True leadership in building the foundation for a sustainable prosperity

By Ross Macfarlane
Climate Solutions

Last week, Maud Daudon was named the permanent President and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Earlier this month at Climate Solutions annual breakfast, Maud introduced the Honorable Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Administrator Jackson stood in front of nearly 800 of the region’s top clean energy leaders and praised business leaders from across the region:  “We need to mobilize our most promising job creators and recognize that an economy that is built to last is going to be led by companies and programs that specialize in sustainability.”

Maud and other area business leaders really understand the connection between environment and economy. From 2010 to 2011, Maud served as Chair of the Chamber, leading the group’s three-year comprehensive planning process. During this process the Seattle Chamber took unprecedented steps to engage the city’s non-profit communities, helping transform the Chamber into a broader community organization, and adopting a vision around sustainable prosperity. 

Maud and the area business leadership represent much of what makes Seattle, in Lisa Jackson’s words, “a proof point of sustainable prosperity.”  Maud already has had a distinguished with a career of community leadership as the CFO of the Port of Seattle, Deputy Mayor and chief of staff for the City of Seattle, and President and CEO of the Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation. Now she is leading Seattle’s business community as it is looking to build jobs in a cleaner economy.

In our region, we sometimes run the danger of taking business leaders like Maud and others for granted. Jackson reminded us that the cooperation and enthusiasm that marks many of our top corporate leaders is something that we need to celebrate and cultivate. In the other Washington, too often those who claim to speak for businesses sing a one note song opposing environmental and health protections and any progress away from fossil fuels .Speaking at the breakfast, Lisa Jackson said the US needs “business and other influential players to be a visible part of the effort to protect human health and the environment.” In the Northwest, business is stepping up to play an important role, and we need to celebrate leaders who have the courage and vision to look past traditional battles, establish new partnerships and help build the foundation for a sustainable prosperity in our region.