Laura Cummings is the Vice President of Sales with Camus Energy. She is an energy industry leader with more than 20 years of experience delivering complex energy solutions for utilities, developers, industrial customers, and system operators. With Camus, Laura facilitates flexible interconnection planning and operations between utilities and AI infrastructure partners.

Prior to her time at Camus she led commercial and engineering teams for Energy Exemplar, AiDash, EnerNOC, and Clearesult. At Energy Exemplar, she drove the adoption of advanced energy analytics platforms across the Americas during a period of rapid industry transformation. Laura holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Tulane University. Laura is committed to community impact and lives the principle of Service Above Self through her work with nonprofit organizations at home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Zach is the CEO and Co-Founder of Base Power. He previously worked as an investor at Thrive Capital and Blackstone, and holds a degree from USC.

Erika serves as the executive champion for EnergyHub’s clients and end-user customers. Erika’s team is responsible for ensuring the voice of the customer is central to EnergyHub’s strategy and product, and includes sales, program delivery, customer and client engagement, and market development.

Erika joined EnergyHub in 2015. Erika has more than 15 years of experience in the energy and software space, having served as the SVP of Corporate Development at Recyclebank and VP of Business Development at ThinkEco. She serves on the board of Advanced Energy United, was the Vice Chair of the Advanced Energy Management Alliance (AEMA), and is former Co-Chair of the Women in Demand Management group of the Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA).

Erika holds a BA in environmental studies from Vassar College, a MESc from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Paul Dickson is President and Chief Revenue Officer of Sunrun, America’s largest provider of home battery storage, solar, and home-to-grid power plants. He previously was a founding member of Vivint Solar, serving as CRO and earlier leading finance and capital markets. Before that, he co-founded Meter Solutions Pros, an energy management and smart-grid company acquired by Vivint, Inc.

Jen Downing is an Operating Partner at Ara Partners, a global private markets investment firm that specializes in industrial decarbonization. At Ara, Jen develops and executes growth plans alongside Ara’s portfolio company leadership.

Jen joined Ara from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office where she chaired the 1706 Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program that committed over $40B of low-cost loans to improve US power and gas infrastructure. In her prior role on DOE’s ‘Liftoff’ team, Jen led the 2023 publication of the Pathway to Commercial Liftoff for Virtual Power Plants—a national strategy for increasing grid flexibility and distributed energy solutions—and co-authored ​similar work on advanced grid technologies in 2024 and 2025.

Prior to DOE, Jen was a Senior Manager at Bain & Company, leading client engagements ranging from climate tech investment advisory, integration of sustainability priorities into food & ag company operations, and transition scenario-planning for energy companies.

Jen holds a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, where she was a Baker Scholar.

Caroline Golin, PhD is the Founder and CEO of Envision Energy Advisors, where she partners across the energy ecosystem to tackle the grid’s most complex challenges through innovation in capital structuring, procurement, and strategic development partnerships.

Previously, Caroline served as Global Head of Energy Market Development and Innovation at Google, where she led a global strategy team responsible for meeting the company’s energy needs—including its most ambitious sustainability moonshot: achieving full decarbonization of operations by 2030. Managing a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, she and her team pioneered new business models, forged novel partnerships to scale clean technology, and advanced market reforms to power the world’s digital infrastructure with clean energy.

Caroline holds both a Master’s and PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and four children.

Mark Gudiksen is a Managing Partner at Piva Capital, where he invests in breakthrough technologies shaping a new industrial era, with a focus on energy, advanced materials, industrial systems, and automation. He brings more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of technology, company building, and investing, including senior leadership roles spanning healthcare and industrial biotechnology at TPG. Earlier in his career, Mark was at McKinsey & Company, where he advised companies on a broad range of strategic initiatives, growth challenges, and M&A opportunities across multiple sectors.

Colby has spent the last 11 years at Tesla Energy and was one of the division’s early employees. She currently heads the Global Residential Energy business, which encompasses Powerwall, direct solar and storage installation in the US, Wall Connector, and Home Charging, and the Virtual Power Plant and Tesla Electric retail energy businesses. Previously, she led sales and operations for Megapack (utility-scale storage) and Powerwall channel. In her career at Tesla, she has held leadership roles across Business Development, Strategy, Operations, and Product. Prior to Tesla Colby worked as a consultant for BCG in Chicago. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, and an MBA in Finance from Wharton.

Ryan Hledik is a Principal of The Brattle Group.  His consulting practice focuses on regulatory, planning, and strategy matters related to emerging energy technologies and policies. Mr. Hledik’s work on the grid edge has been cited in federal and state regulatory decisions, as well as by Forbes, National Geographic, The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post. He is a founding Alumni Policy Advisor to the Kleiman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Ryan received his M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, and his B.S. in Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tom Hunt is the CEO of Pivot Energy, one of the nation’s leading distributed solar and storage independent power producers. With nearly 20 years of experience in clean energy, corporate development, and public policy, Tom has guided the company’s growth, with Pivot now delivering hundreds of megawatts of distributed solar and storage projects annually. Under his leadership, Pivot has paired commercial scale with a purpose-driven approach to renewable energy development, delivering lasting community impact. Tom is also one of the founders and Board Chair of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), the national trade association representing the U.S. community solar industry.

Before Pivot, Tom held leadership roles at Clean Energy Collective and the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. Based in Denver, he holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Washington and Lee University and an M.S. in Mineral and Energy Economics from the Colorado School of Mines. Outside of work, Tom enjoys the Colorado outdoors, ultimate frisbee, bluegrass music, and spending time with his wife and three daughters.

Sabeeha is the Founding Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Piq Energy where she oversees partnership creation to accelerate grid interconnection. Her collaborations encompass all stakeholders in energy development including utilities and system operators, project developers, asset owners, investors, technology providers, and ecosystem enablers to reduce development friction, generate energy transparency, and enable grid flexibility. Prior to joining Piq Energy, Sabeeha oversaw partnership and portfolio development efforts for energy and industrials at Munich Re Ventures, built the decarbonization advisory practice at Engie Impact, and served as an Energy M&A consultant at Deloitte Consulting. She was identified as a Global Corporate Venturing Emerging Leader in 2025 and GreenBiz 30under30 in 2022. Sabeeha resides in San Francisco and spends her personal time hiking, exploring farmers markets, and reading. 

Dr. Fahimeh Kazempour, Ph.D., P.Eng., is Director of Distribution System Operator at Hydro One, where she leads the company’s DER Enablement Strategy, DSO transformation, and procurement of DER services through local flexibility markets and Virtual Power Plants. With over a decade of utility experience and deep expertise in grid modernization, DER integration, and virtual power plants, Fahimeh is driving innovation and shaping the future of Ontario’s electricity system. Fahimeh has held leadership roles at Wood Mackenzie⁠ and Alectra Utilities and holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Energy Systems) from the University of Toronto, where she focused on modeling and control structures for virtual power plants.

Ryan has over twenty years of experience in electricity market design, regulation, and policy development. He joined ERCOT in 2022 as Manager, Market Design. Prior to joining ERCOT, Ryan spent 10 years in market development and strategy roles at the Independent Electricity System Operation (IESO) in Toronto, Canada. Ryan began his career working on regulatory and legislative policy issues at the Ontario Ministry of Energy. He has a BA in Political Science from Western University and a MPA from Queen’s University.

Molly Knoll is a clean energy and regulatory policy expert with more than a decade of experience at the intersection of law, public service, and energy markets. She brings deep expertise in distributed energy policy, community solar, consumer protection, grid modernization, and regulatory strategy.

Before joining Align Energy Advisors, Molly served as Vice President of Policy at the Coalition for Community Solar Access, where she led policy strategy and member engagement across more than 20 states. In that role, she helped advance community solar legislation and regulatory approaches focused on equitable access and market development.

Rachel Marcus is the Head of Platform Operations at Flip Energy, where she focuses on strategy, deployment and operations of distributed storage in grid services programs. For nearly two decades, Rachel has devoted her career to the development of distributed energy resources and grid services. She began her career at the Delaware Energy Office supporting energy policy and renewables deployment. Rachel spent 7 years at EnerNOC/EnelX, before joining as the first operations hire at Voltus. Rachel later went on to lead grid services for Gridpoint and EverBright, a Nextera subsidiary where she developed and operated over 100 MW of grid services successfully. Rachel also served as a Principal Analyst and Head of DERs at WoodMackenzie, the leading provider of data and intelligence in the energy industry. Rachel holds degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, and energy and environmental policy.

Therese Miranda-Blackney is the founder of Grid Future Strategies. A lifelong energy nerd, her experience spans utilities, start ups, and policy, with an emphasis on delivering clean energy technology at scale. During her time at Puget Sound Energy, she designed customer programs, including community solar and transportation electrification offerings, and built the utility’s DER strategy team from scratch. More recently, she led business development and product for Shifted Energy’s residential load flex platform. Therese now runs Grid Future Strategies, working across the energy industry to accelerate the scaling of load flexibility solutions through commercial strategy, landscape analysis, and strategic partnerships.

Medi Naseri is the Founder and CEO of LōD Technologies, where he leads the development of energy-intelligent infrastructure for flexible data centers and the broader compute ecosystem. 

With a PhD in Electrical Engineering specializing in control and power systems, Medi brings deep technical expertise to the challenge of scaling AI within real-time grid constraints.

Under his leadership, LōD integrates live grid intelligence directly into compute workloads, enabling the compute value chain to reduce energy costs, unlock additional capacity, and maintain strict reliability standards without compromising SLAs or user experience. The company now manages more than 1,000 MW of flexible data centers across the U.S. and Canada.

Medi is advancing a model where flexibility shifts from abstract principle to engineered, controllable capability across the entire compute value chain, an approach he will explore at Transition AI as he shares how tight coordination between energy and compute is redefining the economics and scalability of future AI infrastructure.

Zach Pollock is the Director of Electric and Gas Planning for Colorado within Xcel Energy’s Integrated System Planning group. He is responsible for developing strategy for planning and integration of emerging technologies to help enable the energy delivery system of the future. Prior to this role, he led many of the Company’s regulatory initiatives related to integrated system planning for the electric distribution system and gas LDC system, DER integration, renewable energy planning, and other related policy issues. Prior to joining Xcel Energy, Mr. Pollock spent more than a decade in various energy consulting, product, and research roles advising utilities, regulators, technology vendors, and investment firms on topics including integrated distribution system planning, interconnection and integration of DERs, non-wires and non-pipes alternatives, and emerging energy technologies. He has authored several industry-leading reports as a former industry analyst and has been quoted in numerous publications. Mr. Pollock holds a Master’s of Science degree in Sustainability Management from Columbia University with a focus on energy policy, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resources from Cornell University.

Alex leads the go-to-market strategy and management of SPAN’s utility and grid channel, driving growth through both strategic partners and direct utility engagements. In this role, he explores and develops new business models and value streams for SPAN’s electrification infrastructure products, while also overseeing key solar and storage strategic accounts. Additionally, his responsibilities cover partnerships to further expand the ecosystem of assets and controls capabilities for SPAN products.

He previously led several commercial functions at AutoGrid, including incubating and launching the turnkey virtual power plant business unit there. Before working in cleantech, Alex served as an officer in the U.S. Navy SEAL teams and subsequently earned an MBA and MS from Stanford University. He also holds a BSE in Civil Engineering from Duke University.

Dr. Sarah Russell-Smith is the General Manager of Flexibility at Octopus Energy U.S., where she leads the development of cutting-edge behind-the-meter automation technologies and innovative products for Octopus’ Texas retail business and for regulated utilities across the US. With a deep commitment to driving environmental, social, and economic sustainability, Sarah has extensive experience working across North America, Australia, Europe, and Asia.

Before joining Octopus Energy, Sarah served as Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer at Amber Electric, an Australian electricity retailer and technology scale-up. She has also held roles at the Boston Consulting Group, the World Wide Fund for Nature, and NYSERDA, where she focused on strategic sustainability initiatives. Sarah holds a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and is driven by her passion for creating a sustainable energy future.

Jigar Shah is an energy entrepreneur, investor, and strategist who was featured on the 2024 TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people. He is Co-Managing Partner of Multiplier LLC, a boutique advisory firm helping clean energy, cleantech, and climate tech companies accelerate their growth.

Shah most recently served as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, the federal government’s clean energy investment platform. He transformed the office, overseeing a tenfold increase in loan authority and deploying $108 billion in debt financing for clean energy and advanced transportation projects across the United States.

Prior to his government service, Shah was Co-Founder and President of Generate Capital ($10B AUM), which largely invented low-cost, infrastructure-as-a-service financing. Previously, Shah founded SunEdison, where he pioneered third-party power purchase agreement solar financing. He successfully sold SunEdison for $389 million. Shah also served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global nonprofit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change.

Arushi Sharma Frank, Esq. is an internationally recognized STEM policy architect and energy engineering-specialized attorney guiding major venture and PE-backed companies through the complexities of AI-era power infrastructure (Luminary Strategies, LLC). She is also a non-resident expert at CSIS, Washington DC, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and an executive council member at Univ. of Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center.  She is currently leading the “Connect-and-Manage” AI loads proposal in ERCOT, advises and invests in industry leading grid tech like Nvidia-backed Emerald AI (USD $42.5mn Series A) and Base Power Company (USD $1bn Series C).  Prior strategy roles: head of Energy Markets Strategy at Tesla, US generation compliance lead for Constellation-Exelon, Director and Counsel at the Electric Power Supply Association, and Counsel at the American Gas Association.

Sharma Frank has shaped and launched retail and wholesale energy operating companies, designed market rules to enable SCED-integrated solutions for energy storage and aggregated DER capacity, served twice as a FERC expert on the CFTC EEMAC, managed gas and power policy proceedings ranging from price formation, connected entities, cross-market manipulation, energy swaps regulation, and capacity market design, and led the creation of Tesla’s U.S. and global energy company strategy.  Her resilience infrastructure work includes writing, shaping, advocating for, and securing regulatory approvals for new grid resilience programs at record speed – one year for the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program in Texas (ADER), 1.5 years for Puerto Rico VPP (LUMA), 1.2 years for New Orleans VPP (Entergy), one year for ERCOT market design reform to interconnect Tesla Megapack. She has also launched and ran an eight ISO/RTO generation requirements compliance program for the entire Exelon Generation power fleet, as its former Assistant Gen Counsel.  In her first energy industry position, she built the responsible natural gas development platform for the American Gas Association, shaped the White House action plan under EO 13604 on infrastructure permit streamlining, ran the WOTUS advocacy platform for the gas utilities industry, and reformed CFTC regulations for gas and power commodity options.

Ben (“see-grin”) Sigrin is Product Director at GridBeyond where he leads development of software to forecast, optimize, and control flexibility services in real time. He is also the principal investigator of a Department of Energy project to demonstrate how GridBeyond’s software platform can more reliably and affordably provide ancillary services to the Public Service Company of New Mexico’s power system over the next 3 years. Mr. Sigrin was previously a senior researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he participated in seminal power system studies including the Los Angeles 100% renewable energy study and the North American Renewable Integration Study. He also co-invented the dGen model, winning an R&D100 award in 2022.

Sam leads the product function at Lunar, ensuring the products we make are serving the needs of our customers (whether they be installers, homeowners, or energy companies). Prior to Lunar, he led the design and delivery of a world-first local flexibility market platform at Centrica. He recently relocated from London to the Bay Area and is enjoying the incessant sunshine!