Dan Bena currently heads the Global Operations Sustainable Development agenda for PepsiCo, using the power of the private sector to help both business and society flourish. He serves/has served on the Public Health Committee of the Safe Water Network; the Leadership Group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD); Steering Board of IFC’s 2030 Water Resources Group; Steering Committee of the United Nations CEO Mandate; the Global Agenda Council on Water Security of the World Economic Forum; and the Board of the International Society of Beverage Technologists.
Bena recently completed a three-year term on the Board of the Washington-based US Water Alliance, and currently serves on the Board of the Creative Visions Foundation, a non-profit using media and the arts to develop agents of positive social change. Their signature program, called Rock Your World, engages middle and high school students in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and provides them the tools with which to become creative activists. Bena also serves on the Advisory Board of Artistic Circles, which produced the 2012 documentary, Water Pressures. In 2014, he was invited to serve on the Advisory Board of the Environmental Leader publications group, as well as the America’s Water Initiative of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
In 2015, Bena was selected as a mentor for the ThreeDotDash.org program of the We Are Family Foundation; a judge for the University of Notre Dame Corporate Adaptation Prize; and as an advisor to the social venture start-up, Keela. He delivered the keynote address at the Royal Gala in the presence of TRH Princess Madeleine and Prince Daniel of Sweden, and has spoken at over 100 venues which span the business, government, academic, and non-profit worlds. In 2013, he represented PepsiCo at the Our Food, Our Future Summit, in Dublin, Ireland, attended by the Prime Minister of Ireland and the Minister of Agriculture. In 2012, he was invited to provide testimony to the US Senate. In 2013, he keynoted the United Nations Youth Assembly to over 1,000 youth delegates from over 100 countries. In 2014, Bena received the Light Up the Night Award for youth advocacy and engagement. In 2015, Bena was invited by the President of the UN General Assembly to participate in a high-level panel on partnerships to advance the post-2015 Development agenda, and was named an Honorary Professor by Glasgow Caledonian University.
