california’s distributed energy future 2017

Martha Guzman Aceves was appointed Commissioner at the CPUC by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Dec. 28, 2016. She previously served as deputy legislative affairs secretary in the Office of the Governor since 2011, focusing on natural resources, environmental protection, energy and food and agriculture. She was sustainable communities program director for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation from 2005 to 2011. From 2006 to 2008, she worked with Swanton Berry Farm on human resources issues including a new employee-stock ownership program. She was legislative coordinator for United Farm Workers from 1999 to 2005, working on labor and environmental issues. In 2010 she co-founded Communities for a New California, a charitable organization promoting increased civic engagement of underrepresented communities. Guzman Aceves earned a Master of Science degree in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis

Andrew brings to Obvious Ventures a lifelong passion for building companies around sustainable systems and people power.

For over a decade, Andrew has focused on clean technology and clean energy solutions. He started down the clean tech path with Energy Innovations in 2003, which he grew from a business plan to a major solar developer serving customers like Google, Disney, Sony Pictures, and British Telecom.

After selling the company to Suntech in 2008, Andrew served as Chief Commercial Officer at Suntech as well as Vice President of Global Product Strategy. During his tenure, Suntech became the largest solar company in the world.

After leaving Suntech, Andrew spent two years as Vice President of Distributed Generation for Nextera Energy, the largest clean energy developer in the US.

Before his clean tech career, Andrew spent a decade building companies in the early days of “Web 1.0.” In 1998 Andrew co-founded Bigstep.com, an e-commerce platform designed to serve the needs of small businesses entering the Internet age. He has been supporting the enterprising ideas of people power ever since.

Andrew is a member of the Advisory Board for GE’s distributed generation business, Current by GE. He is also a member of the NREL Investor Advisory Board.

A graduate from Dartmouth College, Andrew lives in Burlingame, CA with his wife and three children. When he's not helping to build early stage companies, Andrew builds wooden boats and furniture.

Andrew was born in New York City and spent his formative years on an avocado ranch in Ojai, California.

In 2009, Dr. Brown launched TerraVerde Renewable Partners. As President of TerraVerde, he has led a team of analysts, engineers, project developers and managers, and finance professionals who have developed $327 Million of DER projects, including: 70 MWs of solar, 13 MWs of storage and $40 Million of energy conservation measures in over 300 buildings on behalf of Schools, Cities, Transit Agencies and Water Districts throughout California. Using these and other assets, he leads a company that is now developing programs that will create new revenue streams and reduce power and resource adequacy costs for Load Serving Entities (“LSEs”) through deployment of DER/non-wire strategies. Dr. Brown has also been deeply involved in California legislation and regulation regarding clean energy, including crafting of SB 73, legislation guiding development of California’s Prop 39 Clean Energy Jobs Act, which has funneled over $1.5 Billion to K-12 schools for energy efficiency and other clean energy projects during the past four years. He also led the effort to have the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) select TerraVerde as its energy strategic partner in 2013. Previously, he successfully helped start-up, build and eventually sell MMA Renewable Ventures (“MMARV”) to an international solar company.

Caroline Choi is the Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs for Southern California Edison (SCE). She is responsible for analysis of federal and state energy and environmental policies; analysis and development of a long-term environmental, energy and technology strategy for SCE; and directing case management for key regulatory filings. Prior to joining SCE in 2012, Choi was executive director of Environmental Services & Strategy at Progress Energy, where she was responsible for leading environmental permitting, compliance and policy. She served the company in various roles, including director, Energy Policy & Strategy, and manager, Federal Public Affairs. Choi has served on various non-profit boards and is a board member of the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, the National Forest Foundation and the California Advisory Board of The Trust for Public Lands. Choi has a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College.

Geoffrey Eisenberg is a Principal at EIF, and has been a member of the EIF investment team from its inception. His responsibilities include investment due diligence, sector research, strategy development, deal sourcing, and deal structuring.  He also spends a significant portion of his time on-site with EIF portfolio companies, where he works closely with senior management on critical initiatives.  Geoff currently works closely with Complete Solar, Clean Fund, and T-Rex Group.  He is a board observer at Complete Solar and T-Rex Group.  During his time with the EIF, Geoff has researched and evaluated investment opportunities in many areas of sustainability including green chemistry, land remediation, environmental credits, agriculture, and transportation.

Prior to joining EIF, Geoff worked as a Senior Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates, a global institutional investment consulting firm.  While at Cambridge, he provided investment counsel to institutional, pension, and ultra-high net-worth clients.  Geoff also conducted due diligence on investment managers, and helped clients build diversified and sophisticated portfolios across asset classes.  He initiated that firm’s 2007 white paper on cleantech investing for institutional clients, and conducted extensive research on the cleantech industry, including company and venture capital/private equity fund analysis.

In addition to his role at EIF, Geoff is a mentor for the Hawaii Energy Exelerator, helping clean energy start-ups scale. He also serves as a director to the Forsythia Foundation, a non-profit focused on the commercialization of safer green chemistry replacements for toxic chemicals in our products and environment.

Geoff holds a BA in History and Philosophy from Bates College in Lewiston, ME.

Dr. Emily Fertig focuses on the economics of renewables integration, integrated resource planning, electricity market design, simulation of renewable power output variability, and decision-making under uncertainty in the electricity industry. Prior to joining DNV GL, she earned her PhD in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, where she researched the use of large-scale energy storage and long-distance interconnection as means of aiding wind power integration, as well as R&D strategy under uncertainty. With postdoctoral appointments at Penn State and MIT, she researched computational methods for decision making under uncertainty and taught a course on decision analysis in the energy industry.

James "Jamie" Fine works to reduce the impacts of energy systems used to power buildings, transport and service people, and produce and move goods.

His areas of research and advocacy include design and implementation of market-based policy, modeling the economic, air quality, and health consequences of policy decisions, deploying smart grid for environmental and electricity customer benefits, and facilitating the meaningful involvement of community stakeholders in environmental planning.

Jamie earned his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Groups.

Mike Florio served as Commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission from January 2011 and December 2016. During his tenure he contributed substantially to the Commission’s work relating to long term procurement planning, integration of distributed energy resources, rate design, demand response, interconnection, resource adequacy and utility cost recovery. Prior to this appointment, he was a senior attorney at The Utility Reform Network, and served in that capacity since 1978. Mike is a member of California Conference of Public Utility Counsel. He was also a member of the board of governors of the California Independent System Operator from 1997 to 2005. He holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, a M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a B.A. from Bowling Green State University.

For over 25 years, Joe Galliani made his living as a writer, creative director, brand strategist and subject matter expert for some of America’s biggest and most famous corporate names. In 2007 Joe turned his attention to environmental work and began volunteering with GRID Alternatives installing free solar on low income and Habitat for Humanity houses; working with the South Bay Environmental Services Center and the South Bay Cities Council of Governments Green Task Force, and writing environmental columns for Patch.com. In 2009 Joe became the Organizer of the South Bay Los Angeles 350 Climate Action Group and helped produce the largest climate action in Southern California. In 2010 Joe became one of the founders of the South Bay Bicycle Coalition and has been on their board of directors since the organization was formalized in 2010; was an integral member of the team that secured a $250,000 grant to create a seven-city bicycle master plan and then lobbied to get it passed by seven South Bay City Councils. From 2009-2010 Joe was a founding member of the Hermosa Beach Carbon Neutral City Committee, having co-created the Carbon Neutral City initiative. In 2011 Joe became a founding member of the Vitality City Blue Zones Bike/Walk committee and helped get its Livability Plan passed by the city councils in the target cities of Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. In 2010 Joe began working with CBS EcoMedia writing both the 2010 CBS Green Report and 2011 CBS Green Report. In January of 2012 Joe joined the EcoMedia team full time as the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs. Joe left his CBS EcoMedia position on October 1, 2013 to work full time as the pro bono Organizer of the South Bay Los Angeles 350 Climate Action Group. He is the co-creator of the MB2025 vision for 100% renewable energy powered Manhattan Beach by 2025 and has partnered with the City to produce the Earth Hour Light Up Your Future event at the Manhattan Beach Pier and the MB2025 Forum.
In June of 2014 Joe became the Chair of the South Bay Clean Power initiative and has been working full time ever since to bring Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) to the 20 cities of the South Bay and West Side Los Angeles County and other eligible cities in L.A. County. On March 17, 2015 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution to explore the County’s CCA options and to fund a feasibility study as requested by South Bay Clean Power. The feasibility study was delivered in July of 2016 and Joe is now working with the County of Los Angeles and cities like Long Beach to help launch California’s largest Community Choice Power program.

Will is a product manager at Nest Labs, architect of the thoughtful home. In this role, Will oversees the ongoing strategy and development of Rush Hour Rewards and Time of Savings, energy services that Nest offers energy providers to help manage load and save customers money when energy is expensive.

Prior to Nest, Will worked at Greenstart, a design consultancy and venture capital firm. He also served as the CEO of Xite Solar, a company he co-founded using technology developed at UC Berkeley to enable production of high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaics from a variety of earth-abundant materials. Earlier in his career, Will spent several years at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he worked as a commercialization advisor for advanced cooling technologies in the newly formed Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).

Will holds a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and a MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Asim has worked extensively in the areas of market and business development, marketing, sales enablement, and product management in early stage, high growth clean technology companies. He is the Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience at Bloom Energy, a provider of breakthrough solid oxide fuel cell technology that generates clean, reliable, and highly-efficient power onsite. Asim's responsibilities at Bloom Energy include new market development, sales enablement, customer engagement and experience, and corporate and product marketing.

Prior to Bloom Energy, Asim worked for CURRENT Group, a Smart Grid solutions provider, as the Chief of Staff for the CEO focused on building the executive team and strategic planning as well as marketing and business development activities. At CURRENT Group, Asim developed an industry leading value model to quantify the monetary benefits of various Smart Grid applications. He previously also advised electric utility and telecommunication clients on strategy and systems integration initiatives while working for Deloitte Consulting.

Asim earned a BS in Commerce with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Emily Kirsch is the Founder and CEO of Powerhouse, an Oakland based co-working space and seed fund that houses and invests in intelligent energy entrepreneurs. Prior to founding Powerhouse, Emily worked with Van Jones, a former advisor to President Obama turned CNN political commentator, to launch the Green Jobs Corps; Oakland's first renewables focused job training program.Emily is the founding convener of the the Oakland Climate Action Coalition which drafted and secured passage of what was the most ambitious Energy and Climate Action Plan of any city in the country. In addition, Emily worked with the solar company Mosaic to secure their first customers and launch their pilot platform. Emily is a 2012 New Leaders Council Alumni, was featured in the '15 for 2015 Women Leaders in Cleantech', was a 2015 winner of the 'East Bay Innovation Award for Cleantech', and was a 'Grist 50: The 50 People You'll Be Talking About in 2016.' Emily serves on the Board of PV Complete and is on the Advisory Board of the University of San Francisco’s Masters of Science in Energy Systems Management. Emily has guest lectured at UC Berkeley and Stanford.

Jeffrey Kwan is a Utilities Engineer at the California Public Utilities Commission. He is part of the Grid Planning and Reliability Section of the Energy Division and supports the Commission on Smart Grid, smart inverters, interconnection Rule 21, and distributed resource planning policies. Prior to joining the CPUC, Jeffrey was a Teaching Fellow with Teach For China. He holds a B.S. and M.S. from UC Berkeley both in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Sonita Lontoh is Vice President of Strategic Marketing at Siemens Digital Grid. She is a technology executive focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT), 'Smart' Connected Energy/Devices and Green Technology. Her work addresses the intersection of technology, business models and policy in smart grids and IoT. In particular, she focuses on societal benefits and global cross-collaborations on innovation, human capital and leadership development. Prior, Lontoh was an executive at Trilliant and at PG&E Corporation. Earlier in her career, she was a management consultant at the strategy consulting firm Bain & Company and spent a few years as a technology entrepreneur.

Lontoh has been invited by the White House to speak at President Barack Obama’s Global Innovation Summit and to attend an event honoring AAPI Women Champions of Change. She has also been recognized by and invited to meet with former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current US Secretary of State John Kerry. She is a selection committee member and mentor for TechWomen, a U.S. Department of State's women-in-technology initiative, and for Endeavor, the high-impact entrepreneurship nonprofit. Additionally, she is a co-founder and Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Asia Technology Alliance (SVATA).

Lontoh has spoken at, contributed to, and appeared in the World Economic Forum, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC, Reuters, BBC, TIME, Bloomberg and other respected publications.

Sonita earned her Master of Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), her MBA in Strategy and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and her B.S. in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Beckie oversees the design deployment of demand side management programs in MCE's service area. Beckie has been with MCE for over four years, and in that time has developed the first ratepayer funded CCA energy efficiency program and brought in more than $10 million worth of funding for local energy efficiency and demand side management programs. Before joining the MCE team, Beckie served as the Program Manager for the Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings program at the California Energy Commission. Prior to working with the Energy Commission, Beckie worked with the Demand Side Management group of the California Public Utilities Commission where she focused on energy efficiency financing programs and strategies to serve multifamily buildings. Beckie has a master of science degree in Environmental Systems from Humboldt State University, where her thesis research focused on development of a seven-county regional PACE financing program on the north coast of California. She is a Switzer Environmental Fellow, former co-director at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University, and enjoys backpacking, skiing, gardening, and ultimate frisbee.

Parina Parikh is currently the Clean Transportation Regulatory Manager for SDG&E. In her role, she oversees all regulatory and legislative activities for the Clean Transportation department. Most recently, she led the filing of SDG&E’s transportation electrification proposals in front of the California Public Utilities Commission, where SDG&E put forth several projects covering the residential, goods movement and people movement sectors. Prior to joining Clean Transportation, Parina oversaw various case assignments covering electric rate design/rate reform, net energy metering, electric vehicles and new business initiatives. Prior to SDG&E, Parina managed numerous audit initiatives across the Sempra family of companies along with preparing Sempra’s short term and long term financial plans. Parina has a Bachelor of Science Degree in both Economics and Learning & Organizational Change from Northwestern University.

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering utilities, grid issues, electric vehicles, the solar industry and energy storage. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

As Senior Vice President for Client Services and Business Development at Allconnect, Dwight is responsible for new Allconnect partnerships and the ongoing management of existing utility relationships nation-wide. He has more than 25 years’ experience assisting utilities and other companies in the development and implementation of solutions and programs that create consumer confidence and increase demand.

Prior to Allconnect, Dwight led efforts to develop technology and customer solutions with CompuCom and Mobil Oil. He also served as a U.S. Army Military Police Officer and received a BS Degree in Accounting from Alabama A&M University.

Dwight is passionate about developing solutions that not only connect customers to and educate them about the products and services they need, but also make things less complicated for them.

MJ Shiao currently serves as the Director of Community Solar at Arcadia Power, where he works to connect residential customers with community solar projects developed by Arcadia Power's partners. Before Arcadia, MJ held various positions at Greentech Media and Wood Mackenzie, including leading GTM Research, a 30-person team tracking, analyzing and forecasting the evolution of the solar, energy storage and grid edge industries.  MJ is a leading expert in the transformation of the electricity sector. He has spoken at numerous conferences, testified in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission on solar trade issues and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg and Buzzfeed. Before joining GTM Research, MJ managed and designed several MWs of residential and commercial PV projects. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware, where he was named a National Truman Scholar. A believer in the social benefits of solar power, MJ has also researched, installed and tested rural off-grid PV in India and Thailand.

Julian is a staff writer at Greentech Media, where he reports on energy storage and other clean energy sectors. He also has experience covering clean transportation, state and federal energy policy, and climate adaptation. Previously, Julian reported for CityLab at The Atlantic and conducted grant-funded climate change reporting in Bangladesh. He graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in political science.

Jeff St. John comes to Greentech Media from The Fresno Bee, where he covered solar-power, biofuel and biomass developments in California's Central Valley, and the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash., where his beat included nuclear power and nuclear-waste remediation, as well as the research and development of biofuels, fuel cells, energy-management systems and other energy technologies. He also has written for the Anchorage Daily News, UpsideToday.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and he won a National Headliner Award in 2005. Jeff has a master's degree from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and believes green technology will save the planet.

Nellie Tong has over 10 years of experience in policy development, market analysis and program evaluation in the energy industry. Ms. Tong helps government and utility clients with designing and evaluating policies and programs such as renewable portfolio standards (RPS), feed-in tariff (FiT) policies, renewable energy rebate programs, and advanced technology R&D programs. For the private sector, Ms. Tong has provided market assessment and strategy consulting to battery manufacturers, solar services providers, solar developers, and electric vehicle (EV) services providers. She is an experienced project manager and serves as the lead consultant in numerous projects on renewable energy and emerging energy technologies. Nellie Tong has a Bachelor degree in Economics from Swarthmore College.

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.