. She joined the institutional trading desk at Meridian Capital (now a part of e-Offering), where she became familiar with the institutional side of the business and developed relationships with fund managers and annalists on both Buy and Sell side.

It was only natural to leverage her connections with institutional clients, mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity managers, to provide companies with consulting services related to navigating the markets, as well as building an institutional shareholder base.

Stephen Lee Gjolme

Partner

Born in Seattle, Washington, Stephen Gjolme grew up in Southern California. In the mid-70’s, Stephen went to work for the Account-A-Call Corporation, selling telecommunication data processing, online inventory control, and a host of related products. Stephen was quickly promoted to Regional Sales Manager and moved to Houston Texas, where he oversaw the sales efforts in the Central U.S. for the Major Accounts Division, dealing with Fortune 500 companies. Here, Stephen recognized that there was a great need for venture capital for developing markets.

In 1985, Stephen moved back to California and began to help numerous emerging companies with seed capital, primarily from high net worth individuals. Mr. Gjolme has held a Series 7, 22, 63, and 6 licenses, and has been instrumental in raising millions of dollars.

In 2001, Stephen joined Private Investors Equity Group, where he helped form new relationships with broker/dealers, financial institutions, financial planners, fund managers/CFA’s and provided them with new wholesale products for their clients.

In 2002, Stephen joined The IBIS Group as a Partner; assisting clients with their individual needs, while garnering institutional exposure and broadening the IBIS network.