John Porretto
President of VerdeCapitalResources
Presently, John works with an international equity investment corporation to provide Sale/ Leaseback financing for capital projects in healthcare, education, housing, solar farms, and business ventures.
Capital asset projects in this program include funds for land, facilities, and equipment that comport with Passive Building Standards and that create healthful, safe, productive workplaces.
John's interest in working on the financing for sustainable/regenerative capital projects was driven by learned experiences as Chief Financial and Operating Officer, and Executive VP of the UT Houston Health Science Center at Houston in the Texas Medical Center.
For more than 25 years John led administrative departments that served 4500 Staff, 1100 faculty, 3,500 students and 2,000 trainees throughout seven health-related schools, hospitals, and research institutes. John's fiduciary accountability included a $600 million annual operating budget, a $750 million capital project budget and operations in 2.5 + million gross square feet in 2003.
Key learnings over those years made it clear that organizations with efficient, healthful, and disaster resilient facilities benefited from reductions in expenses that yielded impressive operational and maintenance savings... savings that was directed to core work rather than to expensive, wasteful overhead. expensive, wasteful overhead.
Organizations that own their facilities face serious challenges when they are constructed without concern for the health and well-being of their employees. Early on, John gained a key insight in having to deal with the expensive consequences of sick buildings. In his words: Too often we claim that we cannot find sufficient funds to construct buildings to meet sustainable/regenerative standards, yet somehow we always manage to find far greater sums required to correct the consequential mistakes/failures of not abiding by these.
Porretto and his team began to incorporate sustainability principles that would achieve economic efficiencies campus-wide, thus driving responsible decision-making for future design, construction, renovation, maintenance, and operation of all UT-H campus facilities.
Among John's most treasured accomplishments was leading the planning, and construction of a 200,000 gross square foot environmentally sustainable School of Nursing and Student Services Center.
As expected, significant savings in operations and maintenance costs are now directed to core education, research, and service missions.
As of this writing, the UT Nursing School and Student Services Center remains the only LEED gold certified building in the vast Texas Medical Center.
John's goal is to enable more organizations in North America to make responsible contributions to the built environment with equity investment funding from the international investment corporation he represents.
Sue Porretto
President of Provident Enterprises
Sue Porretto, President, Provident Enterprises, has led, trained and supported people for 35 years of a career that spans administration, communications, higher education and health care. Presently, she joins her husband, John Porretto, President, VerdeCapitalResources in connecting leaders of sustainable/regenerative capital projects with a unique Sale/Leaseback financing program.
Ms. Porretto utilizes approaches widely recognized for helping countless organizations survive and thrive, including Stephen Covey's “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Principle-Centered Leadership,” Dr. Joseph Juran's “Making Quality Happen,” and Dr. Michael Hammer's "Reengineering the Corporation."
With extensive experience in challenges facing organizations Sue has helped her direct reports and her clients achieve efficiency and quality gains that enriched their work cultures and strengthened their bottom lines.
At UT Houston, Sue directed the public affairs and television departments, and community relations activities and assisted the President in and supported a Texas Medical Center-wide arts program, and a Health Policy Institute.
As founder of Provident Enterprises, Sue works with clients in private and public sectors, specializing in organizational and professional development with specific focus on creating:
- Internal and external communications policies that align with organizational policies and practices.
- Strong strategic plans with drivers, measurements, and rewards for improving workplace culture with teamwork, collaboration, and image-enhancing performance and communications.
- Organizational restructuring that incorporates objective measures of employee job fit and team balance as central focal points in evaluating and rethinking how work gets assigned, accomplished, and recognized.
Respected for her competence, creativity, motivational abilities, integrity, and customer responsiveness, Ms. Porretto brings knowledge and experience that helps organizations achieve enduring positions of strength and viability.