Jeff Bladen is a distinguished energy leader with over a quarter-century of experience driving innovation at the intersection of grid reliability, market design, and digital infrastructure. A widely recognized expert on wholesale markets and grid operations, Jeff specializes in aligning complex energy systems with the demands of the rapidly evolving digital economy. 

Currently serving as Head of Energy at Verrus, Jeff leads the strategy and execution required to scale next-generation data centers defined by game-changing flexible capacity. As a company officer, he oversees the energy-centric site selection strategy, formalizing utility partnerships to best leverage flexible data centers with accelerated and more efficient utility interconnections. 

Prior to joining Verrus, Jeff served as Global Director of Energy at Meta Platforms, where he held broad responsibility for the company’s strategy for reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy across its global operations and supply chain. Leading teams across three continents, he drove the strategy for grid-scale decarbonization, building on Meta’s achievement of operating with 100% renewable energy. During his tenure, Meta helped found the industry-leading “ZEROgrid Initiative,” while he also oversaw the energy components of Meta’s net-zero carbon goals, managing a portfolio that added over 2 gigawatts of new sustainable energy per year. 

Jeff’s authority in grid operations is rooted in his tenure at the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), where he served in multiple executive capacities including Executive Director of Digital Strategy and Executive Director of System

Operations & Market Services. At MISO, he led a $150 million market platform renewal program, oversaw one of MISO’s largest operating divisions, and delivered digital guiding principles that transformed the organization’s approach to security and data. 

Alaina Bookstein is the Head of Sales and Partnerships at GridCARE, an innovative company using advanced analytics and AI to unlock latent grid capacity and accelerate interconnection for utilities and large-load customers.  In this role, Alaina leads GridCARE’s partnerships with leading datacenter developers and utilities.

Before joining GridCARE, Alaina led corporate development for Energy at AWS where she spearheaded strategic partnerships with leading energy companies  focused on driving clean-tech innovation at scale and consistently delivered $1B in annual revenue.

Prior to AWS, Alaina was Managing Director at Bridge Strategy Group, a management consultancy focused on serving CEOs at leading electric utilities which she sold after 10 years to Houlihan Lokey.  

Alaina started her career at McKinsey & Company and holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Northwestern University.

Nat is a co-founder of Halcyon, an AI-enabled energy information platform.  He has two decades’ experience as an analyst of energy, technology, markets and finance, and is known for his annual ‘Decarbonization’ presentation.  Nat was previously the chief content officer of BloombergNEF, and previously a venture partner at Voyager Ventures; he is a member of the advisory board of energy think tank Ember and an advisor to Arcadia. 

Peter Freed is the former Director of Energy Strategy at Meta. While at Meta, his team worked to advance grid decarbonization and reliability by creating solutions that overcome systemwide obstacles while also meeting Meta’s energy and net-zero goals. He worked in close partnership with large buyers, utilities, regulators, policy makers, developers, technology providers, and other market participants around the country to accelerate the transition to the zero-emission grid of the future. He was a founding board member of the Clean Energy Buyers Association. He is the founding partner of Near Horizon Group. Prior to Meta, he served as Director of TerraPass for more than 6 years, analyzing and implementing sustainable energy projects for a broad range of clients. He holds a BS in Earth Systems from Stanford University.

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Manali is a Technical Program Manager on the Advanced Energy Labs team at Google, where she drives the development of data center load flexibility and demand response solutions. Previously, she leveraged her expertise in analytics and energy markets to build forecasting and risk models for the company’s renewable energy portfolio. Manali also brings experience spanning utility-scale solar origination and power trading and forecasting. She holds a BSE in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University.

Dana Guernsey is a leading expert in global energy markets and brings fifteen years of experience developing virtual power plant and demand-side energy management products and first-of-its-kind programs to her role as Chief Executive Officer. Previously, as Chief Product Officer, Dana led the development of Voltus’s technology-enabled distributed energy resource platform, which connects Voltus’s customers and technology partners to the value that they can extract from their local energy markets, while contributing to a more resilient and decarbonized electric grid.

Before co-founding Voltus, Dana was Director of Product Marketing at FirstFuel, which offers cloud-based engagement software to help utilities deepen relationships with their business customers and increase energy efficiency. Prior to FirstFuel, she led corporate development and go-to-market strategies at Ambri, an MIT spinout company commercializing batteries for large-scale energy storage on the electric grid. Prior to that she was the Director of Energy Markets at EnerNOC, where she led a team responsible for the profitable management of the company’s complex portfolio of nearly 10,000 MWs of demand response assets, covering dozens of wholesale electricity markets and regulated utilities across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Dana grew up in New York City and holds an M.S. in Engineering Management, B.S. in Engineering, and B.A. from Dartmouth College. In her now home state of Massachusetts, recognized as the U.S. leader in energy efficiency by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Dana was named a Mass High Tech “Woman to Watch” in 2014 for her groundbreaking work in the energy and technology industries. Outside of work, Dana is likely to be found on the ski slopes, biking, or hiking with her two children.

Peter Hans Hirschboeck is the Founder and Managing Director of impactECI, a boutique consultancy focused on energy, climate, and infrastructure strategy with expertise in data center power, grid integration, and load flexibility. He has 20 years of experience spanning energy markets, infrastructure delivery, and stakeholder engagement, including leading the initiation and contracting of more than 6 GW of energy infrastructure supporting hyperscale data center development. Prior to impactECI, he served as an Energy Projects Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he worked on power procurement and clean energy initiatives for AWS’s global data center fleet in support of Amazon’s net-zero goals, and he served on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Energy Storage Association.​

He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.S. in Financial Mathematics from the University of Chicago, and is a licensed Professional Engineer (Electrical) in California. He also maintains an active thought-leadership and policy presence, including published analysis and formal market comments on data center flexibility and grid planning, and participates in industry advisory work at the intersection of AI load growth, infrastructure constraints, and decarbonization.

Charles Hua is the Founder and Executive Director of PowerLines, a nonprofit seeking to modernize the utility regulatory system to lower utility bills and grow the economy. Previously, Hua served as Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy and Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory. Hua’s work has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, CBS News, Bloomberg, Financial Times, and Politico. He has been recognized for his work as a TIME100 Next “Influential Rising Star,” U.S. Presidential Scholar, and as an Aspen Institute Fellow. Hua holds an A.B. from Harvard College.

Brian is a global energy and decarbonization leader with nearly 25 years of experience pioneering innovative approaches to marrying sustainability with business strategies. Brian is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Cloverleaf aims to solve the critical problem of expanding grid capacity to support the largest electric customer loads to spur economic growth and investment. Brian also serves as a Sr. Advisor with Green Strategies, advising early stage to Fortune 500 companies on energy and decarbonization strategies. Previously, Brian served as VP of Energy at Microsoft, supporting the development and execution of Microsoft’s global cloud and AI energy strategy. This included oversight of energy policy, procurement, renewable energy, distributed generation, and overall environmental impact. Prior to Microsoft Brian worked as a consultant at Brubaker & Associates, assisting Fortune 500 companies with energy procurement, policy, and sustainability matters.

Brian holds board positions with LineVision, a leader in dynamic line rating technology, VEIR, a pioneer in superconducting transmission technology, and the Institute for Energy Studies at Western Washington University. Brian has also previously served on the board of the American Wind Energy Association (now the American Clean Power Association). Brian holds an MBA from Webster University, a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Missouri.

Shayle Kann is a partner at Energy Impact Partners, the leading venture capital fund investing in companies shaping the future of energy and infrastructure, where he leads the firm’s investments at the frontier of climate tech. He is also the host of Catalyst, a podcast from Latitude Media that tackles big questions about how to decarbonize the planet.

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.

As Chief Product Officer and AES Next President, Chris Shelton leads a team addressing the energy industry’s biggest challenges by turning transformative ideas from concept into reality. He is responsible for developing and identifying new solutions to best meet our customers’ diverse needs, enabling us to accelerate a cleaner energy future for everyone.Throughout his career with AES, Chris has driven transformation in our global businesses through innovative business models and technologies, including energy efficiency, digital customer engagement, robotics, electric-mobility, and new clean energy solutions including wind, solar, and battery energy storage. He has built strategic solutions and capabilities into AES, including the acquisition and integration of our innovative high-growth solar team.Building on the broad industry expertise across AES, Chris pioneered the development of Lithium-ion battery storage for the electric industry by applying the technology to power markets for the first time in 2008 and was instrumental in the formation of Fluence, our joint venture with Siemens, the world leader in energy storage solutions and technologies. Under Chris’ leadership, AES has continued to support the development of scalable ecosystems for the clean energy transition. These include Uplight, the leading customer action platform for utilities and 5B, the prefab solar PV product delivering faster, higher density solar projects for customers. Chris is a member of the Boards of Fluence, Uplight and 5B.Chris received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and completed executive certificate programs at Georgetown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds several patents in battery storage, renewables integration, and electric vehicle and distributed energy resources management.

Elizabeth K. Whitney is an energy policy advocate, attorney, and enthusiast with twenty years’ experience in and around the federal government. Ms. Whitney has managed the boutique government relations firm Meguire Whitney since 2017, building on six years at its predecessor firm, Morgan Meguire. As a lobbyist she has represented clients in meetings with Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, EPA, DOE, and FERC, as well as participated on clients’ behalf in coalitions. Under her leadership, Meguire Whitney has been named a Top Performing Lobbying Firm by Bloomberg Government for four years running and was named to GovBiz Review’s Top 10 Lobbying Firms in 2024.

On Capitol Hill, Ms. Whitney was the Senior Legislative Assistant to Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), then-Chairman of the House Science Committee and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She advised Chairman Gordon on energy and environmental issues and worked closely with Science Committee staff on energy and environment initiatives. In addition, she managed appropriations, budget and tax issues, financial services, and transportation for Chairman Gordon, and served as his liaison to the centrist Blue Dog Coalition. She came to Capitol Hill in 2007 as an aide to Rep. Zack Space (D-OH), handling appropriations and transportation, among other issues.

She was a co-founder of the Women’s Congressional Staff Association, for which she was named
“Congressional Staffer of the Year” along with her co-founders by Women in Government Relations.
Prior to her time on Capitol Hill, she was a Government Affairs Associate at the American Public Works
Association. There, she managed a federal grant from the U.S. EPA educating water utilities on
environmental management practices. She began her career at the University of Michigan’s state
government relations office.

Ms. Whitney holds a B.A. in Communication from Muhlenberg College (2004), an M.A. in Political
Management from George Washington University (2008), and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law
Center (2015). She is a member of the Maryland State Bar and a three-time recipient of the Bryce
Harlow Fellowship, awarded to students working full-time who show strong promise and a commitment
to ethics in lobbying.

Ms. Whitney lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and four children. In 2023 she was appointed to
the Arlington County Commission on Climate Change, Energy & the Environment and was named Chair
of the Commission’s Energy Committee in 2025.