Rob Schuman: the Boulder-based buzz creator brings his talents to the global climate crisis and more.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: EXECUTIVE edge

ON A SUMMER MORNING, ROB Schuman rides his bike up Boulder's Flagstaff Mountain, looks out over the Flatirons and sighs, "I'm so glad I live here."

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That same day he packs his bags for Istanbul where he'll share a platform with former vice president Al Gore to speak on the global climate crisis and how digital media can provoke a movement.

He's chief buzz officer of Gore's Climate Reality Project, among many hats he wears including chief innovation officer for Match Marketing Group, founding partner of Undercurrent and founding entrepreneur of Common. He is also an angel investor in a number or Boulder companies ranging from food and beverage, personal care and technology to marketing communications.

"I've been involved with the Climate Reality Project for a little over three years. Al Gore approached us about helping him redefine and sharpen its mission," said Schuman. "We renamed it and rebranded it to be more of a grassroots program. It became very near and dear to my heart--so much so that I now do it philanthropically and it constitutes the bulk of my philanthropic work."

He calls Gore "an amazing person. His raw intellectual firepower combined with his ability to think at a global systems level is really unmatched. He's one of the few people who is able to take a lot of very inane climate science that exists and really start to connect the clots in a way that people can understand."

Last year Schuman was among a group of climate scientists and others who journeyed to Antarctica to see the impact of climate change. Among the honorary guests were Richard Branson, Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Brokaw and Ted Turner.

"The trip was transformative," said Schuman. "It wasn't just eye-opening in terms of being up-close and able to witness what is going on with climate change first-hand, but to do it with the caliber of climate scientists that we were with was really special, really powerful and really disturbing. All of us came...