Home Program Panelists Location Register
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Andres Alvarez
Analyst, CEO Office — AVANGRID
Andres Alvarez is currently an Analyst at Avangrid, where he is responsible for sustainability and innovation reports and industry and regulatory analysis to support the CEO’s office. At Avangrid, he has led strategic research investigating topics related to electric vehicles, energy storage, renewables, retail electricity markets, and wholesale electricity markets, all of which supports senior management decision making. In July 2019, Andres will be joining the Avangrid Renewables Market Fundamentals team, where he will be supporting renewable energy development through powerflow analysis, market simulation, locational marginal price (LMP) analysis, and renewable integration studies. Prior to joining Avangrid, Andres worked as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative and Argonne National Laboratory, focusing primarily on quantifying uncertainty in fluid simulations for nuclear systems. He received his Bachelors of Science in Nuclear Science and Engineering and an Energy Studies Minor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017.
Elizabeth Cleveland
Director of Strategic Initiatives — Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
As the Director of Strategic Initiatives, Elizabeth Cleveland oversees the daily functions of MassCEC's communications and operations team, reporting of MassCEC's impact through metrics, the annual clean energy industry report, and strategic partnership opportunities. Additionally, Elizabeth has extensive experience designing and implementing solar programs for the state of Massachusetts, having designed and implemented the state's multi-million dollar Commonwealth Solar II rebate program and the nationally recognized Solarize Mass Program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science from Connecticut College and Master of Business Administration from Boston University. Elizabeth has spent a large part of her career working in the public sector to help grow the clean energy industry in Massachusetts. She has done this through the creation of technology incentive programs to spur adoption and create clean energy jobs. In addition, she has engaged with a variety of stakeholders over the years around topics including overcoming barriers to education and implementation on the community level, working with the private sector to further support the industry, and ensuring increased training and safety of technology implementation. In her current role, Elizabeth works to help relay the impact of MassCEC's efforts and the clean energy transformation that is taking place. Her career path has been a result of being passionate about clean energy and being willing to learn. She has learned that one of the single most important factors in a job for her, personally, is being able to see a tangible impact from her work.
Kathryn Elmes
Investment Associate – Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
I am an Investment Associate at the MassCEC, where I invest in and manage a portfolio of enterprise and consumer-facing companies in the clean energy industry. I enjoy being an active, hands-on investor, working alongside and supporting management teams. I have worked to support clean technology startups since 2014 and actively contribute to Boston’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I am a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum Cleantech Committee and serve as a reviewer or mentor for programs including NSF, MassChallenge, MIT delta v, Cleantech Open, and MassVentures. I invest only in clean energy startups. "Clean energy" for me/MassCEC can include next generation renewables, efficient mobility, grid resilience, sustainable buildings, industrial efficiency, and water-energy nexus. I never thought I would wind up in venture capital. I first thought I wanted to be an impact practitioner, then an academic. But I decided I wanted my work to be more applied, and pivoted my research to focus on clean energy, which I have always cared deeply about. I left academia to grow and run the Worcester Cleantech Incubator (WCTI) and then became the Director of Cleantech Open Northeast, a global accelerator for early-stage clean technology startup companies. While in that role I was told that I would be great at VC – a profession that requires critical thought, analysis, and the soft skills associated with consulting and networking. I saw an open role at MassCEC and the rest is history.
Julie Ferland
General Manager — Shell TechWorks
Shell is highly engaged and committed to delivering more and cleaner energy to the world, a commitment that we get the opportunity to work on every day at Shell TechWorks. I feel privileged to lead a team that makes a real impact in the energy industry. I am fortunate to have had seemingly very diverse positions come my way throughout my career that have shaped not just my resume, but also my way of thinking and ambition to do more. I did not expect to become a Navy Diver or to work in the energy industry, but decided to take a chance on interesting opportunities when they emerged. Although some moves have seemed illogical, they have each provided tremendous challenge and learning which got me to where I am now.
Kate Fichter
Assistant Secretary — Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Kate Fichter is the Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, where she has served in various capacities since 2004. Kate is a graduate of the University of Chicago and MIT, and has professional expertise in transportation planning and policy. Prior to her current role, Kate served as the Project Manager for the extension of the MBTA Green Line to Somerville and Medford and the expansion of Boston South Station. She has also worked for the US Department of Transportation and for the Massachusetts Legislature, where she worked on transportation-related issues. Kate is now responsible for overseeing multiple policy initiatives at MassDOT, including de-carbonization and other issues at the intersection of the transportation and climate arenas.
Martin Flusberg
CEO — Powerhouse Dynamics
My current company is helping reduce energy usage by organizations historically under-served when it comes to energy efficiency—portfolios of small commercial facilities. Energy savings are typically in the 10-20% range, with payback in as little as one year. My previous company provided smart grid applications for utilities and helped those utilities help their residential and small commercial customers become more energy efficient. I started my career right out of MIT in transportation and then transitioned—not so far—to energy, where I have spent the past 30 years.
Katy Hartman
VP of Research and Development — Tessolar
Katy leads research and development at Tessolar, keeping the company on the leading edge of product innovation and product integrity. Katy designs and directs experimental programs for the evaluation of PV racking technologies with a focus on significantly decreasing cost and PV module installation time while meeting or exceeding industry standards for strength, durability and reliability. Prior to her innovation work at Tessolar, Katy was a PhD candidate and Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT where she worked on various earth-abundant replacement materials for thin film solar cells. While an undergraduate, Katy proved the concept of dislocation density reduction by high temperature annealing in multicrystalline silicon wafers. She began her experience in the solar industry as an intern at crystalline silicon ribbon innovator Evergreen Solar. Katy’s 11 years of experience in and enthusiasm for the PV industry was established at MIT where she participated in the Energy Club and earned a BSc. and Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering.
Charles Heaps
Senior Scientist — Stockholm Environment Institute
Dr. Heaps is the designer of LEAP, the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System, a scenario-based modelling system for integrated energy planning, air quality and climate change mitigation assessment. LEAP has thousands of users in over 190 countries worldwide including government agencies, national laboratories, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations. He is also the founder and manager of an online initiative designed to foster a community among developing country energy analysts working on energy for sustainable development that currently has over 40,000 members worldwide. LEAP has been used by more than 40 countries as their main framework for planning their commitments to the UNFCCC’s climate process, and it’s also used by the State of MA as its main analytical tool for planning how to achieve MA’s commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Dr. Heaps studied energy engineering in the UK before doing a Ph.D. in environmental technology at Imperial College in London. He has been with SEI throughout his career since 1990, starting as a researcher and including stints as the founding director of SEI’s US research center hosted by Tufts University. Dr. Heaps has worked in more than fifty countries around the world. He has consulted widely with numerous national and international agencies including US-EPA, US-AID, US-DOE, UNEP, UNFCCC, UNIDO, UNDP, and the World Bank. In 2015, Dr. Heaps was the first recipient of the LEDS-Global Partnership Award for “Leading LEDS Design.”
Julie McNamara
Senior Energy Analyst — Union of Concerned Scientists
Julie McNamara is a senior energy analyst with the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, she analyzes state, regional, and national policies relating to clean energy development and deployment. Her research includes electricity system resilience, state and federal power sector transition policies, and the implications of variations in carbon pricing policy design. Previously, she worked to develop proactive and adaptive risk management frameworks at MIT’s Program on Emerging Technologies, and served as an environmental scientist supporting federal and state agencies at ERG, an environmental and public policy consulting firm. Ms. McNamara holds an M.S. in technology and policy from MIT, and a B.A. in biology and political economy from Williams College. As an analyst within a science-based advocacy group, her work centers on informing the policies that shape the energy transition at hand. She has long had an interest in policy and economics alongside science and analysis, but opportunities to concurrently undertake both can be rare. In doing technical work for federal agencies, she learned enormous amounts about how to conduct such analyses, but did not have the ability to shape the questions being asked. Following graduate school, she joined the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has afforded her the chance to conduct technical work in service of shaping and informing broader policy goals.
Peter McPhee
Director, Clean Heating & Cooling — Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
I'm working to solve one big issue: that 30% of Massachusetts’s emissions that comes from heating. My job is to figure out how to reduce heating emissions to a tiny fraction of that. I’ve made what at the time seemed like drastic changes in my career path. The first of these was when I left college after 2 years and became a carpenter. The second of these was when I left carpentry after two years and went back to school. I ultimately attended four colleges before getting my undergraduate degree at UMass Amherst at 25. By that time, though, I was intensely interested in medical applications of engineering and started doing a Ph.D. in biomechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins. After a couple years of that, though, I realized academic research wasn’t the right fit for me. This coincided with a growing obsession with climate change and energy. I made a third hard decision and abandoned the pathway I had chosen in order to pursue something I felt enormously driven by. I took a job with a European energy consultancy (now DNV GL), exposing me to a wide array of energy topics, which was enormously enriching. It ultimately led me to establish a wind energy practice at this consultancy. I’ve been working for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for nine years, and it has been an incredible experience and privilege to be part of making the Commonwealth a leader in clean energy. In my current role as Director of Clean Heating & Cooling at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, I championed and gained buy-in for approximately $65 million of programs to support the development of industries that have the potential to reduce our heating emissions by an order of magnitude. These programs contributed to developing a clean heating industry, seeded programs in other states, and supported the transition of 20,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses to clean heating systems.
Sandhya Murali
Co-Founder and COO — Solstice
Sandhya is co-founder and COO of Solstice, an award-winning social enterprise dedicated to expanding access to clean energy to all Americans through community solar. Community solar enables residents to support local clean energy at no upfront cost and save money on their electric bill every year. Solstice enrolls households and community organizations in shared solar farms, creates financing innovations that expand access to underserved Americans (the EnergyScore), and provides frictionless subscriber management software for community solar projects. Prior to joining Solstice, Sandhya worked at Barclays’s investment banking division in New York and London, advising and executing public equity transactions for Technology, Media and Telecom companies. She was also deeply involved in Barclays’s philanthropy work with Endeavor, Women’s World Banking, and Barclays’s Social Innovation Fund. Sandhya holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she received the Sustainability Certificate.
Paul Murphy
Head of Engineering – Ørsted
Paul serves as Ørsted's US Head of Engineering. In addition, Paul serves as a Deputy EPC Director for Ørsted's utility-scale offshore wind project in the US northeast. Prior to joining Ørsted, Paul served as Deepwater Wind's Vice President of Operations & Engineering. At Deepwater, Paul was deeply involved in the development, construction and operations of the Block Island Wind Farm - the first offshore wind farm in the US. Prior to joining Deepwater Wind, Paul served as a director of strategic planning for a mayoral initiative in New York City. Paul earned graduate degrees in civil and environmental engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and the Technology and Policy program from MIT.
Francis O'Sullivan
Senior Vice President, Strategy — Lincoln Clean Energy
Dr. Francis O’Sullivan is Senior VP, Strategy at Lincoln Clean Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ørsted. In this role, Frank is responsible for long-term market analysis and modelling to support Ørsted’s onshore investment program in wind, solar and storage globally. Prior to joining Ørsted, Frank was Director of Research and Analysis for the MIT Energy Initiative, and a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was Co-Director of the MIT Electric Power System Center. Dr. O’Sullivan’s academic, public, and private sector work has focused on energy markets analysis and design, with a particular focus on the economic and technical issues associated with large-scale integration of intermittent renewables in marginal cost-based electricity markets. Dr. O’Sullivan has made presentations to the U.S. President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, the EIA, the EPA, the IEA, the Brookings Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the National Governors’ Association, the National Association of Regulated Utility Commissioners, at CERAWeek, the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union and to numerous other academic, policy and industry forums. Dr. O’Sullivan is a member of the U.S. National Academies’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, a Senior Associate with the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a Distinguished Associate with the Energy Futures Initiative. He has also served as a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s working group on methane emissions and as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy for the 2016 Quadrennial Energy Review. Prior to Ørsted and MIT, Dr. O’Sullivan was a senior consultant with McKinsey & Company. Frank received his Ph.D., E.E., and S.M. degrees from MIT, and his B.E. degree from the National University of Ireland, all in electrical engineering.
Rachel Pachter
VP Permitting Affairs — Vineyard Wind
Rachel Pachter is Vineyard Wind’s Vice President of Permitting Affairs. Rachel has more than 15 years of experience in offshore wind development, specifically in permitting and regulatory compliance, environmental and site investigation, federal, state, and local regulations, stakeholder outreach, and public relations. Rachel led and finalized the permitting for the first and only fully permitted offshore wind farm in federal waters of the United States. Rachel has a degree in Geology from the University of Alaska and works from Vineyard Wind’s New Bedford office.
Michael Pantelogianis
Co-Head, Power & Infrastructure Finance, North America – Investec
Prior to joining Investec, Michael was a Managing Director and senior member at WestLB Securities Inc.’s Global Power group for 11 years where, among other things, he spearheaded WestLB’s foray into renewable energy in North America. Michael was also a member of JPMorgan’s (legacy Chase Securities Inc.) Global Project Finance and Advisory group from 1998 to 2001, where he worked on many notable large utility divestitures on both the M&A side and the financing side of such assets. Michael started his banking career in 2004 at Sumitomo Trust & Banking’s Project Finance group. Michael has a MBA in Financial Management from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University and a BS in Applied Economics from Hofstra University.
Matt Perkins
Chief Marketing Officer — 7AC Technologies
Matt Perkins is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at 7AC Technologies, working on product, marketing, and sales. He received his Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He enjoys running and skiing, is a professional tenor, and volunteers taking at-risk youth camping and staffing a suicide hotline. Prior roles include:
- Chief Digital Officer, GE Power Conversion
- Established the global software P&L; first $5M in orders
- Industrial optimization software for metals and solar
sectors
- Director, New Energy Platform, GE Ventures
- Product Growth Leader, GE China Inverter
- Sales, marketing (pricing, channel)
- Serving O&G, solar, metals, and mining
- Solar Sales Manager, GE Power
- $50M revenue in 100% new products
Rob Pratt
Chairman — GreenerU, Inc.
Rob Pratt is the Chairman and President of the International Institute for Energy Conservation. He has been a national and international leader in clean energy for more than 40 years, as a for-profit and non-profit entrepreneur, a clean energy funder, and a governmental leader. He has founded or co-founded three companies and three non-profit organizations, including:
• GreenerU, Inc., one of the largest energy and sustainability services companies working with colleges and universities in New England;
• Energia Global International (EGI, now Enel Latin America), one of the leading renewable energy companies in Central America;
• International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC), a non-profit that has worked on energy efficiency policy and implementation in more than 50 countries; and
• Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC), the largest regional association helping clean energy companies succeed while advocating for progressive energy policy and innovation.
Beginning his career on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Assistant focusing on energy, and then becoming the Executive Director of the New England Congressional Caucus, Rob was drawn to energy. He worked with NE Members of Congress in passing progressive energy legislation, but he also wanted to make things happen in a more direct way. He became a special assistant to Thermo Electron (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) CEO George Hatsopoulos—an MIT grad and senior lecturer emeritus. Building on the lessons he learned from Dr. Hatsopoulos, Rob started the first of his three companies, PRAXIS, Inc.. After Energia Global was acquired by Enel, Rob became a funder as Director of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, a fund that promoted both the development of renewable energy projects and clean energy economic development in MA. He then became the Senior VP of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, where he led foundation initiatives focused on energy efficiency policy and financing innovations. He received an MPA degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a JD degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA degree from Wesleyan University.
Santosh Raikar
Managing Partner — Silverpeak Renewables Investment Partners LP
Santosh Raikar is the Managing Partner of Silverpeak Renewables Investment Partners, responsible for building out the firm’s renewable energy sector platform. He has more than 18 years of experience in energy and infrastructure finance, including renewable energy, oil & gas, power, and midstream infrastructure assets. Prior to joining Silverpeak, Santosh was a Managing Director in the renewable energy investments group at State Street where he was responsible for leading a team in originating, structuring and executing tax equity investments in the renewable energy sector within the U.S. He previously worked at Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers in Principal Investment areas. Santosh holds a Master of Science in Technology and Policy Program from MIT and earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He also teaches a full-semester graduate level course, “Renewable Energy Investments” at the Carroll School of Management (Boston College). He is passionate about renewable energy for a better future and contributing directly by making capital available for bigger and better things. He got into investment banking by accident and MIT played the critical role for that transition.
Noah Shaw
General Counsel — NYSERDA
As General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Directors of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Noah manages all aspects of legal analysis and counsel to NYSERDA leadership and the Governor’s staff concerning the Authority’s initiatives and related clean energy issues and legislation. Among other matters, Noah has been deeply engaged in the design and implementation of the state’s Clean Energy Standard, the State's offshore wind energy policies and programs, involvement with the United State Climate Alliance, co-chaired by NYS, Governor Cuomo’s clean energy legislative agenda, and many other of the State’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and policies. Prior to joining NYSERDA in 2014, Noah was Senior Advisor to the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy, where his portfolio included a wide range of issues regarding the Loan Programs Office, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Office of Nuclear Energy and matters concerning congressional affairs. Before working at the Department of Energy, Noah was an attorney in the Boston office of the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris Glovsky & Popeo.
Sarah Simon
Founding Partner — Apple Creek Associates
Throughout her more than 40 years in consulting, government and industry, Ms. Simon’s work has focused on reducing environmental impacts and emissions, resulting in cleaner energy and more efficient processes. As Environmental Compliance Manager at Ameresco, a leading renewable energy and energy efficiency company, Ms. Simon managed compliance programs and carbon reporting for 20 bio-methane electric facilities around the US with annual revenues of over $50m. When she was Deputy Director at the Division of Air Quality at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, before the advent of affordable wind and PV systems, she managed 40 monitoring, data, and air quality modeling staff. She represented the Department on commissions studying radon risk and indoor air quality and served on the team that streamlined the permitting process, receiving an Innovation in Government Award from the Kennedy School of Government. In her 10 years at the U.S. EPA Region 1 office, she participated on the national Acid Rain Program Implementation team, which was awarded the Bronze Medal for public service. In addition, Ms. Simon led the Environmental Technical Group of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers and was President of the Boston section of the Society of Women Engineers and the Association of MIT Alumnae.
Kathleen Theoharides
Undersecretary of Climate Change — Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Katie works across state government and with Massachusetts cities and towns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, with a major focus on mainstreaming climate change into the daily work of state and local government. In this capacity Katie leads the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program, as well as implementation of the State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan and the Global Warming Solutions Act. Previously, Katie worked as an environmental and climate change policy consultant and served as the executive director of the Hilltown Land Trust in Ashfield, Massachusetts. She also spent several years with Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, DC where she focused on federal, state and local climate change policy. Katie holds a B.A. in ecology from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in environmental biology from the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Mitch Tyson
Chair — Tyson Associates
I've had energy related positions in public policy, industry, investing, the non-profit sector, and academia. I am a graduate of MIT with an SB in Physics, an SM in Nuclear Engineering, and an SM in Political Science, concentrating my studies on energy technology and policy. I have been a US Senate legislative assistant for energy policy, product manager for semiconductor equipment, CEO for a semiconductor automation company, and CEO of a venture back industrial energy efficiency start-up. Currently I serve as a board member of several tech and clean energy companies, I am an angel partner in the Clean Energy Venture Group and Venture Partner in the Clean Energy Fund, and I mentor start-ups in a variety of clean energy accelerators. I am chair of the Northeast Clean Energy Council (trade association), a board member of Greentown Labs (clean energy incubator), and a board member of Acadia Center (clean energy policy think tank). I also teach the course in Corporate Sustainability at the International Business School at Brandeis University and lecture on entrepreneurship. I've had the opportunity to look at and contribute to developing solutions to the energy challenge from many organizational perspectives and am glad to share what I have learned.
Akashar Wunnava
Senior Associate / Second-Year Student — McKinsey & Co. / Harvard Business School
Akshar is a second-year student in the MBA Class of 2019 at Harvard Business School. Prior to HBS, he worked at McKinsey & Co., focusing on the energy utilities, renewables, and chemicals sectors. He spent several months in Ethiopia working on their electrification strategy and utility operations. Prior to McKinsey, Akshar worked on two start-ups, BioBatts and PedalPower, which both aimed to provide electricity in off-grid villages in north India. Akshar holds a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and Economics and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from MIT. He also minored in Energy Studies and Public Policy and led the MIT Energy Club, Sloan Business Club, and DEAL FPOP during his time at the Institute.
Ming Zhong
Architectural Designer — Payette Associates Inc.
As a designer working in the building design field, I am familiar with the energy code and standards for green buildings. I also have experience in designing energy responsive buildings by using advanced scripting software that can help designers optimize energy performance and save the client money. I am currently working towards my licensure to become an official architect.