Gil Friend is the Founder, Chair, and CEO of Natural Logic, Inc and Critical Path Capital, where he advises leading companies, communities, and investors on value-driving sustainability strategies. Natural Logic is a boutique strategy firm that helps companies, cities, leaders, and investors orient to the uncertain business, social and political landscape of the 21st century.
Between 2013 and 2018, Gil served as the first Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Palo Alto, California, where he led the development of one of the most aggressive climate action plans in the US. Gil was also Co-Founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the Foundation for the Arts of Peace, the pre-internet company, Institute for Global Communications, and the Sustainable Business Alliance. He served in the Office of Appropriate Technology in the California Governor’s Office under Governor Jerry Brown, where he was an early 1980s pioneer of sustainable agriculture policies.
Gil serves on the boards of directors of Blue Planet Energy, Inquiring Systems, Inc., and Natural Logic, Inc., and the advisory boards of bFlo, Kora Sustainability, and the 100k Trees Campaign. He previously served on the advisory boards of CleanFish, Green Chamber of Commerce, Green World Campaign, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, and Sustainable Brands. Gil has been a noted sustainability pioneer for nearly 50 years and is widely considered one of the founders of the sustainable business movement.
