TEDxTucson Eric Koester How Green Entrepreneurs Can Change Our World

Our evening at the historic Rialto Theatre culminated in an inspiring call to action where everyone stood with raised hands and in unison exclaimed: "I am a green entrepreneur!" Our intention with this TEDxTucson was to highlight community sustainability and have a call to action. We believe the key is to create our own "green" jobs. Eric Koester gave an inspiring talk and has literally written the book for anybody that has considered starting a green business or wants to think about how their business can be more green and clean, The Green Entrepreneur Handbook.

Eric Koester is the VP of Operations and General Counsel at Appature Inc., a technology company providing relationship marketing software, and a former attorney at Cooley LLP (previously with Heller Ehrman LLP's Venture Law Group) with a practice focused on emerging technology companies, venture capital firms and investment banks, with particular emphases on venture capital and bank financings, corporate partnerships, commercial agreements, intellectual property licensing, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. Eric is a graduate of the business school at Marquette University and a graduate of The George Washington University School of Law. Eric is also a certified public accountant and received certification in Environmental Leadership & Change Management. He's very proud to be an entrepreneur as well, starting a consulting business MEGO Consulting, Learn That Name (which was acquired by Gist) and App&Seek.

Prior to the law, Eric held financial and accounting-related positions at Morgan Stanley and Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. While attending law school, Eric held positions in the Enforcement Division of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (formerly NASD, Inc.) assisting with ongoing securities industry enforcement proceedings, as a Summer Associate at the Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C., and in the legal department of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) focusing on issues of antitrust in the healthcare contracting industry.

In addition to being a great speaker, Eric loves to travel and his lifelong goal is to make it to all 100 of the Hillman Wonders of the World. So far, 43 down... lots to go.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxTucson, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxTucson event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combined to spark deep discussion and connection about sustainability. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• entrepreneurship
• green
• tedxtucson
• Eric Koester
• sustainability
• inspiration