Green Alpha Team

Jeremy W. Deems, CPA
Co-Founder, CFO and COO
Prior to co-founding Green Alpha Advisors, Jeremy was CFO of Forward Management, LLC, investment advisor to the Forward Funds and Sierra Club Mutual Funds, where he was responsible for all areas related to finance, operations, and human resources. Jeremy was also a co-portfolio manager on the Sierra Club Stock Fund with Garvin Jabusch. In addition, Jeremy was the CFO of ReFlow Management Co., LLC, an innovative liquidity management tool for the mutual fund industry. He was responsible for all financial matters for more than 15 related business entities and affiliates. From 2004 to 2005, Jeremy also served as treasurer of the Forward Funds and Sierra Club Funds. His tenure at Forward and ReFlow provided invaluable experience related to new venture creation and the opportunities and challenges associated with start-up ventures in the investment industry. Prior to joining Forward and ReFlow, Jeremy served as regional marketing assistant within the Investment Consulting Services Group (Separately Managed Accounts) at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Jeremy’s undergraduate studies at Saint Mary’s College of California resulted in a B.S. in Business Administration, Honors Concentration in Financial Services and a Minor in Accounting. Jeremy returned to Saint Mary’s College several years later to pursue his MBA in Finance. Jeremy is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  Jeremy also currently serves as independent trustee and audit committee chairman of the Financial Investors Trust, Financial Investors Variable Annuity Trust, the ALPS ETF Trust and the Reaves Utility Income Fund. 

Garvin F. Jabusch
Co-Founder and CIO

Before founding Green Alpha Advisors with Maria Potapov and Jeremy Deems, Garvin was the Director of Forward Sustainable Investments, a business unit of Forward Management, LLC. There his duties included supervision of and responsibility for all aspects of the management of the Sierra Club Stock Fund and the Sierra Club Equity-Income Fund. This included overseeing portfolio managers, manger performance evaluation, research, marketing, sales, operations and relationship management. In addition, Garvin also directly co-managed the Sierra Club Stock Fund (SCFSX). Garvin previously served as Vice President, Strategic Services at Morgan Stanley. Strategic projects completed there by Garvin include integration of European acquisitions, establishing the European call center, and the sale of Morgan Stanley Online to the Bank of Montreal’s Harris Direct unit. His other experience includes trading, mutual fund sales and research and analysis. Garvin holds an MBA in international management and finance from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

Prior to his entry into the business world, Garvin studied at the Ph.D. program in physical anthropology and archaeology for five years at the University of Utah. During the course of this work, Garvin wrote and contributed to many Environmental Impact Studies. Garvin’s thesis work in physical anthropology involved human adaptation to varying levels of ultra-violet exposure from sunlight. The study of ozone depletion was critical to this effort. Garvin published several papers on this topic, notably in the Canadian science review journal The Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary Chacmool proceedings. Garvin did other work in paleopathology and human osteology, and was a member of Sigma Chi, the national scientific research honor society. Garvin’s other activities and experience includes work as a white-water guide in Utah and Arizona, work as an EMT, swiftwater rescue certification, French language proficiency and travel.

Ross Shell
Managing Member

Ross is a marketing and business strategist, entrepreneur and more recently, also a venture investor.  In 2008, Ross launched Red Idea Partners, a "consulting + venture works" firm. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the firm consults and invests with promising growth companies, many of which are focused in organic, socially conscious or eco-efficient enterprises. Red Idea's investment model includes co-management work with the firm's venture companies, and Ross has ongoing management team involvement with Green Alpha Advisors in marketing, corporate development and strategy.

From 2005-2008, Ross directed Investor Relations and Marketing for an investment firm which managed a platform of hedge fund and private equity products, with offices in the US, UK, Asia and Canada.  During his tenure, the firm grew from $250 million to a peak of nearly $700 million in assets under management. Since 2009, Ross has also served as a Trustee for Financial Investors Trust, which oversees a growing family of around 15 mutual funds and is affiliated with ALPS Advisors, Inc. of Denver, Colorado.

From 1999-2003, Ross served as President of Tesser, a San Francisco-based agency nationally recognized for its design work in the restaurant, food and consumer product industries.

Ross is a Boettcher Scholar, and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Political Science.  Ross is a year or so shy of being a Colorado native, and he lives in the Boulder area with his wife and son.  

Richard Imperiale
President, Uniplan Investment Counsel, Inc.

Rick is Co-Portfolio Manager on the Sierra Club Green Alpha Portfolio.  Rick is also President of the Uniplan Companies and the Chief Investment Officer of Uniplan Investment Counsel, Inc.  Rick was Chairman and Trustee of the Inland Retail Real Estate Investment Trust which was sold to Developers Diversified in a transaction valued at $6.2 billion in 2006.  He is widely quoted in local and national media on matters pertaining to real estate investments and is a regular guest on CNNfn's power Lunch.  He has appeared on Bloomberg News, CNBC, and is a frequent guest on the syndicated radio talk show, Money Sense.  He authored the book, Real Estate Investment Trusts: New Strategies For Portfolio Management, published by John Wiley & sons, 2002; now in its second edition.

Rick started his career as a credit analyst for the First Wisconsin National Bank (now US Bank), where he assisted in building credit-scoring models which helped identify companies with a high probability of financial success.  In 1983, Rick joined B.C. Ziegler & Company, a Midwest regional brokerage firm, where he was instrumental in the development of portfolio strategies for one of the first hedged municipal bond mutual funds.

Rick is a native of New Jersey.  He attended Marquette University Business School where he received a BS Degree in finance.  In addition, he completed the postgraduate lecture series in corporate finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.