Our Team
Leadership Team
Julia Armstrong D'Agnese
CEO & Co-Founder
Julia Armstrong D’Agnese is an innovator and change-maker and as Earth Knowledge CEO drives strategic partnerships and big-picture transformational opportunities to help build a more sustainable world. She uses her ability to gain respect of, and constructively challenge, business and organizational leaders, advocating and driving reinvention through technology.
Frank D'Agnese
President, CTO & Co-Founder
Dr. Frank D’Agnese is an internationally recognized Earth Systems Scientist and the innovator of the Earth Knowledge Integrated Planetary Intelligenceᵀᴹ Platform, Petascale+ Digital Twin of the Earth and the 300+ Global Change and Sustainability Indicator Framework. Frank is a systems expert continually focused on the multi-dimensional systems involved in natural, social and economic sustainability and global change. His life’s work and passion involve helping to save our Earth through providing understandable and actionable business intelligence for the best decision-making.
Anthony King
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER & CYBER SECURITY OFFICER
Anthony King, as CISO and as key Earth Knowledge leadership, brings deep experience in scaling technology, people and processes to worldclass success. This includes his wisdom with Earth Knowledge’s system approach, management of our petascale Digital Twin of the Earth, and cyber-security risks, alongside his experience of scaling to multi-billion-dollar company success, and exceptional team and culture building gifts.
Mark Westergaard
SVP PLATFORM & BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Mark Westergaard oversees our computational business analytics efforts and leads the development of our Earth Knowledge Foresight platform and Planetary Intelligence SaaS offerings to assist customers in optimizing their business plans and mitigating operational and investment risks. His background in quantitative business methods provides critical insight for our financial and corporate customers.
Earth Knowledge Team
Donald Wuebbles
Director of Climate Science
Dr. Don Wuebbles, as Earth Knowledge’s Director of Climate Science, focuses on bringing world-class science to our Climate Downscaling Scenarios, Digital Twin of the Earth, and Indicators. Don shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for Climate Change and is a lead author on numerous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. He also served as assistant director, Office of Science & Technology, Executive Office of the President 2014-2016.
Louis Uccellini
Meteorology - Climate Advisor
Louis is a globally renowned meteorologist, former Director of the National Weather Service, and a pioneer who identified very early on (1980s) that weather would become the way that we would see and understand climate change. It was not until 2019 that the National Climate Assessment linked very clearly weather, water and climate. We are very honored to have Louis join us to help with the integration of weather-climate and nature with our digital twin and indicators.
Stephen Polasky
DIRECTOR OF NATURAL CAPITAL, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES & ECONOMICS
Dr. Stephen Polasky, is Earth Knowledge’s Director of Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services, and Economics, and provides leadership related to Natural Capital Metrics and Indicators. Steve is a globally recognized leader in quantifying the economic value of natural capital and ecosystem services.
Lisa Stanton
Growth Strategy Advisor
Lisa Stanton brings decades of experience in climate tech, fintech, and financial services. She was Chief Revenue Officer at Risilience, a pioneer in climate risk modeling for companies and financial institutions. Prior to that, Lisa was Managing Director and Global Head of Sales and Client Service for Moody’s ESG Solutions,
Tom Skilling
Meteorology & Communications Advisor
Tom Skilling is a legend in Chicago, the Midwest and beyond as one of the most trusted and watched local meteorologists in America. He has become revered for his warmth, enthusiasm, and dynamic style communicating the science of weather in a way that his audience can understand and depend upon.
Lisa Bennett
Communications Advisor
Lisa Bennett is an author, speaker, award-winning journalist, and advisor to values-led organizations. She has deep expertise in emotional and social intelligence, storytelling, and the psychology of climate change. She is co-author of Ecoliterate with emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman.
Anne Stoner
Principal, Earth Systems Modeling Analyst
Dr. Anne Stoner shares in development of Earth Knowledge’s Petascale+ Digital Twin of the Earth. Earth Knowledge’s Earth System of Systems approach incorporates multi-dimensional models to provide the most comprehensive view of risks and opportunities across the globe.
Alan Flint
CO-DIRECTOR OF EARTH SYSTEMS MODELING
Dr. Alan Flint shares in development of Earth Knowledge’s Petascale+ Digital Twin of the Earth. Earth Knowledge’s Earth System of Systems approach integrates multi-dimensional models to provide the most comprehensive view of risks and opportunities across the globe.
Lorraine Flint
Co-Director of Earth Systems Modeling
JDr. Lorraine Flint shares in development of Earth Knowledge’s Petascale Digital Twin of the Earth. Earth Knowledge’s System of Systems approach integrates multi-dimensional models integrated to provide the most comprehensive view of risks and opportunities across the globe.
Kenneth Kunkel
Climate Data Advisor
Dr. Kunkel is an internationally renowned Atmospheric Scientist and leader on multiple U.S. National Climate Assessments. He has spent more than 40 years performing wide-ranging and internationally recognized research on climate variability and change, particularly related to extreme weather and climate events.
Dr. Dave Gustafson
CLIMATE, FOOD AND AG ADVISOR
Dr. Dave Gustafson serves as a Project Director for the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and as an adjunct research faculty member at WSU. Trained in chemical engineering (Stanford, B.S., 1980; University of Washington, Ph.D., 1983), he worked 30 years in private industry (Shell, Rhône-Poulenc, Monsanto) before retiring as a Monsanto Senior Fellow in 2014. Dr. Gustafson’s early career focused on water quality, and then other sustainability issues, especially climate. He served on the Executive Secretariat of the 3rd US National Climate Assessment, issued in 2014. He now leads research helping food systems meet nutrition needs in more sustainable ways.
Mary Hill
MODEL EVALUATION, UNCERTAINTY & SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
Dr. Mary Hill, a Princeton-trained hydrologist, is one of the leading global experts in uncertainty analysis. She was with the US Geological Survey (USGS) from 1981-2014 and was promoted to the rank of GS-ST, the highest level possible for government scientists and only the second woman to reach that level in the US Department of Interior.
David Easterling
Climate Advisor
Dr. David Easterling is an internationally renowned climate scientist and is currently the Chief Scientist at Future Climate LLC. He recently retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA/NCEI) in Asheville, North Carolina, where he was Chief of the Assessments Section and Director of the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the U.S. National Climate Assessment.
Benjamin DeAngelo
Environmental Risk & Climate Adaptation Advisor
Benjamin DeAngelo is an experienced leader bridging climate science with climate mitigation and adaptation actions. He has over 27 years of experience in the U.S. federal government leading and initiating domestic and international policy actions and research assessments. Most recently, DeAngelo was the first Director of the Office of Climate Adaptation and Sustainability at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
William Easterling
CLIMATE SCIENCE & AGRICULTURAL ADVISOR
Dr. William E. Easterling, III is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Geography and Earth System Science at the Pennsylvania State University as of June 30, 2023. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia. Dr. Easterling was appointed Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in charge of the Geosciences Directorate for a four-year term on June 1, 2017.
William Steinkampf
DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE COORDINATION
William Steinkampf oversees key coordination for our Earth Knowledge Science Network and Partnerships. Bill has over 30 years of experience in the design, implementation, and supervision of multidisciplinary programs. He works closely with businesses, NGOs, and many levels of government to address natural resource sustainability issues of regional, national or international concern.
Steven Franchi
PRINCIPAL, ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Steven Franchi has over 30 years of experience in software development, hardware design, testing and integration. Bring an idea to Steven that has never been done and that people say can’t be done, and he’ll do it. As Earth Knowledge breaks into innovative terrain for the financial services and corporate sectors, building our Petascale Digital Twin of the Earth, Steven is devoted to building the most powerful tools to drive a green economy.
Jessica Tréanton
EARTH SYSTEMS SCIENTIST - DATA AND ANALYTICS
Jessica Tréanton comes to Earth Knowledge as a talented geologist and Earth Systems thinker with a strong research and scientific background. Her applied science approach has been instrumental in advancing our product development.
Daniel Franchi
Enterprise Software Engineering
Daniel Franchi offers over 11 years of experience in software development, systems integration, and data management. Daniel is an “out of the box” thinker who provides creative solutions while helping build our Petascale Digital Twin of the Earth.
Bryan Turner
Senior Geoscientist
Dr. Bryan Turner is one of Earth Knowledge’s key experts on the planet’s subsurface. He helps guide our models and predictive analytics, incorporating information from the subsurface to atmospheric level. A brilliant integrated Earth systems thinker, Bryan is also instrumental in the development of our EK Indicators and the calculations of measurements.
Hugh Smith
SENIOR PROCESS ENGINEERING
Hugh Smith is a multi-skilled engineer with over 30 years of management, hardware and software experience. He has managed multi-million-dollar projects for development with extensive experience creating software architecture. Most recently, Hugh was a senior principal software engineer with Test Systems Design Center at Raytheon Missile Systems.
Business Advisors
Barry Glick
LEAD BUSINESS ADVISOR
Barry Glick is an experienced and successful tech entrepreneur, executive and Internet mapping pioneer. As co-founder of Mapquest and leader of multiple successful ventures, he has been at the forefront of emerging digital technologies that have changed the way people and companies use maps, navigate, search for places, analyze data, and efficiently plan and execute.
Bob Litterman
CLIMATE & NATURE FINANCIAL RISK ADVISOR
Bob Litterman is a founding partner of Kepos Capital and the Chairman of its Risk Committee. Prior to founding Kepos Capital in 2010, he enjoyed a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he served in research, risk management, investment, and thought leadership roles. He researched and published groundbreaking papers in asset allocation and risk management during his tenure at Goldman Sachs.
Richard Peers
Sustainable Finance
Richard Peers is a highly regarded leader of strategy, marketing, sales and technology evangelism in the financial services and software industry. He is the founder of ResponsibleRisk, driving improvements in sustainable finance adoption and outcomes, via better understanding, data and solutions.
John Andersen
Business Advisor
John Andersen is a key Business Advisor related to Earth Knowledge’s corporate business development with a special focus on Chicago and the US Midwest Region. John is President and Founder of Greenleaf Advisors and helped Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), as International Director, scale from their earlier days with 200 people to IPO with 40,000 people. John brings to Earth Knowledge his mission-driven alignment, outstanding business success and Harvard-based education and networks.
Gillian Muessig
Business Advisor
Gillian Muessig is the Managing Director of the Mastersfund™, a venture capital fund that capitalizes the growth of innovation companies with women at the helm. Mastersfund has invested in Earth Knowledge. Gillian co-founded Moz, the world's most popular SEO software. She serves on Boards of Directors and Advisors across three continents, and has served as an advisor to, among others, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, German Marshall Fund, US Depts of State & Commerce, and startup accelerators worldwide.
Jonas Englund
Financial Advisor
Jonas has over twenty-eight (28) years of expertise in various Investment Banking, Trading and Capital Markets capacities. During this time, Mr. Englund has developed an extensive network of relationships with Asset Owners, Asset Managers, Private Investment Funds, Family Offices, Government and Agency Issuers, Central Banks and Treasurers of Public and Private Corporations.
Gail Sturm
Business Advisor
Angelica (Gail) Sturm comes to Earth Knowledge not only as a highly accomplished Chicago business leader, but also a highly successful leader devoted to saving our Planet, working with Robert and Sibylle Szaggars Redford as Chairman of Way of the Rain and also Chairman of the Board for Chicago’s Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods.
William Sturm
Business Advisor
Bill comes to Earth Knowledge with an outstanding track record for decades of leading innovate paradigm shifts to true sustainability in architecture and design. His award-winning work is highly sought after as is his thought leadership in bringing transformational shifts to his and other’s planning and design. He is passionate about building a restorative world, in vision and in practice, and is another outstanding addition to our Earth Knowledge Advisory Board.
