Hill Heat

Welcome address on behalf of the co-hosts, Cleantech Leaders Climate Forum and the Department of Energy, covering the goals of the inaugural Demonstrate, Deploy and Decarbonize summit.

Jigar Shah was most recently co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing. Prior to Generate Capital, Shah founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing. After SunEdison, Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change. Originally from Illinois, Shah holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois-UC and an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park.

Jennifer M. Granholm was sworn in as the 16th Secretary of Energy on February 25, 2021.

What deployment means for the​ Department of Energy, what we’ve​ accomplished so far, and ambitions for​ the future.

Under Secretary for Infrastructure David Crane is a leading business voice in the field of sustainability, clean energy, and climate change. Prior to his confirmation as Under Secretary for Infrastructure he served as Director of DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. Outside of government, Crane was the CEO of Climate Real Impact Solutions and served on the Boards of Heliogen Inc, Source Global, JERA Co. Inc., and Tata Steel Ltd, along with the not-for-profit Boards of Elemental Excelerator and The Climate Group NA. He was also a part of The B Team, serving as a leader and chairing the organization’s Net Zero Initiative. Previously, Crane was CEO of NRG. During his 12-year tenure, he took NRG from Chapter 11 to a Fortune 200 company. Crane also led NRG to the forefront of next-generation clean energy development. Crane was named Energy Industry “CEO of the Year” by EnergyBiz in 2010, top CEO in the electric utility sector by Institutional Investor in 2011, and “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young in 2010. Crane is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Princeton University.

John Podesta is the Senior Advisor to President Biden for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation (OCEII) at the White House. He is the Founder and former Chair for the Washington, D.C- based think tank Center for American Progress and a Founder and former Chair of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Podesta served as counselor to President Barack Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. He was a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He chaired Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016. A Chicago native, Podesta is a graduate of Knox College and the Georgetown University Law Center, where he is currently a visiting professor of law.

Ritu Narayan
Zum
Founder and CEO

Gabe Klein
Department of Energy
Executive Director, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation

Patrick Bean is Director of Infrastructure Policy & Business Development at Tesla. Patrick oversees Tesla’s global charging and energy policy efforts, as well as utility engagement and infrastructure development for Tesla’s factories and facilities. In this role, he and his team participate in utility regulatory proceedings including grid planning, electricity market design, interconnection, and rate design proceedings. Patrick supports site evaluations and selections for major factory and facility developments, including leading utility rate, line extension, and economic development agreement negotiations. Prior to joining Tesla in 2015, he led a “Utilities of the Future” research program at a Saudi Arabia-based think tank, KAPSARC. Patrick began his career a strategic generation planner at Southern Company where he conducted economic analysis of which power plants to build, retire, retrofit with environmental controls, and fuel switch. He has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and policy from Marist College, and a master’s in energy & environment from The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

Ritu Narayan is the founder and CEO of Zum, a technology company modernizing student transportation. She has raised 200M+ from investors such as Sequoia and Softbank. An accomplished entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience as a tech industry leader, Narayan has been named one of Inc.’s Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs, recognized as one of Entrepreneur’s 100 Women of Influence, and received the 2023 Power of Women Award from Global Silicon Valley and Arizona State University. Before Zum, Narayan led product and teams at eBay, Yahoo, Oracle, Yahoo, and IBM. A Stanford University Graduate School of Business graduate, Narayan earned her computer science undergraduate degree at the Delhi Institute of Technology. She lives in San Carlos, California, with her husband and two children.

Gabe Klein is the executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Previously, he served as the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation and director of the Washington, D.C., District Department of Transportation, where he revamped technology platforms and government processes while focusing on putting people (versus cars) first on city streets. This included launching two of the first and largest solar-powered bikeshare systems in the country and building protected bike lanes and better pedestrian infrastructure for vulnerable citizens citywide, as well as facilitating private services like carshares and rideshares to support city mobility goals. He honed his creativity and leadership skills working in business as vice president at Zipcar and national director of stores at Bikes USA. He also co-founded CityFi, a consulting firm to help city leaders, chief executive officers, and others understand the complexities of 21st century challenges, facilitate people-centric solutions, and use new models and technology-based tools to deliver optimized results. Clients ranged from foreign governments to cities, states, start-ups, and publicly traded companies. In 2015, he published Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun. The book focuses on revamping how we innovate in cities and rethinking public-private partnerships as technology shapes a dramatically different future. He received a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business and an executive certificate in transportation/mobility management from The Wharton School. He also served on the 2020 Biden-Harris Agency Review Team for the U.S. Department of Transportation with a focus on innovation, including transportation electrification and program delivery.

Where the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office fits in enabling deployment of critical clean energy technologies, and introducing the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff effort led by the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions.

Jonah Wagner is the Chief Strategist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office, where he focuses on BIL and IRA implementation and defining pathways to scale for clean energy technologies. Prior to DOE, Mr. Wagner was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company in the public finance practice, and he worked for the New Zealand Treasury on infrastructure and environmental policy. He was also LATAM Regional Director and Global Head of Strategy for Delterra, a social enterprise focused on standing up municipal recycling systems, and led business development for Piramal Water LLC, a distributed infrastructure company in Gujarat, India. Mr. Wagner has an A.B. from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and he is based in Washington, D.C.

A spotlight on the Pathway to​ Commercial Liftoff for Clean Hydrogen.

Lucia Tian serves as Senior Advisor to the Department of Energy’s Chief Commercialization Officer, driving strategy, analysis, and private sector engagement to accelerate the commercialization of clean energy technologies, including leading the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff effort (liftoff.energy.gov) for the Office of Technology Transitions. Lucia has deep expertise in building and leading strategy & analytics functions across public, private, and non-profit organizations. She served as the first Chief Analytics Officer at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), bringing quantitative evidence to critical civil liberties cases, shaping voter engagement, and informing data and AI policies. As part of McKinsey’s Washington D.C. office, she helped build the consultancy’s public sector analytics practice, bringing modern data and analytics capabilities to government functions; while working with public and private sector leaders across defense, transportation, and infrastructure on their most pressing strategic and operational challenges. Lucia holds a dual B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and B.S. in Economics from MIT, and an M.A. in Economics from Harvard.

Betony Jones
Department of Energy
Director of Energy Jobs

A discussion on creating millions of​ high-quality jobs for the new clean​ energy workforce and ensuring the​ benefits are spread equally across society.

Austin Keyser serves as assistant to the international president for government affairs at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the largest energy union in the world. He has led the IBEW’s political outreach, legislative, and grassroots programs since 2017. A third generation IBEW member from Portsmouth, Ohio, Local 575, Mr. Keyser became one of the youngest business managers when he was elected at the age of 29. After a stint as the AFL-CIO’s Ohio director, then managing the Midwest for the federation, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he assumed his current role. His experiences stem from a diverse background rooted in labor, banking, politics, and public service. Mr. Keyser recently served as co-chair of the Biden Campaign’s Climate, Energy, and Environment Policy Committee.

Betony Jones is the Director of the Office of Energy Jobs, at the US Department of Energy where she advises the Secretary of Energy on labor and jobs issues and leads a team to ensure the historic investments of the Biden Invest in America Initiative result in high-quality jobs and economic inclusion. Jones began her career working on climate science in the White House Office of Science and Technology policy in the Clinton Administration, where she saw the complex economy-wide nature of climate change as both a challenge and an opportunity. From there, she spent 20 years directing implementation and conducting policy research to demonstrate the employment and economic opportunities associated with climate action, including as Associate Director of the Green Economy program at the University of California Labor Center and as Founder and CEO of Inclusive Economics, a national strategy firm working at the intersection of labor and clean energy. She has published dozens of papers and reports on these topics, and is a nationally recognized expert in labor-climate issues. Jones earned her Masters from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a B.S. degree from the University of Michigan.

Sendoff and plan for Deploy23​ Dialogues and Circuits, the interactive​ tracks of the conference.

Theresa Christian
Department of Energy
Market & Energy Analysis Director, Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations

Ramsey Fahs
Department of Energy

Joey Minervini
Global CCS Institute
Senior Consultant

Once-in-a-generation: Industrial CCS’ path from announcements to FID.

High intensity workshop, by invitation only.

Every decarbonization roadmap for the industrial sector features a central role for CCS. And though CCS deployment in the industrial sector has been limited to-date, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have created a policy environment where several types of CCS projects are commercially viable. Billions of projects in industrial CCS for steel, cement, ammonia, and other industries have already been announced, but the path from announcement to FID is long, as this sector has seen before. Industry and DOE leaders will discuss what it will take for industrial facilities to reach Final Investment Decision on CCS projects.

Erin Billeri supports the build-out of the CCS ecosystem in the Americas as quickly and cost effectively as possible by sharing expertise, building capacity and providing information, advocacy and advice. Erin brings broad energy expertise from her role as the Director of an energy portfolio at a media company, where she managed a global team to produce daily intelligence briefings for energy companies, as well as her M.A. from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, where she specialized in Russian and Eurasian energy and security issues. Her expertise extends to upstream oil and gas markets, power generation, energy efficiency, emerging energy technologies and carbon reduction initiatives.

Dr. Theresa Christian is the Market and Energy Analysis Director in the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. Prior to joining DOE, she worked at Exelon, serving most recently as Director of Technology and Innovation. Theresa earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2017 and previous degrees from MIT and the Swiss Federal Technical Institute (EPFL).

Joey Minervini is a geologist and Senior Consultant in Carbon Storage Technology with the Global CCS Institute, a not-for-profit, international climate change think tank whose mission is to accelerate the global deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The Institute is based in Melbourne, Australia, with offices in Washington, D.C., Houston, London, Brussels, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, and Tokyo. Joey is part of the Institute’s advocacy and commercial teams, which comprise experts across the full CCS value chain, including geoscience, engineering, finance and economics, and policy, legal, and regulatory disciplines. Joey contributes to the Institute’s thought leadership, advocacy efforts, and provides CCS consultancy services.

Katheryn Scott
Department of Energy
Senior Consultant (Contractor), Office of Technology Transitions

Mapping the landscape: Supply certainty and high operational costs for heat decarbonization.

High intensity workshop, by invitation only.

Heat sources account for a majority of Industrial emissions today. Multiple available technologies can reduce emissions (e.g., electrification, hydrogen, SMRs); however, they face common challenges to deployment across industries – particularly supply certainty and cost. With historic public sector support and planned projects, there is an opportunity to identify and share key information from early projects to address these concerns and accelerate heat decarbonization across industries. DOE, industrial, and technology leaders will discuss goals, early strategies, and best practices for upcoming projects and securing cost-competitive decarbonized heat in the near and long term.

Blaine Collison is the Executive Director of the Renewable Thermal Collaborative and Senior Vice-President at David Gardiner and Associates, a clean energy consulting firm in Arlington, VA. Blaine was previously the Managing Director of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships for Altenex and then Edison Energy, where he helped commercial, industrial and institutional energy users execute and communicate strategic renewable electricity procurements. From 2004 to 2014, Blaine lead the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership.

Katheryn Scott is a Senior Consultant – Contractor with the Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT). At OTT, and across DOE, Kate focuses on the opportunity and challenges of deploying clean energy technologies to support decarbonization goals. Her areas of focus include Industrial Decarbonization and Long Duration Energy Storage. Her work can be found at liftoff.energy.gov. Prior to joining OTT, Kate received a B.S. from MIT in Material Science and Engineering and a M.MSc.. in Global Affairs and Policy on a Schwarzman Scholarship, and she worked as a consultant at Bain & Company.

Avi Gopstein
Department of Energy
Senior Advisor, Grid Deployment Office

Lucia Tian
Department of Energy
Senior Advisor to Chief Commercialization Officer

Enabling foundational modernization investments in the distribution system (Day 1: Investment focus).

High intensity workshop, by invitation only.

Achieving a clean energy future requires modern grid infrastructure that can serve growing demand, integrate with new energy technologies, and withstand extreme weather events. This workshop will focus on modernized distribution technologies that can improve the capacity, reliability, resiliency, and flexibility of the existing system, with a particular focus on investment opportunities and challenges (e.g., capitalization approach, cost recovery plan). DOE and a diverse set of industry leaders will collaborate to identify investment strategies that support deployment of distribution grid modernization solutions in the next three to five years.

Sheri Givens serves as President and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), an educational nonprofit with over 1,100 members nationwide focused on actionable solutions to accelerate the transformation to a carbon-free energy system. She joined SEPA after serving as vice president of U.S. policy and regulatory strategy at National Grid. Prior to joining National Grid, she headed an independent consulting company providing energy advisory services. Sheri spent over ten years in public service as attorney for the Texas Legislature, Public Utility Commission of Texas, Texas Workforce Commission, and Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPUC). From 2009 to 2013, the Texas Governor appointed her to lead OPUC as the utility consumer advocate representing the state’s 20 million residential and small business electric and communications customers. She also served on the boards of both the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Texas Reliability Entity. She currently serves on multiple boards including Keystone Energy, RE+ Events, and Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships. She is a member of the U.S. DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee. She obtained her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her juris doctor from the University of Houston Law School.

Lauren Shwisberg
RMI / VP3
Principal

Carrie Zalewski

Paths to scale: Multi-stakeholder strategies for VPP.

High intensity workshop, by invitation only.

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are at an inflection point. Peak demand is growing for the first time in a decade, and this demand is more flexible than ever thanks to growth in EVs, connected appliances, and other behind-the-meter DERs. Moving beyond pilots and rapidly scaling VPPs will require repeatable approaches that work across jurisdictions. In this workshop, DOE leaders and a diverse group of participants (DER manufacturers and retailers, VPP operators, utilities, regulators, consumer advocates, and more) will identify near-term solutions that build deployment momentum and where the public and private sector can collaborate to achieve VPP liftoff.

Jen Dowling is a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office. Most recently, she led the development of DOE’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff for Virtual Power Plants (September publication). Prior to joining DOE, Jen was a Senior Manager at Bain & Company in the Sustainability and Strategy practice areas. She holds a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale and M.B.A from Harvard Business School where she was a Baker Scholar. Jen is based in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Lauren Shwisberg is a Principal in RMI’s Carbon-Free Electricity Practice, leading research, collaboration, and consulting projects to support the rapid transition to a low-carbon electricity system. Specifically, Lauren’s work examines the roles that renewable energy and distributed energy resources can play in grid planning and investment — leading engagements with utilities, public utility commissions, federal government agencies, technology companies, and diverse coalitions. She is an experienced facilitator for RMI’s Electricity Innovation Lab (e–Lab), an effort focused on collaborative innovation to address barriers to clean energy deployment. Prior to joining RMI, Lauren received her master’s degree from Stanford University in Civil and Environmental Engineering, focused on Atmosphere and Energy. Lauren was a fellow with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute and interned at Tesla. Before returning to graduate school, Lauren worked as a civilian for the United States Navy with Naval Sea Systems Command as a shipbuilding project manager and supporting energy and environmental policy at the Pentagon.

Carrie Zalewski is the Vice President of Transmission and Electricity Markets, where she advances clean energy through policies that ensure fair access to the electricity market. Previously, Carrie served as the Chair and Agency Head of the Illinois Public Utility Commission, where she brought her expertise as an energy attorney, engineering degree and over 15 years of experience in Environmental and Energy Regulation. She oversaw an agency of over 200 employees, consistently delivering balanced budgets and strong results leading the Commission through the first round of implementation of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Carrie was the founding Chair of NARUC’s Chair Council bringing together Commission Chairs from all 50 states to discuss timely topics. She served on the Board of Directors for the Organization of MISO States (2020-2022) and on the Board of the Organization of PJM States (2023). Carrie has been tapped by both Democratic and Republican administrations to serve in a variety of roles and take on increasingly challenging positions. She is a frequent speaker and participant in discussions in the energy and regulatory space. Carrie is currently an adjunct professor, teaching “Clean Energy Law” at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

Elizabeth Perera
Department of Energy
Senior Advisor

Kate Ringness
SmartBlock Consulting
Principal

Nikki Luke
U.S. Department of Energy
Energy Workforce Advisor

Amy Peterson
Department of Energy
Senior Advisor

Annie Hills
Department of State
Senior Advisor, Clean Energy

Madeline Reeves
White House Council on Environmental Quality
Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer

Narayan Subramanian
Department of Energy
Advisor to the Secretary, Clean Energy Projects and Supply Chains

Annie Hills currently serves as a Senior Advisor on Clean Energy & Innovation to the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry. In this position, Annie focuses on Industrial Decarbonization. She is the government lead for the First Movers Coalition, and a key voice on carbon management along with other energy transition-enabling technologies.

Narayan Subramanian serves as an Advisor to the Secretary of Energy for Clean Energy Projects and Supply Chains. He was most recently a Legal Advisor in DOE’s Office of General Counsel leading efforts-including co-chairing an “Innovative Funding Mechanisms” Working Group-to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to his service at DOE, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment at Berkeley Law leading a project tracking regulatory rollbacks and served as a Fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins University conducting research on national and sub-national clean energy policymaking. Subramanian holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an M.P.A. from the School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University, and a B.S. in Earth & Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.

Seth Hanlon
Department of Treasury
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax and Climate Policy

The Inflation Reduction Act created or expanded more than twenty tax incentives for clean energy technologies. These credits are poised to transform the US energy system, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, onshoring key supply chain components, and reducing consumer energy costs. Join representatives from the US Treasury and Department of Energy as they talk about the scope of these credits and the interagency effort to implement the credits as quickly and effectively as possible.

Steve Capanna is the Director of Technology Policy in the Department of Energy’s Office of Policy, where he oversees a portfolio focused on identifying technology innovations and strategies that will help achieve national energy and climate priorities. In this role, he also leads DOE’s engagement with Treasury and IRS on clean energy tax credit implementation. Prior to rejoining DOE in the fall of 2021, Capanna was Director of U.S. Climate Policy and Analysis at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where he led EDF’s innovation portfolio. He was previously at DOE from 2011 to 2019, where he was Director of Strategic Analysis in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Before joining the Department, he worked on energy efficiency policy and research at the Alliance to Save Energy. Capanna earned his M.A. in International Energy and Environmental Policy and Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Seth Hanlon serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax and Climate Policy in Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. He was previously a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress focusing on tax and economic policy. From 2015-2017, he served as special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council, where he coordinated the Obama administration’s tax policy. He has also served as senior tax counsel for the House Budget Committee Democratic staff and as tax counsel for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), a senior Finance Committee member. He was previously an associate attorney at Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered, where he advised corporations, individuals, and non-profit organizations on tax law.

William Dean serves as the Portfolio Risk Management Acting Director for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. To OCED he brings over a decade of experience in commercializing, financing, and investing in decarbonizing technology solutions across the energy and industrial sectors.

Dr. Krysta Dummit is a solar industry analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). She works with the Chief Scientist Paul Basore on solar supply chain, policy, and market analyses, including contributing to NREL’s Quarterly Solar Industry Updates, the Solar PV Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment, and the webinar Celebrating One Year of the IRA and What’s Next for the Solar Industry. She joined SETO in October 2021 as an ORISE Science and Technology Policy Fellow before becoming a contractor with Boston Government Services in January 2023. Prior to SETO, she worked as a graduate student researcher in the Radosevich lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she investigated a series of phosphorus molecules called phosphacycles. During her time at MIT, she was also involved in science advocacy through MIT’s Science Policy Initiative and science outreach through MIT’s Women in Chemistry group. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT, Dr. Dummit received her B.A. in chemistry from Princeton while working in the Chirik Lab researching cobalt catalysts. While there she also published in both yeast genomics and data privacy.

Daniel Shapiro is a Supply Chain Deployment Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), working with the private sector and other Federal agencies to scale-up and deploy the manufacturing infrastructure critical to the Nation’s energy supply. Prior to the DOE, Daniel worked for QuantumScape Battery and Fluence Energy working to launch the next generation of battery energy storage systems for customers around the globe. Throughout his career, Daniel has led people and projects to bring new, innovative product concepts to life. He has held positions of various levels in product engineering, manufacturing, and business strategy for large and small companies including Philips Electronics, Medtronic, Volkswagen, and Ford Motor Company. In addition to his industry experience, Daniel also supported teaching digital operations management at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Steve Capanna
Department of Energy
Director of Technology Policy

Richard Tusing
NREL
Senior Advisor

Jim Ahlgrimm started his career in energy as a nuclear power plant supervisor, serving onboard a U.S. Navy Submarine. Jim has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy since 2002, with technology management responsibilities in both the wind and water power programs. Jim currently serves as the Acting Director of WETO. Jim has a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland, and a Master of Science degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Mr. Tusing is a Senior Advisor at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, supporting the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Wind Energy Technologies Office, since 2009. Mr. Tusing provides strategic planning, modeling and analysis, and technology innovation project management services. Mr. Tusing was previously the owner of Tusing Consulting Services providing intellectual property, business development and strategic investment services. Mr. Tusing’s experience also includes positions as Finance Director, Mergers and Acquisitions Director and IT Director for MCI Telecommunications Services.

Jatin Khanna
Department of Energy
Outreach and Business Development, Loan Programs Office

Gawain Lau
Department of Energy

David Oster
Department of Energy

Hernan Cortes leads the DOE’s Loan Programs Office Origination Division. Mr. Cortes brings the perspective of having worked in loan underwriting and portfolio management with the Loan Programs Office since The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2010, having worked on every loan that LPO has closed. Mr. Cortes began his career with Edison Mission Energy in finance, supporting project development and ultimately serving as Corporate Finance Director leading corporate and project finance transactions for the global energy company.

Jatin currently leads outreach and business development for renewable energy and critical minerals at the DOE Loan Programs Office. He came to the DOE with 7+ years experience in the renewable energy space, working in roles across engineering, technical sales, business development, and marketing.

Gawain joined the LPO Technical and Environmental Division as a deputy sector lead in June 2023, responsible for a team of engineers supporting projects from application intake and diligence to construction and operations monitoring. His professional background includes 10 years of engineering, operations, and project roles at ExxonMobil and Monolith in refining and chemicals facilities across Montana, Texas, and Nebraska. Gawain earned his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dave Oster is a member of the Technical and Environmental Division and manages the National Environmental Policy Act compliance process for renewable energy projects. He has over 7 years of experience working on environmental issues for major federal projects. He worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before coming to LPO in 2021.

Paul Browning
Energy Transition Finance
Founding Partner

Philip Kangas
Loan Programs Office, Department of Energy
Director, Outreach & Business Development Division

Taite McDonald
Holland & Knight
Partner

Sydney Bopp is Managing Partner at Boundary Stone Partners. Immediately prior, she served as Chief of Staff to Director Jigar Shah at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO). She focused on implementing improvements that led to the Department’s first renewable energy loan guarantee being issued in a decade and three conditional loans announced within the first 18-months of the Biden administration. Sydney also served as part of DOE’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Core Implementation Team, where she led efforts in establishing the new $20 billion Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). Sydney’s experience spans the nonprofit, private, and public sectors. She served at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, U.S. Department of Transportation, and spent nearly a decade at the Energy Department. Previously, Sydney was the Associate Director of Technology Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where she focused on carbon dioxide removal policy. She was also a consultant with Holland & Knight in D.C. Sydney was a 2011 Presidential Management Fellow and is a recipient of the Secretary’s Appreciation Award. She holds an M.A. from Northeastern University and a B.A. from the University of Delaware.

Phil Kangas is the Director of Outreach and Business Development for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO). He leads LPO’s business development activities to engage with potential applicants and help borrowers move through pre-application consultations and the application process. His team is managing more than 100 active applications for nearly $100 billion in loans across a variety of clean energy and advanced transportation sectors. Prior to joining DOE, Phil spent 25 years in the private sector as a management consultant, including a 20+ year career at Grant Thornton LLP where he led the firm’s National Energy Advisory practice for Natural Resources, Mining & Renewable Energy clients. He also led the Federal sciences portfolio, including work delivered at the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He holds professional certifications as a Project Management Professional, Certified Government Financial Manager and Six Sigma Green Belt. Phil earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from John Carroll University and a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Taite R. McDonald is an attorney in Holland & Knight’s Washington, D.C., office and a member of the firm’s Public Policy & Regulation Group. Ms. McDonald focuses her practice at the intersection of innovation and government. She is especially well versed in running complex, cross-government matters with intricate legal, policy and financing components. Ms. McDonald’s is highly knowledgeable in several areas, including energy technology commercialization, federal energy procurement, biofuels, cannabis, hemp, innovative U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracting, and government grants and loan guarantees. Ms. McDonald provides counsel to companies of all sizes, from early stage startups to Fortune 100 companies and large utilities. She has successfully represented clients in obtaining government contracts, non-dilutive funding in excess of $1.25 billion, loan guarantees and conditional commitments in excess of $2 billion, and achieving complex policy and legislative objectives. Ms. McDonald regularly plays a pivotal role in assisting clients to overcome gating obstacles and achieve new and innovative legislative objectives for emerging markets and technologies by forging key partnerships with federal agencies, industry, trade groups and other government-facing bodies.

Department of Energy stewardship of​ the clean energy ‘technology​ commercialization continuum.’

Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan is the Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions. In this role she is responsible for driving private sector uptake of clean energy technologies as the steward of commercialization activities across DOE, the 17 National Laboratories, and the Department’s other research and production facilities across the country. She is an innovator who has worked across a wide range of ecosystems, from academia to Fortune 1000 companies to startups. She has two decades of experience helping organizations grow at the interface of technology and business, across a diverse set of industries. Chan is currently on a leave of absence from her position as Undergraduate Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering department and the Jonathan and Linda Brassington Professor of Practice in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. At Penn she was redesigning how engineers are being educated by formally incorporating real world skills (understanding of supply chains & ecosystems, presentation skills, etc.) to better prepare her students to have an impact when they graduate. She is a former McKinsey & Company partner, experienced Venture Board Director for Vanguard and United

JB Straubel
Redwood Materials
CEO

Jigar Shah
Department of Energy
Director, Loan Programs Office

A discussion on lessons learned from​ scaling emerging clean energy​ technologies and the role of​ public-private collaboration.

JB Straubel is the Founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, a company creating a circular supply chain to drive down the environmental footprint and cost of lithium-ion batteries by producing domestic battery components from recycled content. Prior to founding Redwood, JB Co-founded Tesla and spent 15 years as Chief Technology Officer and currently serves on Tesla’s Board of Directors. As CTO at Tesla, JB built one of the best engineering teams in the world, and among many topics, led cell design, supply chain and led the first Gigafactory concept through the production ramp of the Model 3. JB had a direct role in both R&D, team building and operational expansion from prototype cars through to mass production and GWh-scale. JB holds a Bachelor of Science in Energy Systems Engineering and a Master of Science in Energy Engineering from Stanford University.

A spotlight on the Pathway to​ Commercial Liftoff for Industrial Decarbonization.

Alan Schwartz
Guggenheim Partners
Executive Chairman

Brian Deese
MIT
Innovation Fellow

A discussion on the constraints and​ opportunities facing investors and​ lenders today in clean energy and​ decarbonization projects.

Saloni Multani has spent 20 years working with, learning from, and investing in growing companies. In recent years, she has focused her efforts on companies and causes aligned with combating climate change, most recently serving as the Chief Financial Officer of the Joe Biden presidential campaign and working to support the administration’s climate efforts. Prior to her work on the campaign, Saloni was a Venture Partner at Congruent Ventures, an early-stage venture firm focused on the sustainability ecosystem; she also worked with Three Cairns Group, a NY-based family office, to help develop and execute a mission-aligned venture investment strategy oriented around climate. Saloni has previously held investment roles at SPO Partners, a long-only investment manager where she was a Partner; Hellman & Friedman, where she was a Director; and Blackstone, where she began her career as a private equity analyst. Saloni has served on the boards of Vertafore, Goodman Global, Trove Recommerce, and Thrilling, Inc. She currently sits on the board of Artisan Partners, an investment management firm. Saloni graduated with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Mr. Schwartz joined Guggenheim Partners, which is a global, independent and privately held financial services firm in June, 2009. Mr. Schwartz is the former chief executive officer of The Bear Stearns Companies. During his career with Bear Stearns, he served as president and chief operating officer, as executive vice president and head of investment banking, and in other financial management positions. He previously worked in various capacities with Wertheim & Company and R.W. Pressprich & Company. He earned a B.A. in management science from Duke in 1972. He was a member of the Duke Board of Trustees from 2005 until 2017, has served as chairman of the Fuqua School of Business Board of Visitors and as a member of the Athletic Advisory Board. Mr. Schwartz is a member of the boards of the Robin Hood Foundation, Marvin and Palmer, NYU Langone Medical Center, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Madison Square Garden and Nat’l Medal of Honor Museum. Mr. Schwartz is married and has five children.

Brian Deese is the current MIT Innovation Fellow, focused on researching and developing strategies to address climate change and promote sustainable economic growth. As the former Director of the White House National Economic Council, Deese advised President Biden on domestic and international economic policy and coordinated the economic agenda of the Biden‐Harris Administration. A former senior advisor to President Obama, Deese was instrumental in engineering the rescue of the U.S. auto industry and negotiating the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Deese is a crisis‐tested advisor with broad experience in accelerating economic prosperity, empowering working Americans, and harnessing the economic opportunities that come from building a clean energy economy and combating the climate crisis. Previously, Deese also served as the global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock, where he worked to drive greater focus on climate and sustainability risk in investment portfolios and create investment strategies to help accelerate the low‐carbon transition. During the Obama‐Biden Administration, Deese served as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and deputy director of the National Economic Council. Deese received his B.A. from Middlebury College and his JD from Yale Law School.

Jigar Shah
Department of Energy
Director, Loan Programs Office

Day 1 wrap-up, dinner topics, and what to plan for day 2.