Speakers Bio:

IAN A. BOWLES
Secretary, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts

Ian Bowles, Secretary, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in the Deval Patrick administration, has nearly 20 years of experience in the energy and environmental sectors. He was a Director or Advisor to three clean energy technologies companies and has broad leadership experience with environmental policy. Bowles served in the Clinton Administration as Associate Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as Senior Director of the Global Environmental Affairs directorate at the National Security Council.

Following his service in the Clinton Administration, Bowles held appointments as a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and as Senior Advisor at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where he oversaw the foundation's strategic analysis of energy and climate change issues.

In 2003, Bowles served as President and CEO of MassINC, a Boston-based research institute, and as Publisher of CommonWealth magazine. Earlier in his career, Bowles served for eight years in key leadership positions at Conservation International, a national environmental organization focused on biodiversity conservation. Bowles serves on the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Science and on the Governing Board of the John Adams Innovation Institute. He is co-author of Footprints in the Jungle (Oxford University Press) on the energy and natural resource industries and environmental practices.

He holds an A.B. in economics cum laude from Harvard College and a Masters degree from Oxford University, where he remains an adjunct faculty member at the graduate school of the Environment and Geography.

ROBYN BEAVERS
Director, Environmental Programs, Google
Robyn Beavers joined Google in 2004 as a direct report to the co-founders, and went on to create the Green Business & Operations Strategy team through Google's internal strategy and business operations group. In this position she developed strategy for Google's investment in renewable energy, incorporated green building elements into Google's showcase headquarters office, and is responsible for the development and implementation of other environmental programs at the company. Her recent work includes management of the 1.6 MW photovoltaic solar project at Google's Mt. View headquarters.

Ms. Beavers also serves on the Board of Directors for GRID Alternatives, a non-profit that brings solar electricity and energy efficiency to low-income homeowners while providing community members with training and hands-on experience with renewable energy technologies. Prior to Google, Ms. Beavers was with the energy efficiency consulting firm, Energy Solutions, where she served as Chief Operating Officer for the Cool Roof Rating Council. She has also held internships at the international construction management firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City Parks and Recreation, MTV Networks, and the Campus Architect and Planning Office at Stanford University. Ms. Beavers graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.

 

JEFFREY ALTMAN
President, CEO & Director, Hy9
Jeff joined Hy9 in 2004 and is steering the internal and external growth of Hy9 Corporation. Previously, he served at The Southern Company (NYSE: SO)/Mirant Corporation and their respective German subsidiaries (Bewag and GASAG), where he was responsible for numerous senior corporate development activities that created substantial value. Prior to that, Jeff co-founded two renewable energy venture capital funds. In addition, he previously spent over five years with Imperial Ventures, Inc., a venture capital subsidiary of Imperial Bank, where he was Interim President of two successful turnarounds and Board Member of five portfolio companies. Jeff earned a B.S., School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and an Executive M.B.A., University of Southern California.

 

BRUCE ANDERSON 
Chief Executive Officer, Wilson TurboPower
As an authority energy entrepreneur and business executive, Bruce has launched and led five energy entities with total responsibility for overall development from the strategic vision through marketing and sales. Mr. Anderson earned three degrees from MIT and is an active member of the MIT community. Prior to directing Wilson TurboPower, he led the MIT Industrial Liaison Program which created technology alliances between MIT and nearly two hundred Fortune 2000 companies in twenty-two countries.

CHRISTOPHER COOK
Senior VP, Regulatory Affairs and New Markets, Sun Edison
Mr. Cook is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished lawyers in the renewable energy field. While working with the Maryland Public Utility Commission, Cook negotiated power purchase contracts regularly with electric utility companies. Today, he is the consultant of choice for the solar energy industry to negotiate renewable portfolio standards, interconnection agreements, and other relevant regulatory issues in the renewable energy sphere. Cook earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and holds a JD from University of Maryland. Sun Edison LLC is North America's leading solar energy services provider.

LISA FRANTZIS
Managing Director, Renewable & Distributed Energy, Navigant Consulting
Lisa Frantzis is a Managing Director of Renewable and Distributed Energy at Navigant Consulting, and was previously with Arthur D. Little. She has 27 years of experience in managing technical, market, and economic analyses of renewable energy systems to support strategic decisions and due diligence for clients. Her clients include equipment manufacturers, oil companies, developers, utility companies, investors, and government agencies. She is on the Board of Directors for the American Council on Renewable Energy and was recently a Vice President of the Solar Energy Business Association of New England.

 

 MARK FARBER
Vice President, Strategic Planning, Evergreen Solar
Mark Farber, co-founder of Evergreen Solar, assumed the position of Vice President in December 2003. He had served as President and as a director since August 1994 and was elected our first Chief Executive Officer in May 2000.

Mr. Farber has over 25 years of experience in the energy industry. Most recently, Mr. Farber worked for six years at Mobil Solar Energy Corporation, the solar power division of Mobil Corporation, where he was responsible for marketing, sales and corporate partnering activities. Previously, Mr. Farber spent 12 years at Temple, Barker and Sloane, now Mercer Management Consulting, as a management consultant, where he advised electric utilities, equipment manufacturers and government agencies on economic, business and policy issues related to energy.

Mr. Farber received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Cornell University and an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

STEVE GATTO
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, BioEnergy International
Mr. Gatto has over 14 years of industry experience.  He is a pioneer in the development of new technologies to use organic wastes as a feedstock to produce ethanol and specialty chemicals. Steve has promoted benefits of renewable fuels technology and use of biomass resources to produce ethanol through numerous appointments to various Presidential, Congressional and U.S. DOE / DOA committees.  Mr. Gatto was appointed by Presidents Clinton and Bush in 2000 and 2002 to Biomass Research & Development Technical Advisory Committee; appointed to a Biofuels Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Senator Diane Fienstein.  He also assisted in the drafting of key aspects of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  Steve founded BC International which developed milestone patent number 5,000,000 in cooperation with Dr. Lonnie Ingram and the University of Florida.

PETER GIRGUIS

Professor, Harvard University, and co-founder of Fiat Lux
Peter Girguis is Assistant Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.  He is also co-founder of Fiat Lux, a company that has developed a small, robust and inexpensive electricity generator that harnesses energy from natural fuels.  Peter earned his PhD in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2000 and his B.Sc. in Physiology and Marine Biology from the University of California Los Angeles in 1994.

JIM GORDON

President, Cape Wind

Cape Wind's developer is Energy Management Inc. (EMI); a New England based energy company with 28 years of experience in energy conservation and energy development.  In 1975, Jim started EMI and over the ensuing years would build EMI into one of the most successful privately held independent power companies in America. He recruited and managed a team of dedicated and highly motivated professionals that were able to complete the myriad and complex tasks of creating state of the art power projects. Jim's sense of timing and grasp of political and regulatory directions allowed EMI to develop some of New England's first gas fired cogeneration and independent power projects as well as the first generation of merchant electric plants in the United States.  Prior to founding EMI, Jim worked for Warner Communications Corporation.  Jim is a graduate of Boston University's School of Public Communications.

 

 
TIM HEALY
CEO and Co-Founder, EnerNOC
As CEO, Co-Founder, and Chairman of EnerNOC, Mr. Healy has guided the company's strategic course since its inception in 2001. Under his leadership, EnerNOC has experienced exponential growth in size, capacity, and revenue, significantly expanding into untapped markets across the United States and diversifying from demand response to total energy management. Today, EnerNOC is the premiere full-service energy management provider with unparalleled performance and services.

Prior to EnerNOC, Mr. Healy worked in the Energy Technology Laboratory for Northern Power Systems, Inc., a firm that has integrated over 800 distributed power systems and related equipment for customers throughout the world. Tim also held positions with Merrill Lynch, International Fuel Cells (now UTC Fuel Cells), and Commonwealth Capital Ventures, an early stage technology venture capital firm in Wellesley, MA, and co-founded Student Advantage, which went public in 1999.

Mr. Healy graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Economics and received his Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

JOHN HOWE
VP, Public Affairs, Verenium Corporation 
John B. Howe is Vice President, Public Affairs of Verenium Corporation.  Verenium is a leading developer of specialty enzymes and cellulosic ethanol process technology.  In this capacity he is responsible for the company's government and industry outreach efforts. Before joining the Company in November 2006, he was Vice President, Electric Industry Affairs at American Superconductor, a power technologies developer.  Earlier in his career he served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (1995-97), where he spearheaded early stages of that state's process for restructuring the operations of its electric and natural gas utilities.  He also was responsible for regulatory and government affairs for J. Makowski Associates Inc., one of the leading independent energy project developers in the northeastern United States. Mr. Howe has held leadership roles in several energy-related organizations. He holds degrees from Amherst College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

SUSAN LESCHINE

Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and co-founder of SunEthanol
Susan Leschine is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Founder and Chief Scientist at SunEthanol, a biofuels technology company headquartered in Amherst.  Susan earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biology and a Ph.D. in Biophysics and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh.  She conducted postdoctoral research on biomass-decomposing microbial communities at UMass Amherst, research that led to the isolation of cellulose-fermenting clostridia and studies of their role in the global carbon and nitrogen cycles.  Presently, research in her laboratory on the UMass Amherst campus involves studies of bacteria that decompose cellulose and other components of biomass, research that has formed the basis for SunEthanol's Consolidated BioProcessing technology. 

HARLEY LEE

President, Endless Energy Corporation
Harley Lee is president of Endless Energy Corporation, developer of the 90 MW Redington, Maine and the 9 MW Equinox, Vermont wind farms. He received a BA degree from the University of the South and an MBA from Duke University.

 

DAVID MARCUS
CEO & Director, General Compression
David has been a wind energy investor since 2002.  He is the Managing Partner of Chestnut Capital, which is a partner, investor, or shareholder in several wind energy developers, including Ridgeline, Midwest Renewable, NedPower, Greenlight, Windworks, Foresight, and the Clean Power Income Fund.  Many of these entities have since been sold to larger European power companies, including Shell, Iberdrola, and BP.  Chestnut capital has also invested in numerous wind energy technologies, including Princeton Power, Fallbrook Technologies, and Mechanology. In addition, Chestnut has invested in several Clean Tech/ Green Energy Companies, including Seahorse Power, Protonex, Metabolix, GreenFuel, Wilson TurboPower, Verdant Power, and Geo2.  Chestnut is also an LP in the Mass Green Energy Fund and two energy funds at Carlyle/ Riverstone.  David is also the founder and former CEO of APEX Property Exchange, a financial services firm he founded in 1989 and sold to JPMorgan in 2002.  APEX processed over B$25 per year in like-kind exchange transactions for its clients.  David is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Princeton University.  He is a Trustee of the Boston Children's Museum.

CHARLES MYERS
Director of Marketing, Nuvera
Charlie Myers is Director of Marketing at Nuvera Fuel Cells and the Global Market Leader for the company's PowerTap Hydrogen Generation product line. While a member of Nuvera's strategic planning and business development team, Charlie is also responsible for managing the global OEM/partner relationships for commercial and industrial hydrogen generation systems in Europe.

Prior to working for Nuvera, Charlie was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Iwaki Americas, an international manufacturer of fluid and air-handling pumps. He was instrumental in growing sales for the North American operation. Charlie has been involved with the power industry since 1978 and active in the fuel cell industry since 1999.

In addition, Charlie served 12 years on Hydraulic Institute technical standards committees. He is also a contributing author of ASME and API national standards and has published a variety of technical articles on the application and design of pump and filtration equipment.

Charlie holds an Executive MBA from Saint Mary's of Moraga, Moraga, California, and a BS degree. He is also a member of the Massachusetts Software and Internet Council.  

MATTHEW M. NORDAN

 SCOTT A. PEARSON
Chief Executive Officer, Protonex Technology Corp.
Mr. Pearson has over 15 years of experience leading a wide range of technology-based companies and organizations. His management experience includes start-up companies, turnaround situations, acquisition integrations, and large commercial and institutional firms. Mr. Pearson's professional experience spans a broad range of industries including uninterruptible power systems (UPS), electric vehicles, electronics assembly equipment and materials, digital imaging, and defense systems. Most recently, as President, Americas of Powerware Corporation (a leading UPS provider), Mr. Pearson oversaw a $480 million operation, significantly increasing its market share, profitability and cash flow. Mr. Pearson holds an M.B.A. from MIT's Sloan School of Management, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts.

MICHAEL RAAB
President & CEO, Agrivida
Michael is a founder and acting CEO of Agrivida.  Prior to Agrivida, Michael worked at the Merck Research Laboratories in a broad range of senior operating roles where he was involved in vaccine development, large scale fermentation and cell culture, and molecular biology research.  Mr. Raab has a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is originally from the state of Minnesota, which, he is quick to note, is one of the largest ethanol producing states.  He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT.

 

WALTER SASS
President, Chief Engineer, and Principal, Second Wind, Inc.
Mr. Sass has been president of Second Wind, Inc. since founding the company with Kenneth Cohn in 1980.  Sass's technical marketing and leadership led to the industry's first wind-specific data logger in 1981, the first third-party wind farm supervisory system in 1984.  For successive generations of each since then, Sass has presented and moderated at American Wind Energy Association conferences. He has a BSEE from Tufts, and did graduate work at URI, UMass-Amherst and Northeastern.

GARY D. SIMON
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acumentrics Corporation
Mr. Simon is President and CEO of Acumentrics Corporation, a manufacturer of rugged uninterruptible power supplies for all branches of the military and of innovative new fuel cells that run on conventional and alternative fuels. Gary also serves as President of Sigma Energy Group, a clean technology investment and advisory firm. He serves on the Boards of Capstone Turbine, SmartPower and Rentricity, as well as the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, and the McCllellan Technology Incubator. He has a broad-ranging 33-year career in both Fortune 500 companies and in small start-up businesses, in consulting to major energy companies worldwide, and in government service.
Prior to Acumentrics, Mr. Simon was the Senior Vice President of corporate strategy and business development at Northeast Utilities, where he had responsibility for corporate R&D as well as for business planning and strategic M&A transactions. In that position, Gary had a major role in over $2.5 billion of transactions, was the head of corporate venture investing, and was a member of the senior management committee. He was responsible for analysis of markets, competitors, new business ventures, acquisition targets and business unit performance.   Previously, Gary was Senior Director and head of the Global Power Practice for Cambridge Energy Associates (CERA) for nine years, where he provided advice on the future directions of the industry and the sources of strategic advantage, including the emergence of new technologies, the cyclical forces in commodity markets, the evolution of deregulation, and the impact of new environmental regulations.
Earlier, Mr. Simon was Vice President of sales and marketing for El Paso Natural Gas Company. Mr. Simon also served for four years as the head of forecasting and planning for the California Energy Commission and five years as senior consultant to the energy committees of the California State Assembly.   Mr. Simon has a master's degree from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor's degree from Indiana University.

COLIN SOUTH
President, Mascoma
Dr. South has held leading world-wide technology and management-focused positions for companies in engineering, genetics and marketing arenas. He has over ten years of bioprocess design, construction and operation experience in the biotech industry acquired while with BioMetics Consulting. He was the former CEO of ViaLactia Biosciences, a gene discovery and commercialization company and was Fonterra Co-operative Group's General Manager of Health and Nutrition in Auckland, New Zealand.  Dr. South received a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and both an ME in Engineering Management and a Ph.D. in Bioprocess Engineering from Dartmouth College.

BIC STEVENS

Managing Partner of Ardour Capital Investments
Bic Stevens is a Managing Partner of Ardour Capital Investments, a research and investment banking firm focused solely on alternative energy and clean technology companies.  Previously, Bic was a Managing Director at Zero Stage Capital, where he was involved in its alternative energy and clean technology investments.  He was previously the founder and President of Eastech; a Boston-based early stage venture fund, and was a Vice President at Paine Webber, where he worked in its venture capital and corporate finance operations.  Over his career, Bic has served as a Director of 28 early-stage companies.  He received a B.I.E. from Georgia Tech and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

TIM STOUT
Vice President, Energy Efficiency at National Grid.
Tim Stout is the Vice President of Energy Efficiency at National Grid.  In this capacity, he is responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of National Grid's electric and gas energy efficiency programs in New England.  Over the last couple of years, Tim has been actively involved in working with regulators and other parties on the growth strategies for the Company's efficiency programs and in the development and roll-out of a climate change strategy at National Grid. He has worked in a variety of energy efficiency-related positions at National Grid since 1987. Tim currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Energy Efficiency and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.  Prior to joining National Grid, he worked as an Energy Specialist at the Conservation Law Foundation.

 

JEFF D. WOLFE, P.E.
CEO, groSolar
Mr. Wolfe, co-founded and is Chief Executive Officer of groSolar (Global Resource Options, Inc.), and is in charge of strategy, M&A, marketing, and PV procurement for residential and commercial photovoltaic and solar hot water systems. Under his direction, groSolar has become a leader in system installation in the northeast United States, a leading national distributor of solar equipment and systems, and a national commercial services provider. Under Mr. Wolfe's leadership, groSolar has experienced rapid growth. groSolar has been instrumental in accelerating residential and commercial markets through innovative distribution and direct sale practices. Recent Venture investment in the firm has assisted in accelerating the strong growth rates.

Mr. Wolfe has been active in overall industry development as PV Division Chair of the Solar Energy Industries Association, and is on the Union of Concerned Scientists National Advisory Board. He was a founder, former board member and Chair of Renewable Energy Vermont, and founder, former board member and Vice Chair of the New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association. Recently he was one of the thousand people in the US trained in presenting Al Gore's climate change presentation to others.

Mr. Wolfe regularly speaks at industry events, including on the Keynote Panel at the American Solar Energy Society 2007 conference, and at the Solar Power 2007 conference.

Prior to forming groSolar, Mr. Wolfe was a Professional Engineer consulting on over 4,000,000 square feet of design, construction and renovation.

 
DON YOUNG
President, Chief Executive Officer, Aspen Aerogels
Don has been the President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of Aspen Aerogels since November 2001.  For virtually 10 years, Mr. Young worked in the United States and abroad in an expansive range of senior operating roles for Cabot Corporation, a leading international specialty chemical company. Prior to Cabot Corporation, Mr. Young worked in the investment business at Fidelity Management & Research. He brings to Aspen Aerogels a unique composite of expertise in leadership, operations, sales and marketing and finance. Mr. Young is a graduate of Harvard College and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.

 

 

 

 

President, Lux Research Inc
Matthew Nordan is the President of Lux Research. Under Matthew's leadership, the Lux Research analyst team has become a globally recognized authority on the business and economic impact of emerging technologies. Lux Research serves as an indispensable advisor to corporations, start-ups, financial institutions, and governments seeking to exploit science-driven innovation for competitive advantage.
Matthew has delivered advice to clients and been an invited speaker at conferences in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, and South Africa. Beyond the corporate sphere, Matthew has testified before the U.S. Congress three times on emerging technology issues, advised the Committee to Review the National Nanotechnology Initiative of the National Academies, and been an invited speaker at universities including Harvard, MIT, and Columbia. He has also participated in developing public-sector technology strategy for organizations including the World Economic Forum, the European IT Observatory, and the Dutch transportation ministry. Matthew has been frequently invited by news outlets including CNN and CNBC to comment on emerging technology markets and has been widely cited in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.
Matthew has counseled decision-makers on technology change for a decade. Prior to Lux Research, Matthew held a variety of senior management positions at emerging technology advisor Forrester Research, where he headed the firm's North American consulting line of business. Earlier, Matthew lived for four years in the Netherlands growing Forrester's operations in Europe, where he launched and led research practices in a variety of vertical industries.
Matthew is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he conducted cognitive neuroscience research on the neural pathways mediating emotion and memory.

MICHAEL J. NAUGHTON
Professor, Boston College, and co-founder of Solasta
Michael J. Naughton is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physics at Boston College, and Chief Technology Officer of Solasta Inc.  His Ph.D. is from Boston University in 1986, and he did a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania's Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter before moving to the faculty of SUNY Buffalo.  He joined  Boston College Physics in 1998 and became chairman in 2006, after serving for one interim year as Associate Vice President for Research.  Naughton is an APS Fellow, a past NSF Young Investigator, and a past member of the Executive Committee of the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics (DCMP).  An experimentalist with over 150 publications and 20 patents, Naughton's research concentrates on experimental condensed matter & materials physics and nanoscale integrated science.  His particular interests lie in low dimensional electron physics. He has cofounded two technology companies, most recently Solasta Inc., a venture-backed solar energy concern based in Newton, Mass. that is capitalizing on his and his BC colleagues' recent inventions relating to the manipulation of light on the nanoscale.


UDAY PAL
Professor, Boston University
Uday Pal is Professor and Chair Ad Interim of the Department of Manufacturing Engineering at Boston University.   His research focuses on fuel cells, sensors, membrane separation, batteries, and green manufacturing processes. Driven toward what he terms "Clean Energy and Sustainable Technologies," Professor Pal emphasizes the need for clean energy conversion and sustainable growth through technological innovation in his classes.  He earned his B.S. in Metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1980 and his Ph.D. in 1984 from Pennsylvania State University in Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to joining Boston University in 1998, he was a faculty member for seven years in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at MIT and senior scientist for four years at Westinghouse Research and Development Center. He has authored and co-authored over 100 technical publications and holds 21 patents.