5th U.S.-India Conference
BayEcotarium\/Aquarium of the Bay, President & CEO George Jacob shares the importance of working together to grow the world's economy while being sustainable.

More than 100 global CEOs and leaders of some of the world's most influential companies reflected on recent innovations and actions to combat climate change at a special dinner for the opening of the Fifth Berkeley Innovation Forum. The Smithsonian-affiliated Aquarium of the Bay hosted the primary session, and the final session of the event took place at another branch of the BayEcotarium, the Bay Model in Sausalito.

The 5th annual US-India Conference took place at the Speaker Forum on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Executives, professionals, academics, students from both India and the U.S., and key members of U.S.-India trade and economic bodies attended the dinner to exchange ideas in an open forum.

"The world is changing at a quick and dramatic pace, and new orientations and alignments are needed from the world's major economies," said George Jacob, President and CEO of BayEcotarium. "India and the U.S. must work together to shape and ensure mutual prosperity and peace around the globe."

R. Mukundan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Tata Chemicals in India, spoke about the importance of corporate responsibility to support climate resiliency in an interview that evening. "We believe that conservation, protecting biodiversity and working on climate change cannot be done by one company," Mukundan said. "It has to be done by partnership and ecosystems. If by coming to these forums we can connect with like-minded people, we would like to find them, work with them, and share what we know."

At the closing session held at the Bay Model in Sausalito, Professor Solomon Darwin (Haas School of Business University of California Berkeley) opened the final session. Presentations included industrial activities on the planet, how sustainability is key for the future, and best business practices to thrive in the modern business world. The forum included time for open discussion and question-and-answer sessions.

WHO ARE WE:

Established 42 years ago as the Bay Institute, Bay.Org/BayEcotarium and its seven branches are united under one mission to enable conversations on climate resilience and ocean conservation globally, while inspiring actionable change locally by protection and preservation of the San Francisco Bay and its ecosystems, from Sierra to the Sea™. Visit www.Bayecotarium.org.

BayEcotarium, one of the largest non-profit watershed conservation groups in the Bay Area, which includes the Smithsonian-affiliated Aquarium of the Bay, is marking its transformation to become a first-of-its-kind BayEcotarium - an immersive, sustainability-driven and multi-disciplinary education, research and climate leadership facility.

The Berkeley Innovation Forum is a membership organization hosted by Dr. Henry Chesbrough, Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation. Professor Chesbrough has become a world-renowned authority on the topic of open innovation, a term that he is credited with inventing. BIF is an exclusive membership group consisting of carefully selected corporate Directors from non-competing firms who are deeply involved in managing innovation within their company. The forum provides its members an ongoing window on innovation challenges confronting companies around the world, and gathers members together to share their experiences in dealing with these challenges. We also incorporate recent innovation research, from UC Berkeley and other universities. We keep the size of the membership limited in order to promote greater exchange of viewpoints.