TEDxHonolulu Speaker: Jill Buck
Upon graduation from the University of Illinois in 1991, Jill Buck was commissioned a Naval Officer. While stationed at the Fleet Training Center, San Diego, she served as the Legal, Physical Security, Admin, and Command Inspection Officer, as well as a Damage Control Instructor. She is an honor graduate of the Military Justice School, and a graduate of the Navy’s small arms weapons course, taught by former Navy Seals.
In 2002, Jill wrote the Go Green Initiative, which is now the largest and fastest growing comprehensive environmental education program in the world, operating in all 50 U.S. states, 13 countries, and on 4 continents. The program has been endorsed by the National School Boards Association (NSBA), National Recycling Coalition, 8 State PTA’s, California Integrated Waste Management Board, California Resource Recovery Association, and many more.
Jill owns Buck Consulting, which helps businesses “go green”, and achieve profitability through sustainability. She teaches business leaders how to drive revenue up and costs down through environmentally responsible business practices, and how to engage in “green marketing” to increase market share. Her techniques and training are applicable across all industry sectors. In August 2007, she was invited to serve on the International Appraisal Committee for the Daonong Center for Enterprise, a think tank formed by the China Entrepreneur Club. Jill was one of the VIP speakers for the 1st Green Business Summit in Beijing on Earth Day 2008. Jill serves as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Commission. Jill is the host of “Go Green Radio”, a weekly program on the U.S.’s largest internet talk radio station, www.VoiceAmerica.com
Jill is an international featured speaker at business, public policy, political, and environmental conventions, and is one of the nation’s leading advocates of free market solutions for environmental protection issues. Jill has been featured in such publications as U.S. Mayor, NSBA newsletter, Working Mother Magazine, Women’s Health Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Diablo Magazine’s “Women to Watch”, Cleveland Business Connects Magazine, and Dermatology Times.
Her TEDx Talk will cover:
- Shift the state economy to something you can control more readily– tourism will always be important, but depends upon the whims and economic status of non-residents. Attracting high tech companies could be imperative to the state’s economy, and will succeed in part because of the same geographic advantages that made Hawaii a successful tourist location.
- Shift thinking around the government’s role vs. the business community’s role in economic development, particularly with regard to sustainable businesses. Example: the leadership role of the China Entrepreneur Club in Communist China.
- Shift target market for promoting Hawaii’s benefits. Outsiders are used to seeing Hawaii in tourism advertising, but Honolulu, or some other city in Hawaii, could have been in the November issue of Fortune magazine for small business as one of the top cities in which to start a business.
