Green Globe International, Inc.
Board of Directors
Director Biographies
Gary Nerison - Chairman
Gary Nerison is a business professional with extensive experience in operations, executive management and Board level oversight for companies in a number of industries, including insurance, real estate development, banking and charitable foundations.
Mr. Nerison currently serves a Director of two companies publicly traded in the United States. Included in his responsibilities as a public company Director are financial oversight and fiscal accountability; selection appointment of key officers and new directors; and high level governance of the organization through its stated policies and objectives.
Mr. Nerison has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Green Globe International since the company's inception. He served as a Director of its predecessor company, GTREX Capital, Inc., since October 2005, and was appointed Chairman in March 2007. Mr. Nerison provided leadership for the company as it identified a new acquisition and changed the focus of its operations to become Green Globe International, owner of the premier international brand for sustainability programs.
For S3 Investment Company, Inc., another public U.S. company, Mr. Nerison has served as a Board Member since December of 2005 and held the position of Chairman of the Board's Finance Committee when it functioned as a Business Development Company under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Mr. Nerison previously served as Director of Franchise Capital Corporation and HAZ Holdings, two additional publicly traded U.S. companies. Mr. Nerison provided leadership as Franchise Capital Corporation identified and successfully completed a reverse merger transaction with Aero Exhaust, Inc., a world leader in performance exhaust airflow technology whose automotive exhaust system is a NASCAR sponsored product. For HAZ Holdings, a hotel acquisition and management company, Mr. Nerison served as Director and financing consultant.
In 2002, Mr. Nerison co-founded the World Health and Education Foundation (WHEF), a charitable foundation oriented around stem cell research. WHEF also supports additional charities including Rotary International, Boys and Girls Club, the Wheelchair Foundation and the Christopher Reeves Foundation. Mr. Nerison currently serves as the foundation's President.
Mr. Nerison is also an experienced entrepreneur, having devoted over 36 years to the growth of real estate development and loan brokerage companies.
In 2000, Mr. Nerison established a loan brokerage firm, placing venture loans for new businesses. The company obtained and arranged for financing and allocation of funds for developers of projects ranging from $1 million to $30 million. In 1998, Mr. Nerison founded an Internet coupon company, for which he served as chief executive officer for several years. Previous to that, Mr. Nerison served in leadership and executive positions for a number of financial, insurance, real estate, and development businesses.
In addition to his work with WHEF, Mr. Nerison has been involved in charitable activities in the San Francisco Bay Area, including work on behalf of underprivileged children, seniors, and public education. Mr. Nerison has also assisted in home building projects for migrant children in Mexico and delivered wheelchairs in Mexico and Asia.
Mr. Nerison serves on the Executive Committee of the Northern California Chapter of the NFL Alumni Association and is a former Board member of Project RESTORE at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Project RESTORE is a Johns Hopkins-based undertaking to advance therapies for transverse myelitis and multiple sclerosis.
Mr. Nerison attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he majored in Economics.
Steven R. Peacock - Managing Director
Steven Peacock was appointed as Managing Director of Green Globe International in March 2008 and has served as interim president and interim chief executive officer of the company since November 2007. Mr. Peacock led the company's efforts to acquire the Green Globe brand and transition of the company to become Green Globe International, Inc.
Mr. Peacock has over thirty years of experience in seeking out and identifying emerging growth investment opportunities, both startup companies and work out assignments and is skilled at analyzing management structure and setting up programs for raising capital. He has working knowledge of taking companies through the process of becoming publicly traded, as well as assistance with strategic planning, corporate communications including shareholder relations and internet marketing as well as an extensive background in SEC requirements and filings utilizing broad network of legal, accounting, insurance, Internet technology and public relations affiliates.
In addition to his work with and in publicly traded companies, Mr. Peacock has a background in the real estate development industry and in minor league professional sports development, primarily soccer, in both American and European venues.
Mr. Peacock has an extensive operating knowledge of the Business Development Company process, having operated the first BDC on the west coast from 1998 to 2000. From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Peacock acted as a consultant for Peak Solutions, a firm offering a variety of consulting, management and financing services to the small business community, both public and private.
From 2003 to 2004, Mr. Peacock served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of YaSheng Group, Ltd., formerly Nicholas Investment Company, Inc. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Peacock served as a member of the Board of Directors of BDC Capital, Inc. and as Secretary, Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of CLX Investment Company. From 2005 to 2006, Mr. Peacock served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Entertainment Capital Corporation. Mr. Peacock also served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Franchise Capital Corporation from 2006 to 2007.
From 2004 to present, Mr. Peacock has served as managing partner of Javelin Advisory Group, Inc., a business consulting company located in Murrieta, California with the core focus of assisting businesses with a number of vital services, which include bringing small public companies into compliance with SEC requirements, assisting in the raising of necessary capital, evaluating potential acquisitions and providing management expertise.
Dr. Terry De Lacy - Director
Terry De Lacy recently took up a position as professor in sustainable tourism and environmental policy at Victoria University, having stood down in July 2007 after 10 years as CEO of the national Sustainable Tourism Co-operative Research Centre (STCRC), established by the Australian government.
Previously, Dr. De Lacy was Dean of the Agriculture and Natural Resources faculty at the University of Queensland and held a continuing chair in environmental policy at that university. Before that, he was professor of natural resources at Charles Stuart University. Dr. De Lacy's research area is in environmental policy specializing in natural resources and sustainable tourism. He has authored six books, over 100 articles, 30 keynote addresses, been granted two patents, received 10 Australian Research Council grants, and has attracted over $9 million in personal research.
Professor de Lacy has extensive research and project experience in Asia, specifically in China. He was appointed to the Queensland Government's China Council and the Joint Australian India Government's Sustainable Tourism joint working party. He has carried out a number of policy, program and project evaluations both in Australia and overseas for international agencies and national governments. He is a director of several "for profit" and "not for profit" companies including Chairman of STDI Pty Ltd.
Dr. De Lacy coordinated the development of the Earthcheck program, which is being used in over 50 countries by Green Globe to benchmark the sustainability performance of tourism businesses and destinations. When working at STCRC he coordinated a proposed R&D program for tourism and climate change for the Australian government and recently led a destination adaptation to climate change strategy for the Sri Lankan government.
Charles Kao - Director
During the past 30 years, Mr. Kao has served as chief executive officer of several travel related companies, including charter flight companies, retail travel agencies, meeting and convention planners, destination management companies, special interest groups, FIT operators, and air consolidators based in the U.S., Europe and the Orient.
Since 1989, Mr. Kao has served as managing director of Travelware. Travelware's focus is on the technology needs of tour companies, hotels, airlines, tourist boards, convention locations, visitor bureaus, car rental companies, travel management companies and Fortune 1000 companies' travel departments. Customers include Carlson WagonLit Travel, American Express Travel, Kuoni/Zurich, Grey Line Worldwide, Japan Travel Bureau International, Jet Vacations, Jetset Tours, Texas Instruments, Xerox, Allied Signal, and Accor Group/Paris.
Since 1995, Mr. Kao has been very active in travel related eCommerce in over 20 countries. Mr. Kao is the co-founder of Tiss.com (USA), with partners Deutsch Telecom and Lufthansa Group in the Omnis Online global tourism marketplace. Tiss.com offers online consolidator airfare in 20 countries in 9 languages and is responsible for launching Travelocity and One Travel's consolidator program in 1996.
Mr. Kao currently serves as group chairman and publisher of TravelMole.com and TravelMole.TV. TravelMole.com is an online media company which publishes 15 eNewsletters to over 450,000 travel and tourism industry professional subscribers and 70 million consumers in 132 countries. TravelMole.TV engages in Internet video production and broadcasting to a global audience of 150 million. Since 2003, Mr. Kao has served as president of OmniTravelSeach, Inc. OmniTravelSearch develops meta search solutions for travel/tourism enterprises and was awarded and owns the meta search patent in 1999. In addition, Mr. Kao has served as chairman of Omni Tourism, LLC since 2001. Omni Tourism owns and develops proprietary software for designations to manage, aggregate and distribute their content and manage their destinations.
Mr. Kao graduated from University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering. He has been or is currently a member of ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents), SITE (Society of Incentive Travel Executives), ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives), NBTA (National Business Travel Association), Society of Travel & Tourism Educators, PATA (Pacific Area Travel Association) and CLIA (Cruise Line International Association). In addition, he is the founder of TTA (Travel Technology Association) and TOWARD (Tour Operators & Wholesalers Achieving Real-time Distribution).
