CleanTech | Advisory Council

William is an internationally renowned designer and environmentalist and works with VantagePoint in the areas of green building and consumer concerns. In 1999, Time magazine recognized him as a "Hero for the Planet" for a "unified philosophy that in demonstrable and practical ways is changing the design of the world." In 1996, he became the only individual to receive the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, the nation's highest environmental honor. He is the founding Principal of William McDonough + Partners Architecture and Community Design, an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially, and economically intelligent architecture and planning in the U.S. and abroad. William McDonough + Partners has been a leader in the sustainable development movement since 1977. He is also the Co-Founder and Principal of MBDC, LLC, a product and systems development firm that assists clients in profitably implementing its scientifically-based design protocols, the McDonough Braungart Index of Sustainability. Bill served as Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia; and currently serves as the A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University; Alumni Research Professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration; and Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia. He also serves as U.S. Chairman and member of the Board of Councilors of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development and Chairman of the Board of Overseers for the Center for Eco-Intelligent Management at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. He recently joined the Board of The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, as well as the Management Committee of HRH The Prince of Wales's Business & The Environment Program at Cambridge University. Bill is a graduate of Dartmouth College (B.A.) and Yale University School of Architecture (Master of Architecture).