Bill Shireman

Alum 1998
Bill Shireman is a social entrepreneur, environmental policy innovator and rare San Francisco Republican. He brings together people from all sides of the political spectrum including capitalists, activists, conservatives and progressives, among others.

As President of the non-profit Future 500, he invites Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), ExxonMobil, Mitsubishi and other corporate and environmental leaders to work together to create the world’s first corporate supply chain standards for sustainable forestry (between Mitsubishi, RAN and 400 other companies), the most effective beverage container recycling program (the California CRV deposit system and its progeny) and the 2008 agreement by both Greenpeace and Exxon-Mobil to support the same federal tax on carbon.

Bill teaches leadership and negotiations at the UC Berkeley Haas Business School, and serves as a surrogate founding father of BridgeUSA, where young progressives, conservatives, libertarians and independents all engage in democracy by listening, speaking, learning, teaching and then solving problems together. He is also a prolific author. His latest book is In This Together: How Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists, and Activists are Uniting to Tackle Climate Change.