Leslie Biddle
Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Infrastructure, US Department of Energy
Leslie D. Biddle a senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Infrastructure at the Department of Energy, focusing on commercialization, market adoption and catalyzing the private sector to finance the energy transition. Prior to joining the Department, she was a partner at Serengeti Asset Management, a specialty investment firm focused on private and public credit opportunities and the development of financing platforms. She is an accomplished investor in the public and private markets, investing in companies across the energy value-chain in renewables and conventional energy including solar, carbon capture, nuclear generation, the development of carbon offsets, and late-stage tech companies, among others. She served as the chief strategy officer of Climate Real Impact Solutions, investing private capital to accelerate the transition to clean energy and net carbon goals. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Biddle was a member the board of directors of CenterPoint Energy, an electric and gas utility primarily in Texas and Minnesota; Nextracker, the leading provider of smart solar tacking systems; Cypress Creek Renewables, a leading U.S. solar and storage company; Empire State Realty Trust, the industry leader in carbon neutral commercial real estate; the chair of the Advisory Board of NatureVest, the impact investing arm of The Nature Conservancy; and a member of the Global Advisory Board of The Hawthorn Club for executive woman in energy. Previously, Biddle was a partner at Goldman Sachs and member of the senior commodities management team contributing to the growth of the business to more than $3 billion. She was a member of Goldman’s firmwide Finance Committee, Business Practices Committee, New Activity Committee, Structured Investment Products Committee and European Audit and Compliance Committee. She was named managing director in 2004 and partner in 2006.
Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Biddle was a Vice President at the AES Corporation focusing on power plant development and acquisitions. She also served as a vice president at the Overseas Investment Corporation (now Development Finance Corporation), providing political risk insurance and financing to U.S. companies expanding overseas. She holds an A.B. from Colby College where she served as vice chair of the Board of Trustees. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in New York, New York with her husband, George, and their three children.
Lucian Boldea, Ph.D.
President & CEO, Honeywell Industrial Automation
Lucian Boldea, Ph.D., is president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Industrial Automation. Previously, he served as president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. Before working at Honeywell, Boldea was executive vice president for Eastman Chemical Company where he led global strategy, business operations, and financial performance. He has also held other leadership roles at Eastman, including his role as senior vice president for the Additives & Functional Products Business where he was responsible for Eastman’s largest, most profitable business segment. Lucian began his career with Eastman as a chemist in 1997. Boldea earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Florida, an MBA in finance from the Wharton School of Management in Philadelphia, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of West Florida.
Diana Propper de Callejon
Managing Director, Cranemere
Diana Propper de Callejon is a Managing Director at Cranemere, a holding company that acquires privately held, middle-market companies in the United States and Europe. Prior to joining Cranemere, she was a Partner at Expansion Capital Partners, a growth stage venture fund where she invested in green building and energy efficiency, taking companies public and executing successful trade sales. Callejon is a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council where she chairs the investment committee that oversees NRDC’s endowment and is on the Advisory Board of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. She is a visiting professor in the Economic Department at Duke, where she teaches the undergraduate seminar, Financing Climate Solutions in Private Markets.
Callejon was an executive producer of Nathan Havey’s award winning documentary, Beyond Zero, which tells the inspiring story of Interface CEO Ray Anderson and his team’s journey to become the first zero climate emissions carpet company in the US. She has an MBA from Harvard and a B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Duke University.
Sarah Cannon
Advisor, Coatue
Sarah Cannon is an advisor to Coatue where she was previously a general partner and head of Europe, leading the firm’s European private investment efforts. Prior to Coatue, Cannon was a partner at Index Ventures, a principal at Alphabet’s private equity fund CapitalG, and served as a policy advisor on the National Economic Council at the White House during the Obama administration. Cannon received a BA in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale College; an MPA/ID from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the International Rescue Committee.
Mark Florian
Managing Director, Head of BlackRock Global Infrastructure Funds (BGIF)
Mark B. Florian, Managing Director, Head of BlackRock Global Infrastructure Funds ("BGIF"), started the BGIF franchise in 2008. Since inception, Mr. Florian has overseen all of the Fund's activities, including overall strategy, portfolio construction, investment origination, structuring, execution, monitoring, and exit strategy. The BGIF team manages over $15 billion in capital commitments across four vintages, investing globally in essential contracted infrastructure assets and businesses by capitalizing on the long-term trends of decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization. Prior to BGIF, Mr. Florian was a Partner at Goldman Sachs, fulfilling two primary roles at the firm: 1) managing its global Infrastructure Investment Banking business, and 2) serving on the Investment Committee for Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners. His 23-year Goldman Sachs career spanned a wide range of areas within the firm, including the government finance, corporate finance investment banking, and the mergers & acquisitions group. While at Goldman Sachs, he led over $25 billion of mergers and acquisition transactions, and also had structured over $35 billion in financing and hedging transactions. He has been asked to testify to the U.S. Congress on infrastructure issues multiple times and was appointed to a Federal Government commission, which developed recommendations to the U.S. Congress on key changes to its infrastructure finance system. Mr. Florian holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Economics, magna cum laude, from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Charlie Gailliot
Partner & Co-Head, KKR Climate
Charlie Gailliot joined KKR in 2023 as a partner and global co-head of KKR Climate. Previously, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he spent 20 years as a private investor in the Merchant Banking Division and served as a member of the Investment Committees for Corporate Equity, Infrastructure, and Climate. Most recently, Gailliot was responsible for the Energy Transition team and the Diversified Industrials team, where he led the investments in Redwood Materials, Gridstor, Hydrostor, and Boyd Corp., among others. Earlier in his career, he spent two years in Goldman’s Hong Kong office working on investments across Asia. Gailliot holds a degree in economics with a certificate in finance from Princeton University.
Melissa James
Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley
Melissa James is a Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley in Global Capital Markets where she currently headsthe ESG Center for Excellence working to bring domain expertise around ESG to capital markets and investment banking clients across debt, equity and M&A. Melissa has worked with numerous clients across sectors on strategy formulation and implementation around environmental, social and governance matters. Her work includes advising emerging growth companies on ESG stewardship in preparation for going public as well as structuring and executing ESG labeled capital raises and helping companies think through their capital allocation decisions with an ESG lens.
Genevieve Kinney
Investor, General Catalyst
Genevieve Kinney is an investor at General Catalyst where she leads the firm's climate and energy investing strategy as part of its broader “Global Resilience” thesis. Before joining General Catalyst, Genevieve spent six years in the Equity Capital Markets division of Morgan Stanley in New York and London, where she was largely focused on taking technology companies public.
Genevieve obtained her MBA from Columbia Business School and BA from Georgetown University, where she studied Government and Culture & Politics. She serves as an honorary co-chair of the Apollo Circle at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Gregg Lowe
President & CEO, Wolfspeed
Gregg Lowe joined Wolfspeed in September 2017 as president and chief executive officer and has transformed it into the world’s only pure play, vertically integrated silicon carbide company. Under his tenure, Wolfspeed is leading the rapid expansion of the silicon carbide market by committing over $8B toward expanding operations. Prior to Wolfspeed, Lowe served as president and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, where he led the successful merger with NXP Semiconductors N.V. to create a high-performance, mixed-signal semiconductor industry leader. Lowe also had 28-year career at Texas Instruments, which included executive roles as senior vice president and leader of the analog business. He holds numerous board positions including at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he serves as chairman; North Carolina A&T, the largest historically black university in the country; Silicon Labs; and the Semiconductor Industry Association. Lowe holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and an honorary doctorate of engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University.
John Podesta
Senior Advisor to President Biden for Clean Energy and Innovation Supplementation
John Podesta is the founder of the Center for American Progress. He currently serves as the senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation. Podesta served as counselor to President Barack Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. He was a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He chaired Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016.
Joshua Rogol
President & Chief Development Officer, Strata Clean Energy
Joshua Rogol has 15 years of experience in energy finance, project development, technology development, and entrepreneurship. He is currently president and chief development officer at Strata Clean Energy, where he leads origination and development across the United States for Strata’s solar and battery energy storage portfolio. Prior to Strata, Rogol led global sales and strategy for a leading energy storage technology manufacturer, developing the company’s first utility scale project in Europe, a microgrid facility in Nicaragua, and behind-the-meter C&I project in the United States. His previous experience also included leading global development for Urban Green Energy, helping to take the company public in 2014. Additionally, opening their Shanghai offices, Rogol was co-founder of Photon Consulting, a leading renewable energy consulting firm, supporting IPOs, M&A, and global business strategy for companies such as First Solar, Canadian Solar, Hanwha, and Trina Solar. Rogol is dedicated to community involvement and has served on the board of directors at blueEnergy. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in international relations and economics from Tufts University and completed additional studies at La Universidad de Playa Ancha in Valparaiso, Chile.
Jigar Shah
Director of Loans Program Office, US Department of Energy
Jigar Shah was most recently co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing before joining the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office as Director. Prior to Generate Capital, Shah founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing. After SunEdison, Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change. Originally from Illinois, Shah holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois-UC and an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park.
Eric Toone
Managing Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Eric Toone, Ph.D., leads science, technology, and engineering across the entire Breakthrough Energy platform. As managing partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Toone serves on the Investment Committee and is responsible for the overall technical direction of the organization, with responsibilities ranging from thesis development to technical diligence. Toone is responsible for the Fellows Program at Breakthrough Energy and directs technology diligence at Catalyst and other Breakthrough Energy components. Previously, Toone was a member of the faculty of chemistry at Duke University and is the former director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Program Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). Originally trained as a bioorganic/physical organic chemist, Toone has long worked in both exploratory science and the translation of that science to practical implementation. At Duke University he authored nearly 300 original papers and abstracts. From 2012 – 2016, Toone served as vice provost and director of Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is also listed as an inventor on over 30 patents and is the founder of three venture-backed pharmaceutical companies.
Antha Williams
Leader of Global Climate & Environment Programs, Bloomberg Philanthropies
Antha N. Williams leads the Environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Under Williams’ direction, Bloomberg Philanthropies supports environmental initiatives to improve sustainability of cities around the world, to accelerate the transition to clean energy, to combat overfishing and protect coral reefs, and to help businesses and investors better understand climate-related financial risks and opportunities.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ environment program also serves as the hub of Michael Bloomberg’s personal efforts to combat climate change including in his role as United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions and as Chair of the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Williams was consulting producer on two feature films: Paris to Pittsburgh, a film about communities across America grappling with the impacts of climate change; and From the Ashes, which showcases communities across America wrestling with the legacy of the coal industry. Previously Williams served as senior vice president at Corridor Partners, a donor advisory firm focused on climate and clean energy. Williams also worked as the advocacy executive at Atlantic Philanthropies, where she oversaw grants to support health care and comprehensive immigration reform. As Program Officer at Beldon Fund, Williams built support for environmental issues by policymakers through grassroots organizing at the state level.
Outside of philanthropy, Williams has worked as a campaigner and organizer, directing large scale voter protection efforts and serving in leadership positions for five years with Green Corps, a training program for aspiring environmental organizers. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, ClimateWorks Foundation, European Climate Foundation, League of Conservation Voters, Oceana, and Oceans 5. Williams graduated from Dartmouth College and lives in New York.
