Board of Directors
The Board of directors is responsible for establishing policy, ensuring the organization's financial health, and assuring that the mission is carried out in an ethical and prudent manner.
Board Members:
To reach any of them send an inquiry to cti@compatibletechnology.org and indicate who you would like to contact. We will forward the email on for you.
Chair: Ronald L. Christenson
Past Chair: Gary Ballman
Co-Vice Chair: Cathie Hartnett
Co-Vice Chair: Paul Healey
Co-Vice Chair: Adam Rix
Secretary: Mark Kalla
Treasurer: Carl Schroeder
Directors:
- Gary Balas
- Jared Brewington
- Gary Ellis
- Jay Erstling
- Camille George
- Sherry Gray
- Elizabeth Jolly
- Alicia Mills
- Peter L. Olson
- Shirish Pareek
- Ronald Price
- Katherine Blanck Radsan
- Roger Salway (non-voting)
- Marschall Smith
- Katherine Walker- Griffith
Biographies:
Gary Balas
Professor & Department Head, Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota
Professor Gary Balas has taught in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Minnesota for 20 years. He currently serves as teacher, researcher, and department head.
Dr. Balas has been published in over 50 refereed journals and has received several prestigious awards and fellowships, including the American Automatic Control Council O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award in 2006, IEEE Control System Society Control Systems Technology Award in 2005, IEEE Fellow in 2004, IT George Taylor Distinguished Research Award from the University of Minnesota in 2003, ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Outstanding Young Investigator Award in 1999, and a McKnight-Land Grant Professorship, also from the University of Minnesota in 1993.
Gary Ballman - Past Chair
Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Product Development, DeCare
Mr. Ballman leads the company’s marketing, product development and market research initiatives, and he established and heads the company’s Broker and Small Group Support Services department. In addition to developing employer-group products, he oversees the company’s individual product portfolio: Mr. Ballman spearheaded the development and marketplace introduction of these rapidly growing product lines. Prior to leading the company’s marketing areas, Mr. Ballman headed DeCare’s claims and customer service divisions and currently reports to the CEO. He has 25 years experience in marketing, product development and research, insurance operations, customer service, customer satisfaction measurement and quality management.
Mr. Ballman served on the Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Program for three years and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Jared Brewington
Manager of Commercial Business Development - Green Energy Products, LLC
As a 5th generation South Minneapolis native, Mr. Brewington has a community focused approach in all he does. As a steward for the burgeoning renewable energy industry in Minnesota, Mr. Brewington is a leader in bringing the practicality and cost-effectiveness of solar power to businesses, municipalities and utilities around Minnesota. Mr. Brewington is active in legislative affairs regarding renewable energy acceptance and policy, and an active committee member for The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce (Public Affairs Committee), The St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce (Government Affairs Committee) and The US Green Building Council - Minnesota Chapter (Marketing Committee).
Mr. Brewington studied technology in Minnesota and held previous positions of senior management in telecommunications and application service. He is also a senior partner for a construction firm based in Excelsior, MN.
Mr. Brewington is a published author of papers on the business case for renewable energy and public speaker; he takes great pride in the adoption of solar power throughout the US. As a local musician, he brings a new demographic to Compatible Technology International and strives to connect sustainable living with international community support.
Mr. Brewington lives in Minneapolis with his wife and 2 daughters and enjoys spending time in northern Minnesota and Central Coast Florida.
Ronald L. Christenson - Chair
Retired, Corporate VP and CTO, Cargill
Mr. Christenson retired from Cargill in 2009 after 38 years of service. During his career with Cargill he lived in Argentina and Canada and several locations within the USA while engineering, building and operating food processing plants. He had been responsible for Plant Operations, Food safety and Environment, Heath and Safety and Engineering.
He has an interest in continuing to help people in the developing world through technology and education. He is supporter of Engineers without Borders. Mr. Christenson also chairs the Dean's Advisory Board for the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota. He has supported the University through scholarships, fellowships and by endowing a chair in renewable energy. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1972. He is a registered professional engineer.
He is member of the Board of Trustees of Science Museum of Minnesota. An avid outdoorsman, he owns a small woodland that he stewards for wildlife.
Gary Ellis
Executive Director, Riverton Community Housing
Mr. Ellis is the Executive Director of Riverton Community Housing, a non profit organization with a mission to provide affordable housing in Southeast Minneapolis. Mr. Ellis has served in this position since 1991 when he helped restructure the organization to position it for development, adding five new properties along with the management of four successful cooperative housing communities.
In addition to serving on the Board of Compatible Technology International, he currently serves on the Board of St. Stephen’s Human Services, an organization working to end homelessness, and the Board of the Center for Exchange and Solidarity located in Sal Salvador, El Salvador, an organization working to promote democracy and economic development in El Salvador.
Mr. Ellis has an MBA degree from the University of Minnesota and a real estate broker’s license in the State of Minnesota. He has two grown daughters and lives with his wife, Diane, in Shoreview.
Jay Erstling
Professor of Law, William Mitchell College of Law
Attorney,
Patterson Thuente Christensen Pedersen
Jay Erstling is a professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law and of counsel at Patterson Thuente Christensen Pedersen, an intellectual property law firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At William Mitchell, he teaches primarily in the area of international and comparative intellectual property law, and he has a particular interest in the intellectual property systems of emerging countries. He also created and directs the William Mitchell Intellectual Property Law Clinic. At Patterson Thuente, he counsels clients on their international intellectual property strategies and advises on changes in intellectual property law and practice.
From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Erstling served as the Director of the Office of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and Director-Advisor to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He oversaw the development and implementation of PCT policies, including large-scale regulatory and operations reform, and he had responsibility for the processing and examination of more than 150,000 international applications a year.
Mr. Erstling has written and lectured widely on topics relating primarily to the PCT, Chinese and Indian patent law, international intellectual property policy, and intellectual asset management. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Cyprus and Sri Lanka, and he served as an intellectual property consultant and speaker in South Asia, the Middle East, Western Africa, and the Caribbean for the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department, and The Asia Foundation. He earned J.D. and B.S. degrees from Cornell University.
Camille George
Associate Professor of Engineering, University of St. Thomas
Dr. George is an Associate Professor in mechanical engineering at the University of St. Thomas. She teaches thermodynamics, senior design, and energy and the environment, an engineering course for non-majors to promote general technology literacy. Her research interests revolve primarily in global sustainability and engineering for the developing world. She has led several international service-learning projects in the Caribbean and West Africa which have involved faculty members in six different disciplines as well as many undergraduate students. Her innovative interdisciplinary multi-year projects have addressed post-harvest food preservation, passive cooling of space in hot dry climates, empowering women's cooperatives to make and sell Shea-butter products, and installing solar hot water pasteurizers.
Sherry Gray
Coordinator and Lecturer, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs,
University of Minnesota
Sherry Gray coordinates the global policy area at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, which includes serving on the program committee of the newly-created Master of Development Practice degree program, teaching area courses, and assisting with international programming, student recruitment, exchange projects, and overseas internships for students and faculty. Ms. Gray previously served as program officer at the Stanley Foundation, has consulted for the Ford Foundation, was executive director of two nonprofit organizations—the Program for International Studies and Women In International Security—and taught international and comparative politics at Providence and Macalester colleges and the universities of Louisville, Minnesota, Port Harcourt (Nigeria), and Wisconsin-River Falls. She lived and worked for a number of years in China and has worked on bilateral foreign policy dialogues (“track two diplomacy”) with a number of countries in East Asia, Latin America, and the Persian Gulf. Ms. Gray has a B.A. from the University of Colorado and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
Cathie Hartnett - Co-Vice Chair
Consultant
Cathie Hartnett is a non profit and business consultant in strategic planning, marketing, leadership transition, and crisis management. Ms. Hartnett was raised in Minnesota but spent 17 years in Washington working in politics as well as starting an entrepreneurial management company that launched new national non profits and small companies. Most recently she is an investor and Director of First Equity Mortgage Inc. Ms. Hartnett is a weekend radio talk show host for Hubbard Broadcasting on FM 107.1. She is a regular on KSTP television providing political commentary and often does public speaking with her “Polichick” show partner on the need for a civil dialogue with those you most disagree.
Her volunteer work in Board service reflects her passion for entrepreneurial work in the non profit and for profit sector including; Mental Health Resources, Sobriety High Foundation, Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable and Theater Latte Da, St. Paul Almanac and EdVisions.
Ms. Hartnett was chosen as an American Council of Young Political Leaders – Mexico Delegation, MS Magazine – "80 Women to Watch in the 80's”, U of M Alumni Magazine – “40 graduates under 40”, President’s Leadership Award – Spina Bifida Association of America and Distinguished CLA Graduate of University of Minnesota.
Ms. Hartnett lives with her husband, John Monto, an artist in St. Paul. She parented two stepsons and has two grandchildren.
Paul Healey - Co-Vice Chair
Risk Manager, GE Capital
Paul Healey is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who spent 2 years working as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer in Mali, West Africa. Mr. Healey ’s first exposure to CTI was through an internship for CTI in the early 1990’s prior to attending the Monterey Institute of International Studies where he studied development. In addition to an MA in International Policy Studies, he holds a BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas.
Mr. Healey has held a variety of positions in Operations and Risk management since joining GE Capital in 1998. Paul, his wife Becky Dankowski, and their 3 young children live in South Minneapolis.
Prior to her recent move to Minnesota, Elizabeth Jolly was general counsel for Foundations, Inc., a national nonprofit based in New Jersey, specializing in education reform. In her role as senior leader and general counsel, Jolly managed governing and national boards; led strategic initiatives; and managed government, funder, and donor relations. Ms. Jolly received her Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware and is admitted to the practice of law in Minnesota and New Jersey.
Mark Kalla - Secretary
Partner, Barnes & Thornburg, LLP
Mark Kalla is a Partner in the Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Department Barnes Thornburg in Minneapolis. Previously, Mr. Kalla was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney. He received a B.A., magna cum laude, from California State University and later worked as a social worker and then as a high school history teacher as a part of Teach for America. He received a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University Minnesota Law School where he was a research assistant and an editor for the Minnesota Journal of International Law.
Alicia Mills
Attorney, Associate in Technology and Patent Groups, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Alicia Mills is an associate in Dorsey & Whitney's Technology and Patent Groups. She practices in the areas of patent preparation and prosecution, patent opinions, and intellectual property licensing and acquisitions. Ms. Mills has experience in domestic and foreign patent prosecution, opinion work, client counseling, portfolio management, and due diligence. Her patent practice relates to a broad range of technical fields but focuses especially on medical device technology.
Peter L. Olson
Assistant Chief IP Counsel and Assistant General Counsel, 3M Company
Peter Olson is a managing attorney in the Legal Department at 3M Company. He joined 3M in 1990, and is a graduate of the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota (B.S.M.E. 1988) and of the University of Minnesota Law School (J.D. 1991). He was a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C., and has held legal management positions for 3M at its operations in Austin, Texas and in Brussels, Belgium. Peter lived in Ankara, Turkey in the 1970s, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Take Heart America.
Shirish Pareek
President and Chief Executive Officer, MinnPar LLC
Shirish Pareek is the founder and Chief Executive of Hydraulex Global. Hydraulex Global was formed in August 2010 with the mission of becoming the premier worldwide remanufacturer and distributor of all major makes and brands of quality Hydraulic Pumps, Motors, Valves, Servo and Cylinders for a vast variety of Industrial, Mobile off-highway, Mining and Oil-field equipment sectors.
Mr. Pareek previously acquired and managed MinnPar, a Heavy equipment parts business in Minneapolis, MN. He is now an owner and Board Member of MinnPar. He has also worked at international management-consulting firm McKinsey & Company and at Halliburton on the oil and gas exploration and production rigs in India and Indonesia.
Mr. Pareek earned a B.S. with University Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India and an MBA with specialization in Operations and Strategy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Mr. Pareekis a member of the Young Presidents Organization. He has served on the board of Carnegie Museum of Art, First Voice International, and a Working Board Member of Indian American Council. Along with his wife, Komal, Mr. Pareek is involved in a CTI project to address severe malnutrition amongst children in India.
Ron Price
Senior Program Officer, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
Ron Price currently leads LISC's project-related investments. Before joining LISC, Mr. Pricewas a real estate development project manager with Project for Pride in Living (PPL). Prior to joining PPL, he held positions in commercial banking and real estate development in Chicago. Mr. Price brings a deep commitment to community based development and a strong set of real estate development and finance skills to the Twin Cities Community. He holds a B.A. in architecture from Princeton University and completed all assigned course work for a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois.
Katherine Blanck Radsan
Attorney
Katherin Blanck Radsan is a retired equity partner from the law firm now known as Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, a 180-attorney firm based in San Diego, California. In her 13 years of practice at that firm, she specialized in complex class action lawsuits related to securities fraud and she represented individual shareholders and institutional clients. Ms. Radsan continues to serve as a consultant to Coughlin Stoia. Before her work at that firm, she was a business litigation associate at Corbett & Steelman in Irvine, California. Ms. Radsan graduated with a journalism degree, cum laude, from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1987 and a law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1990, where she was the Associate Editor of the San Diego Law Review. She is a current member of the Minnesota Bar and the State Bar of California.
Adam Rix - Co-Vice Chair
Founder, Watermark Initiative, LLC
Mr. Rix is the founder of Watermark Initiative, LLC and the author of its proprietary Hydro Perspective assessment process. He graduated from the University of Denver, Graduate School of International Studies with a Masters of International Development. He also holds a J.D. from the University of Denver and B.A. in Political Science from Trinity College, CT.
Roger Salway
Executive Director, Compatible Technology International
Mr. Salway joined CTI as the Executive Director in September 2008 after serving as the Vice Chair on the Board of Directors. Mr. Salway's previous experience includes senior management experience in Europe and North America for Deere & Co. and more than 25 years of global manufacturing and leadership experience. He was formerly Chief Operating Officer of Paper Calmenson & Co., a St. Paul-based steel products manufacturer, and was Executive Vice President for Capacity Web, a technology based company that facilitated efficient global industrial manufacturing and sourcing. Mr. Salway also serves on the Board of The Rose Ensemble.
Carl Schroeder - Treasurer
Retired Chief Operating Officer, Schroeder Milk Co.
Carl Schroeder worked for 28 years in the dairy and food processing industry for Schroeder Milk. The family business was sold to Agropur, Inc. in 2008 and in spring 2010 Mr. Schroeder was free to take on his next adventure. He has a great depth of operations experience and knowledge in manufacturing liquid beverages including milk, soy, chicken broths, soups, nutritional drinks, meal replacement and cultured products. He was instrumental in Schroeder Company’s strategic move to develop manufactuing capabilities to produce aseptic (shelf stable) products allowing for national distribution of products.
Mr. Schroeder and his wife Kristin have a strong interest in global food and water issues and recognize these issues as some of the most important global topics.
Marschall Smith
Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, 3M Company
Marschall Smith's educational background includes a History Degree from Princeton University, a Law Degree from the University of Virginia, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago.
Before serving in his current position at 3M Company, Mr. Smith was Vice President and General Counsel for Brunswick Corporation, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Digitas Inc., and Senior Vice President and General Counsel, IMC Global Inc., among other things.
Mr. Smith also served in the United States Marine Corps on Active and Reserve Service, and is active on the Board of Directors for Compatible Technology International.
Katherine Walker-Griffith
Philanthropist, Community Volunteer
Katherin Walker-Griffith is a native Minnesotan who returned to the state in 1990 after living in both the East and intermountain West. She is an antiques dealer living in St. Paul and a member of both the MN and WI Antiques Dealer's Associations. As a mother of 3 and grandmother of 4, she knows the importance of clean water and adequate nutrition for children and their families. Ms. Griffith feels CTI's emphasis on simple, workable technologies to address these fundamental human needs is important work.