Our Board
Our Board of Directors
Wendy Leshgold
President and Chair
Wendy Leshgold is the President, Co-Founder of Fast Forward Group. As a facilitator and keynote speaker, Wendy’s authenticity, energy and experience leave people inspired to take action in their lives. As head of FFG’s executive coaching practice, Wendy manages a team of senior level coaches and supports clients in achieving their full potential in their whole lives. Wendy has worked with thousands of executives across the globe from companies such as Facebook, Google, Visa, Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg and more. Wendy received her coaching certification (CPCC/ACC) from CTI in 2005 and since then has coached hundreds of executives in areas such as: performance, leadership, career growth / transition, and change management. Before coaching, Wendy spent fifteen years leading senior teams at renowned advertising agencies Ogilvy & Mather, BBDO and Deutsch. She opened and grew Deutsch Los Angeles from five people to over 300. Wendy received her BA in History from the University of Virginia. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children. In her free time, Wendy can often be found watching her son play baseball and walking with her beloved dogs, Scout and Cali.
Estela de Llanos
Vice Chair
Estela de Llanos is Vice President of Energy Procurement and Sustainability for San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). In this role, Estela oversees a number of environmental and sustainability initiatives, including SDG&E’s Sustainability Strategy and Environmental Services organization. Previously, Estela was an attorney specializing in land use and environmental matters in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins LLP. Estela holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a second major in international studies from Yale University.
Rick Zbur
Secretary
Rick Zbur is the Executive Director of Equality California, the largest statewide LGBT advocacy organization in California. Previously he was a senior partner in the Environment, Land & Resources Department in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins, where he was cited as one of Southern California’s top ten environmental attorneys by the Los Angeles Business Journal in its 2009 “Who’s Who in Law” feature. He was also cited as a leading environmental attorney by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2008 and 2009. Mr. Zbur took a leave of absence from the firm in January, 1996, to run for Congress in California’s 38th Congressional District. He received the strong support from the environmental community, and was endorsed by California Environmental Voters and virtually every other leader of the environmental community in Southern California. He won the Democratic Party Primary in March, 1996 and lost narrowly in the general election. He received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Fran Diamond
Fran Diamond is a four-time former Chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board where she served for 20 years. She is a founder of the landmark group No Oil, Inc. which successfully saved the Los Angeles coast from on-shore oil drilling. Fran was a Special Assistant on the Environment to Controller Gray Davis. Ms. Diamond is a Member of the City of Los Angeles Citizens’ Oversight Committee for Proposition O, which provides oversight on the expenditure of $500 million approved by Los Angeles voters for water quality improvement programs. Fran serves on the Executive Committee of The Bay Foundation which provides funding for restoration and resilience projects in the Santa Monica Bay. She is an Alternate Commissioner on the California Coastal Commission. She is a member of the California Women’s Political Committee. Ms. Diamond has a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles, and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management from Antioch University.
Ash Kalra
Assemblymember Ash Kalra was first elected to the California Legislature in 2016, representing the 27th District, which encompasses approximately half of San Jose and includes all of downtown. In 2020, he was re-elected to his third term. Assemblymember Kalra is the Chair of the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment and also currently serves as a member on the committees on Housing and Community Development, Judiciary, Transportation, and Water, Parks, and Wildlife. Assemblymember Kalra has established himself as a leader on issues ranging from criminal justice reform to the environment, as well as health care sustainability, housing affordability, growing our transportation infrastructure, and expanding economic opportunity to all Californians. Assemblymember Kalra previously served as a San José City Councilmember for eight years and was a deputy public defender in Santa Clara County for 11 years prior to the City Council. He is the first Indian-American to serve in the California Legislature in state history.
Norman Rogers
Norman Rogers is Second Vice President of United Steelworkers, Local 675, an amalgamated union representing workers which include the oil, chemical, bedding, carwash, paper and electric bus manufacturing industries. He currently works in Storage and Handling at the Marathon oil refinery in Los Angeles County. He has spent the majority of his twenty plus year career facilitating gasoline blending and the shipping and receipt of finished products. He has been active on multiple committees in his Local, in particular health and safety but also contract negotiations. Following the Chevron refinery fire in 2012, Norman provided testimony to the Department of Industrial Relations on the importance of strengthening Process Safety measures working in coalition with environmental organizations to improve safety regulation for refineries and chemical plants. Norman is now deeply engaged in the struggle for a Just Transition for fossil fuel workers whose jobs will be lost in the move to a green economy.
Sandra Sanchez
As a freelance strategy consultant, Sandra has worked at the center of some of California’s historic and competitive campaigns over the past twenty years. She has led several statewide candidate and initiative campaigns and local measures, and candidate campaigns for Congress, State Senate and Assembly. Her expertise includes running large-scale campaigns with a skilled hand in campaign strategy, communications, endorsements and fundraising. Highlights of her work are defeating Proposition 27 in 2022 with California Native AmericanTribes in an historic defeat; electing the second woman in California history to hold statewide office; electing the first woman and the first African-American District Attorney of Los Angeles County; and, passing a city-wide measure in Anaheim to raise the minimum wage of Disneyland workers to $15 per hour. Sandra also works extensively in land conservation in California. She led the strategy for a statewide education and legislative campaign to conserve one million acres of land, is part of the strategy team to designate a new National Monument in Los Angeles County, and is helping to advance the goal of protecting 30 percent of California land and coastal waters by 2030 by leading a statewide coalition. She also served on the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters for several years.
Steven Schiller
Steve Schiller is a professional engineer with expertise addressing climate change mitigation, including such varied experience as consulting to the U.S. EPA on the Clean Power Plan, being a State Senate appointee to the California Climate Registry, managing the implementation of California projects and programs, and for eight years being a member of the United Nations Board implementing greenhouse gas emission reduction programs. Steve has been a senior manager of three energy firms, including his own national engineering and project management firm. His current professional activities include mediation and arbitration as a member of the Neutrals and Energy Panels of the American Arbitration Association and as an affiliate of the Energy Markets and Policy Department of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A non-profit community Board member since his teenage years, Steve has also co-founded two clean energy industry trade associations and the CleanTech Party, a collective of political donors who fund federal candidates across the US. Steve has been actively fundraising for and supporting EnviroVoters for years, partnering on events to raise funds for our priority federal candidates, PAC, and organizations. He has served on the Development Committee since 2021. He is based in the San Francisco Bay area.
Nancy Sutley
Nancy Sutley is Chief Sustainability and Economic Development Officer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Previously, she served as Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality from January 2009 to February 2014 and was one of the chief architects of President Obama’s June 2013 Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address climate change. Prior to her appointment to the Council on Environmental Quality, Sutley was the Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment for the City of Los Angeles under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and represented Los Angeles on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. She served on the California State Water Resources Control Board from 2003-2005 and held positions at US EPA. Sutley received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her Master of Public Policy from Harvard University.
Randall Winston
Randall Winston is an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers whose career spans law, architecture, and public service. Previously, former Governor Jerry Brown appointed Randall to serve as Executive Director of the California Strategic Growth Council, where he oversaw a total of $1.3 billion in climate investments focused on achieving the state’s ambitious sustainable community and climate goals. In that position he led the development and implementation of Transformative Climate Communities, recognized as one of the nation’s most holistic, equity-centered, and community-driven climate action programs funded by a government agency. Randall also served as a climate policy advisor to Governor Brown, working across state agencies to advance programs targeting disadvantaged communities, implementing Executive Orders on green buildings and electric vehicles, and developing international environmental agreements with China and Mexico.
Before serving in the Brown administration, Randall worked for Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster in New York, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams on design, urban planning, and infrastructure projects throughout the world. He also spent two years working for urban development and architecture firms in Beijing, China. In 2010, Randall led a team that won a design competition sponsored by the City of Los Angeles to reimagine the downtown Warehouse District as a vibrant clean technology and arts hub, prior to what it is today. From 2007-2009, Randall was a founding director of partnerships at Causes.com, a platform led by Facebook’s founding president that brought together over 186 million users and 20,000 nonprofit partners to create online communities for social change.
In 2018, Randall was recognized by E&E News as one of Five California Climate Leaders to Watch, and received the Champion for Ensuring Government Accountability Award from Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. He is currently a Policy Fellow at Elemental Excelerator, a nonprofit venture fund and incubator for clean technology entrepreneurs, and also serves on the boards of Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability and U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. Randall received a Juris Doctorate degree from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in Government from Harvard University.
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