November 15, 2020
Symposium Overview
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Speakers
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Carmichael is a founding partner of Material Impact, a fund that seeks out transformative technologies and builds them into enduring companies that solve real-world problems. The fund's strategy is based on Carmichael’s successful career as an entrepreneur-investor in “materials,” blending a unique business model of licensing university technology and commercializing it through targeted partnerships with Fortune 500 companies.
Carmichael is also a member of Breakthrough Energy, a mission-oriented group committed to changing the world by creating and building companies that address the threat of climate change and long-term sustainability of the planet. As part of their work, Breakthrough Energy will invest over $1B over the next 20 years to help scale products for energy, transportation, agriculture, and construction.
As a General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, Carmichael financed and built several successful companies, including 1366 technologies and Foro Energy. As co-founder and chairman of nonprofit Diagnostics For All, he is developing paper-based diagnostics to serve marginalized patients globally.
Prior to North Bridge, Carmichael co-founded several ventures, and served as President and CEO of Arsenal Medical. Prior to his entrepreneurial career, he worked in BD at GelTex Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Genzyme for $1.3 billion, and in new product and business development at Dow Chemical.
Carmichael serves on the boards for the National Venture Capital Association and Massachusetts General Hospital Physician Organization. In 1999, he was named by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the world’s top 100 young entrepreneurs. Carmichael is a trustee of Duke University.
Carmichael received his BS and PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University and completed his postdoctoral National Science Foundation fellowship at Harvard University. Carmichael also has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Carmichael Roberts
Co-lead, Breakthrough Energy Investment Committee
Co-founder & Managing Partner, Material Impact
@carmichaelvc
Maarten Wetselaar
Integrated Gas & New Energies Director Executive Committee, Royal Dutch Shell plc
Anne Hoskins spearheads Sunrun's federal and state public policy and regulatory advocacy. She joined Sunrun after serving nearly 3 years as a commissioner on the Maryland Public Service Commission, where she also served as a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Board of Directors and as Chair of the NARUC International Relations Committee. Previously, she led federal and state advocacy for Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated and served as a Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Prior to that, Anne represented Verizon Wireless as a Senior Regulatory Counsel and served as a policy advisor to the Governor of New Jersey.
J-S Jacques became chief executive of Rio Tinto in 2016. Since then, he has led the successful implementation of our value-over-volume strategy. From 2016 through the first half of 2019, we declared a record $30 billion in cash to our shareholders while reducing net debt by $14 billion. We have also significantly strengthened our portfolio, realising $12 billion in sales proceeds, pre-tax. In 2018, Rio Tinto became the only major player in our industry to have a portfolio free of fossil fuel production.
Rio Tinto also continued to innovate and invest in high-quality growth and exploration, including copper-gold mineralisation at the Winu project in Western Australia, announced in 2019, and the Gudai-Darri (Koodaideri) iron ore project in Western Australia, set to be our most technologically advanced mine. Growth projects at Oyu Tolgoi, in Mongolia, and Resolution Copper, in the United States, also continue to progress.
In 2019, Rio Tinto furthered our focus on sustainability with the launch of an education partnership designed to promote interest in STEM education in Australia, and a partnership with China Baowu Steel Group and Tsinghua University, to research, design and implement new ways to reduce carbon emissions and improve environmental performance across the steel value chain.
J-S has been a member of International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) since July 2016, joined the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) in May 2018, the Global CEO Council in Beijing in June 2019, the Business Council of Australia in November 2019 and the US Business Council in January 2020.
Anne Hoskins
Chief Policy Officer, Sunrun
@aehoskins
J-S Jaques
CEO, Rio Tinto
Valerie Shen is the Chief Operating Officer at G2VP. She oversees all operational aspects of the firm and fund including leading fundraising / LP relations and maintaining a strong network with fellow venture capital funds, while managing legal processes, recruiting / personnel, marketing, and fund administration. Prior to business school, Valerie was an analyst at Kleiner Perkins’ $1B Green Growth Fund, where she helped the team found G2VP. Before that Valerie was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she worked across four continents, primarily on energy projects. She has also held positions at the U.S. Senate, X (Google’s “moonshot factory”), Goldman Sachs, Jane Street Capital, and The Wilderness Society. Valerie holds a B.A. degree summa cum laude in Environmental Science & Public Policy and Earth & Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. She holds an M.B.A. and M.S. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, where she was a Siebel Scholar and an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Valerie Shen
COO,
Kleiner Perkins, G2VP Fund
Rick Needham is a Partner and Energy Sector Lead for The Rise Fund, responsible for sourcing and executing growth stage investments in the energy space that deliver both attractive financial returns and meaningful positive social or environmental benefits.
Prior to joining Rise, Rick was the Director of Energy and Sustainability for Google, where he led teams that invested in transformative, large-scale renewable energy projects, explored ways to accelerate energy access in emerging markets, and catalyzed actions to address climate change. Spearheading Google’s renewables project investing, Rick played a crucial role in channeling more than $2.5 billion into renewable energy projects around the world. Prior to Google, Rick was at DEKA Research where he led clean energy business development efforts and managed several technology development projects in clean energy, medical products, and robotics. Rick also worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and served for eight years as a nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy. Rick currently serves on the boards of Fourth Partner Energy and CLEAResult. Rick holds a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MS from MIT, both in Aerospace Engineering, as well as an MBA from HBS.
Rick Needham
Partner, Energy Sector Lead,
TPG, The Rise Fund
Elizabeth Lewis
Climate & Sustainability Investing, IFC
@Eliz_M_Lewis
Joy Dunn is the Head of Manufacturing at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT spinout pursuing the fastest, surest way to limitless, clean fusion energy. The CFS manufacturing team is currently building the world's largest HTS (high temperature superconductor) magnet to prove the core technology needed to achieve net positive power from fusion with the SPARC tokamak. Joy came to CFS with 10 years of experience at SpaceX where she was heavily involved with the manufacturing of the Dragon spacecraft and played an integral role in SpaceX's achievement of being the first private company to launch a spacecraft in orbit and also send astronauts to the International Space Station. As the SpaceX "Mother of Dragons", she hired, developed, and led the team of manufacturing and integration engineers to build both Cargo and Crew Dragon spacecraft while increasing production capacity in the factory by 1.75x. Joy is currently a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum and was also named to Business Insider’s list of the Most Powerful Female Engineers of 2017. Joy received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Joy Dunn
Head of Manufacturing,
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
@rocketjoy
Sean Monkman is the Senior Vice President of Technology Development for CarbonCure Technologies. He oversees the company’s research and intellectual property efforts as they develop scalable carbon utilization technologies to create more sustainable concrete. Sean holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from McGill University. His career has included more than 25 years working in concrete materials including more than 15 years working on CO2 utilization approaches. Sean has authored more than three dozen papers and presentations on beneficial carbon dioxide utilization in concrete production and is a co-inventor on over 70 issued and pending patents related to the work. He was recognized as the Mission Innovation Champion for Canada at the Fourth Mission Innovation Ministerial (MI-4) in 2019.
Sean Monkman
SVP Technology Development, CarbonCure
Joseph Goffman is Executive Director of the Environmental & Energy Law Program. Prior to his recent role as Democratic Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), he was Associate Assistant Administrator for Climate/Senior Counsel to the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
His EPA tenure included work on the Clean Power Plan, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, the Oil and Gas New Source Performance Standards, and related air quality and climate change rules. During an earlier stint at EPW, he authored Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, pioneering the use of cap and trade in the program that tackled acid rain. His career also includes senior legal, policy and management positions at the Environmental Defense Fund.
Joe Goffman
Executive Director, Environmental & Energy Law Program (EELP) at HLS
@josephgoffman
Daniel has been a venture investor in the clean technology and sustainability energy sector for more than 14 years. Before Buoyant Ventures he was a Managing Director with GE Ventures in Boston where he led investments in the Energy sector around the themes of distributed energy, energy storage, electrification of transportation, energy access, and grid modernization. He led deals in Advanced Microgrid Solutions (2017) and Zola Electric (2018) and was responsible for GE’s investments in Enbala, Trilliant (to acquisition in 2019) and Sentient Energy. He led GE Ventures’ engagement with GE’s Power and Renewables business units identifying key areas of interest for the company and building relationships with portfolio companies and other startups.
Prior to GE Ventures, he was Director, Ventures at National Grid in Waltham, MA where he was responsible for National Grid’s LP interest in Energy Impact Partners (EIP) - a strategic venture fund backed by utilities- managing deal flow, strategic engagement across the utility, and across the LP base of EIP.
Daniel’s first role in venture was an Associate at RockPort Capital Partners, a firm focused on energy, mobility and sustainability. He joined as an Associate in 2006 and led a series of deals in the renewable energy, power electronics, agriculture, and building energy efficiency sectors. In 2012 he was promoted to Partner and COO with additional responsibility for portfolio management, LP engagement, managing exits / distributions, and secondary transactions. On leaving RockPort, he briefly worked for RePower (a portfolio company in the solar industry) as VP Strategy and Marketing and interim CFO.
Prior to venture, Daniel was a Manager at ZS Associates, a leading sales and marketing strategy consulting firm. He led engagements with clients in the medical device, pharmaceuticals, commercial banking and insurance industries to help them craft and deploy go to market strategies.
Daniel is a US/UK dual national and grew up in the UK. He has a BA Hons in Chemistry and a D.Phil (PhD) in Physical Chemistry from the University of Oxford (Jesus College). He has an MBA (with distinction) from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
He lives in Somerville, MA with his wife and three boys.
Daniel Hullah
Managing Director, GE Ventures
Founder, Buoyant Ventures
@danielhullah
Kezi is a PhD candidate at the School of Engineering, her research focuses on materials optimization and discovery. Her interest lies at the intersection of materials and sustainability innovation. She is the co-founder of FLO.Materials, a startup commercializing a platform technology to infinitely recycle complex, multi-material products, enabling manufacturing waste and end-of-life products to be recovered and remanufactured with lossless performance and aesthetics. She is a NSF graduate research fellow, a Harvard Graduate Energy and Environment Consortium fellow, and is on the organizing team for the Harvard Circular Economy Symposium. Kezi holds a Bachelor's degree in Materials Science & Engineering with a minor in Management from MIT.
Kezi Cheng
COO, FLO Materials
Joshua is a certified Data Scientist and the Founder & CEO of SparkCharge. His experience in entrepreneurship and startups spans over 6 years and he is a dynamic figure in the cleantech community. Joshua is also the most recent winner of the world’s largest pitch competition, 43North. Joshua holds a B.A. in Economics and a Masters Degree in Information Management and Data Science from Syracuse University.
Josh Aviv
Founder & CEO, SparkCharge
Ron is the Co-Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm focused on the development of the circular economy via investments in sustainable consumer goods and packaging companies, innovative recycling technologies and advanced supply chains. Prior to Closed Loop Partners, Ron was the Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, Recycling and Sustainability for New York City, as well as the Co-Founder and CEO of RecycleBank. Ron received an MBA from Columbia Business School, and has been an Adjunct Professor at his alma mater since 2010.
Ron Gonen
CEO, Closed Loop Partners
@LoopFund
Susan earned a Degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College Dublin, specializing in Geology.
She is currently the Co-Founder and Chairperson of Belize Natural Energy.
Her company has the Educo Holistic Business Model at its core. Against all the odds, this Model was the vital difference that enabled Susan (and her late business partner Mike Usher) to find the first oil in Belize in 2005.
BNE won the Global GetEnergy Award for empowering the people of Belize (beating 43 other countries), has consistently been the no. 1 revenue generator in Belize and has inspired world leaders, resulting in a major trade treaty being signed with the United Arab Emirates.
Susan was awarded the Norman Foster Outstanding Explorer Award and the Presidential Award for Exemplary Service by the AAPG in recognition for her work in geoscience.
Susan Morrice
CEO, Belize Natural Energy
Simone became Group Executive, Corporate Relations, in 2017, nine years after she first joined Rio Tinto. Today, her portfolio encompasses the Group's external affairs, sustainability approach, communities, brand, media, government affairs and employee communications. Simone also has responsibility for the leadership of the country and regional office teams, including Africa, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, the UK and the United States.
Simone has played an important role in developing our vision of partnership, helping deliver sustained value to Rio Tinto and, on issues such as climate change, transparency and human rights, to society at large. In past years, Simone also led the development of our integrated market and regional country strategies, aligning both with business and Group priorities. In 2018, she was the architect of the effort to revisit our approach to environmental, social and governance performance, which continues to be implemented across our business.
Prior to joining Rio Tinto, she spent more than 15 years working in progressively senior roles at some of the world's most respected companies, including Vodafone, United Technologies, Smiths Group and Smith & Nephew.
Simone Niven
Group Executive, Corporate Relations & Sustainability Approach
Rio Tinto
Dirk McDermott is the Founder & Managing Partner of Altira Group LLC, a Denver-based venture capital firm focused on equity investments in the companies developing the enabling technologies of tomorrow’s energy world. Mr. McDermott has over 25 years as an investor, manager and scientist in the energy industry where he has participated in over 100 financings.
Mr. McDermott has an MBA and a Master of Science in Geophysics from Stanford University.
Dirk McDermott
Founder & Managing Partner,
Altira Group LLC
@AltiraGroup
Ted Wiley began his career as a US Army Infantry officer. He went on to be co-founder and head of product at Aquion Energy and then president of McDonough Innovation before co-founding Form Energy where he is the President and Chief Operating Officer. Form Energy is a venture backed startup commercializing a breakthrough long-duration energy storage technology invented at MIT with the capability to economically store and manage grid scale energy from days to seasons. Ted holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and was recognized in 2013 by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader.
Ted Wiley
Co-Founder & President, Form Energy
@theodorewiley
SUSTAIBNABLE CITIES PANEL
In her role as Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Los Angeles, Lauren Faber O’Connor is driving the implementation of LA’s Green New Deal, a global model for local action to confront the climate crisis and build an inclusive green economy that prioritizes equity. Lauren has spent her career working on environmental issues from serving as West Coast Political Director for the Environmental Defense Fund to being appointed Assistant Secretary for Climate Change Programs at the California Environmental Protection Agency to addressing climate change and energy as the Senior Policy Advisor at the British Embassy.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Earth Systems and Economics from Stanford University, and Master’s degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University.
Lauren Faber O’Connor
Chief Sustainability Officer,
Los Angeles Mayor’s Office
@laurenfoconnor
Jim joined the HBS Faculty in 2019 as a Senior Lecturer and currently teaches the EC Entrepreneurial Finance Course and is a Faculty Affiliate of the Business & Environment Initiative. He is also an active investor, and Board Director & Advisor for several companies and VC/PE investment groups. Among other passions, Jim is active with climate change and veteran related issues and supporting post-partisan politics.
From 2001-2018, Jim was one of the four General Partners who launched Flagship Pioneering (fka Ventures) and helped grow the firm to its current ~$2 billion+ AUM. At Flagship, he founded, invested in and helped grow a wide variety of businesses and spearheaded the firm’s sustainable technology practice and was involved in myriad U.S. and international efforts to foster entrepreneurship and sustainability.
From 2013-2018, Jim also served as President and CEO of Oasys Water, having also been the company’s founding Chairman and Lead Investor since 2008. As CEO, he led the global expansion of Oasys’ pioneering water treatment platform and the sale of the business to their Asian partner in 2018.
Most recently, from January to July of 2019, Jim served as Campaign Manager for MA Congressman Seth Moulton’s (HBS/HKS 2011) 2020 Presidential Campaign.
Before embarking on a second career in entrepreneurship and investing, Jim was a Navy F-14/18 pilot, TOPGUN Instructor and Officer-in-Charge of the Navy’s West Coast Adversary Unit, and retired in 2008 as Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves. He earned his BS (with honors) from the United States Naval Academy (where he still serves as Class President) and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
James Matheson
Senior Lecturer,
Harvard Business School
Ally Yost
Principal, The Engine
@enginexyz
Michael P. Joyce is a partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Los Angeles office, where his practice focuses on energy and infrastructure finance. Michael has represented clients in numerous cutting-edge transactions in the energy and infrastructure field, with a particular emphasis on renewable energy sectors such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass. He also has considerable experience with coal, gas-fired, and nuclear projects, as well as with the disposition and acquisition of assets
Michael Joyce
Partner, Wilson Sonsoni
Judith Judson is Vice President of Distributed Energy Systems at Ameresco.
Judson joins Ameresco from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (MassDOER), where she has served as Commissioner since 2015.
At MassDOER, Judith oversaw a 70-person team responsible for shaping state energy policies and implementing innovative solutions to help the Commonwealth reach its clean energy goals. Under her leadership, MassDOER launched the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program aimed at doubling the amount of distributed solar in the Commonwealth. Judith is also credited with the launch of a $20 million Energy Storage Initiative in 2015, which in four years grew storage development in Massachusetts from 1 MWh of storage capacity to over 700 MWh. As Commissioner, Judith set nation-leading goals for energy efficiency and pioneered programs for Massachusetts residents, businesses, cities and towns to save energy, resulting in Massachusetts being consistently ranked as the most energy efficient state in the country.
Prior to her role at MassDOER, she served as Director of Emerging Technologies at Customized Energy Solutions Ltd., a Philadelphia-based company offering energy market operations platforms and services. She also spent several years at Beacon Power Corporation in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where she managed the company’s project development and operations team as Vice President of Asset Management and Market Development.
In conjunction with Judson’s role as DOER Commissioner, she chairs the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council, serves on the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Board and represents Massachusetts on the Boards of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Inc. and National Association of State Energy Officials. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University.
Judith Judson
Vice President, Distributed Energy Systems, Ameresco
John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on the future of cities, particularly as aided by the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure projects in both the developed and emerging worlds. His teaching combines infrastructure finance (including public-private partnerships), investing in resilience (notably in the face of sea rise in some areas and drought in others), economic development, and the impact of new technologies in delivering new infrastructure and making old infrastructure more efficient
John Macomber
Senior Lecturer,
Harvard Business School @cleantechcities
Matt Valle is the Vice President of Development at Florida Power & Light (FPL) in Juno Beach, Florida. In his role, Matt is responsible for leading the new project and program development for the company across technologies including solar, batteries, electric vehicles, hydrogen, water, transmission and natural gas in the state of Florida. A few of these projects his team is responsible for include: executing FPL’s “30 by 30” plan to install 30 million solar panels by 2030, launching FPL’s SolarTogether program –the largest community solar program in the country, developing the 409 MW solar-plus-storage Manatee battery – which will be the largest battery in the world when complete, building out an electric vehicle charging program to link the major corridors in Florida and developing one of the first at-scale hydrogen pilots in the industry. Prior to his current role, Matt was Vice President of Development at NextEra Energy Transmission, and was responsible for the competitive development of transmission across the U.S and Canada for the company.
Prior to joining NextEra Energy, Matt was a Principal with The Boston Consulting Group in their Dallas office from 2007 to 2011. In this role, his responsibilities included running project teams for Fortune 500 clients in the energy and technology sectors. Prior to The Boston Consulting Group, Matt served five years as a nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy.
Matt received his Bachelor of Science with Merit from the U.S. Naval Academy in Systems Engineering, and his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He is married and has three children.
Matt Valle
VP Development, Florida Power & Light
Rachel has led end-to-end product development in sustainability, housing, fintech, and e-commerce, with a particular passion for promoting access to opportunities.
Currently, she is a Director of Product Management at Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company, which works to make cities more sustainable and affordable. She leads Mesa, an energy optimization engine and building IoT product to help commercial building owners, tenants, and managers tackle energy efficiency.
Before working on the product team at Sidewalk, she split her time between India and Kenya as the Chief Product Officer at Shortlist, a job opportunities platform. During her tenure, she led the Product, Design, Data, and Assessments teams. Prior, she was the Associate VP at Housing.com. She led 65 people in the Rentals and the Solutions verticals to develop features that spanned all products, like recommendation engines, search, and personalization. She’s also led product development in fintech and e-commerce companies, worked on financial applications at IBM, and co-found a multimedia storytelling company. Her tech focus stemmed from her work on a grassroots portfolio at the International Finance Corporation, where she witnessed the scalable impact achievable by tech-enabled businesses.
Rachel loves urban planning, which she studied in undergrad alongside public policy at Princeton University. Not surprisingly, also loves tech :) and took as many engineering courses as possible while at Harvard Business School. She is always up for urban adventures, exploring new places, creating curated maps, and enjoying photography. She can also recommend great corner chai from her four years of living and working in India.
Rachel Steinberg
Product, Sidewalk Labs
Cathy is a student in the MBA class of 2021. Prior to HBS, she worked at Blackstone in London within their Real Estate team. Since arriving at HBS, Cathy has been part of a clean energy startup and completed her summer internship at CPP Investments working on energy and infrastructure related investments. She is a member of the Student Senate and is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion efforts on campus. Cathy graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce and grew up in Dublin, Ireland.
Cathy Basquel
Symposium Chair & Partnership Director
Energy & Environment Club
As VP of Business Development at Mori (formerly Cambridge Crops), Christina is responsible for growth by designing and delivering on partnerships that uncover mutually beneficial opportunities, mitigate risk, and deliver a positive impact.
She previously worked for C Space where she grew multi-million dollar client relationships, managed teams of researchers, and facilitated expansions into China and Latin America.
Christina received her MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from Georgetown University.
Christina Belsito
VP of Business Development,
Mori
After more than two decades in consulting, Jurgen joined the Harvard Business School faculty in 2020 as a member of the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit. He currently teaches the first year BGIE core course and is developing an energy focused second year elective course. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Business & Environment Initiative as well as a Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. In addition, Jurgen continues to be a Princial at The Brattle Group, an international economic consulting firm
Jurgen Weiss
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Archie Jones
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
John Mascari is Co-founder and COO of Blueland. Blueland is reimagining conventional household cleaning products to eliminate single-use plastic packaging and finally offer consumers a more sustainable option. With nearly 40 patents-pending, the Company’s innovative products help remove more than 100 billion single-use plastic cleaning bottles in the United States alone. All products are designed in tablet or powder form, to be mixed with household tap water - saving consumers money and space, while also helping to save the planet from plastic waste. Blueland was featured on the Season 11 premiere of Shark Tank, securing an investment by Kevin O’Leary and has been featured across top tier outlets such as the New York Times, Fast Company, TechCrunch, VOGUE, Wall Street Journal, Inc., and more. To learn more about Blueland’s mission to reimagine all packaged goods, visit its website at www.blueland.com or its Instagram @blueland.
John Mascari
COO, Blueland
@blueland
Amy Myers Jaffe is Research Professor and Managing Director of the Climate Policy Lab. She was formerly the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations.
A leading expert on global energy policy and sustainability, Jaffe previously served as senior advisor for sustainability at the Office of the Chief Investment Officer at the University of California, Regents and as executive director for energy and sustainability at University of California, Davis where she led research on low or zero carbon fuels and transportation policy. Jaffe has taught energy policy, business, and sustainability courses at Rice University, University of California, Davis, and Yale University. Jaffe is widely published, including as co-author of Oil, Dollars, Debt and Crises: The Global Curse of Black Gold, with Mahmoud El-Gamal.
Her forthcoming book Energy's Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security will be published by Columbia University Press in 2021. She is chair of the steering committee of the Women in Energy Initiative at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy policy.
A frequent media commentator, Jaffe is president of the U.S. Association of Energy Economics and holds a Senior Fellow award from that organization for her career contributions to the field of energy economics.
Jaffe is a member of the Global Future Council on Net Zero Transition at the World Economic Forum (Davos).
Amy Meyers Jaffe
Managing Director, Climate Policy Lab
@AmyJaffeEnergy
Ramiro Almeida is a Co-Founder and President of Optimus Ride Inc. Since 2015, the company has brought together outstanding experts in engineering, design, urban planning and business to develop a driverless (Level 4) electric vehicle system. Optimus Ride is deploying the most advanced autonomous systems developed for geofenced environments, including the first self-driving electric vehicle system in New York, and additional systems in Massachusetts, Virginia, California and Washington D.C. In addition to his work in Optimus Ride, he has also uniquely contributed to the development of technological advances and sustainable projects that had a major impact on the future of cities and urban environments. Prior to the foundation of Optimus Ride, Ramiro was an instructor and scholar at the MIT Media Lab from 2013 to 2015, where he taught urban design courses along with conducting academic research focused on technology and sustainable innovation. Before his appointment at MIT, Ramiro was a Loeb Fellow resident scholar at Harvard University in 2012 and 2013, at the Graduate School of Design. Harvard published his book A Line in The Andes, which he edited as part of an applied research design studio that analyzed the transformative role of the largest underground railway infrastructure project that has been developed in the Andean Region. Throughout his career, Ramiro has been an author, editor, publisher and producer. Among his credits, he published the first Spanish version of Wired magazine, Conectados in 1999. He is a former president of Libri Mundi International, where he led the process for an acquisition by La Favorita, one of Latin America’s largest retail conglomerates. He serves on the Board of Directors of Optimus Ride, and on the Board of Advisors for Jobsity.
Ramiro Almeida
President & CSO, Optimus Ride
Raquel is a student in the MBA class of 2021 pursuing a dual degree MBA and MS in Electrical Systems. Before HBS, she worked at Tesla as the lead program manager for vehicle battery systems and for solar programs. Raquel is passionate about accelerating renewable energy tough technologies via collaboration in management, policy, and technology development. During her time at HBS, Raquel works as a strategy consultant for Commonwealth Fusion Systems, based in Cambridge MA. Raquel holds a BS in Environmental Engineering from Harvard College.
Raquel Schreiber
Symposium Chair & Experience Director
Energy & Environment Club
@raqschreiber
Arindam has led business and technology innovation for Schlumberger in a global career spanning over 25 years. Over the past decade he has been in several senior corporate leadership roles including, Group Vice-President for Marketing & Technology; Product Line President for Land Drilling Rigs and Area President for Mexico & Central America.
Currently Arindam is the Director of Schlumberger Corporate Ventures overseeing a portfolio of over 20 venture companies, with an investment focus on New Energy business ventures aligned to the energy transition.
Arindam is passionate about constantly challenging the status quo in the energy industry. Specific areas of strategic impact and interest over the past years include digital transformation of the oil and gas business, and technology and business disruption in the energy transition space. Arindam has a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, and a Masters degree in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, UK.
Arindam Battacharya
Director,
Schlumberger Corporate Ventures
As a member of Schneider Electric’s North America Executive Leadership Team, Kevin is responsible for the development and execution of a winning strategy that drives profitable growth across all lines of business in alignment with Schneider Electric’s recently launched Life Is On corporate brand. Kevin’s responsibilities include leading the overall North America strategy development process; leading the Smart Cities efforts; developing and maximizing government relationships at state and federal levels; and identifying inorganic growth opportunities. Kevin previously held Strategy & Corporate Development roles with Johnson Controls’ Building Efficiency Business, Miller Brewing Company, GE Healthcare, and McKinsey & Company. Kevin holds an MBA from Northwestern University, and MS and BS degrees in engineering from the University of Michigan.
Kevin Self
Senior VP of Strategy, Schneider Electric
Libby Wayman is an investor with Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investor-led fund created to accelerate the transition to clean energy and a clean economy. Libby has over 15 years of experience in clean energy and clean technology including multiple startups and executive roles in leading energy companies. In previous roles, Libby led clean technology innovation at GE as the Global Director of Ecomagination Innovation, served as the Director of the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy, and developed several technologies in the solar industry including at SunPower and Alion Energy. Libby started her career in entrepreneurship by co-founding a business that now supplies equipment to the dairy cold chain in India, and holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. While at MIT, Libby co-founded the MIT Energy Club which became a beacon for information sharing and analysis on energy technologies. Libby now also teaches the Energy & Climate Ventures course at MIT.
Libby Wayman
Investor, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
@libbywayman
Bill Lese co-founded Braemar in 2003 and leads the firm’s activities in the power, resources, and infra-tech segments. He currently serves on the boards of Carbonfree Chemicals, Voxel8, Fulham, Utility Associates, Lusbio and Brightvolt, and is responsible for Braemar’s investments in General Fusion, Metalenz and Renew Financial. With experience that spans technical, operating, strategy, and investment roles, he has been active in energy innovation for over 30 years. Prior to starting Braemar, Bill was a Partner at Mantis Holdings, a venture firm focused on environmental and energy efficiency businesses. He was also one of the original team members at Sithe Energies, a global leader in independent power development, and Director of Corporate Development for NPS Industries. Bill designed his first solar panel at 17, has authored several research papers for the Department of Energy and helped pioneer the commercialization of Kinetic Hydro Energy Conversion systems. With experience that spans technical, operating, strategy, and investment roles, he has been active in energy innovation for over 30 years. Prior to starting Braemar, Bill was a Partner at Mantis Holdings, a venture firm focused on environmental and energy efficiency businesses. He was also one of the original team members at Sithe Energies, a global leader in independent power development, and Director of Corporate Development for NPS Industries. Bill designed his first solar panel at 17, has authored several research papers for the Department of Energy and helped pioneer the commercialization of Kinetic Hydro Energy Conversion systems.
Bill Lese
Managing Partner, Braemer Energy Venture
Elizabeth leads engagement for climate business and impact investing for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the largest development finance institution supporting the private sector in emerging markets. She supports IFC’s efforts to mainstream climate business in high-growth sectors such as clean energy, sustainable cities, climate-smart agriculture, energy efficiency, green buildings, and green finance. Elizabeth also leads engagement with the over 100 institutional investors that have committed to an IFC-led set of standards for managing impact in investments.
Before joining IFC, Elizabeth led investor relations for two sustainability- and impact-focused funds, Global Environment Fund and Terra Alpha Investments. Earlier in her career, she established and led World Resources Institute’s sustainable investment program, andguided public and private sector clients in evaluation of alternative energy technologies at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Elizabeth currently serves as a Harvard Alumni Association Committee Member, and for several years she co-chaired the Harvard Schools Committee for the Washington, DC area. She is a Trustee of the Maryland/DC Nature Conservancy Chapter and a member of World Resources Institute's Sustainable Investment Advisory Council. She serves on the Corporation of the Winsor School in Boston and as Vice President of the Stella P. Holt Foundation.
Elizabeth holds an AB in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Elizabeth Lewis
Senior Engagement Office for Climate and Impact Investing, International Finance Corporation
Conor Riffle is Vice President, Smart Cities at Rubicon, a global technology company that provides waste and recycling solutions to businesses and government. In this role, he helped to grow and now runs the company’s software business for municipal governments, RUBICONSmartCityTM. RUBICONSmartCity has been deployed in more than 50 cities, including Atlanta, Spokane, and Montgomery, where the city was awarded a Smart50 Award for its implementation of Rubicon’s technology. In 2020, Conorwas named a “40 Under 40” award winner by Waste360 magazine.
Prior to Rubicon, Conor was based in London and served as the founding Director of Cities and Data Product Innovation at CDP, a global environmental organization. Under Conor’s leadership, CDP’s cities program achieved global recognition as the de facto platform for city governments to report environmental data, growing from zero cities in 2009 to more than 500 global cities by 2016. More than 800 global cities now use CDP’s platform annually. In 2013 and again in 2017, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced major investments in CDP’s work with cities.
Prior to his role at CDP, Conor served in various roles at the Clinton Foundation in New York, including Foreign Policy Fellow and as an early employee of the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI).
Conor graduated magna cum laude in History from Connecticut College and holds an MA in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He lives in Brooklyn. You can follow Conor on Twitter at @c_riffle.
Conor Riffle
Vice President, Smart Cities at Rubicon
@c_riffle
Stephen is a student in the MBA class of 2021 pursuing a joint degree MBA and Masters in Public Policy with Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to HBS, he spent four years at Goldman Sachs in the firm’s Environmental Markets Group. Stephen has worked at a variety of sustainable investment firms and energy start-ups and currently is a special government employee and member of the CFTC Climate-related Market Risk Subcommittee, appointed as an independent expert to advise the financial regulatory system on climate risk. Stephen graduated from Princeton with a BA in public affairs with minors in sustainable energy and environmental studies.
Stephen Moch
Club Co-President
Energy & Environment Club
Lance Brasher is global head of Skadden’s Energy and Infrastructure Group. He is a corporate attorney concentrating in M&A, financing and development transactions involving energy and infrastructure facilities in the United States and around the world. Mr. Brasher advises strategic investors, developers, borrowers, tax equity investors, funds, lenders and utilities in all phases of solar, wind and other renewable energy projects; gas and thermal power plants; transmission lines; electric distribution assets; LNG and gas processing facilities; natural gas pipelines; related energy companies; and transportation, water infrastructure facilities and sports facilities. Mr. Brasher repeatedly has been recognized as a leading lawyer by publications such as Chambers Global and Chambers USA, where he is noted for his “great breadth of knowledge in the renewables industry” as well as “enviable strength in matters pertaining to traditional power and infrastructure projects.” Clients tell Chambers he “knows the energy and power sector inside and out, so he is well versed in current trends and external disrupters in the industry.” Mr. Brasher has also been recognized by Latin Lawyer 250 for his work on energy and infrastructure projects in Latin America, and he was named Best Lawyers’ 2019 Washington, D.C. Project Finance Law Lawyer of the Year.
Lance T. Basher
Partner, Energy & Infrasucture Group Skadden
Charlie Freese
Director, Global Fuel Cell Business, General Motors
Chris Romer is CEO and Co-Founder of Project Canary. Project Canary has a simple mission: to mitigate climate change by helping the energy supply chain and the O&G industry reduce methane and other fugitive gas emissions through continuous monitoring. Project Canary is a mission-driven company that has filed as a B Corporation and has several dozen contracts with many of the largest E&P and midstream companies across the country to help them solve this critical environmental problem and restore their social license operate. Chris is also Co-Founder and senior advisor at Guild Education. Chris served as a Colorado state senator from 2006 to 2010, where he focused on energy policy, higher education innovation, and improving access and quality of K12 education. From 1983-2008 he was a public finance banker with JPMorgan and CitiBank specializing in clean power, energy, utility, higher education, and transportation finance.
Chris is a Founder and past President of Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation, which provides mentoring programs and scholarship funds for at-risk students, and past president of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, a children’s advocacy group. He also served as superintendent for New America Schools, a national network of ESL high schools, and as president of the KIPP Schools serving low-income students.
Chris Romer
CEO, Project Canary
@ProjectCanary1
Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.
Amy Edmondson
Professor, Harvard Business School
Benoit is a Managing Director on the Clean Energy Infrastructure team in New York and sits on both the CEI Investment Committee and Responsible Investment Committee. With over 20 years of energy and infrastructure finance experience, Benoit has become one of the industry’s leading originators. He is also responsible for investment strategy, execution and management. In 2019, Benoit led the acquisition of the Townsite Solar Project, one of the largest hybrid renewable energy plants in the world that will service fixed-volume PPAs, a transaction which was awarded the S&P Global Platts Financial Energy Deal of the Year. Additional noteworthy transactions include Eland, the largest solar-plus-storage equity transaction in the United States; and Switch, the largest known behind-the-meter renewable energy project with a technology company. Benoit has also led the acquisition of four of the twenty largest solar projects in the United States. While Benoit covers all aspects of the CEI investment strategy, he is responsible for spearheading the platform’s proprietary PPA origination and energy structuring efforts.
Prior experience includes project development and financing positions at BlackRock-NTR, First Solar, General Electric and Compact Power. He has broad expertise across a range of renewables power generation technologies. Benoit has been with the CEI team since 2013. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from ESCE in France and a MBA from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University in the UK.
Benoit Allehaut
Managing Director, Capital Dynamics
Todd is Vice President, Corporate Relations – Canada & Americas based in Rio Tinto’s Washington, DC office. Todd has regional responsibility for external affairs in North and South America, and leads Corporate Relations for the Rio Tinto Aluminum business globally. Prior to joining Rio Tinto, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. He is a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle and studied at Birkbeck College at the University of London.
Todd Malan
Vice President Corporate Relations, Rio Tinto
Danny Youssef
Symposium Chair & Content DIrector
Energy & Environment Club
Connect with our speakers & join the conversation on Twitter!
#HBSEnergySymposium2020
Panels
Emerging Technologies
The cutting edge of energy and environmental solutions engineering.
Innovation Amongst Incumbents
The role of incumbent energy companies & preparing to survive and thrive through the energy transition.
Sustainability and the Circular Economy
Businesses & business models, from plant-based meat to corporate sustainability.
Sustainable Cities
The progress that is required for urbanization, transportation, and the future of the grid.
Investing in Energy and Environment
Investing across the value chain, from infrastructure private equity to energy venture capital and more.
Energy Policy and Markets
Policy levers for the energy transition, a green pandemic recovery, and how COVID-19 has altered the energy landscape.
