Speakers at the Summit
Innovators
Neha Palmer
Neha Palmer is the CEO of TeraWatt Infrastructure, bringing over two decades of leadership experience in the energy industry. Most recently, she led energy strategy for Google’s global data centers.
As the first hire focused on data center energy, Neha built out and led the team developing electric infrastructure and electricity procurement for the global fleet, covering dozens of sites over four continents.
Dr. Leslie Dewan
Dr. Leslie Dewan develops technology to build the supply chain for advanced nuclear reactors. Leslie received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT, as well as S.B. degrees from MIT in mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering. Previously, she was the CEO of Transatomic Power.
Leslie has been named an MIT Technology Review "Innovator Under 35," a National Geographic Explorer, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Marcus Lehman
Marcus Lehmann, PhD, MBA, is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of CalWave.
CalWave's technology is based on research conducted at UC Berkeley, developing “a game-changing next generation and patent pending Wave Energy Converter to harness the vastly available, predictable and stable energy from ocean waves, to serve coastal communities.”
Tor Gunnar Hovig
Tor Gunnar Hovig is Senior Vice President of Sales Americas for Corvus Energy:
“the world's leading supplier of safe, innovative and reliable energy storage solutions for all segments in the maritime industry.”
Corvus Energy offers Energy Storage Systems suitable for various vessel types, providing energy storage in the form of modular lithium-ion battery systems
Ben Serrurier
Ben Serrurier spearheads Government Affairs and Policy for Fervo.
Fervo is “Deploying next-generation geothermal technology to produce clean energy that is affordable, reliable and always available.”
Kristina Hagström Ilievska
Kristina is in charge of Baseload’s marketing and communications. She has more than 10 years of experience in strategic marketing and communications as well as in sales and change management. Baseload is devoted to the development of renewable geothermal energy: They are the largest owner of geothermal-producing land in Northern California.
David Tyler
David Tyler is a co-founder and board member of Artemis Technologies, a global leader in transformative clean maritime solutions based in Belfast, UK.
David was instrumental in the creation of the Belfast Maritime Consortium, led by Artemis Technologies, including securing of a £33m grant from UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund to develop the company’s transformative eFoiler® technology and launch the world’s first 100% electric foiling passenger ferry.
Tracey Osborne
Tracey Osborne is Associate Professor and endowed Presidential Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department and the Management of Innovation, Sustainability and Technology (MIST) Program at UC Merced.
Her research focuses on the social and political economic dimensions of climate change mitigation in tropical forests and the role of Indigenous Peoples, the politics of climate finance (with particular emphasis on carbon markets), global environmental governance, and climate equity and justice.
Anastasija Kuprijanova
As the Director of Maritime Business Development at Amogy, Anastasija Kuprijanova is leading efforts to drive the widespread adoption of ammonia as a revolutionary alternative fuel in the maritime industry. Previously, as the Director of Business Development for Hornblower Group, Anastasija played a pivotal role in successfully launching the NYC Ferry. Anastasija is a graduate of the California Maritime Academy.
Adam Gromis
Based in San Francisco, Adam Gromis is the global lead on sustainability, electrification and environmental impact at Uber.
Sustainability and cross-disciplinary engagement are running themes through his work experience. Prior to joining Uber, Adam worked helping investors build impact investing portfolios at Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, Imprint Capital, and at the Global Impact Investing Network (a research and advocacy nonprofit).
Pace Ralli
Pace Ralli is Co-Founder of Clean Marine Energy®. After receiving his MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 2009, Pace moved into energy efficiency and natural gas at PG&E. He became Principal at SCIenergy and helped launch the Energy Efficiency Catalyst Fund, financing large building retrofits, unlocking large-scale emissions reductions in commercial real estate..
Bryant Jones
Bryant Jones is the Executive Director of Geothermal Rising.
Bryant has 15 years of policy experience at federal, state, and local levels of government. He served in roles at the White House Office of Management, U.S. Department of State, on Capitol Hill, and is a National Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project.
Dr. Ghazal Izadi
CCO of XGS Energy, Dr. Ghazal Izadi manages XGS’s day-to-day operations, driving technology development and helping to execute strategies to bring 24/7, low-cost geothermal energy to more places around the globe—including water-scarce regions. Her initial focus is to accelerate deployment of XGS’s scalable, no-water, carbon-free, and closed-loop heat-harvesting technology.
Paul Thomsen
VP of Business Development for Ormat Technologies, Paul Thomsen previously served as Commissioner and Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, Director of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy, and Director of Policy and Business Development for Ormat. He’s advocated for meaningful energy policy as President of the Board, Geothermal Energy Association and as Chairman of the United States Clean Heat and Power Association.
Ben Nowack
Ben Nowack is CEO of Reflect Orbital. Previously, he led eled automated hardware projects for validating Crew Dragon propulsion components at SpaceX. Ben then took positions as senior engineer at Park and Diamond, Director of Engineering at Tri-D Dynamics, and as a lead engineer at Zipline®. After receiving his MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 2009, Pace moved into energy efficiency and natural gas at PG&E.
Andrew Mack
Andrew Mack is Senior Vice President, Development, Strategy and Permitting for Brightline West, leading the regulatory approval and entitlement process for Brightline West. Prior to his current role, Andrew served as the Chief Operating Officer of DesertXpress Enterprises until its acquisition in 2019. Prior to his work on Brightline West, Andrew was an associate with Booz Allen & Hamilton, a global leader in strategy and technology consulting.
Jason Kelly Johnson
Futureforms is an award-winning art and design studio based in San Francisco since 2009.
Founders Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno have collaborated on a range of projects exploring the intersections of art and design with public space for over 20 years.
Jason is curating and moderating Panel “How To Cool Down a City” on Day One of the SF Summit.
Isaac Baumstark
Isaac Baumstark is the Founder of Poseidon, an aerospace company building highly innovative ground effect vehicles.
Poseidon vehicles, flying at low altitude during ocean transit for increased efficiency, increase payload capacity and decrease fuel consumption in coastal and international cargo transport. Poseidon is one of a family of young, innvovative companies being fostered by Sean Hoge and Starship Enterprises (SF).
Andreas Merkl
Andreas Merkl is the Co-founder of Centigrade, an open-data platform focuses on providing the fundamental data quality, availability, and transparency required for liquid, fair, and efficient carbon markets. He was formerly CEO and then President of the Ocean Conservancy, which educates and empowers citizens to take action on behalf of the ocean.
Previous to this, Andreas was the Director of Global Initatives for ClimateWorks Foundation.
Ajit Menon
Ajit Menon is the Vice President of Geothermal and Energy Transition at Baker Hughes.
Ajit previously held senior management positions in Operational, Sales, Marketing, Technical and Business Management in multiple locations for Baker Hughes for the past twenty years.
He will be taking part in the “Geothermal Rising” panel at the June Summit in San Francisco.
Ao Zhang
Ao Zhang is a Policy and Communications specialist who provides Offshore Wind Business Development for Principle Power, a leading global technology and services provider for the floating offshore wind energy market.
Ao develops and manage relationships with key clients, and supplies chain partners of the offshore wind industry in the APAC region
Virginia San Fratello
Virginia San Fratello is an educator, designer and creative technologist. She is the Chair of the Department of Design at San Jose State University in Silicon Valley, an International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Educator of the Year recipient., and and co-founder of Rael San Fratello design studio.
She has served in the role of Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Arkansas and The University of Queensland.
Kristen DiStefano
Kristen DiStefano is Associate Director of the SF office for Atelier Ten. Kristen provides big-picture guidance for large scale master plans and detailed analysis. Kristen has successfully led ambitious and complex projects including the new Nvidia campus in Santa Clara, CA and the San Francisco Giants’ Mission Rock Development. She’s currently working with the California College of the Arts in San Francisco to develop a carbon neutral unified campus.
Willett Moss
Willett Moss is a Founding Partner of CMG Landscape Architecture in San Francisco, and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
Willett leads CMG’s largest urban design and campus planning efforts at the firm, including San Francisco Civic Center Vision Plan and UC Berkeley Lower Sproul Plaza.
Ralph Chami
Ralph Chami is CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Green Future and Co-founder of Rebalance Earth. Ralph has pioneered rigorous means of valuing nature, an approach to protecting and restoring natural systems being adopted by corporations as way to meet carbon zero goals.
Ralph earned his Ph. D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University. He worked previously everal decades an an economist at the IMF.
Professor Chami is Resident Economist for the Energy Innovators Network.
Nora Hennings
Nora Barr Hennings has a strong background in business development and strategic planning, with experience in the energy and commodities industries. Nora has held various leadership roles at NextEra Energy Resources and Sunrun, where Nora has excelled in creating new partnerships, developing market strategies, and managing nationwide projects. Nora holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a BA in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University.
Jerome Gregeois
Jerome Gregeois has worked for 3 world class car manufacturers in the US and EU and is now the Director, Commercial Vehicle Deployment, Hyundai North America. Hyundai North America is producing the XCIENT fuel cell electric truck (FCET) that has 30 trucks deployed at the Port of Oakland, the largest FCET deployment to-date in the US
Yury Maximov
Yury Maximov is Technical Lead and General Manager at ZeroAvia, a British/American hydrogen-electric aircraft developer founded in 2017. ZeroAvia has been ranked the No.1 Greentech Company by TIME Magazine.
Brad Detjen
Brad Detjen is "Planning the distribution grid for the electrified future." He supports community energy resiliency projects in NorCal for PG&E.
Avery Barnebey
Avery Barnebey is Chief Financial Officer at Element Resources, a hydrogen production company based in California that is developing multiple production sites.
Policymakers
Gia Vacin
Gia Brazil Vacin serves as Assistant Deputy Director, Zero-emission Vehicle (ZEV) Market Development at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). She focuses on accelerating the ZEV market in pursuit of California’s goals for 100% ZEV’s by coordinating state efforts, collaborating with public and private partners, tracking and expediting ZEV infrastructure in Ca., and identifying opportunities for business engagement and growth.
David Hochschild
David Hochschild, Chair of the California Energy Commission, fills the environmental position on the five-member Commission. Chair Hochschild's career has spanned public service, environmental advocacy, and the private sector. In 2001, he served San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. For his work to advance clean energy, Chair Hochschild has been awarded the Sierra Club's Trailblazer Award, the American Lung Association's Clean Air Hero Award, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Million Solar Roof True Champion Award
Kurt Johnson
Kurt Johnson is the Community Energy Resilience Director of Calfornia-based non-profit The Climate Center.
He previously founded and directed a renewable energy project development consulting firm. Kurt was also founder of a hydropower trade association which lobbied successfully for regulatory reform before Congress and the Colorado legislature.
Tyrone Jue
Tyrone Jue was appointed Director of the San Francisco Environment Department (SF Environment) by Mayor London Breed in 2023. As director, Tyrone leads the City’s efforts to advance climate action, environmental justice, and sustainability policies. He is responsible for implementing the City’s ambitious 2021 Climate Action Plan, which aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 and enhance the City’s resilience, public health, economic recovery, and racial and social equity.
Darnell Grisby
Darnell Grisby serves as Commissioner at the California Transportation Commission. Appointed to the Commission by Governor Newsom in March 2021. Darnell is a national thought leader in transportation policy and the mobility justice movement.
He spent the previous nine years as Director of Policy Development and Research at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), where he helped to raise its profile and the impact of its advocacy.
Leuwam Tesfai
Leuwam Tesfai is the CPUC’s Deputy Executive Director for Energy and Climate Policy.
previously Leuwam served as Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma’s Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor, a position appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
At the CPUC, Leuwam has worked in several roles previously including:
Advisor to former Commissioner Liane Randolph; also in Legal, Energy and Law Divisions.
Debs Schrimmer
Debs Schrimmer is the Senior Advisor for Urban & Community Charging at the U.S. Joint Office of Energy & Transportation.
Debs believes in designing cities around people. To do this, she works at the intersection of technology, transportation, and policy.
Mark Rothleder
Mark Rothleder is the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), leading a cross-functional team including policy, planning, operations and technology.
As a member of the original ISO start-up team in 1997, he is now the longest serving ISO employee.
Lydia Krefta
Lydia Krefta is a Senior Manager on PG&E’s Clean Energy Transportation team, where she leads the Regulatory, Compliance and Pilots team. Her team focuses on transportation electrification (TE) strategy, regulatory and policy issues, new programs and pilots, and execution of residential TE programs.
She has also held roles within PG&E in Finance, Grid Integration and Innovation, Corporate Strategy and Gas Operations.
Gia Vacin
Gia Brazil Vacin serves as the Assistant Deputy Director, Zero-emission Vehicle (ZEV) Market Development at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). She focuses on accelerating the ZEV market in pursuit of California’s goal of 100% ZEVs by 2035 for light-duty and 2045 for heavy-duty vehicles by coordinating state efforts, collaborating with public and private partners, tracking and expediting ZEV infrastructure in CA, and identifying opportunities for additional business engagement and growth.
Investors
Scott Wu
Before being appointed Executive Director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) in 2019, Scott Wu spent decades as a banker, investor, entrepreneur, and public servant. He served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow and senior adviser to the innovation funds of USAID. A long-time Northern California resident, he hopes to leverage his experience to amplify the state’s economic growth.
Henk Both
Henk Both is a Director of Investments at Anzu Partners. He leads investments in early-stage industrial technology companies, with a focus on energy technologies, materials, and manufacturing processes.
Henk holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University. He is a Moderator at the Summit investment panels, and he has served on the Energy Innovation Summit Advisory Panel since 2023.
Sean Hoge
Sean Hoge is Founder and CEO of Starship Ventures, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, founded in 2017. He is the moderator for “Energy Frontiers” at the Energy Summit.
“For the past few years at Starship I have been implementing a thematic approach to investing called Ren Tech — short for Renaissance Technology — where ideas from the past are remixed and revisited today.”
Abhiram Kannan
Abhiram Kannan is an Associate for Energy Transition and Climate Tech investments at Bidra Innovation Ventures.
His background is in the sciences and in Lead/Follow-on Investing in mining, energy, water and agriculture. Abhiram worked with Anzu Partners as a Senior Analyst previous to his current position with Bidra.
Ryan Chou
Ryan Chou is Director of Investments with JetBlue Ventures (JBV), sourcing a range of technologies . JBV’s investments include companies that are pioneering use of sustainable aviation fuels. Also: co’s in the electric aviation space and in powering aviation with hydrogen. Prior to JBV, Ryan was a Director at Cryptic Labs and an Investment Manager at Fenox Venture Capital.
Zach Solomon
Zach Solomon is the Co-Head of Public Finance, leading Morgan Stanley’s investment banking franchise for the public and not-for-profit sectors nationally. Prior to his current role, Zach led the Morgan Stanley’s Tax-Exempt Project Finance and Sustainable Infrastructure Group and worked in the National Public Infrastructure group to finance infrastructure assets throughout the United States.
David Needell
David Needell, PhD , is a Senior Associate with Fine Structure Ventures (FCV) investing globally and often leading seed, Series A, and Series B rounds. David leads aerospace investments.
FCV specifically backs early-stage startups commercializing disruptive science in materials manufacturing, aerospace, synthetic biology, climate, and computing.
Brian DePonte
Brian DePonte is the Sr. Vice President of Innovative Markets for KEF Clean Energy. As the segment lead for both Energy and Water verticals, Brian DePonte leads efforts in Energy for Distributed Generation (Solar, CHP, Fuel Cells, Microgrid, and other alternative energy sources), Oil & Gas, and Energy Efficiencies, and in Water, including drilling and extraction, treatment, storage, metering, and wastewater treatment.
Darren Wolfberg
Darren Wolfberg is a finance professional with a diverse work history. Darren is currently the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Triangle Digital, who have developed a fintech platform for sustainability and infrastructure assets. Darren also serves on the Board at AiX, a natural language processor of execution services. Past positions include: COO and Head of Fintech (Baycrest Partners); co-founder, Digital Lending Capital Corp; Managing Director, BTIG; Managing Director and Head of Execution, BNP Paribas.
Martijn Dekker is a co-founder and partner of Aurivos, a diversified energy company and Chief Executive Officer of ZeroSix, provider of the digital solution for a new era of high-quality carbon credits.
Previously, Matijn developed Shell’s cross-business clean hydrogen strategy and carbon offset strategy, and led a refresh of Shell’s clean energy technology strategy.
Todd Olson
Todd Olson is the CSO of dClimate:
A “transparent, decentralized marketplace where climate data, forecasts, and models are standardized, monetized, and distributed. When data providers share data and forecasts with the market it is automatically scored for reliability, which helps consumers to shop for information. dClimate creates a simple, direct-to-consumer distribution mechanism to monetize their work.”
