Leadership Team

Our executive leadership team is dedicated to advancing our mission and collaborating with clients to develop solutions that drive change.

James Donovan
Chief Executive Officer

As co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jim brings over 25 years of investment banking expertise and entrepreneurial vision into the company.

Carol Esguerra
Chief Financial Officer

As co-founder and Chief Financial Officer, Carol negotiates high-level partnerships and acquisitions using her investment banking expertise.

Mike Stopka
Mike Stopka
Vice President, Impact

Mike leads ADEC ESG with a focus on strengthening connections between diverse technical teams and ADEC’s strategic solutions. The core of his expertise lies in creating sustainability programs and businesses, strategic planning, decarbonizing supply chains, and change management. Over the past twenty years, Mike has led sustainability groups at design, engineering, and higher education organizations, and founded his own strategy firm.

Patrick Schultz
Senior Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer

With over 25 years’ experience in operations management, process improvement, and project management, Patrick is responsible for working collaboratively across all ADEC Innovations operations and business units to deliver outstanding services and products to our clients worldwide.

Mary Bean, AICP
Senior Vice President/Director, Environmental Services

Mary has more than 24 years of experience managing the preparation of CEQA and NEPA documents in both the public and private sectors. She specializes in leading interdisciplinary teams in the preparation of technical studies that support environmental clearance at the local, State, and national levels.

Jason Brandman
Senior Vice President/Director,
ESG Technical Services

Jason Brandman is an experienced Project Director with more than 33 years of experience. As Project Director of the ADEC ESG Solutions team, he’s helped to provide key ESG consulting services to global companies, improving ESG reporting, data systems, and disclosure performance.

Ben Wilde
Director, UK

Ben is an innovations specialist with a focus on social impact and sustainability, working to identify and assess the potential of new business solutions, models, and technologies. He works with ADEC’s global partners to design new and early-stage programs and ventures to help make their sustainability strategies more efficient.

Paula Adin-Atherton
Director of Finance

Paula has a strong grounding as a global financial consultant providing critical strategic direction and expertise on project finances, internal control processes, and key aspects of business performance. She is an influential team player operating at the heart of the business decision making process and builds solid relationships across senior levels of the organization with the proven ability to challenge and improve business processes and systems.

Jacki Fricke
Jacki Fricke
Associate Director, Marketing

Jacki leverages 20+ years of experience on both the client and agency side to translate internal and external client market situations into actionable plans. Creating go-to-market strategies for the ADEC Professional Services business units and products and multi-channel MarCom plans for strategic partnerships allows her to marry her affinity for analytics and savvy creative with organizations that provide positive global impact.

Our Vision

Improve the lives of all the people we work with, whether they are clients, partners, or colleagues, by advancing sustainable business practices around the world.

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