Staff & Board

Charisse McAuliffe started GenGreen in the Spring of 2007 with the intentions of creating a website that would bring together the green businesses and organizations around the state of Colorado for environmentally conscious consumers to find them locally and support them more easily. In under one year time, GenGreenlife.com grew to cover this information in all 50 states in the US, and by the fall of 2008, with over 35,000 listings it is the largest resource online for people looking to live a environmentally conscious lifestyle with a local focus.

With a passion for collaboration McAuliffe continues to expand the business model of GenGreen and her own life personally by forming strong strategic partnerships with local and national organizations significant to the environmental movement. It is her belief that the solution to our planet’s struggle lies in the strength we will find in one another.  Charisse was recently named one of the top 40 business leaders of under 40 for 2008 by the Northern Colorado Business Report and was a 2007 International Femtor Awards Emerging Leader Finalist. When Charisse is not working to save the planet, she’s spending time with her two wonderful daughters, Kylah and Abigail.

Jen Allen-Geiger manages process improvements at New Belgium Brewing Company.  She earned a Civil Engineering degree from Iowa State University and is a LEED AP.  Her professional background includes over 15 years of commercial development and design-build construction management experience.  For Jen, facilitating integrative design and systems thinking on projects results in synergistic solutions which honor people, the planet and profits.  She believes that same spirit of teamwork and holistic thinking fosters the development and incorporation of sustainable practices within our daily lives.  In their spare time, Jen and her husband serve as a foster home for Polaris malamute/husky rescue.

Jacob has been a resident of Fort Collins since 1997, when he moved to Colorado to attend Colorado State University. While at CSU, Jacob received three undergraduate degrees in Agricultural Business, Foreign Language and Literature, and Economics. Following undergraduate studies Jacob began his professional career in economic development, where he served as the Vice President of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation. After a successful career in the professional world, Jacob went back to school to pursue a double masters in the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise Program and Agricultural & Resource Economics. While in grad school Jacob founded a company called PowerMundo, which was called one of six ideas that will change world, according to CNN/Money. Jacob has also served on many advisory boards throughout northern Colorado. He currently serves as the head honcho at Panda Bicycles, a leading edge bamboo bike building company, headquarted in Fort Collins. In addition to entrepreneurial endeavors, Jacob is also co-authoring a text book on sustainable venturing and teaches a class on Global Sustainability at CSU.

Matt works for Fort Collins Utilities where he is responsible for managing the design and construction of water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure projects. He has been a part of the Fort Collins community since 1993 when he moved to Fort Collins to attend Colorado State University, earning a BS and MS in Civil Engineering.

He is passionate about his work as an engineer because he believes basic water services are essential to a sustainable community. His primary interests are working to find sustainable solutions to the issues of stormwater management and ageing water and wastewater infrastructure. He has been a member of Fort Collins Utilities’ “Core Sustainability Team” since 2008 working to develop a culture of sustainability within the organization. Outside of work, Matt enjoys bicycling, gardening, raising chickens and pressing apple cider with his neighbors.

Lara Williams is a passionate supporter of creating greener homes, whether via new construction or remodeling existing buildings. As the founder and Managing Broker of The Green Team Real Estate–a local independent residential real estate company which specializes in more sustainable homes– she shares her expertise with buyers and sellers on a daily basis.

She is a certified EcoBroker, and has done considerable additional education in green building, including completing the Green Building Certificate Program at CSU’s Institute for the Built Environment. Lara is active in a number of local sustainability-focused organizations. She serves as the co-chairwoman of Membership Committee of the Northern Colorado Branch of the US Green Building Association (USGBC). She is also a member of the Fort Collins Board of Realtor’s Sustainability Committee. In 2007 she founded and continues to organize the popular Fort Collins Green Drinks events, which bring together green minded community members for networking, socializing and educational opportunities each month.

Lara has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Warwick Business School in Coventry, England and has previously worked in marketing, product management and consulting positions, including entrepreneurship training in Prague, Czech Republic just following the Velvet Revolution. When she isn’t working or volunteering you can probably find her enjoying the Colorado outdoors doing one of her favorite activities, which include skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, mountain biking, and running.

Jim Kelly is CEO and founder of Syscom Services, headquartered in Silver Spring Maryland. For over 25 years Jim has provided expertise to associations and non-profits in how to use technology, the web, new media and social networking to improve marketing, communications, fund raising and operations. Jim has been a speaker at numerous conferences and expositions around the country, focusing on emerging technologies and trends. For the past 16 years Jim has split his time between Washington, DC and Fort Collins where he and his wife Betsy Markey raised their three children.