June 12, 2024 (Washington, DC) – Today, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the expansion of its leadership team with the addition of Angelo Petrillo as its chief growth officer, as well as with two new expert appointments, John Law and Paul Mathew, to further strengthen USGBC’s deep technical bench. This announcement comes at a crucial time, reinforcing the organization's commitment to scaling impact and the expansion of the green building community.

Petrillo assumes a leadership role responsible for developing and executing growth strategies, providing greater access to green building solutions and accelerating market transformation efforts. Petrillo brings extensive global expertise, having led business divisions across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. He will play a key role in driving the next phase of growth for USGBC and Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), leading teams responsible for customer experience, fund development, global market development and sales, marketing, membership and policy.

“Increasing global engagement and adoption of green building practices is central to USGBC’s mission and paramount to addressing the mounting challenges facing our climate and communities,” said Peter Templeton, president and CEO, USGBC. “Angelo brings invaluable experience to USGBC to expand both the reach and impact of our work by effectively growing, serving and empowering the global green building community.”

Petrillo is joined by two highly respected experts who have taken on key roles at USGBC in May.

John Law, previously with the City of Chicago, joins USGBC as a director of technical development, bringing applied expertise in climate resilience, sustainability, urban planning and equitable community development. Law will develop updates to the LEED for Cities and Communities program and advance how USGBC measures sustainability beyond buildings.

Paul Mathew, the former department head of Whole Building Systems at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a U.S. Presidential Award recipient, has joined USGBC as a senior fellow, bringing unparalleled expertise in building energy efficiency and decarbonization. Mathew will advance USGBC’s initiatives in sustainable finance and strategies to drive performance improvements across large portfolios of buildings.

"We are excited to welcome Paul and John to our team," said Sarah Zaleski, chief products officer, USGBC. "Their wealth of technical knowledge and market experience provides our organization with expert insights and perspectives needed to advance industry leadership. With the launch of LEED v5 and our upcoming portfolio offerings, their contributions will be instrumental in steering USGBC towards continued innovation and excellence to transform the built environment."

These appointments come at a pivotal time, as USGBC recently released its new three-year strategic plan aimed at addressing urgent challenges and opportunities within the green building industry and beyond. USGBC’s efforts are focused on rapidly decarbonizing the global built environment in line with international targets; centering resilience, human health and social equity outcomes within communities; advocating for bold public policy and governmental leadership; and building inclusive pathways into the green building community and developing the next generation of leaders.

In the coming months, USGBC is poised to launch LEED v5, while also investing in portfolio-scale solutions and the Arc performance tracking and benchmarking platform to serve the evolving needs of our rapidly growing user community. These offerings provide critical guidance, measurement and assurance functions needed to comply with sustainable finance, regulatory and ESG reporting frameworks, as well as other key market drivers for low-carbon, resilient, and healthy buildings and communities.

These new additions to the USGBC team will help us lead, evolve and strengthen the global green building movement in close collaboration with our global community of partners and stakeholders.

Angelo Petrillo is a seasoned leader with a background in sales, marketing, operations and innovation, having made significant contributions to renowned global technology companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and Blue Yonder, and most recently, in the testing, inspection and certification sector at NSF International. At NSF, an independent organization that develops public health standards and services, Petrillo served as chief commercial officer, leading the global go-to-market strategy, sales, marketing, business development, operations, branding, communication, customer success and digital innovation across divisions including Water, Food, Health Science, ESG, System Management and Labs.
John Law is a sustainability strategist and city planner with 20 years of global experience and demonstrated leadership in designing new cities around the globe and transforming existing communities into more equitable and climate-resilient places. Law brings his diverse expertise and passion for sustainability and planetary health to all his professional and personal endeavors. Most recently, he served as assistant commissioner for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, leading special department and citywide planning initiatives focused on investment in underserved communities, affordable infill housing and equitable transit-oriented development.
Paul Mathew is a building energy efficiency and decarbonization expert with over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of technology, markets and policy. His expertise includes high-performance building technologies, energy risk in financing and building valuation, energy and GHG benchmarking, and building performance standards and policies. He has led major market transformation projects for federal, state and local government programs, collaborating with real estate investors, owners, operators, designers and service providers. He has authored more than 170 technical publications and has received a U.S. Presidential Award for Federal Energy Efficiency. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a doctorate in building performance and diagnostics.

U.S. Green Building Council Announces Chief Growth Officer and Key Technical Appointments