“St. Louis‘ buildings matter! I firmly believe that we can empower positive change that impacts our balance with our planet and the lives of real people.”
– Malachi Rein, BE-Ex STL Director
Malachi Rein has a passion for creating a more sustainable built environment. A lifelong resident of the region, he joined BE-Ex STL in September 2022 as the second Director in the organization’s history. He works closely with public and private agencies to support the real estate community to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. Malachi brings experience in facilities management, operations, and project management to this role.
The BE-Ex KC Board of Directors shape the non-profit’s strategic direction and is represented by climate advocates, community development leaders, construction professionals, engineers, real estate developers, utility administrators, and government officials. This diverse ecosystem of building decarbonization expertise influences BE-Ex STL’s programs.
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BE-Ex STL 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Ashok Gupta has been with NRDC since 1991 with a focus on policies relating to climate change, energy efficiency, renewables, sustainable building design, and transportation. During former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, Gupta served as NRDC’s representative to the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board and Energy Policy Task Force. He is the recipient of American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) 2020 Champion of Energy Efficiency in Buildings (Lifetime Achievement), the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership Award for Advocacy and the Association of Energy Engineers’ Environmental Professional of the Year Award. He serves on the Boards of Alliance to Save Energy, NYC Energy Efficiency Corporation, Smart Growth America, PACE Nation, and Bridging the Gap. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from Georgetown University and a master’s in economics from American University. He currently resides with his wife in the Kansas City area.
Among some of the emerging commercial real estate developers in the region, Kevin Bryant is making his mark by establishing and nurturing critical business relationships with some of the St. Louis area’s most prolific companies and individuals. He is the executive founder and developer of the Kingsway Development LLC and CEO of Conversions Global Marketing. Kevin is a tactical decision-maker with a keen eye for creative problem solving and diplomatic negotiating. Throughout his tenured career, he has earned a reputation as the trusted go-to; one renowned for his ability to call on his core competencies of advertising, design, journalism, marketing, promotions, and digital communication to deliver measurable results with impeccable efficiency. As an accomplished communications professional with expertise in strategic planning and project management for leading organizations,
Kevin has shepherded projects for the likes of Monsanto Corp., Anheuser-Busch, Jones Lang LaSalle, Diadora, Grace Hill Health Centers, Harris-Stowe State University, and Family & Workforce Centers of America.
More recently while serving as the leading Community and Building Developer in the Kingsway/Central West End corridor, Kevin has retained Master Development rights for 207 acres of the Kingsway District and is overseeing the multi-million-dollar business and community development project in St. Louis’ Central West End. He is well-positioned to drive economic development in the district through a core focus on revitalizing vacant/underutilized properties. In addition to real estate, Kevin has negotiated tax credit programs and established the fully operating Kingsway Redevelopment Plan (with exclusive rights for the next 10 years) – in partnership with the St. Louis Development Corp., a plan that includes initiating corporate expansion opportunities and supporting upwardly mobile housing developments. With experience gained through working with the Collective Work Foundation (CWF) to support the philanthropic needs of the Kingsway Redevelopment plan, Kevin leveraged relationships and brokered partnerships with the Fountain Park and Lewis Place neighborhood organizations to combat problems of urban blight. He oversaw the strategic management and authorizing of capital budgets, business agreements, and competitive bidding for sub-contracting for CWF and a cache of small to medium businesses.
Kevin’s experience encompasses a cross-section of project types and sizes. Relying on an acute sense for equitable development; he has created a myriad of exciting projects including Elevation Workspace, a $6.2 million mixed-use office building dedicated to the growth of entrepreneurs, Euclid Gardens Senior Living– the adaptive re-use of a 35,000 sq ft abandoned school, and The Bridge Apartments– ground up construction of a 200 unit market rate apartment building scheduled for opening Summer 2023. He has also advanced the redevelopment of Fountain Park and Lewis Place by securing more than $10 million in residential investment and over $89 million in total commercial investments all dedicated to Affordable Housing and for-sale single family homes. He has been called upon to manage successful, multi-stakeholder projects for Lambert St. Louis International Airport, and dozens of more top companies, celebrities, non-profits, municipalities, and corporations. Kevin’s career spans nearly every aspect of commercial real estate and urban planning, including project management, market feasibility, entitlements, public-private financing, incentives, design/development, asset management, and real estate business operations. Over the past 24 years, Kevin has worked with more than 300 clients, including many of the nation’s leading non-profits, civil rights, and youth-serving organizations; colleges and universities; research organizations; corporations; financial services groups; publications; trade associations; entertainers; and government agencies.
Paul Englert has twenty+ years’ experience in the energy efficiency and home construction/remodeling industry, with the majority of my time spent working in multiple utility energy efficiency programs.
Paul currently works for Spire as the Weatherization Program Manager, providing funding to twelve community action agencies throughout our Missouri service territory. He also manage a co-delivery weatherization program with the City of Independence, implemented by Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity is a certified Building Analyst & Envelope Specialist through the Building Performance Institute (BPI) since 2009 and sitting on the board of the Missouri Weatherization Policy Advisory Council. Englert has also taught a course on energy efficiency at a local community college, asked to present on “Bringing Home Performance into the HVAC Industry” at a major energy efficiency industry conference, been a registered Home Energy Auditor through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, named the Illinois Workforce Development 2014 “Business Partner of the Year”, and a BPI Test & Field Proctor.
Rajiv Ravulapati has worked for the Building Division for the City of St. Louis the past 5 years overseeing the City’s Building Energy Awareness and Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) ordinances. Before working for the Building Division, Rajiv has worked under many hats as a consumer advocate, organizer, and lobbyist in Illinois and Missouri on issues of environmental justice, energy efficiency, clean energy, and public health. On a personal level, Rajiv is an avid outdoor enthusiast, loves cooking, has 4 pets, and is always working on endless projects on his house in the Hill.
As Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability, Phil works with an extensive group of faculty, staff, and students to advance operational sustainability for WashU and to foster the next generation of sustainability/climate leaders. Phil also leads and participates in a number of national and regional partnerships to accelerate climate action and sustainable practice, including serving as the program chair for the Midwest Climate Summit, serving on the University Climate Change Coalition Steering Committee, and co-chairing a St. Louis regional energy & emissions working group. In addition, Phil teaches an interdisciplinary community-engaged course on renewable energy and de-carbonizing the electric grid and regularly guest lectures on a range of topics.
Phil is a social entrepreneur who enjoys tackling challenging problems with interdisciplinary groups of collaborators. A 2003 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Phil worked as a climate change researcher at UC Davis before his passion for community development brought him back to St. Louis to develop a nonprofit focusing on community building, arts, and job skills training. Concurrently, he worked at Rise, a nonprofit developer working to revitalize communities, to create a neighborhood indicators database for assessing the impacts of community development investments. Prior to joining Washington University, Phil served as the Active Living Program at Trailnet, a nonprofit working to create walkable, bikeable, and livable communities.
In that role, he collaborated with a number of organizations to develop a transdisciplinary approach to community development that sits at the crossroads of urban planning, public health, and public policy — the Healthy, Active & Vibrant Communities Initiative — which was replicated in seven communities in Missouri with support from the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Even as a WUSTL student studying biology and environmental studies, Phil worked with others students and administrators to advance sustainability at the university. He co-founded of The Wilderness Project pre-orientation program, Volunteers for Environmental Restoration, Development, and Education (VERDE), and the first Committee on Environmental Quality.
Phil spends his free time exploring the world with his toddler daughter and wife, Cheryl, and occasionally moonlights as a drummer.
Timothy Via has over 30 years of electric utility industry expertise in various disciplines including business development, regulatory compliance, and energy efficiency and demand response portfolio management and oversight.
Timothy is currently Manager of Strategic Projects for Ameren Missouri. In this role he is responsible for managing work related to the Ameren Missouri’s future Missouri Energy Efficiency Investment Act (MEEIA) filing and Market Potential Study, which is a key input into the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) process.
In his prior role as Ameren Missouri’s Manager of Energy Efficiency, he was responsible for overseeing all activities related to Ameren Missouri’s income eligible and multifamily programs, which consists of both creating a long-term strategy and program design, and the implementation of programs in support of that strategy, in order to best serve the low-income sector.
Timothy has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from West Virginia University and a Master of Business Administration degree from The Ohio State University. In addition, he has a project management (PM) and certified energy management (CEM) certifications.
