Executive Team

James F. Boyle
President & CEO

Jim Boyle founded Sustainability Roundtable Inc. "SR Inc" after a dozen years advising leading corporations, private equity firms, and fast growth technology based firms as an attorney and commercial real estate broker. SR Inc has partnered with enterprises leading the global move to more sustainable real estate to introduce the efficiency of member based shared-cost research and consulting on management best practices to the corporate sustainability movement.

Jim worked in corporate advisory services for eight years advising top corporations, fast growth companies, private equity firms and law firms on real estate strategy and implementation. He spent the last six years before founding Sustainability Roundtable Inc. with Trammell Crow Company Corporate Advisory Services. Jim earned his JD at Boston College Law School and before law school served as an aide to Senator John Kerry in Washington DC. Following law school, he served as a federal law clerk and then worked as an attorney at Mintz Levin, a national law firm based in Boston, before moving into corporate advisory services.

Jim received his BA in both English & Political Science from Middlebury College in 1990 and captained the college's football team. He has written several articles on optimal real estate strategies for companies (View recent articles from the Boston Business Journal, the Banker & Tradesman, and Urban Land). He is a Member of the Massachusetts Bar, Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), Corporate Real Estate Executives Network (CoreNet), Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), National Association of Industrial & Office Properties (NAIOP), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He also serves as Learning Chair of CoreNet Global's Sustainability Community. He founded the Progressive Business Leaders Network, a burgeoning peer-to-peer learning network of and for CEOs and top officers of for-profit companies (see www.pbln.org).

Steven M. Byler, LEED AP
Vice President, Research & Operations

Steven brings his cross-discipline experience in environmental and business management to SR Inc Prior to joining SR Inc, he was a consultant to private and non-profit sector organizations to assist them in achieving their sustainability goals. Ceres, the leader in integrating sustainability into capital markets, commissioned Steven to produce a comprehensive market survey and research report about the future of global water resources (published in February 2009). Steven also spent five years as a researcher at Harvard studying, among other topics, the impact of the built environment on human health. Steven joined SR Inc in the Spring of 2008 as manager of the company's research program. He is continually communicating with SR Inc Members to understand their information needs. Steven is a LEED® Accredited Professional who brings his research and project management expertise to SR Inc from his experience at, among others, Harvard, Ceres and SAI Global. Steven has a unique blend of experience and skills and has the passion to deliver impressive green building research to SR Inc Members. He holds an MBA from Brandeis University which has a "green" focus and holds a bachelor of science in biology & chemistry from Gordon College. His empirical, results-based approach to research is yielding results for SR Inc Members.

Jim LaRoe
Senior Vice President, Advisory Services

Jim is Senior Vice President of Membership in Washington, DC and has more than 25 years experience as a professional Real Estate executive and extensive experience in complex project development, building repositioning, client relations, new business development, investments, and joint ventures. Prior to joining SR Inc, Jim worked as Director of the Commercial Building Retrofit Program for the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and executed economically sound business models for commercial building owners, with national and global real estate portfolio’s ranging from 20 to over 50 million square feet, to significantly reduce operating costs and energy consumption resulting in greenhouse gas reduction.

Before the CCI Jim was Managing Director for the Development Services Group for Jones Lang LaSalle in Washington, D.C. where he managed a staff of over 20 professionals working with corporate and investor clients to develop interior renovations and base building projects and was responsible for growing new business and his client base.

Prior to JLL, Jim spent 20 years at Spaulding and Slye. As a Partner and Director of Development for the Mid –Atlantic region he was responsible for growing a new and existing client base for primarily ground- up development projects, including the firm's own investment projects. Jim's experience as both an owner and developer of commercial real estate along with his passion for sustainability brings a unique perspective for prospective and current members of SR Inc

Kristian Peterson
Director of Consulting Services

Kristian Peterson is an expert in strategic decision-making regarding energy efficiency improvements in commercial office buildings. He recently received his Master of Science in Real Estate Development from the MIT Center for Real Estate. Before pursuing his Masters, Kristian spent three years advising executive management at a private real estate investment company where he performed site and market evaluations to establish asset market value and create building pro-forma. In total, he advised on the acquisition of $1.5 billion in commercial real estate value in a diverse set of investments including, office, retail, and industrial properties. Kristian has also worked as a commercial real estate broker and managed the activities of a market research department.

Chris Phillips
Senior Vice President, Advisory Services
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Chris brings more than two decades of business development leadership in commercial real estate and information services to SR Inc. Prior to joining SR Inc, Chris founded CP Sustainability Strategies, a consulting firm helping clients reduce their carbon footprint through analysis then implementation of energy reducing solutions. Before that he served as a business development leader at Building Engines, RealCentric and CoStar - three ground-breaking information services companies serving the real estate market.

For Building Engines, Chris leveraged his extensive market knowledge to develop new business for Building Engines’ easy-to-use Internet-based facilities management solutions including Preventive Maintenance, Work Order Management and Visitor Access Control. For RealCentric, a start-up which developed a revolutionary web-based B2B platform allowing tenant businesses to efficiently find, lease and outfit commercial office space, Chris directed the marketing efforts for the Greater Boston Region selling RealCentric’s on-line initiatives to corporate executive teams and “Best of Class” service providers including architects, attorneys, general contractors, and real estate advisors. For CoStar Group, the #1 Commercial Real Estate Information Company, Chris served as Regional Director responsible for managing the Boston office’s sales force, product managers and research specialists, and for the overall production and increasing revenues for the New England region.

Before he focused on helping innovative information services companies scale, Chris was a Principal at Spaulding & Slye where he worked for twenty years. Chris advised Fortune 500 companies, start-up businesses, property owners and investors on successful real estate solutions that included the successful negotiations of over 700 complex leases and property sales. While at Spaulding & Slye, he was elected to the Greater Boston Real Estate Board's Million Dollar Leasing Club each year since the award's inception in 1992. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Pennsylvania.

Maureen O'Brien
Program Manager

As Program Manager for the Sustainable Corporate Real Estate Roundtable ("SCRER"), Maureen helps coordinate SCRER's online presence, monthly webinars, quarterly video-conferences, quarterly newsletter and SR Inc's year-end Summit in Washington D.C. Before joining SR Inc Maureen worked at Aedi Group, a diversified holdings company focused around sustainability and green construction. She also worked in the corporate accountability department at Ceres, a non-profit organization working towards sustainable prosperity, where she researched the relationship between water and climate change and related sustainability issues surrounding corporate social responsibility. Maureen graduated magna cum laude from Hamilton College with a BA in World Politics and a minor in Hispanic Studies. She wrote her senior thesis on the issue of climate change policy in the European Union and was inducted into both the National Political Science and Foreign Language Honor Society. Throughout her four years she was active on campus as an orientation leader, radio disc jockey, campus activities planner and editor of a campus-wide social science journal.

Harry M. Ostrander, LEED AP
Vice President, Advisory Services

Harry Ostrander brings 15 years of experience in financial and building project cost analysis to SR Inc He possess rare experience and passion for green building research and comes, most recently, from the Boston office of Davis Langdon, a global leader in construction consulting. Harry received a Masters in Urban Planning from New York University, an MBA from Boston College in Massachusetts, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics and geography from Ohio Wesleyan. He authored a number of papers during his time at NYU and co-authored the "Summary Report on Transit-Oriented Development in the New York-New Jersey Region" for the NY/NJ Port Authority. Other joint authored papers include "A Sustainability Analysis of NYU's Existing Buildings Utilizing LEED" that was prepared for NYU's Office of Strategic Assessment, Planning and Design. The team analyzed a number of buildings on NYU's campus to determine how effi cient they were and made recommendations on how to improve the operations of the buildings.

Prior to joining SR Inc, Harry worked on numerous economic analysis projects, and was selected as the master planner for the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority. This authority was tasked by the state of New Jersey to plan for the withdrawal of the Army from Ft. Monmouth in the year 2010. Harry and other members of the team conducted an economic analysis of the three townships that make up the base along with the surrounding areas to determine what would be most viable in terms of future development. At Davis Langdon, Harry conducted research and wrote papers concerning green buildings, lean construction practices and regulatory changes. He also analyzed regions and markets in the United States to determine future trends of the construction industry.

Steven Zatta
Vice President, Advisory Services

Steven has over seven years experience in Corporate Real Estate research and consulting. Prior to joining SR Inc Steven served as a Project Manager and Director with the Corporate Executive Board's Real Estate Executive Board and Finance and Strategy practices and was responsible for research, client advisory services and business development activities. Steven worked on the development and launch of the Real Estate Executive Board in both North America and Europe and has worked directly for years with global heads of Corporate Real Estate from Fortune 500 companies. Steven has authored numerous studies on real estate topics ranging from performance measurement, occupancy expense and space utilization benchmarking, customer relationship management, cost reduction strategies, portfolio optimization, and sustainability.

Steven has also worked in real estate investment finance and holds an MA in International Affairs and Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a BA from Colgate University.