Dan Lutkenhouse Jr. is the President and Executive Director of Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Garden (HTBG), an educational nonprofit Bioreserve on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island, Hawai’i.
Dan came to HTBG with over thirty years as a technologist/futurist at companies such as Genentech and Hewlett-Packard and as a serial entrepreneur in the technology industry. He believes that unless critical action is taken to stem the abuse of natural resources on our planet by youth involvement, we will soon reach a point of no return. Dan believes that the rise of technology innovation is a leading contributor to climate change and that it is up to the current leaders in technology to redirect efforts into finding global solutions. A big part of that effort involves educating the next generation on the path of socially responsible innovation.
Dan grew up in California but frequently visited Hawai’i to help his father, the Founder of HTBG, to establish the Garden. When he is not leading HTBG’s vision, he can be found backcountry skiing, mountain biking and hiking in his beloved Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. While it may have been technology that got us into our current situation, Dan optimistically believes in the power of the next generation, and in educating them to harness innovation for social, economic and planetary well-being.