Kim Coupounas

Kim Coupounas is a values-centered visionary leader, executive, public speaker, and entrepreneur who is a passionate advocate for the environment and a firm believer in the power of the corporation to do good in the world. She co-founded and serves as Chief Sustainability Officer of GoLite, the premier global manufacturer of lightweight, innovative and responsible apparel and equipment designed specifically for outdoor athletes. Kim and her husband founded the company in 1998, and she served as GoLite’s Chief Executive Officer until 2008. Kim’s current work at GoLite includes leading a multi-year metrics-based path to sustainability. Kim is also past Chairman of the Board of the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), the trade association representing the $646 billion active outdoor recreation industry and has served on the Advisory Council of the OIA Sustainability Working Group (SWG), a collaboration of over 200 companies in the outdoor and apparel industries. The SWG created the OIA Eco Index, now called the Higg Index, a groundbreaking tool that enables apparel manufacturers to quantify sustainability practices and product impact throughout the supply chain. She has also served as a founding board member and Chairman of the Board of the Outdoor Industry Association Political Action Committee.

Kim is an accomplished public speaker on sustainability, leadership, and entrepreneurship and a frequent guest lecturer at universities and organizations around the world. She earned an A.B. Cum Laude in Philosophy from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She conducted graduate work at Pembroke College, Oxford University as a Rotary Foundation Graduate Scholar. Among her deep passions are time spent with her family, trail running, hiking, singing, doing yoga and martial arts, drinking great wine, and climbing mountains