Marianna Grossman Keller

Partner, Sustainability and Innovation Practice

Ms. Marianna Grossman Keller is the partner of Minerva Consulting responsible for the Sustainability and Innovation Practice. Her goal is to catalyze the next wave of entrepreneurial renewal for the technology industry, based on the principles of natural systems, so that our economic and social systems are humane and environmentally beneficial. Her survey of Key Thinkers on Creating a Life-Sustaining Civilization is available in Adobe Acrobat form.

She consults for high tech startups and established companies implementing major change efforts, with a special interest in linking business systems to corporate strategic vision, using knowledge of tools including Biomimicry^TM, energy efficiency, organizational design and total quality systems for supply chain and business process transformation and improvement. Her clients use innovation to improve top-line and bottom-line results, lower risk, and enhance their corporate reputations.

She has developed and taught a variety of executive and management training and train-the-trainer courses, particularly in the area of organizational transformation. She has taught dozens of classes, including in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Her clients include DesignThink Research, Chicago Science Group, Sun Microsystems and Mandala Fluteworks. Her work experience includes National Semiconductor, Tandem Computers (now part of HP), and Cummins Engine Company.

She is an advocate for sustainability, organizing events with experts in building sustainable businesses and communities. As a partner in the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2) of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, she was co-liaison for a three-year grant to The Natural Step, Rocky Mountain Institute, and Natural Capitalism, Inc., to integrate their work and to bring sustainability thinking to the tech industry. She is also a member of Environment Entrepreneurs (E2). She founded the Green Committee at Congregration Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, which is wrking to reduce its climate impact. Continuing her work in this area, she has recently written Making Your Home Energy Efficient and Personal Response to Global Warming: Tips for how you can take action to turn the tide.

She is founder and past chair of the Sustainable Schools for Palo Alto committee, where she wrote successful grant applications for two solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for Ohlone (1kW) and Escondido (20kW) (Palo Alto Weekly article, Salas O'Brien Article) elementary schools, and a series of annual $50,000 grants from the City of Palo Alto Utilities for curriculum on energy use and efficient for the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), as well as consulting on energy efficiency and grants for investments in energy saving equipment that have already produced about $300,000 in savings to the District. In addition, the committee helped the District to establish green building standards for remodeling and new construction projects, and is participating in creating the 20-year plan for PAUSD facilities.

Ms. Keller earned a Masters of Public and Private Management (MBA) degree from Yale University School of Management. She received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude, with distinction in Policy Studies (the Policy of Social Change) at Dartmouth College, where she studied with Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows and Kenneth and Elise Boulding. She was a National Merit Scholar.