Chief Instigator and Needle Mover
Needle Consultants' Chief Instigator Marc Ross has been working to make the world a better place. As an attorney with over 30 years' experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Marc has served as a litigator for a state department of environmental protection and at a large law firm where he litigated cases on the state and federal level. He was in-house counsel to a Fortune 100 company, where he counseled the company on a wide range of compliance and permitting matters, as well as business transactions. Over 15 years, he focused on the nonprofit sector, founding and building a national environmental advocacy organization that works with the music industry and has consulted both nonprofits and for-profit businesses on matters related to philanthropy, sustainability, and corporate responsibility. Marc is also the former Director of Community Outreach for Harvest, a vertically-integrated, multi-state cannabis company, where he was recruited to strategize, build, and scale a national CSR program.
Most recently, he served as Counsel, Head of Impact & ESG at Vicente Sederberg, a leading cannabis law firm, where he consulted and counseled clients on a wide variety of ESG and CSR matters, while serving in multiple, internal leadership roles in the firm.
After a wide-ranging legal career, Marc decided that it was time to take his rich nonprofit experience, where he worked to engage and inspire communities, back to the private sector to help businesses find ways to do good in the world. Marc is a passionate optimist who understands that employees are not commodities who choose employers merely for a paycheck, but rather because they want to make a difference as well. He understands that communities are not just those neighbors who happen to be located next door, but are intertwined with a business's success. And he feels passionately, that sustainability isn't merely something that feels good, but is a way for all businesses to operate in a responsible manner and save money in the process.
Marc is certified by the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado in Corporate Social Responsibility as well as in Sustainability Leadership and Implementation by the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver. He holds a J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law and a B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcross/
