Ecology Center Board of Directors Nominees and Election Ballot

The Ecology Center’s Board Nominating Committee is recommending election of the following four candidates to the Board of Directors. All members are eligible to vote at the bottom of this page.

Link Howard III  |  Riyaz Kanji  |  Frank Parkinson  |  Doug Selby

Candidate Bios

Link Howard III

Link Howard III, president and chief executive officer of Powerlink Facilities Management (Powerlink), is a successful entrepreneur, devoted leader and dedicated community advocate.

After growing up in Detroit, Howard began his career as a military police officer during the Vietnam War, and he went on to serve in a wide range of roles with the military and the federal government. From 1987 until he retired from the service in 1997, Howard was equal employment opportunity manager for all Air National Guard civilian employees throughout the United States.

Howard returned to Michigan with the goal of transitioning into the private sector, in which he rose through various sales and operations positions prior to becoming vice president of sales and marketing for Venture Industries.

In 2002, he utilized his experience and all that he had learned about leading and teaching others to form the original Powerlink, a temporary staffing company that primarily supplied labor to the automotive sector. Realizing that the automotive industry was heading into financial trouble, Howard swiftly diversified the services of his company and created opportunities to supply facilities management services to business customers in a variety of industries, no longer relying solely on automotive clients.

In 2003, he launched Powerlink Facilities Management, an ISO 9001-certified company that now has more than 600 employees in several states and Canada. Howard attributes his success to bringing the discipline of continuous improvement and rigorous metrics from manufacturing into housekeeping, grounds keeping and general facilities maintenance. “Throughout my career, I’ve worked to motivate others to do more than they thought possible,” he has said.

During his military career, Howard attended Northwood Institute in Michigan. In addition to leading mission trips to Africa, he works to support educational opportunities for youth in Detroit and Flint.

For the past year, Howard has been a member of the Ecology Center’s Detroit Committee, and he is now a candidate for a three-year term on the Ecology Center board of directors.

Riyaz Kanji

As a lawyer whose work is focused on advocacy on behalf of Indian tribes and peoples, Riyaz Kanji has demonstrated a profound commitment to environmental stewardship and environmental justice. For example, he served as lead litigator for the National Congress of American Indians and a coalition of Indian nations in successful efforts to require stricter federal regulation of mercury emissions by coal-fired power plants. In addition to his environmental litigation, he has worked closely with environmental groups and advocacy organizations, including the National Wildlife Federation and the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, on issues of common importance to Indian nations and their neighbors.

Kanji is a partner in Kanji & Katzen, PLLC, a law firm with offices in Seattle and Ann Arbor that represents Indian nations and tribes across the country on a wide variety of issues including sovereignty and governance, treaty fishing and hunting rights, Indian gaming and environmental protection.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and his law degree from Yale, where he served on the Law Journal and won the Potter Stewart Prize in moot court competition. He served as a law clerk to Judge Betty Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kanji’s present practice encompasses a wide variety of issues involving the preservation and enhancement of tribal sovereignty. He also regularly assists Indian nations in defeating efforts by the federal government, states, and private parties to have the Supreme Court review lower court decisions favorable to tribal interests, and he has testified before both Houses of Congress.

Kanji is a candidate for a three-year term on the Ecology Center’s board of directors.

Frank Parkinson

Frank Parkinson counts himself lucky that he has been able to combine his legal and business careers with his passion for environmental issues, working in the areas of renewable energy, clean technologies, green building, sustainable development and climate change.

Parkinson is an accomplished attorney, entrepreneur, business owner, developer, and LEED-credentialed professional. He recently joined the law firm of DeLoof, Hopper, Dever & Wright in Ann Arbor.

A dedicated advocate and volunteer, Parkinson has been actively involved for the past four years with the Climate Project, an international non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of climate change.

He also serves on the advisory board of Intentional Communities Washtenaw, a non-profit organization providing housing and other support services to adults with disabilities, and volunteers his time to a number of local area charitable, civic and political organizations.

Parkinson lives in Saline with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children.

After being appointed in January to fill a vacancy on the Ecology Center board, he is now a candidate for a three-year term.

Doug Selby

“Our desire to build energy-efficient houses comes from the idea that we are both pretty concerned with the environment in general and making sure that the things we do are having as little an impact as possible.”

That’s how Doug Selby described his business, Meadowlark Builders, in a story in the Detroit Free Press last year when the firm received a 2011 “Green Leader” award from the paper.

Selby is a “building-science expert” and managing partner in the design/build construction firm that he started with Kirk Brandon in 2004. Since its founding, Meadowlark Builders has become Michigan’s leader in LEED-certified home construction, and a national leader in high-performance new homes and energy efficient renovations of existing homes.

Selby and Brandon also are partners in Meadowlark Energy, a home performance contracting company that offers homeowners savings in energy costs typically between 40 percent and 60 percent.

“Vertical integration of crucial green building trades helps both companies achieve superior results,” Selby said. “We offer a complete range of innovative services focused on making and re-making the standard for the American home - comfortable, healthy and ultra-efficient.”

The Free Press story emphasized that, before launching Meadowlark, Selby had worked in cancer research at the University of Michigan after completing his bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

“I began to feel that part of the reason that there was so much disease in our modern life was that we were disconnected from the natural world around us and we don’t have a chance to breathe fresh air and get exercise,” he said in the article. “Unhealthy homes rob people of years off their lives and create a disconnect from the outside environment.”

Selby is a candidate for a three-year term on the Ecology Center board of directors.