Chief Economist, OpenAI and Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor of Business and Public Policy, Duke University
Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, Ph.D., is OpenAI's first chief economist. He is also the Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor of Business and Public Policy at Duke University. Chatterji works at the intersection of academia, public policy, and business, investigating the most important forces shaping our economy and society.
Chatterji is committed to public service, both at the national level and in his home state of North Carolina. He most recently held senior economic policy positions in the Biden Administration. Chatterji served as the White House CHIPS coordinator, overseeing the implementation of the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, one of the largest industrial policy initiatives in a generation. He was also the Acting Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council, overseeing the Administration’s work on supporting American manufacturing, building more resilient supply chains, and driving technological innovation. Prior to his White House role, he served as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was the principal economic adviser to the Secretary of Commerce and responsible for policy development related to U.S. competitiveness, innovation, trade and economic growth.
Chatterji previously worked for President Obama as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He served on the North Carolina FIRST Commission and the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Council, two statewide bodies advising Governor Roy Cooper on economic policy. During his sabbatical leave in 2020, Chatterji ran for state treasurer of North Carolina, winning the statewide primary election and earning more than 2 million votes in the general election. Chatterji is on leave as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and was previously a visiting associate professor at The Harvard Business School. He also holds a secondary appointment at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Chatterji previously worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in economics from Cornell University.
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Moses Choi
Managing Director, Sustainable Finance, RBC Capital Markets
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President, 804 Advisory and Partner, ASG (former Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
Allison Clements is a partner with digital infrastructure advisory firm ASG and principal of 804 Advisory, where she focuses on the intersection of market design, policy and technological innovation. She advises clients in the data center development and energy sectors on the opportunities across the two industries. Clements served as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 2020 to 2024. There, she worked to reform regional transmission planning and cost allocation, began reform of grid interconnection queues, championed technological innovation, and focused on evolving market rules to more accurately reflect changing grid needs. Prior to FERC, Clements was a federal energy policy advocate and strategist after beginning her career in private legal practice. She has served as an energy expert in several capacities including currently with advisory committees at the National Academies of Sciences and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Clements lives with her family in Washington, DC.
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Kristina Costa
Managing Director for Policy & Strategic Engagement, Institute for Climate & Sustainable Growth, University of Chicago (former Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation)
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Director of Energy and Climate Policy, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and Adjunct Associate Professor, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Jackson Ewing is director of energy and climate policy at the Nicholas Institute of Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University. He holds additional appointments as an adjunct associate professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment, a faculty affiliate with the Duke Center for International Development at the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Duke Asian/Pacific Studies Center, and faculty lead for the Duke Kunshan University International Master of Environmental Policy program. Ewing’s work seeks to help facilitate energy transitions internationally and in the United States. His current projects focus on international climate finance and just energy transition partnerships, systems-level changes needed to meet net-zero goals in the United States, international carbon pricing and clubs, and US–China climate relations. Ewing has worked in more than 20 countries, and collaborates closely with actors in government, the private sector, civil society, and international organizations. He publishes widely and contributes to radio, television, and print media.
Prior to joining Duke, Ewing was director of Asian Sustainability at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, where he led projects on Asian carbon market cooperation and sustainable resource development in the ASEAN Economic Community. He also previously served as a MacArthur Non-Traditional Security Fellow for Environment, Climate Change and Food Security at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Ewing holds a doctorate in environmental security and master's degree in international relations from Australia’s Bond University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of Charleston.
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Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Middlebury College and Ambassadors' Circle, Beyond Bretton Woods
Jon Isham teaches environmental policy, environmental economics, microeconomics and social change at Middlebury College. He has co-edited Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement (Island Press, 2007) and Social Capital and Economic Development: Well-Being in Developing Countries (Edward Elgar, 2002); published articles in many academic journals including Quarterly Journal of Economics, World Development, Economic Development and Cultural Change, and World Bank Economic Review; and published many book chapters, including with Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. He is the co-founder of the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship (now the Innovation Hub). His current project with Middlebury colleague Frank Van Gansbeke, Whole Earth Finance: Beyond Bretton Woods Solutions of the 21st Century, is designed to spark pragmatic solutions worldwide. Isham has an A.B. in anthropology from Harvard College, an M.A. in international studies from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland; and he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin.
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Founder and CEO, Zerra Partners (former President and CEO, NextEra Energy Resources)
Rebecca J. Kujawa is a nationally recognized energy leader with deep experience across the US power sector, including renewables, natural gas infrastructure, nuclear operations, transmission systems, and large-scale digital transformation. Over more than two decades, she has led transformational growth and executed multibillion-dollar investment programs in complex, capital-intensive environments, earning a reputation for strategic clarity, financial discipline, and operational rigor.
Most recently, Kujawa served as president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, one of the largest competitive energy providers in the United States and a global leader in renewable generation. She led a 7,400-person organization and oversaw $15–$20 billion in annual infrastructure investment across wind, solar, storage, nuclear, natural gas, and transmission assets. Under her leadership, the company expanded and diversified its development pipeline, modernized its operating platform through advanced digital and data-driven capabilities, and set new benchmarks for scale, speed, and execution.
Previously, Kujawa served as executive vice president and CFO of NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE), a ~$150 billion market capitalization energy leader. As CFO, she led enterprise-wide financial strategy, capital allocation, investor engagement, and technology investment during periods of rapid growth and market disruption.
Kujawa brings end-to-end experience across the energy ecosystem—from development and fleet operations to grid integration, market design, and capital markets—positioning her to address the intersecting challenges of reliability, affordability, resilience, and rising power demand. She is a sought-after speaker at global energy forums, including COP28, CERAWeek, and the World Hydrogen Summit, and her insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Reuters.
Kujawa currently serves on the board of Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) and previously served as Chairperson of Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited (NEIL). She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and earned her bachelor’s degree with honors in public policy studies from Duke University.
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Jerome Lynch
Vinik Dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jerome P. Lynch is the Vinik Dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Lynch is an expert in the field of advanced sensing and information technologies for monitoring and control of civil infrastructure systems and is an advocate for community engagement in research. His research program advances cyber-physical system architectures that combine sensing, computing, and control to create intelligent civil infrastructure systems.
He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Engineering Mechanics Institute, holds three patents with two additional pending, is a two-time company founder, and led the University of Michigan’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as department chair from 2017 to 2021. His research and teaching accomplishments have been celebrated with several honors including the 2005 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 2009 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2009 National Science Foundation Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2012 ASCE Leonardo da Vinci Award, and 2014 ASCE Huber Award.
Lynch earned his doctorate in civil and environment engineering (2002) and two masters degrees in civil and environmental engineering (1998) and electrical engineering (2003) from Stanford University. He also received his BE in civil and environmental engineering (1997) from the Cooper Union in New York City.
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Founder and CEO, EFI Foundation (former Secretary, US Department of Energy)
A leading voice on energy innovation pathways and international security matters, Ernest J. Moniz served as the thirteenth United States Secretary of Energy from 2013 to January 2017.
As secretary, Moniz (pronounced MO-neez) advanced energy technology innovation, nuclear security and strategic stability, cutting-edge capabilities for the American scientific research community, and environmental stewardship.
In office, he strengthened the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) strategic partnership with its 17 national laboratories, as well as with the U.S. Department of Defense, and the broader national security establishment. Moniz’s DOE implemented legislation and produced analytically based energy policy proposals that attracted bipartisan support (Future of Nuclear Power, Future of Coal, Future of Natural Gas and of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle). He also negotiated the historic Iran nuclear agreement with then-Secretary of State John Kerry. He created Mission Innovation, an international initiative that placed science and technology at the center of governmental response to climate change.
He is a sought-after expert by media organizations, and since returning to private life has appeared frequently on platforms such as CNN, CNBC, CBS News, and NPR. His ability to communicate complicated issues to a general audience has led to multiple appearances on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He is author or co-author or more than two dozen opinion pieces that have been published in outlets such as the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The Economist.
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President and CEO, Tennessee Valley Authority
Appointed by the TVA Board of Directors in April 2025, Don Moul leads the nation’s largest public utility in its mission of service to the people of the Tennessee Valley region. Moul’s focus is on delivering high reliability, affordable energy, and operational excellence to make life better in the Tennessee Valley. Safety is his highest priority as he effectively positions TVA to create the energy system of the future.
With over 38 years of experience across power generation and operations, Moul has a proven track record of improving operational performance and teamwork through disciplined and collaborative leadership. Before becoming president and CEO, Moul served as TVA’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, with responsibility for the coal, gas, and hydro fleet and transmission and power supply functions. Under Moul’s leadership, TVA consistently delivered the strongest safety performance in years.
With one of the nation’s most resilient, diverse generation portfolios, Moul ensured investment in current assets and modernizing TVA’s system. He accomplished this while leading efforts to provide increasingly clean energy, build new generation assets to meet the growing demand for power in the region, and drive advanced nuclear technologies forward. Moul also oversaw the 49-dam integrated river system and efforts to protect the region’s natural resources, including 293,000 acres of public land and 11,000 miles of shoreline.
During his career, Moul has been a senior reactor operator at multiple nuclear stations and has held a variety of leadership positions, including with American Electric Power, Duquesne Light Company, FirstEnergy Corporation, GPU Nuclear Corporation and Public Service Electric & Gas. Prior to joining TVA in June 2021, Moul served as executive vice president and chief nuclear officer at NextEra Energy.
Moul serves on many utility industry and community boards. He holds a bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and a master of business administration degree from the University of Notre Dame.
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Senior Lead for International Energy Transitions and Executive in Residence, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and James E. Rogers Energy Access Project, Duke University
Sandeep Pai is senior lead for international energy transitions and executive in residence at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University and the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project.
With more than a decade of experience in major leadership roles at the intersection of research, program strategy, and policy, Pai has led global, high-impact initiatives in the areas of just energy transition, decarbonization of state-owned enterprises, and methane mitigation. Pai has worked with multilateral agencies like the Asian Development Bank and think tanks such as the Center for Strategic & International Studies and Swaniti Global. He is a cofounder of the Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South, a joint initiative between the United Nations’ SEforAll; University of California, Davis; and Swaniti Global. Prior to his career in research and policy, he worked as an investigative journalist for leading Indian newspapers, reporting on rural development, energy transition, and political corruption across South Asia.
Pai’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally. In 2016, he received the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award—India’s highest journalism honor—for his investigative reporting on governance challenges in state-owned enterprises. He is the author of Total Transition: The Human Side of the Renewable Energy Revolution, a book that explores how workers and communities are navigating energy transition. His commentary and analysis appear regularly in global media outlets including The Guardian, Times of India, and CNN.
Pai holds a Ph.D. in resources, environment, and sustainability from the University of British Columbia. He also holds a M.Sc. in environmental sciences, policy, and management from the European Commission’s MESPOM program, jointly taught by Lund University, Central European University, and the University of the Aegean.
On his own time, Pai co-hosts The India Energy Hour, a popular podcast focused on India’s energy transition.
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Executive in Residence, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Duke University
In 2023, Tim Profeta returned to Duke from two years of service at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he served as the special counsel for the power sector and a senior advisor. At the agency, Profeta had a lead role in the development of the regulatory strategy affecting the power sector, including the recent proposed greenhouse gas regulations, served as a liaison between the agency and other federal departments and agencies regarding power sector policies, and took an instrumental role in the design of several agency programs that were authorized in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to his tenure at the EPA, Profeta was the founding director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, which merged with the Duke University Energy Initiative in 2021 to create the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. Since its creation in 2005, the Nicholas Institute has grown into a major nonpartisan player in key environmental debates, serving both the public and private sectors with sound understanding of complex environmental issues.
Prior to his arrival at Duke, Profeta served as counsel for the environment to Senator. Joseph Lieberman and was a principal architect of the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act of 2003. He also represented Lieberman in legislative negotiations pertaining to environmental and energy issues, as well as coordinating the senator’s energy and environmental portfolio during his runs for national office. Profeta has continued to build on his Washington experience to engage in the most pertinent debates surrounding climate change and energy. Profeta is a member of the Climate Action Reserve Board of Directors and is a member of The American Law Institute. Profeta earned a J.D., magna cum laude, and a master's in environmental management in resource ecology from Duke in 1997 and a bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University in 1992.
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Rob Santangelo
Global Head of Energy, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking
Rob Santangelo joined Santander US Capital Markets LLC (SanCAp), the institutional broker-dealer of Santander in the United States operating under Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, in 2023, from Credit Suisse, where he spent the previous 16 years.
While at Credit Suisse, Santangelo most recently served as global head of energy and energy transition investment banking. Prior to that, Santangelo ran global equity capital markets origination. Santangelo has had a primary focus on energy, power, and renewables since 2001 and has extensive transaction expertise across all Energy sectors.
Santangelo holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Duke University.
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Toddi Steelman
Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Duke University
Toddi Steelman, Ph.D., is the administrative and academic lead for the Duke Climate Commitment—a university-wide initiative to unite Duke’s education, research, operations, and public service missions to engage the entire community in the pursuit of climate change solutions. She previously served as Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment (2018–2023).
An American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, Steelman is best known as a wildland fire expert and has brought her expertise to bear in a variety of venues including the Royal Society (UK), National Academy of Sciences (US), and as an invited keynote speaker in Portugal, Canada, Germany, Australia, and the United States. She a past president of the International Association of Wildland Fire. Her research agenda has focused on understanding community responses to wildfire, wildland fire communication and how communities and agencies interact for more effective wildfire management on large, interjurisdictionally complex wildfires. The author of four books, Steelman has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, as well as opinion and editorial pieces in Nature, the Globe and Mail, The Hill and the Los Angeles Times.
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CEO, Conservative Energy Network
John Szoka became an energy advocate during his ten years of service (2013-2022) in the North Carolina House of Representatives. During his legislative tenure, he served as the House Republican Conference Leader, Senior Chairman of the Finance Committee, Chairman of the Energy and Public Utilities Committee, and Chairman of the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy. Szoka sponsored major pieces of legislation that modernized North Carolina’s energy policy to take full advantage of the benefits of low-cost clean energy and protect ratepayers. In 2017, he sponsored HB589 which saved ratepayers over $350M in energy costs by 2021. He was widely recognized as the leading advocate for free market solutions to a clean energy future and has spoken frequently on the topic at conferences across the nation.
Szoka graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served as an infantry officer, Ranger and Airborne qualified, in a variety of command and staff positions retiring from active duty at Fort Bragg as a lieutenant colonel. While in the Army, he earned his master’s degree in operations research from the University of Texas at Austin.
Since his retirement from the Army, Szoka has owned several successful small businesses. He owns a manufacturing business and holds two US patents for one of the products they produce.
In 2023 he became CEO of The Conservative Energy Network (CEN), a national network of state-based organizations focused on promoting energy innovation rooted in conservative principles. Working with policymakers and industry partners in 26 states, CEN is assisting decision makers from local levels to the halls of Congress understand the benefits of clean energy and how to best save money for ratepayers.
Szoka and his wife, Laurie, also a retired army officer and a nurse practitioner, reside in Fayetteville, North Carolina and have two grown children, Hunter and Morgan.
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Bella Tonkonogy
Senior Director, Global Programs,Climate Policy Initiative
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Co-Founder, Beyond Bretton Woods and Executive Scholar in Residence, Middlebury College
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Environmental Lead, Bloomberg Philanthropies
Antha N. Williams leads the environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Under Williams’ direction, Bloomberg Philanthropies supports environmental initiatives to improve sustainability and air quality in cities around the world, to advance clean energy, to protect the ocean, and to help mobilize the private sector to accelerate the global transition.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ environment program also serves as the hub of Michael Bloomberg’s personal efforts to protect the environment including his role as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions.
Williams was consulting producer on two feature films: Paris to Pittsburgh and From the Ashes. 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.
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Director of Research and Engagement Strategy, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Duke University
Alix Peterson Zwane is director of research and engagement strategy at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. She is also a Newhouse Visiting Professor of the Practice at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, Zwane was the first chief executive officer of the Global Innovation Fund, a hybrid investment vehicle that accelerates evidence-based innovation through early-stage debt and equity investing, as well as grantmaking. GIF is backed by leading bilateral aid agencies, corporates, and foundations and contributes to filling the pioneer gap between development assistance and development finance.
Zwane has over 20 years of experience advancing the agenda of evidence-based aid and international development as an investor, a social entrepreneur, and an innovator. She was the first employee and executive director at Evidence Action, a nonprofit that develops service delivery models to scale evidence-based programs. Zwane has also advocated for evidence-based philanthropy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google.org, and served on the faculty of the department of agricultural and resource economics at University of California, Berkeley.
Zwane holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She has served appointments as a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development and at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University.
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Jon Isham
Rebecca Kujawa
Tim Profeta
