Mr. Gary Lucks JD, CPEA

Mr. Gary Lucks JD, CPEA is the principal environmental attorney with deep expertise in environmental, health, and safety (EHS) law, legislative affairs, and sustainability strategy. He has over 35 years of experience advising Fortune 500 clients in most industry sectors. He is a licensed attorney, a scientist, and a Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA) who has completed or overseen close to 500 major EHS compliance audits across the country and overseas. He also specializes environmental compliance counseling, environmental auditing, environmental management systems (EMS), permitting, and training. He wrote environmental policy briefing papers for Governor Newsom, Senator Feinstein, Senator Steinberg, State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, and Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan. He serves on the California Lawyer’s Association Environmental Law Section’s Executive Committee leading environmental legislation, sustainability, and education committees. He also served as an Advisor to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and co-founded the Sustainable Earth Initiative--a non-profit dedicated to helping public agencies improve environmental performance and advance sustainability initiatives. Mr. Lucks has published extensively on environmental law, legislation, and policy. He co-wrote a book on environmental law (California Environmental Law and Policy: A Practical Guide which is used in law schools, colleges, by practitioners, and which has been cited in legal opinions). He also wrote the Environmental Auditing Chapter in the California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice. He has been a regular contributor to the California Environmental Law Reporter for over twenty-five years.

James Stettler

James Stettler has over 25 years of experience in hazardous materials and hazardous waste management. 

After moving to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)  Hazardous Waste Facility Permitting Division, James returned to what he loved best, helping the public and businesses, in the position of Public and Business Liaison and Regulatory Assistance Officer for Region 2 of DTSC. In his eight years in that position, James used his skills in interpreting complex issues, statutes, and regulations into understandable guidance to field questions about toxics and environmental regulation.

His audience ranged from citizens concerned about chemicals on a label to major environmental attorneys regarding interpretation and applicability of complex rules on their clients’ operations. He led development of plain-language regulatory guidance that is still in use today, as well as making presentations at conferences and business workshops throughout the state.  James received the 2004 California Sustained Superior Accomplishment Award for outstanding work in DTSC’s Office of the Assistant Director as the Public and Business Liaison. 

He also served as a hazardous waste facility inspector, where he conducted inspections at some of the largest and most complex manufacturing and research facilities in the Bay Area. Due to his experience in education, DTSC tapped James for the curriculum development team for the original California Compliance School, a successful program of adult education for business owners and employees that manage hazardous waste and materials that is still thriving today. James was awarded the DTSC Regional Administrator’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1994. 

As the DTSC’s California Unified Program (CUPA) was rolled out in 1996, he was part of the regional team that developed and delivered training on the new programs to the local agencies of the Bay Area and Northern California.  

James spent his last three years at DTSC as Senior Hazardous Substance Scientist in the DTSC’s Pollution Prevention Program, where he worked with the Association of Bay Area Governments to keep the Bay Area Green Business Programs funded during difficult times, and contributed to developing a grant for the development of their Web portal. 

James completed his public service as a fire and hazmat inspector with Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department.  As an ICC certified UST Inspector, James was the Underground Storage Tank (UST) subject matter expert at the Sonoma County Fire and conducted almost all their UST install plan checks.  James earned the CSTI certification to become Certified Hazardous Materials Technician/Specialist and served as a member of the Sonoma County Hazardous Materials Response Team throughout his time at the County.  His background in chemistry and industrial facilities led to his position as Technical Reference Specialist for the team until his retirement. James is also a State Fire Marshal Certified Fire Prevention Officer.

Joe Dionne CSP, CIH 

Joe Dionne CSP, CIH has over 35 years of Safety and Cal OSHA auditing experience and is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and a Certified Industrial Hygienist.  Joe Provide EHS consulting services to a multinational facilities management corporation.  Assignments have included transition team leader for onboarding EHS professionals to new client organizations, industrial hygiene services and safety policy and procedure development.  

He has served in as the role as EHS manager or Vice President for Clorox and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory managing hundreds of EHS staff members. He also served as the Division Safety Coordinator and Industrial Hygiene Manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he led and mentored seven direct report industrial hygienists and reinvigorated the Safety Culture Initiative by engaging senior management in safety culture survey results and developing effective action plans.

 At Clorox, he led and executed the Clorox’s global EHS strategy, tactics and organizational improvements producing "world class" EHS performance and implemented EHS Management systems to evaluate and manage major operational risks.

Eric W Lentz

Eric Lentz has over 20 years of experience in zoning, urban planning and permit expediting.  He has researched planning, building, and electrical permits requirements and processed applications in 50+ jurisdictions throughout California and takes pride in establishing positive relationships with permit authorities.  As an urban planner he has worked on General Plan and zoning code updates for the City of Ventura, CA and authored the Los Alamos form-based development code in Santa Barbara County.  Eric was instrumental in successfully permitting new wireless facilities for the AT&T Crown Jewel Project in San Francisco. He has led the permit expediting process for AT&T wireless permits in San Francisco, working with the jurisdiction on developing a more streamlined permit expediting process. He has was indispensable in expediting T-Mobile permits in Silicon Valley as part of T-Mobile’s “Own Silicon Valley” project.

Doug Parker

Doug advises clients on risk, performance and emerging opportunities in the environmental sector. He also serves as an independent compliance monitor in the environmental sector.

He brings a unique perspective to his role as the former Director of the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division where he oversaw a nationwide team of criminal investigators as well as matters ranging from the investigation into the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal. Doug served as a special agent with the EPA for 24 years where he worked closely with the Department of Justice and his counterparts across the EPA on a wide variety of environmental enforcement and homeland security issues.

At RPO Strategies, Doug works with organizations across multiple industries, including the automotive, energy, chemical, finance, and manufacturing sectors as well as public agencies. He also provides guidance to law firms, consulting firms, and financial entities that are managing compliance matters or are engaged in due diligence with environmental risk implications. Additionally, Doug advises organizations on successfully integrating environmental factors into ESG strategies. He speaks regularly to industry groups on strategies for navigating risk and has shared his insights on CNN and National Public Radio, as well as in The New York Times and numerous other media outlets

Doug received his B.A. from Colby College, and M.A. in Public Policy from Georgetown University.

Eric Hinzel

Mr. Eric Hinzel is a Principal Scientist with expertise managing a broad range of environmental and engineering projects in California and across the country. Over his 40+ years of experience Eric has advised clients in numerous industrial sectors, including power utilities (PG&E), high tech companies (Intel, IBM, AMD), wine and food, and mining. Government clients include the federal EPA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the State of California, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Eric has served a Vice President/senior manager with multiple environmental/engineering companies and has led large multidisciplinary teams (200+) over multiple states. In these roles, Mr. Hinzel provided clients with expertise in strategic planning, marketing, personnel management, financial management, and proposal preparation.

He has served on the Board of Directors for the Industrial Association of Contra Costa County, the Bay Planning Coalition, and the Western States Petroleum Asso  Association. He also served as an advisor to Save Mount Diablo--a non-profit dedicated to preserving natural lands in and around Mount Diablo. Eric has guest lectured college classes on environmental and water related issues for California.

Eric received his undergraduate degrees (B.S Biology; B.S Environmental Resource Management) from Penn State and his M.S. degree in Soil Science from Purdue University.