UT Energy Week 2020 – Speakers and Panelists
Terry Alger
Director, Powertrain Engineering
Southwest Research Institute
Fuels for Tomorrow’s Transport
Dr. Alger is the Director of the Automotive Propulsion Systems Department in the Powertrain Engineering Division and a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers. His work at SwRI focuses on reducing fuel consumption and exhaust emissions from passenger cars. In addition to developing more efficient gasoline engines, Dr. Alger’s current research interests include ignition systems, abnormal combustion in gasoline engines, hybrid and electric vehicle powertrains, and fluids (fuels and lubricants) for advanced combustion concepts. In addition to his work at SwRI, Dr. Alger serves as a consultant to the Army Science Board and as a member of the ME Advisory Board at the United States Military Academy.
Dr. Alger graduated from the US Military Academy as a Distinguished Cadet in 1992 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Engineers. During his five years in the Army, Dr. Alger served as a platoon
leader and task force engineer for the 3/325 th Infantry (Airborne Battalion Combat Team) and participated in operations in Bosnia and Africa. Prior to joining SwRI, Dr. Alger earned his MSE and PhD degrees at The University of Texas at Austin and worked at Ford Motor Company’s Research and Advanced Engineering Division.
Richard Amato
Director
ATI Energy and ATI Mobility
Energy Development in Emerging Economies: Legal Challenges
Richard Amato is the Advisor to ATI Energy and Mobility companies. He founded the ATI Clean Energy Incubator in 2001, and currently heads up IC² Institute global energy initiatives, including the World Bank Climate Innovation Center Program in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Vietnam. Amato is also the Founder, President and CEO of Venti Energy, a renewable development company dedicated to increasing the supply of clean and reliable energy. He resides as a current or past board member of CEI, CEA, CEDC, RMC, TXROSE, TXSES, TREIA and the Wind Coalition. Additionally, Amato speaks at conferences around the world including India, Malaysia, Denmark, Norway, Japan, Italy, and Kazakhstan. He earned his MBA in Entrepreneurship and Management from UT Austin and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M
Jeffrey Ball
Scholar-in-Residence and Lecturer
Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University and Stanford Law School
Will Technology Save the Day? Optimist and Realist Perspectives
Jeffrey Ball (@jeff_ball) writes about energy and the environment. He is the scholar-in-residence at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, a lecturer at Stanford Law School, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Ball’s stories and essays have appeared in Fortune, Foreign Affairs, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Ball came to Stanford in 2011 from The Wall Street Journal, where he was the paper’s environment editor and spent more than a decade as a reporter and a columnist. He has reported from five continents and more than 15 countries.
In 2019, Ball won a New York Press Club Award for Journalism and was a finalist for a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for “Lone Star Rising,” a 2018 Fortune story he wrote on a new oil boom roiling West Texas’ iconic Permian Basin. In 2015, he won the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ top energy-writing prize for “The Drama of Mexico’s Black Gold,” a 2014 Fortune story on Mexico’s epic bid to reform its oil sector.
At the Stanford center, a joint initiative of the university’s law and business schools, Ball heads a project exploring the globalization of the clean-energy industry. It focuses on China’s crucial role in that push — including the global environmental implications of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Ball was the primary author of The New Solar System, a comprehensive 2017 Stanford report on the global solar industry.
More about Ball’s writing and other work is at jeffreyball.net.
Morgan Bazilian
Professor and Director of the Payne Institute of Public Policy
Colorado School of Mines
Geopolitical Ramifications of the Energy Transition
Morgan Bazilian is the Director of the Payne Institute and a Professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. Previously, he was lead energy specialist at the World Bank. He has over two decades of experience in the energy sector and is regarded as a leading expert in international affairs, policy and investment. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Bazilian holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in areas related to energy systems and markets, and has been a Fulbright fellow. He holds, or has held, several academic affiliations including at Columbia University, Cambridge University, the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. He is on the editorial boards of Environmental Research Letters, Energy strategy Reviews, and Energy Research and Social Science. He has published more than 140 articles in learned journals. His book, Analytical Methods for Energy Diversity and Security is considered a seminal piece in the area of energy finance and security. His work has been published in, inter alia, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Dr. Bazilian is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Energy, as well as the Global Advisory Council of the Sustainable Finance Programme at Oxford University. Previously, he was a Deputy Director at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and a senior diplomat at the United Nations. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Irish Government as Principal Advisor to the Energy Minister, and was the Deputy CEO of the Irish National Energy Agency. He was also the European Union’s lead negotiator on low-carbon technology at the United Nations climate negotiations. Dr. Bazilian has testified before the U.S. Senate and the Irish Oireachtas on issues of energy security.
Fred Beach
Lecturer
The University of Texas at Austin
Geopolitical Ramifications of the Energy Transition
Dr. Beach conducts research related to the interplay between the development of Energy Policy, Environmental Policy, and Technology Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Beach also teaches a wide range of classes on Energy Technology Policy, International Energy Policy, and Energy Economics in the Cockrell School of Engineering, The LBJ School of Public Policy, The McCombs Business School, and the Jackson School of Geosciences.
Prior to joining The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Beach served for twenty-five years in the United States Navy where he was a qualified Submariner, Naval Aviator, Surface Warfare Officer, and Acquisition Professional. Since retiring in 2003 he has also served as a consultant on defense-related topics for the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group, MITRE, Naval Research Advisory Committee, Naval Research Laboratory, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Defense Science Board.
Dr. Beach holds a Ph.D. from the LBJ School of Public Policy, University of Texas at Austin an M.S. in Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. He is also a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University and Certified Level III DoD Acquisition Professional and Program Manager.
Robert Bryce
Author, journalist, and film producer
The USA’s Role and Importance in Global Energy Leadership
Robert Bryce is a Texas-based author and journalist. He has been covering the energy sector for three decades, during which he has covered everything from Enron’s bankruptcy and the digitization of drilling rigs to nuclear energy and the future of batteries. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post, and National Review. He is the author of several books including, most recently, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong. He is also the producer of a new feature-length documentary film: Juice: How Electricity Explains the World. His sixth book, A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, will be published in March 2020 by PublicAffairs. @pwrhungry
Josh Busby
Associate Professor of Public Affairs and a Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law
The University of Texas
The USA’s Role and Importance in Global Energy Leadership
Joshua Busby is a distinguished scholar at the Strauss Center, nonresident fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and a senior research fellow at the Center for Climate & Security. Dr. Busby has published widely on climate change, global health, transnational advocacy movements and U.S. foreign policy for various think tanks and academic journals, including International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Security Studies and Perspectives on Politics. His first book, “Moral Movements and Foreign Policy,” was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. His second book, “AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations,” with co-author Ethan Kapstein, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013 and won the 2014 Don K. Price Award (the American Political Science Association’s award for the best book on science, technology and environmental politics). He was one of the lead researchers on a five-year, $7.6 million project funded by the Department of Defense called “Climate Change and African Political Stability” (CCAPS). He is the principal investigator of another DOD-funded project, “Complex Emergencies and Political Stability in Asia” (CEPSA) — a three-year, $1.9 million grant. Dr. Busby is a life member in the Council on Foreign Relations. He received his Ph.D. in political science in 2004 from Georgetown University.
Clay Butler
Chief Executive Officer
7X Energy
Will Technology Save the Day? Optimist and Realist Perspectives
As CEO, Clay oversees business development, operations, and investor relations for 7X Energy, where he continuously pushes 7X to be an innovation leader in the energy industry. For almost a decade before co-founding 7X in early 2016, Clay served as a managing partner of a leading law firm for renewable energy companies. There, he provided development support and legal services for over 5,000 MW of solar projects and 3,500 MW of wind projects around the world. During this time, Clay founded a company to build a software solutions platform to utilize Big Data analytics to streamline and accelerate the utility-scale solar development process; that software functionality continues to expand and is now exclusively licensed by 7X.
In addition to Clay’s executive roles, he served for two years as an electric utility commissioner for the City of Austin, overseeing the city’s electric utility, Austin Energy.
Clay holds a JD from St. Mary’s University School of Law and a BA from Texas State University. He also spent four years in the Marine Corps prior to college as an infantryman–Semper F
Etienne Cadestin
Founder and Global Chief Executive Officer
Longevity Partners
The USA’s Role and Importance in Global Energy Leadership
Mr Etienne Cadestin is the founder and global CEO of Longevity Partners, an award-winning independent property advisory firm founded in 2015 to support businesses in the transition to a low carbon economy across the world.
Etienne worked at Knight Frank, JLL and the United Nations Environment Programme (the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agendas). He has more than a decade of experience in sustainable property investment and strategy and currently advises some of the largest property investment companies in the world. Etienne won several awards as the Future of Real Estate and Property Rising Star and was nominated for numerous other awards as one of the most active young leaders in the sustainability and real estate industries. He regularly speaks at high-level events, giving his vision for smart cities, carbon neutral buildings, wellbeing in the work place and the future of the real estate industry.
Richard Chuchla
Director, Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program
The University of Texas at Austin
Making Minerals Great Again
A geoscientist by training, with an undergraduate degree from Cornell and a Master’s from the Jackson School of Geosciences, Richard started in base and precious metals, moved to coal, and then oil and gas, working in exploration, development and research. As a recently retired executive from industry, he is applying his broad experience to his new position as the Director of the Jackson School’s Energy and Earth Resources (EER) master’s program.
During Richard’s 36-year career with ExxonMobil, assignments took him from Tucson, Arizona,where he accepted his first industry job two days after earning his Master’s, to leadership positions in Europe, Latin America and West Africa. It was then back to the United States, where he spent the better part of his last 10 years launching ExxonMobil’s unconventional resources effort, including two years at the corporate headquarters in Dallas advising the Management Committee and CEO, Rex Tillerson.
At the University of Texas, Richard has served as Chairman of the University of Texas Geology Foundation Advisory Council and Chairman of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology Visiting Committee. Richard was born in Chile of Polish parents. He is married and has three grown children.
Reginald Devaul
Sr. Structuring Analyst
BP NAGP
Energy Tradeoffs: A Better Understanding of the Issues Shaping the World’s Energy Needs
Reginald is a senior structuring analyst with 22 years of experience, including 14 years of experience at BP Oil and Gas. He also has extensive experience in commodity risk analysis, financial analysis, and financial planning. Reginald graduated from Jackson State University with a bachelors in business administration in accounting, and then went on to get his master’s in business administration in finance at the University of New Orleans. Reginald has a wide portfolio, working at staple Houston companies such as BP NAGP, Entergy, and Texaco.
Roderick G. Eggert
Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics
Colorado School of Mines
Making Minerals Great Again
Roderick G. Eggert is Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics at Colorado School of Mines, where he has taught since 1986. He also is Deputy Director of the Critical Materials Institute, an energy innovation hub (research consortium, led by the Ames Laboratory) established by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2013, to accelerate innovation in energy materials.
His research and teaching focus on mineral economics and public policy. He chaired the U.S. National Research Council committee that wrote the 2008 book Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the US Economy (National Academies Press).
He has a B.A. in earth sciences from Dartmouth College, a M.S. in geochemistry and mineralogy from Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in mineral economics also from Penn State.
Aldo Flores-Quiroga
Former Deputy Secretary of Energy of Mexico and Visiting Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas
The USA’s Role and Importance in Global Energy Leadership
Aldo Flores-Quiroga is former deputy secretary of energy for hydrocarbons at Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (2016–18), where he led a team of more than 180 government officials to implement the historic opening of Mexico’s hydrocarbons sector. He launched an oil exploration strategy and production auctions, helped liberalize Mexico’s markets for refined products and natural gas, helped create strategic inventories for gasoline, diesel and natural gas, and negotiated Mexico’s role in the unprecedented OPEC-Non OPEC pact to stabilize oil markets.
Previously, Flores-Quiroga was secretary general of the International Energy Forum (IEF) (2012–17), assistant secretary for international affairs at Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (2007–11) and assistant secretary for bilateral economic relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2001–05). He represented Mexico at the International Atomic Nuclear Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Energy Forum (IEF), the Latin American and Caribbean Energy Organization (OLADE), and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He served as the executive secretary at the National Institute of Public Administration, as the director general for international affairs for Mexico’s Secretariat of energy, and as the director general for bilateral affairs at Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs.
He taught courses in international political economy, comparative politics, economic theory, public policy and economic development at the School of Politics and Economics of the Claremont Graduate University in California (1996–2009). Flores-Quiroga has published books and articles in English and Spanish on Mexican trade, exchange rate and energy policy, and has been featured on CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC and other media outlets.
John B. Goodenough
2019 Nobel Laureate and Virginia H. Cockrell Centennial Chair of Engineering
Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin
Welcome Keynote with Nobel Laureate Dr. John B. Goodenough
biography to come
William Inboden
Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair
William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin
Geopolitical Ramifications of the Energy Transition
biography to come
Bob Jensen
Professor Emeritus, School of Journalism
The University of Texas at Austin
Will Technology Save the Day? Optimist and Realist Perspectives
Robert Jensen is Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, a founding board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center, and part of the team developing Ecosphere Studies at The Land Institute in Salina, KS. He is the author of The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men (Spinifex Press, 2017). Jensen’s other books include Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully (Counterpoint/Soft Skull, 2015); Arguing for Our Lives: A User’s Guide to Constructive Dialogue (City Lights, 2013); All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, (Soft Skull Press, 2009); Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002). Jensen is also co-producer of the documentary film “Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing” (Media Education Foundation, 2009), which chronicles the life and philosophy of the longtime radical activist.
Carey King
Assistant Director, Research Scientist
The University of Texas Energy Institute
Will Technology Save the Day? Optimist and Realist Perspectives
Dr. Carey W King performs interdisciplinary research related to how energy systems interact within the economy and environment as well as how our policy and social systems can make decisions and tradeoffs among these often competing factors. The past performance of our energy systems is no guarantee of future returns, yet we must understand the development of past energy systems. Carey’s research goals center on rigorous interpretations of the past to determine the most probable future energy pathways. Carey is Research Scientist at The University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Director at the Energy Institute. He also has appointments within the Jackson School of Geosciences and the McCombs School of Business. He has both a B.S. with high honors and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published technical articles in the academic journals Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Research Letters, Nature Geoscience, Energy Policy, Sustainability, and Ecology and Society. He has also written commentary for American Scientist and Earth magazines as well as major newspapers such as the The Hill, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, and Austin American-Statesman.
Jason Klein
Vice President of US Energy Transition Strategy
Shell
Energy Tradeoffs: A Better Understanding of the Issues Shaping the World’s Energy Needs
Jason is a senior oil and gas executive with 19 years experience, including 13 years at BG Group plc. Extensive experience in LNG, upstream and downstream oil and gas, infrastructure projects, M&A, strategy and business development. Broad international exposure, having lived in the US, Oman, Australia and the UK, with additional work experience across Asia and South America. He has served as a VP at Shell for 4 years. He earned his B.S. in Finance and Political Science from Trinity University and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.
Kara Kockelman
Dewitt Greer Centennial Professor of Transportation Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Fuels for Tomorrow’s Transport
biography to come
Sean T. Long
Founder, President & CEO
Endeavor Energy
Energy Development in Emerging Economies: Legal Challenges
Mr. Sean T. Long, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Endeavor Energy Holdings LLC, has over 22 years and over $14 billion worth of development, construction, financing, and management experience in energy infrastructure industries. Endeavor Energy, now considered one of the leading power development and generation companies in Africa, is a U.S.- headquartered, privately-owned company dedicated to acquiring and developing power generation facilities in Africa. Since it was founded in 2013, Sean has led Endeavor’s growth from 4 employees and no assets to five years later where Endeavor has under construction (once fully built) $1.6 billion, over 670MW of power generation assets with over $3.9 billion, ~2,250MW of power generation projects under development.
Sean is former Senior Vice President and head of Enron Corp’s business activities in Africa, a Fortune 10 company at the time. Whilst at Enron, Sean lead the successful development of Nigeria’s first IPP in 1999, a $150 million, 300MW gas-fired power project, which delivered power in Nigeria for 20 years. Sean also was involved in the development of the $400 million, 865km Pande Gas Pipeline Project until it was sold to Sasol. The pipeline still delivers natural gas to South Africa today.
Sean has served on various private company boards and executive management committees, including that of Endeavor and its various subsidiaries. Sean also sits on the board of the Business Council for International Understanding, a not-for-profit group designed to improved business relationships between US companies doing business outside of the United States, as well as, Wake Forest University’s PAC which is a committee designed to help Wake Forest raise capital for and improve its athletic program. Sean also served as an Officer in the United States Army as a Captain.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering (a specialty electrical engineering degree) from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987 and later earned his Juris Doctorate from Columbia University School of Law in 1993. Mr. Long is admitted to the Bar of the State of New York since 1993.
José María Lujambio
Energy Practice Director
Cacheaux, Cavazos & Newton
Energy Development in Emerging Economies: Legal Challenges
José María Lujambio is a partner at CCN, where he heads the energy practice from his office in Austin, Texas. Since joining the firm in 2014 his work with clients has included regulatory support to utility-scale renewable energy projects; enablement of qualified suppliers and traders to participate in the wholesale electricity market; negotiation of several kinds of energy procurement contracts, and advice in the midstream and downstream regulation of natural gas and refined products, for U.S. companies doing business in Mexico.
Previously, he worked for many years in the Mexican government; from 2009 to 2012, he served as General Legal Counsel of the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission, where he was responsible for leading the implementation of Mexico’s 2008 energy reform, in the renewable energy and gas sectors. Also, from 2005 to 2009, he worked as an attorney within the Legal Counsel’s Office of Mexico’s President, focusing on legislation and presidential rules, and constitutional affairs.
In the academic field, in 2014 Lujambio obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree, with energy concentration, from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2013 he coordinated the energy research and networking agenda of the Center of Research for Development (CIDAC), with US-AID funds. He obtained a Master of Fundamental Rights degree from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, back in 2003. In 2002 he received his Law degree from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City.
Lujambio has published several essays and articles on energy regulation and constitutional law topics, and is a member of the International Society for Mexico Energy, the Gulf Coast Power Association, and the Mexican Lawyers Bar.
John Pflueger
Principal Environmental Strategist
Dell
Energy Leadership: New Visions for a New Era
biography to come
Varun Rai
Director
University of Texas Energy Institute
Energy Leadership: New Visions for a New Era
Dr. Varun Rai is an Associate Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the Energy Systems Transformation Research Group (aka “Rai Group”). His interdisciplinary research – delving with issues at the interface of energy systems, complex systems, decision science, and public policy – focuses on studying how the interactions between the underlying social, behavioral, economic, technological, and institutional components of the energy system impact the diffusion of energy technologies. Over the last 15 years, his research has applied various analytical lenses to study technologies and policies in carbon capture and storage (CCS), fuels cells, oil & gas, plug-in hybrid vehicles (PEVs), and solar photovoltaics (PV). He has presented at several important forums, including the United States Senate Briefings, Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition, and Global Economic Symposium, and his research group’s work has been discussed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Bloomberg News, among other venues. He was a Global Economic Fellow in 2009 and holds the Elspeth Rostow Centennial Fellowship at the LBJ School. During 2013-2015 he was a Commissioner for the vertically-integrated electric utility Austin Energy. In 2016 the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) awarded him the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, which “was established to honor persons who, at under the age of 40, have made a distinguished contribution to the field of public policy analysis and management.” He received The Eyes of Texas Excellence Award, also in 2016, for making “noteworthy contributions to the UT community.” Dr. Rai has held the position of the Associate Dean for Research for the LBJ School since September 2017. He received his Ph.D. and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
David Raney
General Manager, Portfolio and Compliance Strategy
Toyota Motor North America
Fuels for Tomorrow’s Transport
David Raney has extensive experience in corporate sustainability and environmental management, product planning, transportation emissions modeling, and products liability management. A native of Oklahoma, Raney earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma. His professional career includes diesel engine development work at John Deere’s Product Engineering Center, managing environmental and safety technical affairs at Saab-Scania AB and General Motors, and directing Honda’s North American environmental and energy policy and regulatory product compliance strategy for 18 years. In semi-retirement, David provided consulting services to BP, RAND, and IHS-CERA on transportation related environmental and energy policy, which led to his latest position at Toyota as corporate manager in the Regulatory Affairs and Powertrain Planning division. David was a federal appointee to the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee and a member of EPA’s Mobile Source Technical Research Subcommittee. He completed UCLA’s Anderson School Executive MBA program in 2007.
David Spence
Baker Botts Chair in Law and Professor of Business, Government and Society
The University of Texas at Austin
Policy and Business Implications of a Green New Deal
biography to come
John Thompson
PetraScience Consultants
Making Minerals Great Again
Since 2012, John has partnered in a consulting business based in Vancouver, BC, focused on exploration, mining and sustainability. From 2013-18 he was also the Wold Professor of Environmental Balance for Human Sustainability at Cornell University. John has over 35 years working in the mining industry and related research, and has held diverse leadership roles in many organizations – Teck Resources, Genome BC, the World Economic Forum, Resources for Future Generations 2018, Society of Economic Geologists, Geoscience BC, Canada Mining Innovation Council, and MDRU-UBC. He is a director and advisory board member for several exploration, technology, and venture capital companies, and not-for-profit organizations focused on resources and sustainability.
Mark Vanderhelm
Vice President of Energy and Facilities Management
Walmart US
Keynote: Mark Vanderhelm, Vice President of Energy and Facilities Management at Walmart US
biography to come
Michael Wheeler
Principal Strategist
Equinor
Energy Leadership: New Visions for a New Era
Michael Wheeler is a Principal Strategist at Equinor (formerly Statoil) in Houston, Texas. With over a decade of industry experience, he has held both technical and commercial positions linked to assets in oil, gas, and renewables. Michael holds a B.S. degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin as well as an MBA from Rice University. In his current role as a member of Equinor’s Corporate Strategy & Innovation organization, Michael manages strategic initiatives across various value chains, further positioning Equinor during the ongoing energy transition.
Zifei Yang
Passenger Vehicles Program Lead
International Council on Clean Transportation
Fuels for Tomorrow’s Transport
Zifei Yang is the Passenger Vehicles Program Lead at ICCT. Her work is aimed at reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles on a global scale. Her research focuses on assessing the potential fuel consumption and emissions reductions from light-duty vehicle technologies and identifying global best practices in regards to fuel efficiency standards, fiscal policies, labeling programs, electrification, and compliance and enforcement. Ms. Yang has supported national and local policy development throughout the world, including in ASEAN countries, China, India, Turkey, Peru, and the EU. She holds a Master of Public Administration from American University, as well as dual bachelor’s degrees in Public Administration and Economics from Xiamen University (China).