6th Annual Babson Energy and Environmental Conference – 2012
Energy, Environment, & Entrepreneurship:
Challenging Assumptions, Changing Perceptions
Click Here to Register Now!
Speakers at the Conference:
Ian Bowles
Managing Director, Rhumb Line Energy LLC
former Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Ian Bowles is Managing Director of Rhumb Line Energy LLC, where he focuses on strategy and business and project development in clean energy. He has more than two decades of international, federal and state level leadership experience in energy and environmental protection.
Bowles also serves as advisor to several clean energy technology companies such as FloDesign Wind Turbine, a U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E “transformational energy technology” grant winner developing a “shrouded” wind turbine design, and Harvest Power, a developer of innovative food-and-yard-waste-to-energy facilities. He is also involved in several early-stage start-up companies.
Bowles also serves as a Senior Director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm based in Washington, D.C., where he advises companies on international strategy. Bowles served as a principal international environment and natural resources policy advisor on the White House staff for President Bill Clinton. Holding the posts of Senior Director of Global Environmental Affairs at the National Security Council and Associate Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, he played key roles in the Kyoto Protocol process, trade and environmental negotiations, and clean energy development, and accompanied the President on foreign travel to India, New Zealand, and the G-8 Summit in Okinawa.
Until early 2011, Bowles served as Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs under Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. As Secretary, he created the first state cabinet agency encompassing both energy regulation and environmental protection – overseeing six line agencies that employ staff of more than 3000 – and positioned his office at the nexus of business and government. He oversaw environmental review of all major real estate develop and business expansion projects in the Commonwealth, spearheaded reform of environmental and energy permitting, and led the largest land conservation initiative in the state’s history. Championing clean energy as an economic opportunity, Bowles overhauled utility regulation to make Massachusetts the national leader in energy efficiency investment and a key innovator in incentives for clean energy. By approving the environmental review and permitting for Cape Wind, Bowles made Massachusetts host for what is likely to be the first offshore wind power project in the United State. Bowles also set the highest standards in the nation on greenhouse gas emissions and building codes and, as Chairman of the Board, made the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority a national leader on integration of clean energy technology into daily operation of its $8 billion in capital assets.
Bowles also held leadership positions at Conservation International, an international nonprofit NGO, where he led land and habitat conservation initiatives in more than 20 developing countries, brokering creation of protected areas such as a new four million acre national park in Suriname. As senior advisor the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, he oversaw the largest U.S. foundation grant given for environmental protection.
Bowles’ academic career includes posts as a Senior Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and as adjunct member of the teaching faculty at Oxford University. He holds an honorary doctorate from Emerson College. Bowles co-edited Footprints in the Jungle (Oxford University Press) and has written broadly on energy, environment, conservation and sustainability in both professional journals such as Science and in the popular media including the New York Times. He received his A.B cum laude from Harvard College and a Masters degree from Oxford University.
Mark Rodgers
Director of Communications, Cape Wind
Mark manages Cape Wind’s media relations and generates Cape Wind’s communications content. He has delivered over 300 public presentations on the project to a variety of stakeholder groups over the past 10 years. He is also responsible for managing Cape Wind’s relationships with environmental, labor, health, and trade stakeholders. Previously, Mark was a Founder and Director of HealthLink which initiated successful citizen action campaigns to reduce sources of pollution. Mark received a B.A. in Political Science from The George Washington University.
Tahmid Mizan
Senior Technology Planning Advisor, ExxonMobil Corporation
Tahmid is the Senior Technology Planning Advisor, Corporate Strategic Planning for ExxonMobil Corporation and is located in Dallas, Texas. He provides technology guidance to senior corporate officers and manages the corporate R&D program. Tahmid joined Exxon Engineering in 1998 and progressed through management, technical, and planning assignments before assuming position at corporate headquarters.
His prior assignments included leading engineers and scientists engaged in building computer models for refining processes, developing new methods for producing lubricant basestocks and ultra-low sulfur fuels, improving the energy efficiency of refineries, and designing and troubleshooting chemical reactors.
Tahmid earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to joining Exxon, he worked in academia as a Research Fellow and as a Lecturer. Tahmid has numerous refereed publications and has published in the AIChE Journal, Chemical Engineering Science, the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Energy & Fuels, and Catalysis Today. He is the inventor or co-inventor on several patents or patent applications.
Rob Pratt
Founder, Chairman & CEO, GreenerU
Rob Pratt is founder, Chairman and CEO of GreenerU, a company dedicated to helping colleges and universities become climate leaders while reducing energy, water and infrastructure costs. (See www.GreenerU.com) Mr. Pratt was formerly the founder and CEO of Energia Global International (now Enel Latin America), a company that became one of the leading renewable energy development companies in Central America. He also served as Director of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, a $250 million state fund to promote the development of renewable energy as well as clean energy economic development in MA. Rob is a national and regional leader in clean energy and currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of the American Council on Renewable Energy; Chairman and founder (1984) of the International Institute for Energy Conservation; Treasurer, Executive Committee and board member of the Alliance to Save Energy; Executive Committee and board member of the New England Clean Energy Council; and President and board member of the Cambridge Energy Alliance. He received an MPA degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a JD degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA degree from Wesleyan University.
Lynnette McIntire
Director of Sustainability, UPS
Lynnette McIntire is Director of Sustainability at UPS, reporting to the Chief Sustainability Officer. She serves on the Corporate Sustainability Working Committee and The Corporate Sustainability Directors Committee. Her projects include stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting, and sustainability program development.
Previously, she was Director of Global Corporate Reputation Management at UPS, responsible for communicating UPS’s sustainability and program externally and internally. She also managed communications for UPS’s supply chain management business unit. She has been with UPS 14 years.
Lynnette also is a member of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Leadership Forum.
Kazunari Yoshimura
Representative, Global Water Japan
Kazunari Yoshimura has worked for over thirty years in the water and environment sector around the globe. He has worked for the United Nations in New York as a Technical Advisor for the Sustainable Development Committee, dealing specifically with water-related issues. Within Japan, he is a member of the National Committee for the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry as well as the Ministry of the Environment. He currently chairs the Water Technology Committee for the Water Security Council in Japan.
Kazunari consulted with Global Water Japan, and he was also a General Manager at one of Japan’s leading engineering and machinery companies and . He is broadly published in the Japanese press and is featured regularly on all major Japanese TV networks as well as NHK. He is now a guest professor at Azabu University, Kogakuin University, and Chiba Institute of Technology.
Enrique Gómez Junco
Founder, Optima Energía
Enrique is leading the only Energy Savings Company (ESCO) in Mexico that provides a complete energy savings solution from initial assessment to technical design, implementation, maintenance and even project financing. Optima Energia’s value proposition to the customer is that it provides the best in energy efficient solutions with no upfront payments. Instead, over a 10-year period, the customer pays for all upgrades from the savings produced by his technology. In the process, Enrique and his firm are not only conserving vast amounts of resources (water, electicity, fuel and natural gas), but also saving their clients millions of dollars, proving that homegrown Mexican expertise can successfully compete with giants like General Electric, and that conservation via technology can be a profitable and sustainable business.
Since its founding, the company has completed 70 projects (mainly hotels) and has consulted with more than 120 different clients, has saved its customers $15.7 million, 1.6 million cubic meters of water, 64 million kilowatts of electricity, 8.8 million liters of natural gas, and 11.8 million liters of diesel.
Bilal Zuberi
Principal, General Catalyst Partners
Bilal is an investor with General Catalyst Partners, a Cambridge, Palo Alto and NYC based venture capital and private equity firm. Bilal focuses on investments in companies with disruptive technology & engineering focus.
Bilal’s passion lies with big ideas, disruptive innovation, and first-time entrepreneurs. Bilal is involved with GC investments in SustainX, Arc Energy, SunBorne Energy, Vette, SynapDx, Novogy, CLEAResult and GridCo, and is an advisor to Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. Bilal serves as the founding chair of StartLabs.org, designed to promote student engineering entrepreneurship, is a co-founder of the annual University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium (URES), is a member of the TiE Entrepreneurship Taskforce, and is a charter member of OPEN. Bilal is also a member of the core founding team of LUMS School of Science and Engineering in Pakistan.
Previously, Bilal was an entrepreneur (co-founder of GEO2 Technologies that also spun out BIO2 Technologies), strategy consultant (The Boston Consulting Group) and a scientific researcher (MIT/PNNL-Department of Energy). Bilal is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D in Physical Chemistry (Prof. Mario Molina – Nobel laureate, 1995). His technical work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and dozens of patents & applications. Bilal regularly communicates via his blog & twitter.
Barbra Batshalom
Executive Director, Green Roundtable / Sustainable Performance Institute
Barbra the Founder of the Sustainable Performance Institute (SPI). SPI advances sustainability in the built environment by building the capacity of those that design, build and operate it. Barbra pioneered the first industry-wide Certification that provides design and construction companies with a roadmap and methodology to improve performance and profitability.
Barbra has spoken at international, national and regional conferences including the UN Disaster and Risk Assessment Conference, Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, AIA National Expo, etc. With a diverse background of fine arts, social psychology and seventeen years in architecture and consulting, Barbra brings a variety of skills to all of her work and unique perspective engaging the human dynamics of decision-making and creative collaboration to technical work, to ultimately optimize building system integration, enhance quality and performance of projects. Barbra is an educator, designer and policy consultant and works with a wide range of corporate, governmental and institutional clients.
Kavita M Shukla
Inventor, Founder, & CEO of Fenugreen
Kavita is the Inventor and Founder/CEO of Fenugreen (http://www.fenugreen.com), a pioneer in the movement towards sustainable, active, natural packaging. Fenugreen is addressing the massive global challenge of food spoilage with its simple FreshPaper innovation. (Twenty-five percent of the world’s food supply is lost to spoilage.)
FreshPaper is low-cost, biodegradable, made of edible organic ingredients, and keeps produce fresh 2-4 times longer. Retailers, farmers and consumers simply place a small sheet of FreshPaper into produce bags, containers, or boxes — using it like a “dryer sheet for produce.” Keeping food fresh from “farm to fork” in a large-scale and sustainable way, while reducing resource and energy costs, FreshPaper holds the potential to revolutionize the food economy.
Kavita developed and patented FreshPaper while in high school, after she happened upon its active ingredients in a home remedy given to her by her grandmother in India. She founded Fenugreen in 2010 as a simple project to learn more about our food system and to see how FreshPaper could help make it more sustainable and accessible. Since its launch, FreshPaper has spread rapidly to farmers, retailers, and consumers nationwide, and Fenugreen is now establishing initiatives to benefit local food banks in the U.S. and small-scale farmers in the developing world. Fenugreen’s mission is “Fresh for All.”
Kavita holds three patents, with four pending, and has received several international honors for her potential as an inventor-entrepreneur, including recognition from the Lemelson-MIT Foundation, the Cartier Women’s Initiative, the Davidson Institute, the Swiss Consulate, the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Startup America. She has also been inducted into the National Gallery for America’s Young Inventors.
Kavita has spoken about FreshPaper and the power of simple innovation to audiences around the world including TEDxManhattan, the Women’s Forum, and the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (where she spoke on a panel with Sir Richard Branson). She was recently a Keynote Speaker at the 2012 Harvard Social Enterprise Conference.
In 2011, as Grand Prize Winner of the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Week Startup Open, Fenugreen was recognized as the “most innovative young company in the world.” Kavita holds a BA from Harvard University.
Stephen Russell
Alternative Transportation Coordinator, MA DOER
Russell has been in the fleet-management industry for close to 20 years managing both private and public fleet operations. Most recently, Russell was the fleet superintendent for the city of Keene, New Hampshire. If it rolled in the city of Keene, Steve was responsible for keeping it rolling. The fleet vehicles included those used for city departments, including police, fire, rescue, public works, water, wastewater, and the recycling center. Russell pioneered the use of B20 (20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel) over eight years ago, which has been recognized nationally for its introduction to city fleets. Russell has spoken both locally and nationally on the use of biofuels in fleet applications as well as other alternative transportation options for fleets.
Prior to joining the city of Keene, Russell was the fleet and procurement manager for Windshields America, a national auto glass company. Russell is on the board of directors of the New England chapter of the NAFA Fleet Management Association and is the fuel and technology chair for the national association.
Russell has a Bachelor of Science in Community Leadership and Development from Springfield College.
Brian Orlando Salazar
President, Entegra Development & Investment
Brian is a LEED Accredited Professional who uses his background in architectural design, marketing, and construction project management to bring projects from concept to completion.
With a start-up grant from the Wild Gift, Brian co-founded Entegra following a Project Manager position with Liberty Mutual’s Corporate Real Estate department. Brian has also help positions with Boston architectural firms C&R/Rizvi, Inc. and Elkus/Manfredi Architects Ltd.
Brian received his MBA from Babson College in 2005 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1999 with a degree in Studio Art and Engineering.
In 2008, Brian was selected into the Environmental Leadership Program, a business network that advocates for environmental and cultural awareness.
Jim Goldenberg
Principal, Cathartes Private Investments
Jim co-founded Cathartes Investments in 1992. Since that time, he has directed the overall activities of the firm and overseen the acquisition, development and management of more than 45 properties totaling five million square feet and representing more than $600 million in asset value. Jim has 25 years of experience in the real estate industry with extensive time spent focusing on multiple property types and a wide variety of transaction structures and business plans.Prior to founding Cathartes, Jim was Vice President and Project Manager of the Seltzer Organization, an international commercial real estate development firm, where he was involved in the acquisition, development and disposition of several million square feet of commercial properties. Earlier, Jim worked with Cushman and Wakefield in New York City on the brokerage team for the Chairman of the Board, Steven Seigel.
Jim led CPI’s efforts to develop the Wesford Solar Project, which is a 4.4MW solar power plant in Massachusetts.
Jim earned his BA in Economics from Colgate University and his MBA from Columbia University. He is a member of ULI, REFA and the New England Clean Energy Council. Jim has served on the Board of Directors for the Boston Area YMCA and Somerville Chamber of Commerce and has been nominated for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He currently is a Trustee for Bay Farm Montessori Academy and is chairman of the Alternative Energy Committee in his hometown of Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Christopher Poirier
President & Chief Executive Officer, CoalTek
Christopher Poirier is the Chief Executive Officer of CoalTek, Inc. CoalTek has commercialized a proprietary, pre-combustion clean coal technology platform that provides fuel-based plant efficiency and environmental compliance solutions for coal-fired power generation companies and steel manufacturers. Since joining CoalTek in 2003, Mr. Poirier has led the company as CEO, with responsibility for all strategy and operations, including the successful entry into the China market.
Prior to his current role at CoalTek, Mr. Poirier founded or led several venture-backed technology companies, including Resinate Corporation, GetPlastic, and JR Medical Technology. Mr. Poirier is also the founder and Chairman of DriveMeSafely, a private company which provides personal and corporate transportation alternatives to traditional car services using a proprietary web and SMS-based logistics management solution.
Mr. Poirier has been appointed to the National Coal Council, a special advisory committee to the US Secretary of Energy. He is a member of the board of directors or board of advisors to a number of clean technology/alternative energy companies. He is also a member of the New England Clean Energy Council’s CEO Council. Mr. Poirier has been a guest lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School and Columbia University Business School.
Mr. Poirier earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance from Boston College and lives in Wellesley, MA with his wife and four children.
Peter Cleary
Communications & Public Relations Director, Vestergaard Frandsen
Peter Cleary is the Communications and Public Relations Director for Vestergaard Frandsen, a European company specializing in disease control products, including LifeStraw® water purifiers and PermaNet® bed nets.
The company (www.vestergaard-frandsen.com) operates under a unique Humanitarian Entrepreneurship business model, whose “profit for a purpose” approach has turned humanitarian responsibility into its core business.
Mr. Cleary regularly speaks to public and private groups about the company and its products. He travels extensively around the world working with news media, relief & development agencies, government officials and faith-based groups.
Prior to joining Vestergaard Frandsen Mr. Cleary worked in advertising and public relations agencies, and with nonprofit organizations. He began his professional career as a Press Secretary for a Member of Congress in Washington, DC.
He earned a degree in political science and communications from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.
Tom Joseph
Founder & CTO, Epiphany Solar Water Systems
Tom Joseph, the inventor of Epiphany’s proprietary solar distillation concept, is part engineer, part businessman, part philanthropist. Mr. Joseph founded Epiphany SWS in the spring of 2009. Preferring to spend his time in the laboratory developing solutions – and realizing that his engineering skills brought more value to the company that his business skills – he immediately began looking for his replacement as the CEO of the company. The fortunate discovery of Ron Pettengill has since granted Mr. Joseph the freedom to focus his efforts on the company’s research and development efforts.
Mr. Joseph’s background includes extensive fabrication and machining experience, giving him the ability to take a strictly practical approach to his engineering efforts. His engineering Research and Development experience includes several years employed at the Florida State University’s Fluid Mechanics Research Laboratory (FMRL), where Mr. Joseph conducted R&D under contracts awarded by NASA and the Office of Naval Research. During his tenure at FMRL, Mr. Joseph was assigned to several projects requiring his permanent residence at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. At NASA, Mr. Joseph studied under some of the world’s leading experts in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics and had access some of the most advanced research facilities in the world. Upon his return to FMRL, Mr. Joseph was assigned the task of constructing and qualifying a facility at FSU to continue the research efforts he had begun at NASA. It was in that facility that Mr. Joseph earned his first patent and made a discovery that changed a key aspect of supersonic engine design.
Since that time, Mr. Joseph has gained extensive business management experience, having led two prior start-up companies, one of which is now a rapidly growing international business. While leading the start-up companies, Mr. Joseph has been involved in product development, manufacturing process development, distribution, logistics, sales & marketing, business finance, and management of personnel. Mr. Joseph holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Florida State University.
Vicki Quiram
Public Works Director, Town of Westwood, MA
Vicki Quiram has over 25 years of experience in Public Works Management and Civil Engineering. Vicki currently serves as Public Works Director for the Town of Westwood, Massachusetts. She was previously Deputy Director of Public Works at the City of Ventura, California. A registered professional engineer, Vicki earned a Civil Engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In California, she was instrumental in developing the Ventura Countywide Stormwater Quality Program and is recognized as a regional leader for her contributions to the environmental field. Prior to joining governmental agencies, Vicki worked for private engineering consulting firms. Vicki serves on the National and New England Chapter American Public Works Association’s Center for Sustainability and Education Committees. She is a Donald C. Stone Center Public Works Leadership Fellow. She was also appointed as one of the 9 founding Board Members on the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.
Nikias Stefanakis
Director of Business Development, US, TerraCycle Inc.
Nikias Stefanakis is the Director of Business Development at TerraCycle, the pioneer in the collection, upcycling, and recycling of non-recyclable packaging. Nikias currently provides leading consumer packaged goods conglomerates including Kraft, MARS, Kellogg’s and Nestle among others with processing strategies for their non-recyclable packaging. Nikias has six years experience in sustainable economic development and management. He began his career as a researcher in conflict mitigation and has worked with the international NGO, Mercy Corps, on foreign affairs and social enterprise policy development. While at Mercy Corps, Nikias managed Gates-funded environmental, microenterprise programs in Indonesia and Timor L’este. He later became an Associate at EDA CapitalConnect, an online Social Enterprise and Impact Investment marketplace, with operations in India and Europe. His analysis of the impact investment sector has been published in “Advanced Technologies in Microfinance: Solutions and Challenges.”
Nikias holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University with honors in Economics and International Relations.
Wood Turner
Vice President of Sustainability Innovation, Stonyfield
Wood Turner is the VP of Sustainability Innovation for organic yogurt pioneer Stonyfield Farm and is the company’s lead advocate, facilitator and educator on sustainability issues. He is responsible for catalyzing efforts that fulfill Stonyfield’s mission of not only minimizing negative environmental impact in all areas of its operations but also advancing innovative impact-reduction solutions. Prior to joining Stonyfield, he was the founding executive director of Climate Counts, a non-profit that scores companies annually on their measurable climate actions and has appeared many of the world’s leading media outlets, among them the New York Times, NPR, The Economist, BBC, and the Harvard Business Review. At Climate Counts, Wood built a voluntary benchmarking program called Industry Innovators, attracting companies representing over $30B in revenues so far.
Wood holds degrees from Duke University and the University of Washington. He consulted to the Seattle mayor’s Green Ribbon Commission on Climate Protection, participated in the transportation/land use working group of the New Hampshire governor’s Climate Change Task Force, and has advised many high-profile projects, among them Newsweek Magazine’s corporate green rankings.
Catherine Goodall
Project Director, EPI – Global environmental packaging & product stewardship consultants
Catherine Goodall is a Project Director at EPI, a sustainability consulting firm specializing in extended producer responsibility and sustainable packaging and product design. She is an expert on the packaging and extended producer responsibility laws in Europe and other regions of the world, having tracked policy developments and assisted companies with compliance with these laws for 12 years. She also works with multinational clients to develop and implement sustainability initiatives and the data reporting systems to support them. Ms. Goodall holds a B.A. in Environmental Policy and German Studies from Brown University and an M.B.A from Babson College.
Patrick A. Daly
CFO, Nexamp
Patrick Daly is Nexamp’s CFO. Prior to joining Nexamp, Mr. Daly was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of SolVera Energy, LLC where he was responsible for finance, strategy and business development. Prior to joining SolVera, Mr. Daly was a Managing Director at Alouette Capital in Boston, a boutique investment banking firm. Prior to Alouette Capital, Mr. Daly was a Managing Director in investment banking at Deutsche Bank, in New York having previously worked in other global firms including Lehman Brothers, Kidder Peabody & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he focused on providing financial and strategic advisory as well as capital raising services to the energy industry, globally. Mr. Daly has been involved in billions of dollars of transactions including merger & acquisition, restructuring, valuation and structured finance assignments for strategic industry participants and sovereign entities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Sovereign financial advisory assignments included industry valuation, design of industry structure, and the development of regulatory and market regimes. A resident of Hamilton, MA, Mr. Daly graduated with a B.A. from Harvard University and holds an M.B.A. degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Ruehlman
Co-Founder, BrightGrid, Inc.
Michael is a Founder of BrightGrid Solar. Prior to BrightGrid, Michael was a VP at Pan Asia Solar, a private equity investment fund focused on early-stage renewable energy companies. At PAS, Michael worked closely with existing portfolio companies and conducted due diligence on all new fund investments. Prior to this, Michael was a management consultant with Huron Consulting Group. At Huron, Michael advised companies in the energy, pharmaceutical and technology industries on corporate governance, operational efficiency, and growth strategy. Michael is a board member of the iHUG Foundation. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and BBA and MPA degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.
Rachel O’Brien
Associate Professor of Geology and Department Chair, Allegheny College
Dr. Rachel O’Brien is an Associate Professor of Geology and Department Chair at Allegheny College. She is a graduate of Colgate University and received her graduate degrees in hydrogeology from Washington State University in Pullman, WA. Dr. O’Brien has professional experience in state environmental regulation of groundwater, private environmental consulting, and federal research on issues of groundwater contaminant transport. She has been employed both in the US and in Denmark to conduct field and laboratory research on groundwater transport. For the last decade, she has been teaching courses at a liberal arts undergraduate institution on Hydrogeology and issues of Freshwater Around the World.
Michael Kuhn
Vice President Commercial Lending, Cambridge Savings Bank
Michael is a Vice President in the Commercial Lending Group at Cambridge Savings Bank. He manages an $80 million portfolio of commercial and industrial loans and spearheaded Cambridge Savings Bank efforts into financing renewable energy projects in the Commonwealth. To date, he has financed the construction of over 8 mega-watts of solar and wind power. Prior to his current position at Cambridge Savings Bank, Michael spent the majority of his career on the credit risk side of Banking and was an Examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Michael received a B.S. in Finance from Rowan University.
Sander Cohan
Principal, ESAI Energy, LLC
Sander Cohan is a Principal ESAI’s where he oversees analysis of the Americas markets and specializes in renewable and alternative energy, both in terms of regulation and their supply-demand impact on conventional energy markets. He has recently published an in-depth survey on potential changes to the U.S. energy mix, and their impact on oil demand. He joined ESAI from KEMA where he was an energy analyst, focusing primarily on wind, biomass, and other renewable energy projects. Prior to KEMA, Mr. Cohan worked at Ameresco as a finance associate working on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Mr. Cohan received his B.A. in history from Columbia University and his M.A. in Energy Policy and Finance from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University.
Edward Cunningham
Postdoctoral Fellow, Ash Center and the Belfer Center
Edward Cunningham is a Postdoctoral Fellow at both the Ash Center and the Belfer Center of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Industrial Performance Center, and a consultant to public and private sector organizations. In the fall of 2011 he will join Boston University’s Department of Geography and Environment as an Assistant Professor of Energy. Dr. Cunningham graduated from Georgetown University, received an A.M. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at M.I.T. He was selected as a Fulbright Fellow to the PRC, during which time he conducted his doctoral fieldwork as a visiting fellow at Tsinghua University. His primary research interests relate to energy markets, comparative political economy, industrial organization and competitiveness, and public policy. He is fluent in Mandarin and Italian.
Dr. Cunningham is the author or a contributing author of:Global Taiwan (M.E. Sharpe, 2005); “China’s Energy Governance: Perception and Reality”, Audits of Conventional Wisdom Series (M.I.T. Center for International Studies, 2007); “China and East Asian Energy: Prospects and Issues”, Australia-Japan Research Centre (ANU, 2008); “Why Pollute? Explaining the Environmental Performance of Chinese Power Plants”, China Economic Quarterly (September 2008); “Greener Plants, Grayer Skies? A Report from the Front Lines of China’s Energy Sector”, Energy Policy vol. 37:5 (May 2009); and “Fueling the Miracle: China’s Energy Governance and Reform”, in Joseph Fewsmith (ed.) China Today, China Tomorrow: Domestic Politics, Economy, and Society, Rowman and Littlefield, (August 2010). He is currently completing a book on China’s energy markets and energy governance during the modern reform period.
Len Schlesinger
President, Babson College
Leonard A. Schlesinger became the 12th president of Babson College on July 1, 2008–bringing to the College an extraordinary blend of leadership experience in academia and industry, particularly in the retail and service sectors. He came to Babson from Limited Brands, based in Columbus, Ohio, where he served in executive positions since 1999, most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer.
His academic career includes twenty years at Harvard Business School where, most recently, he served as the George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration, leading MBA and executive education programs. President Schlesinger is well-known for his pioneering research and publications on the “service profit chain.” He is the author or co-author of nine books and has written over 40 articles for academic audiences as well as for The New York Times, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review.
He also was an architect and chair of Harvard Business School’s MBA Essential Skills and Foundations programs. After his time at Harvard Business School, he served as a faculty member and senior administrator at Brown University. In addition, President Schlesinger has lectured and consulted on service quality and customer satisfaction for over 100 major corporations, non-profit organizations, as well as governments and international leadership organizations around the world.
President Schlesinger holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, an MBA from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in American Civilization from Brown University.
Mark Donohue
Conference Founder & Founding Sponsor
Babson College ’88
In June 2008, Mr. Donohue was appointed Babson College’s first Clean Technology Entrepreneur-in-Residence. He is primarily teaching, and conducting research, within the Olin Graduate School and Arthur Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, yet he will also lecture in the executive education program. In 2001, he was the sole Founder, Managing Partner and Chairman of Expansion Capital Partners, LLC, a pioneer in Clean Technology venture capital investing, which manages over $100,000,000. Mr. Donohue sold most of his interests in Expansion Capital Partners in June 2008.
During the last twenty years, Mr. Donohue has built three successful investment management, investment banking and financial service companies. He has a broad background in venture capital, both on the buy-side and sell-side, plus he has served in senior operational roles for venture-backed enterprises. He has been involved in growing over twenty venture capital backed enterprises. His career has focused on entrepreneurship, investment, corporate strategy and sales/marketing in the areas of Clean Technology and socially responsible business. In the past, he has been a member of many for-profit boards, including Chairing five entrepreneurial Boards of Directors.
Mr. Donohue was a Founding Investor, and has served for seven years on the Advisory Board, of the Cleantech Group, LLC, which is the leading conference and knowledge organization in the sector. He currently advises several leading companies in the sustainability and Cleantech sectors, including the Cleantech Group and Conscious Living Ventures. He has also served in a broad variety of non-profit roles, including the “Micro-Credit Lending” Grant Committee of the Threshold Foundation. He was previously Chair of the Membership Committee for the Social Venture Network (the leading U.S. organization of executives furthering global sustainability).
Mr. Donohue earned his BS in Investment Management, with honors, from Babson College in 1988. In 2009, he graduated from the Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators, at Babson College, which is a widely regarded as the preeminent training for teaching entrepreneurship. He has served on the college’s Board of Overseers since 2002. He has been a leader in many Babson initiatives, such Chairing and co-founding Babson’s annual Entrepreneurial Energy Expo, which attracted over 650 attendees in 2009.
On a personal note, he resides in Boston and San Francisco. He is quite active in the lives of his two godchildren, Martin and Ixchel.
Marty Anderson
Senior Lecturer, Technology, Operations, and Information Management, Babson College
Mr. Anderson has been on the Babson faculty since 1996, teaching in the MBA Program and at the School for Executive Education. His courses have included Global Supply Chain Management, Retailing in the Networked Economy, and Extended Enterprise Management. Mr. Anderson is responsible for “extended enterprise management” programs at Babson – a rapidly growing area that views demand and supply chains as unified emerging industry systems that link markets and supply chains. He has piloted innovative research and teaching methods in these areas.
Mr. Anderson conducts executive education programs world-wide in Strategy, Leadership, Technology, and Operational Implementation – for large companies and for start-ups.
Before joining Babson, Mr. Anderson had more than 20 years of business experience in market development, technology management, and supply chain management. He has worked with companies on linking markets to operations in more than 30 nations, and has researched the information technology that links organizations across industries. He has helped launch several start-ups and has helped turn around several global companies.
Mr. Anderson’s clients have included: Home Depot, Compaq, EMC, Lucent, J. Walter Thompson, Mullen Advertising, Sodexho, PDVSA, Infinion, Siemens, Inchcape, BMW, SONY, ABB, Sun, FreeRide.com, Schwans Sales Enterprises, Gemplus, Novell, Cadbury-Schweppes, Whirlpool, General Motors, Andersen Consulting, JP Morgan, Ford, the National Auto Dealers Association, and a number of other retail companies. Mr. Anderson has advised governments around the world on technology and competitive policy, has testified many times before the U.S. Congress, has advised two White Houses and the European Parliament, and has managed two research programs at MIT.
Mr. Anderson also has industry expertise in automotive, consulting, electronics, high tech, manufacturing, and retail.
He has appeared in a variety of global news media, including Jim Lehrer News Hour, NPR, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe.
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There are many more speakers. We will continue to list biographies as they become available.
