NATALIA OLSON-URTECHO

PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Natalia Olson-Urtecho is the founder, President & CEO of EG, LLC, a company dedicated to helping public and private entities become more profitable through environmentally friendly and socially responsible planning and strategies. She has designed several management and development programs to move entrepreneurial clean technology ventures from vision to startup and profitable businesses through management consulting and organizational strategies that drive change. She was recently appointed to the U.S. Innovation Advisory Board by the U.S. Department of Commerce and represents the Startup America’s Philadelphia regional initiative. She serves on the Philadelphia’s Urban Sustainability Forum Committee, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council Policy Committee, The Wharton/UPENN Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership Faculty Advisory Board, The Israeli American Chamber of Commerce Clean Technology Committee and the Pan American Board. She chairs the World Green Energy Symposium Planning Committee and is one of the founding members of The China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia and The Philadelphia Green Economy Task Force. She is also leading the effort for Philadelphia to participate in the US-India-China Integrated Cities for Energy and Environment (Ecopartnership), a DOE initiative to increase collaboration among cities.

Natalia has over 15 years of experience working with international, regional and local entities in the Philadelphia region and abroad in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. Before founding EG she was a Transportation and Land use Planner at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and was the Director of Global Initiatives at H2L2, an architectural and planning firm with projects in 42 countries.  Previously before coming to Philadelphia she worked for the U.S State Department in Budapest, Hungary, on NATO accession, international policies, environmental issues, science & technology property rights, infrastructure development and served as Chief of Protocol.

Olson-Urtecho was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter to serve on the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and Zoning Code Commission from January 2008 to August 2010, where she served as the Vice-chair of the Zoning Code Commission.  She led the most extensive civic engagement and community outreach program and made it her priority to create balance between development, design and public input for a new zoning code and a new comprehensive city plan which had not been updated in over 60 years. She is also a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.

She has personal and professional experience in international collaboration, commercialization of clean technologies, environmental planning, sustainable building, zoning, land use, transportation, public engagement and infrastructure policies and development.  She has made it her priority to grow the green economy, increase energy efficiency, innovation and entrepreneurship, improve community engagement, build smart & sustainable communities and facilitate international business development in the Greater Philadelphia region.  Natalia is a mentor for GreenStart, a San Francisco startup accelerator for cleantech companies, the Philadelphia Latina Leadership Network and Women of ALPFA, the largest Latino association for business professionals.

She received the Business Journal 2010 Minority Business Leader Award and in 2009 received the Women of Distinction Award for all her work towards building a green economy. She has lived in 7 countries and she speaks Spanish, French and Portuguese.  Natalia holds a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design and a BS in Political Science with a minor in economics from Northeastern University.

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