Ocean Yuan came to Oregon in 1990 with $500 his father borrowed from his friends in rural China. At the time, $500 was approxi- mately equal to an entire year’s income for a typical Chinese family. Ocean made the most of his opportunity, and graduated from the Lundquist College of Business at the Univer- sity of Oregon in 1993. After spending many years starting up and working for multination- al electronics companies around the United States, he returned to Eugene in 2009 to start his own solar power business. Today, Grape Solar, Inc. is the largest product and service provider for retailers like Costco and Home Depot. Ocean lives in Eugene with his wife and daughter. He is living, breathing proof of the American Dream’s continued inspiration.
The United States is facing environmental disaster, but we are not the only ones. The United States and China, as the two biggest polluters in the world, have a shared responsi- bility to confront environmental degradation, the most pressing issue of our time. Please join us at PIELC 2016 for the unique opportunity to engage with the individuals confronting the environmental issues in China.