Holly Adams is Senior Vice President of Energy on Beale’s development team, bringing
more than 18 years of experience developing and delivering large scale generation and
transmission infrastructure projects with a focus on renewable generation. Prior to
Beale, Holly served as Vice President of Origination at Pattern Energy and President of
GridLiance High Plains at NextEra Energy. Earlier, she was Vice President of
Origination at Avangrid Renewables. Before joining the clean energy industry, Holly
served in the United States Air Force where she attained the rank of captain and
received multiple awards and recognitions for outstanding service.

Kojo Ako-Asare is Managing Director and member of Decarbonization Partners’
executive team. His responsibilities include executive leadership, origination, and
portfolio management. Kojo brings over two decades of experience, including:
principal investing, M&A, real estate development and business operations. Prior
to joining Decarbonization Partners, Kojo has served in various leadership roles
at leading innovation organizations such as, Alphabet, GoogleX and Emerson
Collective.
Kojo is a decorated US Marine Corps combat veteran who has served in
Afghanistan’s Southern Helmand province as part Operation Enduring Freedom.
He has earned graduate degrees from Columbia University in both Business
Administration and International Affairs. He also holds a B.S.E. in Aerospace
Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Maeve Allsup is Latitude Media’s founding reporter. She was previously a tech reporter at Morning Brew, where she covered tech policy and regulation, as well as the EV industry. Earlier in her career she spent several years as a legal reporter, covering California’s courts for Bloomberg Industries, where she broke news about Activision Blizzard, Google, Uber, and others.

Before moving to California, Maeve lived in Santiago, Chile for several years where she created content for an international education company and worked as a freelance journalist.

Maeve studied International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in environmental policy and conflict resolution. She is based in San Francisco.

Matt is a Senior Associate at The Ad Hoc Group, a specialized consulting firm that accelerates growth for start-ups and innovative companies operating in a complex and highly-regulated energy sector. His work focuses on data centers/large loads and resilience. He was previously a consultant to DOE’s ARPA-E at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he focused on the SCALEUP program, which funds pilot-scale validation projects for innovative energy technologies. Matt holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University and a Master of Engineering Management from Duke University.

Brock Andrus is an experienced investment executive with more than two decades in commercial real estate finance and structured capital. He has overseen the financing of over $35 billion in commercial real estate assets, spanning multifamily, workforce housing, manufactured housing, industrial, logistics, office, seniors housing, and single-family rental sectors. He has extensive experience structuring corporate credit facilities, securitizations, and NAV-based lines, as well as designing proprietary financial tools to enhance performance analytics and asset-level decision-making. His expertise spans the full capital stack—ranging from senior and mezzanine debt to equity and fund-level vehicles.

As Co-CEO, he led institutional equity funds exceeding $1.7 billion, guiding fund strategy, asset-level investment decisions, and portfolio-level risk management. Brock has managed institutional teams through market cycles, led valuation and risk management committees, and driven investor reporting and engagement.

Known for his steady leadership and precision in execution, Brock brings together institutional discipline, entrepreneurial agility, and a deep command of capital formation.

Astrid Atkinson is CEO and Co-Founder of Camus, a grid orchestration software platform enabling electric utilities to interconnect large loads and DERs faster through flexibility. Astrid built her career on managing complex, distributed systems. Before founding Camus, she spent 15 years at Google in systems reliability, most recently as Senior Director of Software Engineering. She led the development of Google’s global web-serving platform and the common, performant, scalable set of infrastructure frameworks which now power all of Google’s major product lines. A respected expert on the clean energy transition and data center growth, Astrid is frequently quoted in top energy, utility, and climate publications. She serves on the Gridwise Alliance’s Board of Directors and speaks globally as a thought leader on distributed systems and reliability engineering. 

Ricardo de Azevedo is CTO and Co-Founder of ON.energy, leading the technology vision behind the company’s patented controls and power platforms that enable gigawatt-scale deployments. He is responsible for the design and development of AI UPS™, a medium-voltage UPS built to sit between grid and compute as a dynamic power layer for AI workloads. Ricardo also leads the architecture and delivery of ON.command™, the real-time intelligence layer that forecasts, dispatches, and controls energy assets with real-time commands and redundant, fault-tolerant operation. His work spans advanced automation, grid-forming capability, and system-level resilience, translating volatile load behavior into predictable power quality for mission-critical sites. His background blends engineering depth with commercial fluency, shaped by roles at Goldman Sachs and Barclays and entrepreneurial experience. He holds a BS from Rice University and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida International University where he specialized in microgrid and energy storage control systems.

Christian Belady is a widely recognized pioneer in the data center industry, with over four decades of experience in global data center and infrastructure development and management. Prior to joining DigitalBridge, he served as Vice President of Data Center Research and Development for Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure Organization, where he led efforts developing transformative technologies for scaling cloud and AI infrastructure. Mr. Belady is credited with creating the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric used by the industry and has contributed significantly to industry standards and organizations like ASHRAE and The Green Grid. His industry recognition includes the 2017 DataCloud “Data Center Thought Leadership” Award,  the iMasons “2020 Industry Luminary” Award, the 2023 Interglobix Titans List and the 2024 Northern Virginia Technology Council Data Center Icon Award. Recently he also was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Marc Bielas is the Head of Venture Building in the Western U.S. at SE Ventures, a $1B AUM venture capital platform backed by Schneider Electric. He focuses on early-stage investment and venture acceleration in grid technology, electrification, industrial automation, and critical infrastructure software. Previously, Marc was an Executive in Residence at Roadrunner Ventures, incubating technologies emerging from DOE and DOD national labs and leading universities alongside America’s Frontier Fund and the New Mexico Sovereign Wealth Fund. From 2019–2023, he founded and led Quilt, a vertically integrated construction technology company that oversaw $350M worth of multifamily developments and later served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Turner Construction supporting M&A diligence and new venture development within data centers. Earlier, Marc led large-scale IoT and smart infrastructure programs, including a 600,000+ sensor LPWAN deployment and IoT development for a 235 acre smart city in the U.S. Marc serves on the board of the Helena Foundation (critical-risk resilience across democracy, biosecurity and climate) and is an alumni mentor at Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment. He holds a B.A. from Yale University in Architecture and Computer Science (Computer Graphics) and was an Energy Studies Scholar.

Ian Black is the Global Head – Power Strategy & Supply for Digital Realty.  Ian has two decades’ experience innovating in power markets and products; building and leading teams who have built over 7GW in 30 states.  

Ian leads a global power strategy for Digital Realty, focusing on market policies to support large load customers, load flexibility, and innovative market design to make power more accessible, faster, cheaper and leaner. Previous roles include Chief Development Officer at Engie North America, Energy Principal at Amazon Web Services, and Vice President – Development, Origination, M&A at EDF Renewable Energy.

Ian is a proud Coloradan – he grew up and enjoys all types of Type 2 mountain fun. To keep up with his three kids in San Diego, Ian added Type 1 fun in surfing and triathlons. Ian loves what he does and brings passion and experience to any power market challenge.

Ian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Colorado, a Master’s of Business Strategy and a Master’s of Science in Energy & Ecology from the University of Michigan.

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 SVP, Head of Business Development 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.

Catherine Boudreau is a senior reporter at Latitude Media. She’s spent a decade covering, energy, climate and agriculture issues at the intersection of business and policy. Her stories have taken her from a solar manufacturing plant in rural Georgia to global climate summits in Egypt and Dubai.

Catherine was previously a senior sustainability reporter at Business Insider, focusing on how climate change and the energy transition affect the economy. Before that, she worked at POLITICO, where she launched a newsletter on corporate climate accountability. She received a James Beard Award for an investigation into federal nutrition research. Her reporting has also been featured on CBS News, WAMU’s 1A, WBUR’s On Point, Marketplace, and C-SPAN.

Catherine is a native Vermonter and carries pure maple syrup to her favorite brunch spots in D.C., her current home. Contact Catherine at catherine@latitudemedia.com or on Signal at @cboudreau.37.

Ben Brown is the Chief Executive Officer of Renew Home, a leader in residential virtual power plants and home energy management. Prior to Renew Home, Ben led many of the Nest and Google Home consumer products and services over the past decade and is one of the founding members of the Google Wifi, Google Home and smart home efforts. Before Google, Ben started and sold a smart home energy management company and spent his early career building climate and energy forecasting tools for the UN, US Department of Energy, and the EPA. Ben holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Wesleyan University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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. 

David Chernis is the Director of Flexible Compute Platforms at CPower Energy. With a
strong background in energy, blockchain, AI and technology, David leads innovative projects
that drive innovation, grid reliability and profitability in the Mining, HPC and Demand Response
sectors. He holds a BA degree from the University of Miami and has completed recently
completed executive development programs at Harvard, Wharton, and Babson. These
programs include:
• Harvard University: Artificial Intelligence in Business: Creating Value with Machine
Learning
• Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania: Economics of Blockchain and
Digital Assets
• Babson College: Mastering Generative AI in your Business
David is also the creator of GridGold while at Wharton, a theoretical Demand Response token
built as a layer 2 application on Ethereum. Utilizing Smart Contracts to quickly settle Demand
Response performance and assign CO2 reduction credits, this tokenized approach to Demand
Response allows for accelerated DR transactions leveraging the blockchain and high level of
automation implemented by large-scale miners.
Based in New York, David is known for his strategic vision and ability to foster collaborative
environments, making significant contributions to the field of energy innovation in the HPC and
grid reliability sectors.

Gia Clark is a Power Marketing Director of ENGIE Data Center Acceleration team, leading strategic initiatives to expedite spped to power for large load. With experience spanning renewable project development, land acquisition, permitting, and energy market analytics, she brings a grounded, end‑to‑end view of how power projects move from local engagement to strategic siting.

Before joining ENGIE, Gia analyzed market trends and PPA pricing at LevelTen Energy, supporting major energy buyers as they navigated shifting market conditions. Today, she helps clients evaluate a range of power‑delivery approaches—from conventional grid‑interconnection to near‑site hybrids to behind‑the‑meter options—to balance speed, cost, emissions, and operational risk. She is known for connecting development realities with strategic insights as AI reshapes power demand and infrastructure planning.

Katie Clasen is a principal at Prelude Ventures, where she specializes in industrial decarbonization, advanced manufacturing, climate infrastructure, physical AI and minerals. A third-generation engineer, she has spent her life on the factory floor. Before turning to investing, Katie worked in technical and commercial roles across the climate and energy sectors, including at Shell and Sila Nanotechnologies, where she worked in large-scale manufacturing and high volume industrials.

Scott Clavenna is co-founder and CEO of Latitude Media, where he is leading its strategy and expansion into news, industry research, and events on the frontiers of climate technology. He occasionally contributes interviews and commentary pieces to the news site.

Most recently, Scott Clavenna served as Chairman of Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, where he contributed to the strategic guidance of Wood Mackenzie’s work in the global energy transition. Prior to Wood Mackenzie, Mr. Clavenna was the co-founder and CEO of Greentech Media and helped develop it into the leading source of integrated news, industry research, conferences, and executive councils in the clean energy economy. Greentech Media was acquired by Wood Mackenzie in 2016 and in the subsequent 4 years achieved all the goals of the acquisition while expanding its reach and breadth through its integration with acquired organizations and Wood Mackenzie’s power markets and energy transition groups.

Prior to Greentech Media, Mr. Clavenna was a market analyst in the broadband telecommunications industry in various media and research organizations.

For more than 30 years, Bob Davidoff has focused on building systems where compute,
power, thermals, and economics intersect. His work has always been grounded in real
infrastructure systems designed to deploy, operate, and scale in the real world.
His background spans data center architecture, high-performance computing, Bitcoin
infrastructure, and energy systems. He specializes in how large-scale compute
environments are powered, cooled, and integrated with the electric grid.
Bob believes the next generation of infrastructure will come from rethinking the
relationship between data centers and energy. His vision is to build systems in which
data centers are not simply consumers of electricity but active participants in the energy
ecosystem infrastructure, capable of dynamically orchestrating power consumption and
operating as flexible grid assets or virtual power plants while delivering massive
compute capacity.
At Bentaus, he focuses on developing data center infrastructure and energy
orchestration systems that allow high-density compute to scale responsibly while
supporting grid stability and resilience.
Prior to Bentaus, Bob worked as CEO and Co-Founder of Financial Media Corp. and
was an IT Consultant. He has a B.S. in Management Information Systems from Barry
University.

Brett Foster is Vice President, Renewable Energy at McCarthy Building Companies, where he leads business development with emphasis on innovative deal structuring for utility-scale solar and storage projects across the U.S. Known for crafting bespoke commercial frameworks including creative LNTP approaches, risk-sharing mechanisms, and schedule and financing aligned EPC structures, Brett works closely with IPPs, utilities, and investors to convert complex opportunities into bankable, long-term partnerships. His focus on disciplined execution, transparent collaboration, and aligning contract terms with project economics has helped clients reliably advance large renewable programs in dynamic market conditions. McCarthy is one of the nation’s leading solar & storage EPCs having commissioned over 19GW of solar & 15GWhrs of storage with emphasis on providing world-class experiences for all of our partners.

Angelita Gardner-Kittrell is the Manager of Demand Side Operations within the Electric
Transmission (ET) organization at Dominion Energy Virginia. The Demand Side Operations
Department’s inception began in the ET Strategic Initiatives Department, where Angelita
was charged to build the department and a data center load curtailment program from the
ground up. The result of that effort is CAPFLEX, a first of its kind program that enables data
centers within constrained areas to add non-firm load beyond their firm load allocation.
That non-firm, or flexible load, is subject to curtailments when the transmission system
approaches emergency conditions. Her team is now a part of the System Operations
Center organization, where CAPFLEX continues to be piloted and where the team is
actively exploring further solutions to support Dominion Energy Virginia’s growing energy
demands.

Starting as an intern, Angelita has worked across multiple departments at Dominion Energy
Virginia, including Nuclear Licensing, Station Nuclear Safety, Distribution Planning, System
Protection, Distribution Substation Projects, Six Sigma, Right of Way & Permitting, ET Line
Project Management, and ET Line Construction. She holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering
from North Carolina A&T State University.

Ashwin Goel is a seasoned renewable energy leader and Director of Sales at Nextpower
(formerly Nextracker). In this role, he partners with IPP and utilities nationwide to deliver
optimized solar solutions that lower LCOE, mitigate project risk, and enhance long -term
system performance and reliability.

With more than 16 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, Ashwin has held roles
spanning development, sales, M&A, and asset management across solar, wind, and battery
storage. Prior to joining Nextpower, he worked with leading renewable compani es including
GE, Vestas, Leeward Renewable Energy, and SunEdison, where he contributed to the
advancement and commercialization of large -scale clean energy projects.
Ashwin earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Wisconsin –
Madison.

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.

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.

Sarah Greenberg is an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she is a member of the firm’s energy and climate solutions practice. Sarah helps independent power producers, clean energy project developers, industry associations, and investors navigate an increasingly complex energy sector. Sarah is skilled at both navigating and shaping the federal energy regulatory landscape, and her practice is poised to guide clients through emerging challenges related to interconnecting with and participating in organized wholesale electric markets.

Prior to joining the firm, Sarah worked in the Office of General Counsel at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where she served as lead attorney on a landmark rulemaking amending the Commission’s generator interconnection rules. She also provided counsel on high-profile matters involving wholesale electricity market design and transmission planning and cost allocation. Before that, she was an associate in the environmental and natural resources group at a large international law firm.

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.

Lisa Martine Jenkins is Latitude Media’s editor. She was previously a reporter for Protocol and Morning Consult, and her work has appeared in Heatmap, The Guardian, and Civil Eats, among others. In 2017, she was the Overseas Press Club Foundation’s Stan Swinton Fellow, placed at The Associated Press in Mexico City. Earlier in her career, she worked in production for both the Marketplace Morning Report radio program and San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club.

Lisa has an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she studied energy and environmental policy. While there, she conducted research on both rural electrification in Myanmar and the impact of sea level rise on nuclear spent fuel storage; the latter was published in Energy Policy.

She lives in Brooklyn, and is originally from the Bay Area. You can find more of her work  at lisamartinejenkins.com.

RJ Johnson is the Chief Commercial Officer at Form Energy.

Prior to joining Form Energy, RJ excelled as a leader in the energy sector. At Tesla Energy, he spearheaded Energy Operations, driving business development, sales, operations, and maintenance across utility, commercial, and residential storage and solar markets. RJ also managed service operations for Tesla’s global Supercharger network.

Before Tesla, RJ held pivotal roles at NextEra Energy Resources, notably as Vice President of Origination. In this capacity, he championed market and product development, engaged customers, and led contracting efforts for wind, solar, and storage projects across North America, serving utilities, municipalities, co-operatives, and commercial & industrial clients.

RJ’s professional journey began as a U.S. Army officer, where he earned distinction with two Bronze Star Medals for his exceptional leadership during combat operations. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Trupti Kalbag is Vice President of Origination & Commercial Contracts Management at AES, where she partners with utilities, C&I customers, and data centers to develop innovative energy solutions. She also leads the team, overseeing Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) execution and ensuring a seamless, customer‑centric experience.

With a proven track record of originating and executing more than 8.5 GW of wind, solar, and energy storage contracts, Trupti brings deep expertise in commercial strategy, portfolio execution, and complex deal structuring. Before joining AES, she served as Director of Origination at sPower, where she managed key U.S. utility relationships and delivered a robust pipeline of clean energy projects.

Prior to entering the energy sector, Trupti spent 15 years as an urban planner, contributing to major development and infrastructure initiatives across Atlanta, New York/New Jersey, and Boston. She holds a Master’s in City Planning from Georgia Tech and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, and recently completed the LEAD Business Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Trupti lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and enjoys traveling and cooking in her spare time.

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.

Rahul Kar is the founder and CEO of Hammerhead AI, a company building reinforcement-learning “control agents” to orchestrate power, cooling, and compute in AI data centers to increase token throughput under power constraints. Kar previously held senior leadership roles at AutoGrid, including Chief Operating Officer, and spent years working at the intersection of AI/software and power systems. He holds engineering degrees from MIT and Texas A&M University.

Oliver Kerr is Managing Director at Aurora Energy Research, a leading global power market analytics company. In his 10 years at Aurora, he has held various roles in advisory, research and business development, helping clients deploy billions of dollars in capital while navigating a rapidly evolving energy transition. Most recently, he helped launch and grow the US business to 150 experts serving over 300 utilities, developers, investors, lenders, government and large consumers across North America. Prior to Aurora, Oliver held roles with the World Bank and UK Government. He has a undergraduate degree from Oxford and graduate degrees from Harvard and UCL. 

Stephen Lacey is the co-founder and executive editor of Latitude Media and the co-host of Open Circuit. He helps shape editorial coverage, live events, and creative partnerships. He’s a veteran journalist, editor, and producer who’s been running news teams and making audio programming about the clean energy transition for nearly two decades.

Ahren Lieth is the Director of Systems Engineering at FlexGen, a leading provider of energy storage solutions and software for grid modernization. With over a decade of experience in systems and electrical engineering, Ahren oversees the design, integration, and performance of complex energy storage projects that support grid stability, renewable integration, and energy resilience.

At FlexGen, Ahren leads cross-functional engineering teams, bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and real-world deployment. His expertise spans power systems architecture, control systems, and field operations, with a focus on scalable solutions that accelerate the transition to a cleaner energy future.

Ahren delivers mission-critical energy projects across diverse markets and is passionate about advancing innovation in the clean energy space.

Saxon McKinven is a Director of Origination at Geronimo Power (a Brookfield Company), where he leads power offtake and commercial strategy for utility-scale energy projects across U.S. wholesale markets. He has completed over 1 GW of transactions across MISO, SPP, PJM, and ERCOT, supporting the development of wind, solar, and energy storage projects. Saxon focuses on structuring power solutions for utilities, corporations, and large-load customers, with a growing emphasis on meeting data center demand with scalable, reliable power supply.

Gabe Messercola is the Director of Data Center Solutions at EDF power solutions, a market-leading independent power producer in North America. He specializes in business development, focusing on asset hybridization and behind-the-meter power offtake strategies.

In May 2023, Gabe participated in a panel discussion on ‘Developing and Operating Hybrid Projects’ hosted by the American Clean Power Association, where he highlighted the numerous benefits of co-located large loads. In May 2024, he successfully closed EDF Renewables’ first utility-scale behind-the-meter transaction with Soluna Holdings, Inc. This deal involves co-locating a 166 MW data center to an operational 272 MW wind energy project in South Texas.

Prior to embarking on a career in renewable energy, Gabe earned his degree in Environmental Analysis and Policy with a concentration in Sustainable Energy from Boston University.

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.

Dr. Margarita Patria is a expert at the intersection of energy economics, market design, and data analytics. As a Principal at CRA International, she provides data-driven solutions in market design and policy analysis to utilities, regulators, ISOs, and other electricity market stakeholders. Dr. Patria has been addressing data center integration issues, focusing on load forecasts, resource adequacy analysis, policy design, and procurement for multiple utilities. Her research spans both empirical and theoretical analysis of energy markets, often utilizing applied game theory. In addition, Dr. Patria leads successful energy auctions and renewable procurements across multiple states, overseeing electricity market analysis, bid valuation, and forecasting efforts. She has also advised bidders in numerous high-stakes energy auctions. Dr. Patria holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston College and serves as an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern University, where she teaches a course on the Economics of Energy Markets. She has authored several academic papers and continues to contribute thought leadership to the energy sector.

Ken is the Vice President of Marketing and Customer Solutions at FlexGen, where he brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to the team. Based in San Francisco, Ken has a strong foundation in both technology and leadership, having earned a BA in Organizational Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with two years of applied sciences in biomaterials. 

His career began in the U.S. Navy, where he led a team of over 50 Nuclear Electronics Technicians. This experience instilled in him a commitment to excellence and teamwork that has carried through to his subsequent roles in the energy and SaaS sectors, including positions at NRG Energy, Medallia, and Iterable. Ken has successfully navigated the pre-IPO to post-IPO journey multiple times, and he is particularly excited about FlexGen’s current phase, which he describes as a pivotal moment to leverage a decade of success for explosive growth.

Ken’s passion for collaboration is evident in both his professional and personal life; some of his closest friends — and his wife of ten years — are people he met while working long hours in the early days of solar startups. With a dedication to innovation and a deep understanding of customer solutions, Ken is poised to drive FlexGen to new heights.

SPAN Founder & CEO Arch Rao is a seasoned energy technologist with a vision to revolutionize grid-edge energy infrastructure and enable a more efficient and affordable energy future. With a deep-rooted commitment to commercializing clean energy solutions, Rao has dedicated his career to addressing climate change through innovation and technological advancement.

A Stanford graduate with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering, Rao’s career began with pioneering research in airborne wind energy systems at Joby Energy and eventually led to a pivotal role in developing groundbreaking products at Tesla Energy, such as the Powerwall, Powerpack, and Solar Roof. Prior to Tesla, he co-founded Verdigris Technologies, focusing on energy monitoring and analytics for commercial and industrial sectors.

Recognizing the stagnant state of the home electrical panel for over 75 years, Rao founded SPAN in 2018 with a mission to transform how energy is managed at the grid edge — starting with a smarter electrical panel. Today, SPAN’s hardware-software solutions are installed in all 50 states — giving homeowners, utilities, and developers the energy visibility and advanced power controls needed to build a smarter, more resilient grid for everyone.

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.

As President of Shoals Technologies, Jeff Tolnar leads company growth, operational excellence, technology strategy, and product innovation. Before joining Shoals, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Shell | Greenlots, where he oversaw the expansion of the company’s electric mobility solutions. Previously, Jeff was President of Global Software Solutions for Honeywell’s Homes, Buildings, and Utilities businesses, and President of Elster Solutions, a global leader in electronic metering. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology from Youngstown State University and an MBA from Baker University.

Yue Tu is Vice President of Energy Systems at Vantage Data Centers, where he leads global energy strategy and the development of scalable, reliable, and sustainable energy systems enabling hyperscale data center growth worldwide. He has 17 years of experience at the intersection of energy and digital infrastructure, with more than a decade dedicated to hyperscale data centers.

Prior to Vantage, Yue spent nearly ten years at Microsoft supporting the global expansion of digital infrastructure across key international markets and helping commercialize next‑generation energy and infrastructure technologies. He began his career at Pacific Gas & Electric, where he focused on renewable energy procurement, building a strong foundation in utility markets and decarbonization strategy.

Yue holds a degree in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Washington. Outside of work, he is a father, husband, and teacher.

Jason Tundermann is Chief Innovation Officer at LevelTen Energy, where he leads the structuring, piloting, and commercialization of new product offerings that advance clean energy markets. His work spans contracting strategies, emerging technologies, and new geographies. Successful initiatives he has managed include expanding LevelTen’s platform to Europe, launching the LevelTen Energy Accelerated Process (LEAP) contracting mechanism, developing the Granular Certificate Marketplace, and introducing Capacity+ to support procurement of accredited capacity resources. With 20 years of experience in renewable energy, Jason brings deep expertise in project development, transactions, deal origination, and execution. He lives in Denver with his wife and three children.

Olivia Wang is a research analyst at Sightline Climate, where she focuses on the intersection of data centers and the energy transition. Her work on AI’s growing power demands and the infrastructure buildout required to meet them has been featured in Axios, Latitude Media, and Politico.

Olivia holds a Master’s in Sustainability Science and Practice and a Bachelor’s in Symbolic Systems, both from Stanford University. She is based in Brooklyn.

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.

John Woody is the Chief Development Officer at Clearway Energy Group, where he overseas
project development, M&A, engineering, procurement, and construction and focuses on advancing
Clearway’s portfolio of projects through the development phase and into operations.
Prior to Clearway, John worked in the Investment Structuring group in Chevron’s Renewable
Power Group, where he managed solar and geothermal tax equity investments and was heavily
involved with the financial and contractual aspects of Chevron’s renewable energy investment
efforts in the U.S. and abroad. He has also held various roles at Fotowatio Renewable Ventures
and Enfinity, where he focused on the development and financing of distributed generation and
small utility-scale solar photovoltaic projects.
John is the co-author of Climate Change: What’s Your Business Strategy?. John also holds a BS
and MS from Stanford University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Shawn Xu is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, a multibillion dollar venture capital fund founded by Chris and Crystal Sacca that backs companies building energy and material abundance, without turning the planet into an open pit mine. Shawn and team has invested in AI, software, and deeptech focused on securing power for compute as well as modernizing the grid. Shawn is a Bay Area native and is based in San Francisco.

Nick Zenkin is Latitude Media’s energy industry analyst. He was previously a lead renewables consultant at Xodus Group, where he conducted economic impact and policy analyses for offshore wind developers, governments, and local development organizations. Earlier in his career, he was the Research and Development manager for LAUTEC Group, leading R&D efforts for several offshore wind development initiatives.
Nick has an M.A. from Boston University, where he studied energy and environmental policy. While there, he worked on several research initiatives on renewable energy development, with a specific focus on Chinese energy policy. He has a B.A. from Endicott College.