Conference Keynote

Dr. Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy

As United States Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu is charged with helping implement President Obama's ambitious agenda to invest in clean energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, address the global climate crisis, and create millions of new jobs.

Dr. Chu is a distinguished scientist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997). He has devoted his recent scientific career to the search for new solutions to our energy challenges and stopping global climate change - a mission he continues with even greater urgency as Secretary of Energy.

Read more about Dr. Chu

Conference MC

Dan Reicher - Executive Director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance

Dan Reicher has more than 25 years of experience in energy and environmental technology, policy, finance and law, including serving in the Clinton administration at the Department of Energy (DOE) as assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. He recently was a member of President Obama's transition team, where he focused on the energy portions of the stimulus package and was an adviser to the Obama campaign on energy and climate issues. Before coming to Stanford University, Reicher worked at Google Inc. as director of climate change and energy initiatives.

Reicher is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, co-chairman of the board of the American Council on Renewable Energy, and a member of the boards of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the Apollo Alliance, and the University of California-Davis Energy Efficiency Center.

Before his position at Google, Reicher served as president and co-founder of New Energy Capital Corp., a private equity firm funded by the California State Teachers Retirement System and Vantage Point Venture Partners to invest in clean energy projects. He also served as executive vice president of Northern Power Systems, one of the nation's oldest renewable energy companies. Reicher was also an adjunct professor at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Vermont Law School.

Reicher has also held several positions with the DOE, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the World Resources Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council. He also worked for the Massachusetts Attorney General, served as a law clerk to a federal district court judge in Boston and as a legal assistant in the Hazardous Waste Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, and was on the staff of President Carter's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. Reicher holds a BA in biology from Dartmouth College and a JD from Stanford Law School. He also studied at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and MIT.

Speakers

Christopher P. Johns - President, Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Christopher P. Johns is President of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and a member of the utility's Board of Directors.

Johns joined Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 1996 as Vice President and Controller. Johns was named Senior Vice President and Controller of PG&E Corporation in September 2001 and elected Chief Financial Officer in January 2005. He was named President of Pacific Gas and Electric Company in August 2009.

Before joining PG&E Corporation, Johns was a partner in KPMG Peat Marwick LLP.

Johns earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame. He has also completed the Nuclear Reactor Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Johns is an inactive Certified Public Accountant in the states of California and Florida. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the California Chamber of Commerce, The First Tee and the American Gas Association. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the San Francisco Ballet.

Fong Wan - Senior Vice President, Energy Procurement, Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Fong Wan is Senior Vice President, Energy Procurement, for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and is responsible for gas and electric supply planning and policies, wholesale market design, quantitative analysis, power plant development, commodity procurement and settlements.

Wan joined Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 1988 as a financial analyst and spent six years in the Financial Planning and Analysis organization. He served as director in the Gas Supply and Electric Transmission business units before moving in 1997 to PG&E Energy Trading, an unregulated subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, where he served as Vice President, Structured Transactions.

In 2000, Wan moved to PG&E Corporation and served for four years as Vice President, Risk Initiatives. He was named Vice President, Power Contracts and Electric Resource Development at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 2004 and Vice President, Energy Procurement in January 2006. He was promoted to his current position in 2008.

Wan has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Panel 1: Clean Technologies: Job Creation or Destruction?

Ira Ehrenpreis - General Partner, Technology Partners (Moderator)

Ira Ehrenpreis is a General Partner with Technology Partners. He has been with the firm since 1996. Ira leads Technology Partners' Cleantech investment practice, investing in Energy Technology, Water Technology, and Advanced Materials opportunities. Ira is a recognized leader in both the venture capital industry and the Cleantech sector, and in 2007, was named one of the 'Top 50 Most Influential Men Under 45' by Details Magazine.

In the venture community, Ira serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and on the Board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC). Ira serves as Chairman of the 2010 NVCA Annual Meeting. He is also the Co-Chairman of both the VCNetwork, the most active and largest Bay Area venture capital organization.

In the Cleantech sector, Ira has served on several industry Boards, including the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advisory Committee (ERAC), the Clean-Tech Investor Summit (Conference Chairman in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011), Cleantech Venture Network (Past Chairman of Advisory Board), ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy), Energy Investors Forum (Past Conference Chairman), Energy Venture Fair, and California Climate Change Advisory Board.

He has also served on the Advisory Boards of the Southern California Tech Coast Alliance, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), and the Comerica Venture Capital Advisory Board. Ira is also an active leader at Stanford University, where his contributions have included teaching the course on Venture Capital and serving on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School.

Ira received his JD/MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of Stanford Law Review. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude.

Jay Paidipati - Associate Director, Navigant Consulting

Jay Paidipati is an Associate Director in the Emerging Technologies and Business Strategy group of Navigant's Energy Practice. His work in renewable energy focuses on renewable energy technologies, markets, resource assessments, and policy. He has conducted employment impact studies at the national level and local level for trade groups, project developers and governments. Prior to coming to Navigant Consulting, Mr. Paidipati was employed as an engineer in the photovoltaics industry.

Marc van Gerven - CEO, Q-Cells North America

Marc van Gerven is a skilled business leader focused on growing energy technology businesses with 18 years experience in energy including 13 years in renewable energy and 5 years in solar.

Since 2009, as CEO of Q-Cells North America, Marc has been responsible for Q-Cells market entry in one of the key growth markets for the company.

Prior to Q-Cells, in 2005, Marc joined Solaria as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales where he defined the company positioning and go-to market strategy throughout two investment rounds totaling $77M. In addition to developing and securing long term customer commitments of more than 500MW with leading solar project developers and utilities in Europe and the US, he secured a significant cooperation agreement and a $35M strategic investment by Q-Cells.

Earlier in his career, Marc spent four years with Unocal's renewable energy division, where he developed and negotiated large scale geothermal power production projects in Latin America and Indonesia in technical and commercial leadership roles. Marc has also held senior marketing and technology management roles serving the infrastructure and utility markets at Autodesk.

As Exploration and Production Segment Leader at GE Energy, he was responsible for an oil & gas technology business, helping the company dramatically grow its market presence and revenue by successfully re-defining product line strategies and focusing the sales team on new market segments and sales channels in the Americas and CIS.

Marc serves as expert evaluator for Research and Technology Development in Sustainable Energy Systems for the European Union and is on the Board of SEIA. He received his MS from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, and his PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Berlin, Germany.

Frank Wolak - Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Frank A. Wolak is the Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies in the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His fields of specialization are Industrial Organization and Econometric Theory. His recent work studies methods for introducing competition into infrastructure industries telecommunications, electricity, water delivery and postal delivery services and on assessing the impacts of these competition policies on consumer and producer welfare. He is the Chairman of the Market Surveillance Committee of the California Independent System Operator for electricity supply industry in California. He is a visiting scholar at University of California Energy Institute and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He currently directs the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) in the Freeman-Spogli Institute (FSI) for International Studies.

Christopher Rose - SVP Corporate Development, CODA Automotive

Chris Rose is SVP Corporate Development at CODA Automotive, where he oversees CODA's corporate development and legal departments. He has more than 15 years of experience in corporate transactions. Prior to joining CODA, Chris led dozens of transactions, with a combined value of over 10 billion dollars, as an attorney with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and as Associate General Counsel and Corporate Development with Fidelity National Financial, Inc. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a law degree from UCLA and a degree in economics from UC Berkeley.

Yumin Liu - President, GCL Solar Energy

Yumin Liu has over 15 years of development, operational and sales experience in the energy and manufacturing industries. He also has several years of experience at leadership consulting and government service sectors. Yumin's previous positions include sales director at Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, business development manager at Enron International, deputy GM at Enron's China power plant JV, and principal consultant at Heidrick & Struggles. Mr. Liu has engineering bachelor's and master's degrees from China and both engineering and business master's degrees from the U.S.

Panel 2: What is the Role of Policy in Green Job Creation in the U.S. and China?

Teryn Norris, President and Founder, Americans for Energy Leadership (Moderator)

Currently a public policy student at Stanford University, Teryn formerly served as Senior Advisor and Project Director at the Breakthrough Institute, a leading energy policy think tank, where he founded the Breakthrough Generation fellowship. Teryn has successfully advanced energy policy at the federal and state level, appeared on national television and radio, and published in NYT Dot Earth, Harvard Law & Policy Review, National Journal, Forbes, SF Chronicle, Huffington Post, Issues in Science & Technology, Yale E360, SAIS Review, The Plain Dealer, Baltimore Sun, and other publications. In 2007, he and his colleagues proposed an energy innovation agenda that was adopted as the Obama Campaign's $150 billion clean energy investment platform.

Teryn is co-author of several reports, such as the widely acclaimed 'Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant�?� report on global clean-tech competitiveness and the National Energy Education Act proposal, which led to the Obama administration's RE-ENERGYSE initiative. He previously worked with Environment California on CA's landmark climate bill (AB-32), and served on the Johns Hopkins President's Task Force on Climate Change, which produced a $73 million energy initiative and the new JHU sustainability institute. In 2011, Teryn was awarded the Truman Scholarship for public service leadership.

Dian M. Grueneich - Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP

Former Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, Dian Grueneich is a nationally recognized expert in energy and environmental issues, with over 30 years experience. She was appointed to the California Commission in 2005 by Governor Schwarzenegger and served until the end of her term on December 31, 2010. On March, 1, 2011 she joined the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster as a partner in the firm's Environmental, Energy, and Clean Tech practice.

While at the Commission, Commissioner Grueneich was the lead assigned Commissioner on energy efficiency, demand response, transmission permitting and planning, Western energy issues, low income energy, and several Advanced Metering Infrastructure dockets. She guided the preparation and adoption of the California Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan and the successful permitting of three major renewable transmission lines. She also served as the Commissioner representative on the Governor's Climate Action Team, and on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Electricity Advisory Committee and its Smart Grid subcommittee.

She received her J.D. from Georgetown University and B.A. from Stanford University. She has received numerous national and international awards for her leadership, including the 2010 National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Kilmarx Clean Energy Award.

Jason Wolf - Vice President, North America, Better Place

Jason Wolf is vice president of North America for Better Place. His responsibilities include overseeing the company's efforts in California, Hawaii and Ontario and developing other North American markets. Within the energy and transportation ecosystems, Wolf works with federal, state and local governments as well as utility, business and non-governmental stakeholders to make the vision of zero-emission EVs powered by renewable energy a reality.

Wolf built a strong management track record in the IT industry before joining Better Place. His experience includes various positions in senior management, strategic planning, product launch, sales and professional services. He most recently served as president of Sterna Technologies USA, the pioneer of Business Positioning Systems software. Before joining Sterna, Wolf held a number of positions during a 10-year career at SAP AG, including senior vice president of Strategic Initiatives and senior vice president of New Product Introductions.

Wolf has a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from the University of Tel-Aviv and an MBA from San Jose State University.

Joanna Lewis - Georgetown University

Joanna Lewis is an assistant professor of Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Her research focuses on renewable energy industry and policy development, mechanisms for low-carbon technology transfer in the developing world, and expanding options for multilateral engagement in a post-2012 international climate change agreement. Most of Professor Lewis' research is based in China. Current projects include studies of China's wind power industry development, the security implications of climate change impacts for China, and the future of the bilateral relationship between the United States and China on energy and climate change.

Dr. Lewis serves as an international advisor to the Energy Foundation China Sustainable Energy Program in Beijing, and is a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report. She was a member of the National Academies Committee on US-China Cooperation on Electricity from Renewables and has consulted for many domestic and international organizations including UNIDO and USAID. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)'s US-China Program. Previously, Dr. Lewis was a Senior International Fellow at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and a researcher in the China Energy Group at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She served as the primary technical advisor for the Asia Society's Initiative for US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate, and has also worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the National Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Defense Fund. From 2003-2004 she was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She holds a Ph.D. and master's degree in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in environmental science and policy from Duke University.

Anne Smart, Director of Energy, Silicon Valley Leadership Group

Anne serves as an advocate on behalf of over 338 Silicon Valley companies for regional, state, and national policies and programs that promote renewable energy, data center efficiency and energy efficiency, smart grid deployment, and climate change action. Prior to joining the Leadership Group, Anne worked at the Delaware State Senate where she helped pass the state's first Energy Efficiency Resource Standard. She has also held positions at the American Geological Institute, the Arizona Water Resources Research Center, and in the district office of former U.S. Representative Wayne Gilchrest. Anne has a Master of Energy and Environment Policy from the University of Delaware and a B.A. in Public Administration and a Bachelor of Philosophy in Environmental Studies from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is from Bel Air, Maryland and currently lives in San Jose.

Sanjay J. Wagle - Associate Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)

Sanjay leads the Agency's commercialization program to ensure ARPA-E's breakthrough energy technologies succeed in the marketplace. Before joining ARPA-E, Sanjay served as Renewable Energy Grants Advisor in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), helping to oversee implementation of approximately $11 billion of grants and tax credits as part of DOE's $36.7 billion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs.

Sanjay comes to DOE from Silicon Valley, where he was an investor in clean energy technologies, most recently as a Principal at VantagePoint Venture Partners, which has over $1 billion committed to investing in clean technologies. Prior to that, Sanjay was a Founding Principal of Expansion Capital Partners, one of the early venture capital firms investing in clean technologies. Sanjay previously served as an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation, a unit of the World Bank, where he led the financing of private sector power, transport, and water projects in developing countries. Sanjay holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Panel 3: So what? Implications for Businesses, Professionals and Students

Michael Kanellos - Editor in Chief, Greentech Media (Moderator)

Michael Kanellos is the Editor in Chief of Greentech Media, a media and research firm that concentrates on clean technologies. Prior to joining the company in 2008, he worked for CNET Network's News.com for eleven years. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, NPR, CBS, CNBC, Fox News and other media outlets and speaks frequently in the U.S. Europe and Asia on alternative energy and efficiency. A graduate of Cornell and the University of California Hastings, he has worked as an attorney, a travel writer and a busboy at a pancake house.

Charlie Gay - President, Applied Solar, Applied Materials

Dr. Charlie Gay was named President, Applied Solar and Chairman of the Applied Solar Council in 2009. As President of Applied Solar, Dr. Gay is responsible for positioning Applied and our solar efforts with important stakeholders in the industry, technical community and particularly governments around the world. As Chairman of the Applied Solar Council, Dr. Gay leads a cross-company forum to assure cohesiveness on solar-related initiatives and strategy related to technology, and market development. An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in the solar industry, Dr. Gay joined Applied Materials in 2006 as Corporate Vice President, General Manager of the Solar Business Group.

Dr. Gay is also a co-founder of the Greenstar Foundation, an organization that delivers solar power and internet access for health, education and microenterprise projects to small villages in the developing world. Greenstar has been recognized for its innovation by the World Bank, the Stockholm Challenge, the Technology Empowerment Network and the Tech Museum Awards.

Dr. Gay began his career in 1975 designing solar power system components for communications satellites at Spectrolab, Inc. and later joined ARCO Solar, where he established the research and development program and led the commercialization of single crystal silicon and thin film technologies. In 1990, Dr. Gay became president and chief operating officer of Siemens Solar Industries and from 1994 to 1997, he served as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the world's leading laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and technology. In 1997, Dr. Gay served as president and chief executive officer of ASE Americas, Inc., and in 2001 became chairman of the advisory board at SunPower Corporation.

Dr. Gay has a doctorate degree in physical chemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He holds numerous patents for solar cell and module construction and is the recipient of the Gold Medal for Achievement from the World Renewable Energy Congress.

Polly Shaw - Director of External Relations of Suntech America

Ms. Polly Shaw is the Director of External Relations of Suntech America, based in San Francisco, California. Suntech America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suntech Power Holdings, a global leader in manufacturing solar cells, panel modules, and building-integrated solar solutions. Ms. Shaw leads Suntech America policy and government affairs issues and represents Suntech on the board of key U.S. industry associations, including the Solar Energy Industries Association, Solar Alliance, and the Large Scale Solar Association. She has worked for 18 years to design policy models and programs that advance clean, efficient energy use and climate protection in the U.S., and energy efficiency and methane capture programs in the U.S. and China. Prior to joining Suntech, Ms. Shaw was a Senior Regulatory Analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission, where she led implementation of a $2.2 billion California Solar Initiative solar incentive and R&D program. Prior to the CPUC, Ms. Shaw served as a Program Officer at the Energy Foundation and supported EPA climate programs while at ICF, Inc. Ms. Shaw received a B.A. from Tufts University and a Certificate in Chinese Law from the University of London and speaks English, French, and Chinese.

Andrew Chung, Principal, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Andrew is a Principal at Lightspeed and has helped lead the firm's entry into new areas of investment that include cleantech, education, genomics, and healthcare IT.

Prior to Lightspeed, Andrew worked at Bain Capital and TL Ventures, where he supported leveraged buyout and venture investments in software, semiconductors and healthcare. Previously, Andrew worked as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company in Greater China; co-founded and led operations for UberWorks (acq. by NWKC), an e-commerce content aggregation software startup incubated at Trilogy; and directed product management at OnStation, a CRM software company.

Andrew earned his BA in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Andrew chairs the Cleantech Advisory Board for The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), serves on the Advisory Board for Stanford Energy Crossroads, and is an advisor to the Clean Tech Open.

Puon Penn, SVP, Head of National Cleantech & Emerging Tech Markets, Wells Fargo

Puon Penn is a senior vice president and head of the National CleanTech & Emerging Tech Markets sector at Wells Fargo. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., he manages a team of banking professionals who serve the financial needs of businesses in technology and clean technology nationwide. The Wells Fargo CleanTech Group provides expertise, financial services, and resources to help domestic and international companies focus on decreasing the use of fossil fuels, fertilizers, industrial chemicals, and other activities that cause greenhouse gas emissions or other harmful environmental effects.

Puon began his career with Wells Fargo in 1998 in the International Group as a structured trade finance officer. He moved on to become a senior relationship manager in the Commercial Banking group, serving the financial needs of middle-market companies. In 2003, Puon joined the Wells Fargo Principal Investing Group as a buy-side analyst covering the food and beverage, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, and financial services sectors. In 2006, Puon joined the Wells Fargo Technology & Venture Banking management team.

Wells Fargo has committed more than $1.5 billion to more than 130 customers who have made environmentally beneficial products and services a key part of their businesses. In addition, Wells Fargo has deployed more than $2.1 billion of tax equity capital into more than 250 renewable energy projects in the United States including $500 million to support more than 200 commercial-scale solar photovoltaic projects and $1.5 billion for 30 utility-scale wind projects. At year end 2010, Wells Fargo has provided more than $3.7 billion in financing for building projects designed to qualify for the U.S. Green Building Council�s LEED certification.

Puon earned his bachelor�s degree in economics from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Active in the community, Puon is involved with several nonprofit organizations including the Cambodian Children�s Fund and Friends Without a Border.

Zach Gentry, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Adura Technologies

Zach Gentry is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Adura Technologies, a venture-funded start-up based in San Francisco, California, USA. Adura Technologies provides wireless lighting management solutions that save businesses significantly on lighting costs. The solution installs in less than five minutes per fixture with no operational downtime. In addition to the dramatic energy savings, the solution enables building owners to quickly reconfigure their lighting controls as building use and occupancy changes. Adura has received numerous awards for its technology. Mr. Gentry has spent the past twenty years in business development and marketing roles in energy, technology and financial services. Prior to Adura, he was with SunPower Corporation, a solar panel manufacturer, working on their U.S. commercial building strategy. Mr. Gentry holds an MBA and BA from UC Berkeley.