Paul Zofnass is President of the Environmental Financial Consulting Group (EFCG), a firm he founded in 1990 to provide strategic and financial advice to the environmental and infrastructure engineering/consulting ("e/c") industry. EFCG currently serves as a retained advisor to over 50 major e/c firms, working primarily with their CEO's. They have served as a strategic and financial advisor to over 300 e/c firms over the past 27 years. In his role as an industry 'knowledge node' Paul has provided over 100 presentations to environmental and engineering firms, groups, and organizations over the past 30 years.
Paul and EFCG are perhaps best known in this industry for their annual EFCG CEO Conference held in NYC. Now in its 28th year, the Conference brings together 230 CEOs of the major and midsize e/c firms from North America and around the world. Each firm is required to complete a very detailed, confidential, financial and business survey of key performance metrics and trends for each of its sectors, which EFCG compiles, analyzes, and summarizes for the Conference.
Paul's presentation will recap that overview with particular focus on the key changes taking place in this industry. He will review the factors driving change, the challenges to be met, and what will likely distinguish the successful from the unsuccessful firms going forward.
In addition to his role as an environmentalist in his professional life, Paul is an environmentalist of long-standing in his personal life as well. Among his many accomplishments are: having assisted Harvard in establishing its Environmental Studies Program in the 1990's; initiating and contributing the Zofnass Tree Identification Program to NYC's Central Park; creating the Zofnass Family Preserve/Westchester Wilderness Walk, a 250 acre nature preserve with a 10-mile long hiking trail in Pound Ridge, NY, 45 miles from NYC; donating a permanent New England Forest Exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History; and creating the Zofnass Sustainable Infrastructure Program at Harvard to develop a rating system to evaluate sustainability as it applies to major civil infrastructure projects. This rating system has been adopted by ASCE, ACEC, and APWA, the three founders of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure ("ISI"), and marketed as "Envision" and used by over 50 city and state agencies in the US and abroad, including the new airport in Istanbul, expected to be the largest in the world.
He is an alumnus of Harvard College, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.