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Conference Keynotes and Plenary Speakers


Keynote Presentation: New Estimates of Global and Local Damages from Climate Change

Michael Greenstone - Monday, November 6 at 12:15 pm

Michael Greenstone

Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics
University of Chicago

Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics as well as the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He previously served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a Carnegie Fellow (aka the “Brainy Award”), and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Formerly, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT and directed The Hamilton Project.


Plenary Presentations

 

Monday, November 6

8:50 am

Helen Currie

Helen Currie
Chief Economist
Conoco Phillips

The State of Energy Economics

 

ConocoPhillips' Chief Economist Helen Currie oversees long range planning, strategic initiatives and scenarios and advises on investment and public policy issues. With over 25 years of experience in business, government and academia, Currie brings valuable perspectives to corporate planning and strategy. Prior leadership roles in energy include BD/M&A strategy, upstream and downstream business analysis, commercial risk management and markets analysis. Before joining the energy industry, Currie held roles in academia as a finance professor and in government as an economic analyst. She has published work in finance and management journals and energy industry research. Dr. Currie is a frequent speaker at industry venues and guest university lecturer. She is a member of the Mississippi State University Foundation Board of Directors and College of Business Executive Advisory Board as well as the University of Texas Energy Institute Executive Advisory Board. She was named as one of Oil & Gas Investor’s Top 25 Influential Women in Energy in 2018.

9:00 am

Corporate Approaches to Getting to Net Zero

Sam Arnold

Sam Arnold
COO
CarbonPath

Sam Arnold is Co-Founder and COO of CarbonPath.     He earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois and started his career as an engineer with ExxonMobil.   He obtained his MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans and then began his career on Wall Street.   He was a sell side analyst at Credit Suisse focusing on the pipeline sector before his buy side career.   He was the portfolio manager for Brookfield’s Global Listed Infrastructure products and an Energy portfolio manager at Citadel before launching CarbonPath.  

Sasha Duchnowski

Sasha Duchnowski
Partner
Bain & Company

Sasha Duchnowski is a partner in Bain’s Chicago office and a member of Bain & Company’s Energy & Natural Resources, Sustainability & Responsibility (ESG) and Strategy practices.

Since joining Bain in 2004, Sasha has honed deep expertise across the energy & natural resources sphere, especially within agriculture. He has advised clients on such topics as food system sustainability, including nature positive and decarbonization strategies, chemicals, including decarbonization and plastics circularity, animal nutrition and protein production, crop production & distribution, fertilizers and food processing.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, as well as a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

 

Anne Munaretto

Anne Munaretto
Partner
Ernst & Young

 Anne is a Partner in EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice. She has more than a decade of experience providing clients with advisory services relating to sustainability strategy, performance and reporting as well as climate change risk assessments, greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and decarbonization. She supports clients in a variety of sectors, with a focus on manufacturing, mobility and chemicals.

 Anne designs and implements sustainability programs. She engages with internal and external stakeholders to assess materiality, to develop corporate ESG strategies and to activate those strategies through implementation plans, including developing goals, programs and metrics. Anne leads climate-related projects, assisting clients to set climate goals, calculating GHG emissions, developing detailed decarbonization transition plans and supporting clients to implement those plans.

 Anne is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in Illinois.

Martha Moore

Martha Moore
Chief Economist
American Chemistry Council

Martha Gilchrist Moore is the Chief Economist and Managing Director for Economics and Statistics at the American Chemistry Council. Ms. Moore analyzes the impact of various policy initiatives and energy trends on the chemical industry. In addition, she produces forecasts for the economy and chemical industry. She also directs the Council's research on the direct and indirect economic contributions of the business of chemistry and the benefits to consumers. Ms. Moore has worked on chemical industry issues for more than 25 years and is an authority on the market dynamics for the chemical industry and its end-use customer industries. Ms. Moore holds a master's degree in economics from Indiana University and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the National Association for Business Economics and the US Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) and serves on the board of the National Capital Area Chapter of USAEE.

 

Michael Cohen

     Moderator: Michael Cohen
Chief US Economist
BP International

Michael Cohen is Chief US Economist and Head of Oil and Refining in bp’s Strategy and Sustainability group. In this role, he is responsible for short, medium, and long term oil market and US policy analysis that informs bp’s Leadership Team, the bp Energy Outlook, and the Statistical Review.

 

3:15 pm

Trade Winds of Change: Unraveling the Global Trade and Geopolitical Implications of Clean Energy Transition

Mark Linscott

Mark Linscott
Senior Advisor
The Asia Group

Mark Linscott is a Senior Advisor with The Asia Group, where he works closely with clients on trade and investment priorities across South Asia. He also serves as a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center.

Previously, Mark was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asian Affairs from December 2016 to December 2018. He was the U.S. government lead in developing trade policy with the countries in South and Central Asia and led efforts in the bilateral Trade Policy Forum with India and in Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with Central Asia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Mark served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for World Trade Organization (WTO) and Multilateral Affairs from 2012 to 2016 with responsibility for coordinating U.S. trade policies in the WTO. Mark also represented the United States in trade meetings of the Group of Twenty (G-20) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Karen Elizabeth

Karen E. Young
Senior Research Scholar
Columbia University

Dr. Karen E. Young is a political economist focusing on the Gulf, the broader MENA region and the intersection of energy, finance, and security. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy. She was the founding director of the Program on Economics and Energy at the Middle East Institute, where she remains a non-resident senior fellow. She was a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and has been a professorial lecturer at George Washington University, teaching courses on the international relations of the Middle East. She regularly teaches at the US Dept of State Foreign Service Institute. Earlier, she was Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute and a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Middle East Centre. and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the American University of Sharjah.

Her second book, The Economic Statecraft of the Gulf Arab States: Deploying Aid, Investment and Development Across MENAP, was published at the end of 2022 with IB Tauris/Bloomsbury. Her first book, The Political Economy of Energy, Finance, and Security in the United Arab Emirates: Between the Majilis and the Market, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.

David Weisbach 4
David Weisbach
Walter J. Blum Professor of Law
University of Chicago

David Weisbach received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1985; a Masters in Advance Study (Mathematics) from Wolfson College, Cambridge in 1986; and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1989. After graduating from law school, Weisbach clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and worked as an associate in the law firm of Miller & Chevalier. In 1992, Weisbach joined the Department of Treasury where he worked as an attorney-advisor in the Office of the Tax Legislative Counsel and, subsequently, as associate tax legislative counsel. In 1996, Weisbach was appointed Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law Center and joined the Chicago faculty in 1998. He is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago Computation Institute and Argonne National Laboratories and an International Research Fellow at the Said School of Business, Oxford University. Weisbach is primarily interested in issues relating to federal taxation and to climate change.

Stuart Levenbach

Moderator: Stuart Levenbach
Executive - Global Policy & Funding Solutions
Baker Hughes

 

Stuart Levenbach began his career studying kelp forests and now leads a global team of policy and funding experts at Baker Hughes. He has over 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors, including 15 years in the US federal government. He is passionate about natural resource policy and believes that we need to deploy the full toolkit of approaches to bring people together around pragmatic solutions to conserve the natural world and be more sustainable. He is a frequent speaker and writer on natural resource policy, and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic.

 

3:15 pm

Electricity Price Formation Challenges for a Grid in Transition

Scott Harvey Moderator

Moderator: 
Scott Harvey
Senior Advisor
FTI Consulting

Scott Harvey is a consultant with over 30 years of experience in the electricity and oil and gas industries. He has a PhD in Economics from UC Berkeley and has held positions at FTI Consulting, LECG, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc., and the Federal Trade Commission. He is an expert in market design and performance, antitrust analysis, and mergers and acquisitions. He has consulted on a variety of projects for organizations such as the New York ISO, California ISO, Midwest ISO, ISO New England, PJM, and the Ontario IESO. He is a member of the Midwest ISO's market advisory committee and the California ISO's market surveillance committee.

Doying

Richard Doying
Vice President
Grid Strategies LLC

Richard Doying is Vice President at Grid Strategies LLC, a power sector consulting firm helping clients understand the opportunities and barriers to integrating clean energy into the electric grid. Prior to joining Grid Strategies, Richard was at the Midcontinent ISO for twenty years (2002-2022) where he held several positions leading design, implementation and operations of MISO markets and reliability functions.  Most recently, he served as MISO Executive Vice President of Market and Grid Strategies, where he led the evaluation of emerging industry trends and the creation of a strategic roadmap to enhance MISO’s markets and reliability operations to facilitate power sector decarbonization. 

Prior to joining MISO, he was Director of Strategy and New Initiatives at PG&E National Energy Group (1997-2002), and a Project Manager at ICF Resources (1993-1997).  He has been a member and chairman of the Board of Directors of the NERC Midwest Reliability Organization, and an advisory board member for the Indiana University, Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy. Richard holds a BA in Geography from the University of California Los Angeles and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota. 

Shaun Johnson

Shaun Johnson
Director of Market Design
NYISO

Shaun Johnson has been working in the energy industry for over 20 years. Shaun rejoined the NYISO as the Director of Market Mitigation and Analysis in 2014; responsible for implementing the NYISO’s market mitigation measures and working collaboratively with the NYISO’s external Market Monitoring Unit. Most recently Shaun has taken the position of Director of Market Design with the NYISO; responsible for leading the initiatives to help NYISO’s markets harmonize with the grid of the future.

Dave MaggioDave Maggio
Principal, Market Design & Analytics
ERCOT

Dave Maggio has been an employee with the ERCOT ISO since 2007 and is currently the Principal, Market Design and Analytics.  His group is primarily responsible for evaluating ERCOT wholesale electricity market trends and design changes, supporting the delivery of changes to the market design, and validating day-to-day wholesale market outcomes.  In recent years, he has focused on developing policies and rules for the implementation of real-time co-optimization of energy and ancillary services and the integration of energy storage resources.  His principal duties at ERCOT have also included the evaluation of reserve requirements for the ERCOT region, the integration of intermittent renewable resources, the operation and analysis of the congestion revenue rights market, and systems and rules development for the ERCOT nodal market.  He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

Becky RobinsonBecky Robinson Principal Economist California ISO

Becky Robinson is the Principal Economist and Director of Market Strategy and Governance at the California ISO.  Prior to that, from 2019 to 2022, she was a Senior Director of Market Policy at Vistra Corp., where she covered PJM regulatory policy and was elected as the Vice Chair of the PJM Members Committee.  From 2010 to 2019, she was an Economist at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, including advising Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur from 2015-2018.  She began her career in 2008 in economic consulting at LECG.  She holds an MA in Economics from Cambridge University, and graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy from Williams College.


Tuesday, November 7 

9:00 am

Decarbonizing Power Generation and Beyond: Recent Trends and Future Prospects

Michael Plante

    Moderator:  Michael Plante  Senior Research Economist & Advisor Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Michael Plante is a Senior Research Economist and Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. His academic research looks at topics related to oil markets, monetary policy and the macroeconomy.

Mr. Plante’s policy work at the Bank has primarily focused on oil and gas markets, although recently he has done work on topics related to the energy transition, particularly battery technology. He is also heavily involved with the Dallas Fed Energy Survey as its project manager.

Mark Bolinger

Mark Bolinger
Research Scientist, Electricity Markets Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Mark Bolinger is a Research Scientist in the Electricity Markets and Policy Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Mark conducts research and analysis on renewable energy, with a focus on cost, benefit, and market analysis as well as renewable energy policy analysis and assistance.

Since joining LBNL, Mark has authored or co-authored more than 150 reports and articles, including 16 articles published in seven different archival journals.  Mark regularly presents the findings of his work to national audiences, and in 2010 was invited to testify before the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives as part of a hearing on energy tax incentives.

Previously, Mark worked at Bridgewater Associates, Inc. developing and implementing investment and trading strategies in global credit and foreign exchange markets for portfolios of institutional clientele.

Mark holds a master's degree in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.

JulieKozeracki

Julie Kozeracki
Senior Advisor
US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office

Julie Kozeracki is a Senior Advisor in the US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, which has over $300B in loan authority for clean energy deployment. She leads the cross-DOE effort on Advanced Nuclear Pathways to Commercial Liftoff, a collaboration between LPO, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, the Office of Technology Transitions, and the Office of Nuclear Energy. Prior to DOE, she was a Principal with the Boston Consulting Group, where she was a leader in the firm’s federal and operations practices, advising private and public sector clients on topics ranging from uranium enrichment to regional economic development to negotiations with defense contractors. She holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania.

Wissmiller

Derek Wissmiller, PhD.
Director of Strategic Analytics

GTI Energy

Dr. Derek Wissmiller is the Director of Strategic Analytics at GTI Energy, a not-for-profit energy research and technology organization. In this role, he leads strategic management activities aimed at aligning GTI Energy’s business portfolio towards durable value creation and lasting impact. Derek has a diverse breadth of experience in building organizational capability, cultivating partnerships, leading teams, managing programs, and advancing energy technology solutions to market. 

9:00 am

Opportunities for Transportation Decarbonization

Kristin Dziczek

Kristin Dziczek
Policy Advisor
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

 

 

Kristin Dziczek is a policy advisor in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s research, policy, and public engagement division. Her research focuses on the economic impacts of the transition to low-carbon and automated transportation.

Dziczek served as the senior vice president of research at the non-profit Center for Automotive Research (CAR) from 2005-2022. Before that, she was the associate director of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center and worked for the U.S. Congress, International Union UAW, and General Motors Corporation.

Rahu ChatrathiRaghu Chatrathi

Senior Director of Environmental Systems
CSX

 

Chatrathi began his career in the rail industry working on environmental compliance and remediation projects. He later joined CSX as a remediation manager, focused first on real estate and then on the environmental group. Chatrathi has worked on “Rails-to-Trails” projects in 11 states and has guided his department through many other large-scale environmental projects, which include helping to negotiate with the Environmental Protection Agency to avoid a cost of more than $3 million by neutralizing soils on site and disposing them as non-hazardous waste. He also led CSX’s environmental team in upgrading their Environmental Management Information System (EMIS).

Rohini Sengupta

Rohini Sengupta
Director, Decarbonization
United Airlines 

Rohini has worked across industries as an environmental and climate change expert. As the Director of Decarbonization at United Airlines, Rohini leads a team that focuses on United’s long-term climate strategy and pathway to net-zero. Rohini is the lead for carbon technology and supply strategy to meet United’s climate goals through in-sector reductions, focusing on emerging technology solutions that need to be scaled to help solve the hardest part of the global ambition to decarbonize. As an expert on SAF and aviation climate policy, Rohini is a nominated expert on ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) Fuels Task Group, sits on Argonne National Laboratory’s SAF Industry Advisory Board, and engages with domestic and international industry associations. Before joining United, Rohini was an environmental and greenhouse gas specialist at BP, focusing on biofuels and hydroprocessing R&D and refinery greenhouse gas emissions. Rohini received her Bachelor of Science in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University in New York.

Beia Spiller

Beia Spiller
Fellow & Director
Resources for the Future

Beia Spiller is a fellow and the director for RFF's Transportation Program. Prior to joining RFF, she was Lead Senior Economist at Environmental Defense Fund, where she worked for almost a decade. She is also a Board member for the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Spiller is an energy economist, with experience working on electricity and transportation issues. During her time at EDF, she participated in many electric utility proceedings in NY and CA, with a goal of ushering in a cleaner, more efficient and equitable energy system. She also has many years of experience working in the transportation sector. Her more recent efforts have focused around electric vehicles and environmental justice, exploring some of the most pressing issues around electric car, truck and bus adoption. Her publications range across the energy space, with a large focus on identifying environmental, community and health impacts of renewable energy resources and energy policies.

 

 

 

Dan Bowerson
Dan Bowerson
Senior Director, Energy & Environment
Alliance for Automotive Innovation

Dan has been with Auto Innovators since its inception and was previously with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which he joined in 2018.  Based in the Auto Innovators Michigan office, Dan covers fuels and vehicle electrification topics, including fuel quality, low carbon fuels, EV battery lifecycle, and electric vehicle charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure.  Prior to joining the Alliance of Automobile Manufactures, he worked at all levels of the automotive industry from a supplier (Roush Industries) to an OEM (FCA) to a trade association (NGVAmerica).  He holds a M.S. in engineering management from University of Michigan-Dearborn and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Western Michigan University.

3:15 pm

Oil and Gas: Sowing the Seeds of the Next Super-Cycle?

Eric Lee

Eric Lee
Global Energy Strategist
Citi Commodities Research

Eric G. Lee is a global energy strategist on Citi’s Commodities Research team in New York, where he conducts research on global energy markets and the energy transition. He advises clients on global energy supply and demand fundamentals, commodity investing and hedging, the political economy of energy and natural resources, as well as ESG investing and sustainable finance, including climate policy and the energy transition, “greenflation”, renewables, energy storage, hydrogen, biofuels, oil and gas and carbon markets, carbon dioxide removal, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage.

Clients include investors, private bank clients, and corporate clients across a wide range of sectors with commodities, energy, and climate risk exposure. He has advised government agencies, think tanks, academics, and NGOs, and regularly contributes to media including Bloomberg, CNBC, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal.

Eric has a BSc in economics from the LSE, and an MA in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

 

Shawn Robinson 3

Shawn Robinson
Managing Director of Fundamentals

EQT


Shawn Robinson is the Managing Director of Fundamentals at EQT, North America’s largest producer of natural gas, where he has played a key role in developing a peer-leading fundamental research team focusing on global energy markets. Prior to his current role, Shawn was a key collaborator for numerous commercial functions at EQT and was frequently involved with strategic decisions. He has an MBA in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh and a BSBA from John Carroll University. He is a volunteer and past member of the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Board of Directors.

 Clay Siegle

Clay Seigle
Director of Global Oil Service
Rapidan Energy Group


Clay Seigle is Director of the Global Oil Service at Rapidan Energy Group, helping clients navigate opportunities and risks at the nexus of energy markets, governmental policy, and geopolitics.  He has previously held analytical and leadership roles at the US Department of Energy, Enron, IHS Markit, Maxar, Genscape, and Vortexa.

Clay has lectured on energy security at events hosted by The Atlantic Council, The International Energy Forum, The King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), The Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, S&P Platts, Thomson Reuters, and Argus.  He has been a commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN and has been published in Petroleum Economist

Clay is a past Vice President of USAEE and serves on the Board of Directors of the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations.

 

Amir Saman

Moderator:
Amir Zaman
Partner, Commercial Director Americas
Rystad Energy

 

Amir Zaman is a Partner at Rystad Energy and leads the organization’s commercial endeavors across the Americas. Based out of New York, Amir joined Rystad in 2015 and is chief responsible for the strategic direction of the company’s rapidly expanding footprint in the region, advocating for the industry, developing the growing Rystad team and aligning commercial strategies across the business. A third generation energy professional, prior to joining Rystad, Amir held various commercial roles in energy, with work in both the oil & gas and energy transition sides of the sector. Amir holds a BBA in International Management from Pace University and both an MS in Strategic Management and MBA from Indiana University.

3:15 pm

Economics of Critical Minerals

Juliet Akamboe

Juliet Akamboe
Critical Minerals Demand Researcher
Colorado School of Mines


Charles Sims
Charles Sims
Director, Center for Energy, Transportation & Environmental Policy
Baker School for Public Policy & Public Affairs

Juliet Akamboe is an experienced corporate & investment banking professional with more than 15 years across global markets, sales, and risk management. She recently graduated with a Master's in Mineral & Energy Economics from the Colorado School of Mines, where she is currently a Critical Minerals Demand Researcher. She works with the Payne Institute for Public Policy where she has been involved in research around sustainable finance, building ESG frameworks, critical minerals security partnerships, and shaping policy for a more sustainable future. She has been named one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining by Women in Mining (WIM) UK for her contributions to the industry and diversity.

 

 





Charles Sims is the Director of the Center for Energy, Transportation, and Environmental Policy at the Baker School for Public Policy and Public Affairs and an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville.  His research interests center on environmental and natural resource economics with a specific emphasis on the role of risk and uncertainty in natural resource, environmental, and energy policy.  Dr. Sims is also a Co-Editor at Resource and Energy Economics.

Ian Lange

Moderator:
Ian Lange
Director, Mineral & Energy Economics Program
Colorado School of Mines


Ian Lange is director of the Mineral and Energy Economics program at the Colorado School of Mines. Additionally, Ian serves as Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee Role of Metals Markets in Transitional Energy Subcommittee. He is a member of the Colorado Governor's Revenue Estimating Advisory Committee. Previously Ian has served as Senior Economist for Energy at the Council of Economic Advisors for both the Trump and Biden administrations as well as spending time at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wednesday, November 8

12:15 pm

Plenary Lunch -

Energy Storage Comes of Age: Rapid Development and Growing Pains

Eric Hittinger Professor of Public Policy Rochester Institute of Technology

Moderator: Eric Hittinger, Professor of Public Policy, Rochester Institute of Technology


Eric Hittinger holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, a MS in Macromolecular Science, and BS in Polymer Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Professor Hittinger has a background in electricity system policy, operation, and economics, with a focus on understanding the benefits and limitations of energy storage and renewable electricity sources. His research often uses techno-economic modeling of electricity systems to understand the effects of system policies and interactions.

Sue Babinec

Sue Babinec
Program Lead – Energy Storage
Argonne National Laboratory


Sue Babinec is the Program Lead – Stationary Storage at Argonne National Lab where she leads efforts ranging from new tools and capabilities to enhance existing technologies and breakthrough research for new approaches to long-duration energy storage goals. Babinec previously served six years in Washington DC as senior commercialization advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) where she co-managed the energy storage portfolio for both transportation and grid.  Prior to ARPA-E, she led several research groups focused on the design and scale-up of Li-ion technologies as a technical director for A123 Systems, Inc.  Babinec spent the first two decades of her career at The Dow Chemical Corp., where she was the Senior Electrochemist, a senior member of the Corporate VC group, was awarded the Inventor of the Year Award, and was the company’s first woman Corporate Fellow. She holds 50+ patents and has authored or co-authored dozens of journal articles and book chapters.

Jason Burwen

Jason Burwen
VP of Policy & Strategy
GridStor

Jason Burwen was previously Vice President of Energy Storage at the American Clean Power Association (ACP), as well as interim CEO and Vice President of Policy at the U.S. Energy Storage Association (ESA), where he built and directed the energy storage industry’s comprehensive federal, state, and regional market policy advocacy strategy from 2015 to 2023. His advocacy directly shaped the energy storage federal investment tax credit in the Inflation Reduction Act; the directives of FERC Order 841; several state deployment targets; capacity accreditation reforms in PJM; and other laws and regulations pertaining to energy storage. He has been cited as an expert on energy storage technology, policy, and markets in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, NPR, the New Yorker, and numerous trade publications.

Earlier in his career Jason directed research and advocacy on U.S. energy innovation and tax policy as the Associate Director for Energy Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center; consulted to utilities on demand response program design at FSC Group/Nexant; and reviewed utility renewable energy contracting processes for the California Public Utilities Commission. Jason holds master’s degrees from the University of California - Berkeley’s Energy and Resource Group and Goldman School of Public Policy, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

Sara Chamberlain

Sara Chamberlain
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Earth Foundry

Sara is Co-Founder & Managing Director at Earth Foundry, an early-stage venture capital firm that has backed some of the most transformative energy and cleantech companies.   Sara is the driving force of the firm, leading investment activity and actively building the fund’s portfolio companies, including Advanced Diamond Technologies (acquired by SMIN), Azumo, e-Zinc, Intellihot, NanoGraf, Network Perception, Polystyvert, Tank Utility (acquired by Generac), and Volexion. Prior to Energy Foundry, Sara built a government advisory practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and helped climate tech startups raise $300M in non-dilutive funding.  She also held roles with GE Energy and environmental consulting firm, GaiaTech. 

Sara earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and an undergraduate degree from Emory University. She also holds a number of advisory roles including serving on the Investment Committee for accelerator Evergreen Climate Innovations, the Advisory Board for Chain Reaction Innovations, an incubator program at Argonne National Laboratory, and serving as an Executive-in-Residence at the Rustandy Center – Chicago Booth.  In 2015, Sara was recognized by Midwest Energy News's “40 Under 40.” Sara currently sits on the board of Earth Foundry portfolio companies 3E Nano, Azumo, e-Zinc, Polystyvert and Volexion. 

 

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