Dr. Shireman's mission is to bring together people who love to hate each other—capitalists, activists, conservatives, and progressives, among others. He teaches leadership and negotiations at the UC Berkeley Haas Business School, and serves as a surrogate founding father of Bridge USA, where young progressives, conservatives, libertarians, and independents all register "decline-to-hate," and engage in democracy by listening, speaking, learning, teaching, and then solving problems together. He is also Future 500’s founder, president and CEO. As a life-long Republican and an environmental activist, a social progressive and a free-market enthusiast, Bill Shireman believes that our economics and our ecosystems don’t have to be at odds and that the left and right both have ample room to learn from each other. As the executive director of Californians Against Waste, he united Coors, Safeway and the Sierra Club to pass California’s “bottle bill”, possibly one of the nation’s most cost-effective recycling laws. His success forging a partnership between Mitsubishi and Rainforest Action Network helped catalyze the global deforestation-free movement and also led to the founding of Future 500. His current passion is overcoming America’s chronic polarization and crafting transpartisan solutions to climate change and other problems.