GNFZ Advisor Monte Hilleman is a leading sustainable urban development professional in the United States who has led large-scale government and private sector development projects for over 25 years that have transformed city skylines and Brownfields for the better to create social, ecological and economic empowerment for future generations to come. 

Currently, Monte serves as Vice President of Environmental Resiliency, Compliance & Investment at Sustainable Investment Group (SIG), a TÜV SÜD America Company, where he serves as the leader of the Climate Investment Solutions department. Monte directs market-based strategies to finance decarbonization efforts including Green Financing Feasibility Snapshots, Net Zero Pro Formas and Portfolio analysis, Green Finance structuring and modeling, and transactions involving Renewable Energy Credits and Carbon Offsets. 

Prior to SIG, Monte created and directed the Saint Paul Port Authority's third-party statewide real estate consulting and brokerage division. While founding this business unit to help scale sustainable development in Minnesota, he spent 18 years culminating as Senior Vice President for Sustainable Development for the Port where he led, among other projects, the Authority’s 'The Heights' project which was the redevelopment of a 112-acre contaminated golf course, targeting 2M SF as a Net Zero development, the largest redevelopment project by the Port Authority in 40 years. 

Monte developed a comprehensive Net Zero Energy plan and carbon emissions inventories for a truly Carbon Free Community, alongside numerous creative circular economy and social equity strategies for the redevelopment, which includes 1M square feet of light industrial, the creation of 1,000+ jobs and over 1,000 housing units across product types.

He also led the entire 61-acre Beacon Bluff redevelopment across private sector joint-venture developments, sustainability, renewable energy (including the largest rooftop solar PV array in Minnesota and the first Net Zero Energy plaza in the United States), energy benchmarking and carbon emissions inventories, historic preservation, mixed-use development, New Markets Tax Credit financing, Next Generation Stormwater Management, public art and placemaking, and bond financing.

Monte is passionate about green building and net zero and has been heavily involved in the U.S. Green Building Council, including serving nearly eight years as a member of Minnesota Market Leadership Advisory Council. He is a ULI Product Council member for Minnesota and a commercial real estate broker.

Monte will be advising GNFZ on large-scale and individual net zero development projects.