Meet Our New Vice Presidents

Rachel Hynes

Vice President of Operations

Rachel is passionate about creating systems that enable individuals and organizations to thrive. She has committed her career to creating more just and resilient communities, whether at large nonprofits, city government, or start-up companies. Prior to joining the institute, she worked at Future of Fish and Flip Labs, helping to oversee the expansion of programs and separation of the non-profit and LLC entities.

Rachel deeply believes in the power of nonprofits to incubate the radical ideas our world needs and brings a business lens on how to scale and make them profitable. She did her undergraduate studies in International Political Economy and Economics at the University of Puget Sound, received her MBA from Pinchot University and is both an Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellow and Starting Bloc Fellow.

Though she originally hails from the East Coast, she has happily found a home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where she can sometimes be found foraging for her dinner.

James Connelly

Vice President of Products and Strategic Growth

A GreenBiz 30 under 30 sustainable business leader, James Connelly is the Vice President of Product and Strategic Growth at the International Living Future Institute.

As VP of Strategic Growth, he leads ILFI in developing strategy and cultivating new business and partnership opportunities to grow the Institute’s impact and capabilities globally.

As VP of Products, James provides strategic leadership for the Institute’s corporate and manufacturing initiatives including the Living Product Hub (a center of innovative manufacturing in southwestern Pennsylvania), Living Product Challenge (a program that re-imagines the design and manufacturing of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world), Just (a social justice and corporate responsibility label for leading progressive organizations), Declare (an innovative ingredients transparency label and database of non-toxic sustainably sourced products) and the Handprint Label (an elegant CSR framework for companies on the pathway to achieving Net Positive impact).

James leads the Institute’s strategic consulting for corporations and conducts technical consulting for high profile Living Building Challenge projects both in the US and internationally.

Prior to joining the Institute in 2012, James received a Fulbright fellowship to conduct research on green building rating systems in China. James is frequent national and international speaker on regenerative design, sustainable business, ecological manufacturing and affordable housing. He is an avid writer and his research and commentary has been featured in news outlets such as China Dialogue, Trim Tab, BuildingGreen, GreenBiz and Engineering News Record.