Nicole is a sustainability advocate, adventurer, and creative problem solver with an interdisciplinary background in earth science and economics. Her professional life started in marine biology and climate change adaptation in the Caribbean, but she founded Green Compass in response to the 2016 elections to accelerate private investments in domestic climate solutions. She sees pollution and poverty as unnecessary market failures to be redesigned and retrofitted for our global ecosystems and economy to thrive.

Nicole Whalen is the founding CEO of Green Compass, a greentech company that designs, builds, and operates green infrastructure solutions for commercial and multifamily buildings. In 2017, she launched Green Compass to reduce waste, emissions, and operating costs of commercial and multifamily buildings because buildings are the largest source of emissions worldwide and an opportunity to be the largest solution to the climate crisis; buildings also last centuries and have a huge impact on human and environmental health. Previously, Ms. Whalen’s experience was in international development where she managed foreign assistance projects in the Caribbean funded by USAID and the US Dept. of State, and served as a technical writer and researcher on climate change impacts in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. She earned a BA in International Studies/Economics cum laude from New College of Florida and a MA in Global Sustainability, Sustainable Water Management from the University of South Florida.