Our Team

Eileen V. Quigley

Eileen V. Quigley directs the New Energy Cities program, which is working with pioneering Northwest communities to accelerate the transition to the clean energy economy. Her 28-year career spans two decades of building, managing, and working with for-profit and nonprofit corporations and eight years as a magazine and newspaper journalist.

Eileen has served as Executive Director for three nonprofit organizations, two regional and one national. She is a nationally recognized expert in the strategic use of Internet technologies for communication, donor/membership development, and online advocacy, having spent 15 years teaching progressive nonprofits how to use the Internet for social change, seven of which at RealNetworks, Inc., the company that created streaming media technology.

She has extensive background in public policy, having edited a quarterly journal of public policy, economics, and culture for the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. She is also knowledgeable about municipal and county government, having run a watchdog organization that has promoted the civic health of the Puget Sound region for 100 years.

Eileen wrote political, business, and feature stories for the Los Angeles Times from its New York bureau; three weekly columns for the National Journal, a D.C.-based magazine of politics and public policy; and covered the 1984 Presidential election for NBC News as an off-air reporter.

Eileen received her Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University (1983) and her Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Yale University (1980).

Elizabeth Willmott

Elizabeth manages the New Energy Cities (NEC), workshops, work plans and deliverables for each of the program’s projects. She also participates as a team member in strategic planning, and executing and implementing project contracts and plays a key role in communicating the NEC story.

From 2009 to 2011, Elizabeth served as the Senior Program Manager for Economic Recovery at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where she managed performance and accountability tracking for $13.6 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.  These grants and loans funded housing renovation and construction, community development, and homelessness prevention services in America's hardest-hit local economies, while also providing catalytic financial support for green urban development.

Prior to her work at HUD, Elizabeth served as climate change program coordinator and Executive Fellow in the office of King County (Washington) Executive Ron Sims.  At King County, she played a critical role in development of the first King County Climate Plan, organized the county's 2007 Clean Vehicles Now! conference, and co-authored a guidebook with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group and ICLEI for local, regional and state governments on how to prepare for climate change impacts.  Elizabeth has written or contributed to numerous other publications, including a forthcoming World Bank guide on climate change adaptation for cities in developing countries, developed in collaboration with ICLEI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elizabeth is well-traveled throughout the Asia-Pacific region, having lived for extended periods of time in Hawai'i, Hong Kong, and mainland China.  She has a special interest in clean energy opportunities as pathways out of poverty for US minority communities and disadvantaged populations around the world.

Elizabeth has a double degree in biology and Chinese language from Williams College and a master’s in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Rhys Roth

Rhys co-founded Climate Solutions in 1998, and has pioneered its innovative programs and partnerships that have been instrumental in positioning clean energy at the top of the economic development agenda for leading elected officials throughout the Northwest.

In 2000, Rhys created and has since led Climate Solutions’ Harvesting Clean Energy program, bringing together the energy and agriculture communities around a shared goal: advancing rural economic development through clean energy in the Northwest.

In the early 2000's, Rhys led Climate Solutions’ efforts to engage the Northwest high-tech community in building a world-class “clean tech” industry, including the Poised for Profit partnership of top economic development, technology, and energy agencies.

In 2007, he helped create Business Leaders for Climate Solutions, a vehicle for executives to make the job creation and business case for adopting a strong clean energy and climate policy framework. In 2009, he helped create Climate Solutions’ New Energy Cities program to support pioneering Northwest cities to accelerate the transition to a clean, renewable, super-efficient energy system.

Rhys received his Masters Degree in Environmental Studies in 1990 from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Tom Osdoba

Tom Osdoba is a social entrepreneur and strategic advisor, and was recently chosen as a Pivotal Leader by his peers. His work helps business, government, academic, and nonprofit organizations take transformative actions to become more sustainable. He provides advice, tools, and a roadmap for learning so people and organizations can lead and innovate. Tom served as the Managing Director of the University of Oregon's Center for Sustainable Business Practices from 2009-2011. He co-directed the University's Economic Development Center, which provides expertise and support to economically distressed communities in Oregon.

As Sustainable Economic Development Manager for Portland, Tom created a framework for a sustainable regional economy, launched a collaborative, multi-sector sustainability institute, and created innovative clean energy investment strategies. As Sustainability Director for Vancouver, he led initiatives for climate protection, green building and development, economic development strategy, and purchasing, including award-winning initiatives for neighborhood-scale clean energy systems, and community engagement on energy and climate change.

He also created the Canada Carbon Trust, a collaborative, business-led initiative to mobilize and accelerate investments to reduce carbon emissions across all economic sectors.

Tom holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, and a B.S. degree in Economics from St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN.

Michael Mann

Michael Mann is the President and Founder of Cyan Strategies, a Northwest consulting firm catalyzing green solutions for our blue planet. Michael works with the New Energy Cities team analyzing energy use data, developing material for its Workshops, and working with elected officials department staff on implementing New Energy Projects

Michael has held leadership positions in local and Federal government for 13 years, and has 10 years experience in progressive nonprofit advocacy and electoral campaigns. Most recently, Michael led the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment as the City met the Kyoto target for carbon reduction. He was the lead architect for the Seattle’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) applications for both formula and competitive funds and has been successful in attracting over $25 million in stimulus funds to the Puget Sound region to electrify the transportation system, reduce building energy use, and create clean energy jobs.

Michael understands that progress on carbon reduction and sustainability will be made at the intersection of public infrastructure and private initiative. Having led the Mayor’s infrastructure team at the City of Seattle, Michael has firsthand experience with cross-cutting efforts across transportation, waste, water, and energy sectors.

Michael also recognizes that politics is an effective tool to drive public policy. He has held top campaign positions for Mayoral, Gubernatorial, and Congressional candidates and has served on leadership teams for more than a dozen electoral initiatives.

Michael holds an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame in International Peace Studies, and a B.A. from Whitman College in economics.

Matt Collier

Matt Collier is tasked with managing and delivering all client consulting arrangements on behalf of Blue Tree. He has extensive experience in structuring financing for public/private partnerships on behalf of the Portland Development Commission, the City of Portland’s economic development and urban renewal agency.

Previous to his time at PDC, Matt worked for Accenture, Inc., a consulting firm in New York City, helping to manage the delivery of large scale IT development and systems integration projects on behalf of Fortune 500 companies.

Over his tenure at PDC, Matt structured a number of housing and commercial redevelopment projects throughout the City, including most recently a $50M affordable veteran’s housing project in Portland’s new South Waterfront district and a $15M affordable residential condominium project in North Portland.

At PDC, Matt also worked with the Clean Tech and Sustainable Industries cluster team on a number of projects, most notably helping to start-up the Portland Sustainability Institute and contributing to the design of the Clean Energy Works Portland program.