Providing third-party environmental and sustainability certification, auditing, testing, and standards development.

Robert J. Hrubes, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President

• 510.452.8007
• [email protected]

Robert Hrubes has served as Executive Vice President for over a decade. In addition to his executive leadership responsibilities, Dr. Hrubes has principal responsibility for leading the company's natural resource management and chain-of-custody programs.

Dr. Hrubes is a registered professional forester and resource economist with over 35 years of professional experience in both the private and public sectors, and is an internationally recognized expert in natural resources management and environmental certification. Prior to joining SCS, he worked for the USDA Forest Service, then became managing principal of Natural Resource Associates, a Northern California-based forestry and resource economics consulting firm. Here he specialized in wildland management planning, sustainable forestry analysis, resource economics analysis, operations research analysis and forest management.

SCS first engaged Dr. Hrubes' consulting services in 1991 to guide the design and implement its ground-breaking forest certification program. In addition to being principal architect of the SCS Forest Conservation Program, he participated as a founding member in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), helping to design that certification program. He served for four years on the FSC Board of Directors and was the founding chair of the Board of Directors of the Forest Stewards Guild, a U.S.-based professional forestry society. Maintaining his role as a hands-on certification practitioner, he has served as team leader on evaluations of forest management operations worldwide, and has served as auditor on numerous chain-of-custody certification evaluations. He also served on the Working Group of the Climate Action Reserve Forest Project Protocol.

Dr. Hrubes travels widely, speaking about such topics as forestry, carbon offsets and environmental labelling, and has written numerous peer reviewed articles and papers.

• Ph.D., Wildland Resource Sciences; University of California, Berkeley, CA
• M.A., Economics; University of California, Berkeley, CA
• M.S., Resource Systems Management; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• B.S., Forest Management and Outdoor Recreation Management; Iowa State University, Ames, IA

Linda G. Brown
Senior Vice President

• 1.510.452.8010
• [email protected]

Linda Brown is the company co-founder and Senior Vice President. Ms. Brown has actively participated in the development and implementation of the company's strategic initiatives and certification programs, serving in multitude capacities from program manager to communications chief.

Before joining SCS, Ms. Brown worked as a grants writer for municipalities across the United States, and a publications editor. Active in social justice and environmental issues, she obtained her Master's degree in Journalism. Shortly afterward, she met and joined Dr. Rhodes in launching the business.

Brown has held many positions in the company, including Director of SCS' Environmental Claims Certification Program, Director of Sustainable Agriculture, and Director of Communications. She has spearheaded or participated in numerous food quality, environmental and sustainability standards development activities on a company, national and international basis. She participated in the international ISO 14000 standards setting process, focused on Environmental Labeling, Life-Cycle Assessment and Environmental Aspects in Product Standards. She currently is involved with national efforts to write sustainable agriculture standards (LEO-4000) and update life cycle assessment metrics (LEO-SCS-002).

Ms. Brown has authored numerous articles on environmental certification, life-cycle assessment and food safety issues, and has presented details of SCS programs and methods to diverse audiences around the globe.

• M.A., Journalism; Stanford University, Stanford, CA
• B.A., English and Political Science; Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Scott Romito
Chief Financial Officer

A C.P.A. and attorney, Romito has led the finance and accounting function at SCS since 2010. Prior to joining SCS, Scott was CFO and General Counsel for a Southern California-based startup. He spent five years with "Big Four" public accounting firms as an auditor and tax consultant, and sits on the Board of Directors of a technology and certification company he helped develop.

• J.D., UC Davis School of Law, Davis, CA
• B.A., Economics; UCLA, Los Angeles, CA