Jerome Ringo
Environmental Pioneer and President of the Apollo Alliance

As president of the Apollo Alliance, Jerome Ringo represents more than 17 million people across the country and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and 22 international labor unions. The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of labor, environmental, national security, civil rights, and business leaders fighting to make America independent from foreign energy in 10 years. The Apollo Alliance is a broad coalition of major national environmental organizations, more than 50 businesses, and the support of more than 100 organizations in the nation’s states and cities.

Never before has there been such a discussion and opportunity of the “Power of Green” than today. As the leader of the new green power movement, Ringo and the Apollo Alliance have caught the attention of economists, conservationists, laborers, and even President Obama. Apollo’s ten-year, five million green jobs plan was echoed often by President Obama, and is positioned to act as the catalyst for economic stimulation in the next administration. Apollo’s promotion of a $50 billion annual investment strategy, would guarantee research and development of new energy alternatives, thus reducing carbon footprints, decreasing our dependency on foreign fuels, and creating good American-made jobs.

Jerome Ringo came to the Apollo Alliance in 2005 as a dedicated champion of environmental justice and vocal advocate of clean energy. He has first hand experience of the challenges we face after working for more than 20 years in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry. More than half of that time was spent as an active union member working with his fellow members to secure a safe work environment and quality jobs. Louisiana’s petrochemical industry focuses on the production of gasoline, rocket fuel, and plastics – many of which contain cancer causing chemicals. As he began observing the negative impacts of the industry’s pollution on local communities – primarily poor, minority communities – Ringo began organizing community environmental justice groups. Ringo’s experience organizing environmental and labor communities and his drive to further diversify the environmental movement bridges many of Apollo’s partners to create a broad based coalition to provide real solutions for our energy crisis. In 1996, Ringo was elected to serve on the National Wildlife Federation board of directors and, in 2005, Ringo became the chair of the board. In so doing, he also became the first African-American to head a major conservation organization. Ringo was the United States’ only black delegate at the 1998 Global Warming Treaty Negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, and represented the National Wildlife Federation at the United Nations' conference on sustainable development in 1999. Ringo inspires audiences around the world to create a new clean energy economy. Some of his most notable keynote appearances include: the Montreal Climate Summit in 2006, the United Nations African Climate Conference in Nairobi in 2006, the Kyoto Plus Conference in Berlin in 2007, and the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.

In 2006, Ringo was a McCloskey Fellow and Associate Research Scholar at Yale University and in 2008, he was a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Bren School of the Environment.

Ebony Magazine named Jerome Ringo one of the most influential African Americans for 2006 in its April issue. Jerome Ringo was also highlighted in the May issue of Urban Influence Magazine as one of the Top Ten African American Influences in the country. Ringo is a member of the Green Group, a member of Newsweek’s Environment and Leadership Council, and serves as an official advisor to the Sundance Channel’s The Green. In 2007, Ringo was invited to serve on the National Parks and Conservation Association board. He is the co-author of Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement (published in 2007) and The Green Festival Reader (2008). He also appeared in the Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

Boards he sits on include: Al Gore's Climate Advisory Panel/National Wildlife Federation/National Parks and Conservation Association/Florida A & M University School of the Environment/Sundance Channel The Green/Newsweek Magazine Advisory Panel on Climate Change.