Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy. He recently served as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Jones is the author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two Biggest Problems (Harper One 2008) which became a New York Times bestseller thanks to a low-cost, viral marketing campaign. Today it is being translated into six languages.

As a tireless advocate for disadvantaged people and the environment, Jones helped to pass America's first "green job training" legislation: the Green Jobs Act, which George W. Bush signed into law as a part of the 2007 Energy Bill. He is the co-founder of a number of successful non-profit organizations, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Green For All.

Van is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Reebok International Human Rights Award, the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader designation, and the prestigious, international Ashoka Fellowship. Van was included in the Ebony Magazine "Power 150" list of most influential African Americans for 2009. In 2008, Essence magazine named him one of the 25 most inspiring/influential African Americans. TIME Magazine named him an environmental hero in 2008 and in 2009, named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

From March to September 2009, Van worked as the special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality. In that position, he developed policy recommendations to help implement the Obama Administration’s commitment to clean energy jobs. His central focus was home energy efficiency – the fastest way to save Americans money on their energy bills, reduce pollution from power plants and create good jobs. Toward this end, he led a 12-Department inter-agency process, which designed proposals to weatherize and retrofit millions of American homes, including by leveraging private capital. Those proposals are in various stages of review and implementation.

Van also helped run an inter-agency group that assisted federal Departments in information-sharing, coordination and accelerating Recovery Act results. He worked to include the specific needs and concerns of vulnerable populations, including rural Americans and minorities. In the Obama Administration’s first nine months, the federal government made unprecedented progress toward increasing the number of green job opportunities available to all Americans.