Leadership and Innovation Summit - Business and Climate Change

LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION SUMMIT BUSINESS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

September 15, 2023

Rafik B. Hariri Building Georgetown University

McDonough School of Business Washington, D.C.

Welcome

Dear Colleagues and Guests,

It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to Georgetown University and the McDonough School of Business for the Leadership and Innovation Summit, hosted by the Business of Sustainability Initiative. The summit will provide an immersive, full-day experience to discuss opportunities for businesses and engage with like-minded current students, faculty, and alumni.

For the inaugural summit, we will focus on decarbonization strategies—the key step in the fight against climate change. The primary goal is to bring experts across various industries together to identify and discuss challenges and opportunities in this exciting space. The summit also will provide opportunities for networking and socializing, not only with current students and alumni but also with the broader community of sustainability experts.

We are pleased to offer this as the first of many engaging events designed to bring together thought leaders at the intersection of business and sustainability, and we hope to see you again at future events. In the meantime, please reach out to us if you’d like to further engage with our initiative.

Best Wishes,

Vishal Agrawal

Henry J. Blommer Family Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business Professor of Operations Management Academic Director, Business of Sustainability Initiative McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

Breakfast and Coffee

Opening Remarks from Paul Almeida dean and William R. Berkley Chair, Georgetown McDonough School of Business

Fireside Chat with Hayes Barnard chairman and CEO, GoodLeap, GivePower

Moderated by Vishal Agrawal, Henry J. Blommer Family Chair in Sustainable Business, academic director, Business of Sustainability Initiative, Georgetown McDonough School of Business

Fireside Chat with Lauren Riley chief sustainability officer at United Airlines

Moderated by Kerrie Aman Carfagno, associate teaching professor, Georgetown McDonough School of Business

Panel on Carbon Offsets

Panelists:

• David Antonioli, former CEO, Verra

• Nancy Fuchs Marshall, senior vice president of marketing, ClimeCo

• Caitlin Smith, manager of carbon markets, Rocky Mountain Institute

Moderated by Julia Stadlinger (MBA’24)

Lunch Break

Fireside Chat with M. Sanjayan CEO of Conservation International

Moderated by Pietra Rivoli, professor of strategy, Georgetown McDonough School of Business

Panel on Renewable Energy

Panelists:

• Emily Easley, founder and CEO, NOVUS Energy Advisors

• Sarah Mihalecz, senior director, Clean Energy Buyers Association

• Nicole Steele, workforce and equitable access lead, U.S. Department of Energ y and senior advisor, Environmental Protection Agency

Moderated by Safak Yucel, associate professor of operations management, Georgetown McDonough School of Business

Panel on Supply Chain and Circular Economy

Panelists:

• Scott Breen (C’11), vice president of sustainability, Can Manufacturers Institute

• Vanessa Miler-Fels, vice president of climate and environment, Schneider Electric

Moderated by Alice Naughton (B’24)

Technology and Innovation Showcase

Panelists:

• Luke Barnard, GivePower Trekker

• Benjamin Materna, vice president of deployment, GivePower

• Christie Gamble, director of business development, Cloverly

• Dr. Lacey Pyle, chief soil scientist, Arva Intelligence

Moderated by Clayton Pokorny (MS-ESM’23)

Closing Reception

Featured Speakers Featured Speakers

Hayes Barnard

Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Goodleap and Givepower

Hayes Barnard is an American entrepreneur, business owner, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of GoodLeap, the largest financial technology company in the United States focused on sustainability. He also is the founder, chairman, and CEO of GivePower, an award-winning nonprofit providing clean electricity and safe drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in underserved communities worldwide. In 2020, Hayes founded GoodFinch, an asset management company specializing in sustainable investments.

Since Hayes founded GivePower in 2013, the organization has touched the lives of more than 1 million people across 27 countries by partnering with more than 160 solar companies to deploy clean energy solutions. GivePower was awarded the Global Water Award in Dubai in 2020 and the Country of Kenya’s Energy Globe Award in 2021 for its life-saving Solar Water Farm technology. Before GoodLeap, Hayes founded, scaled, and sold multiple businesses in the sustainability and finance sectors, including Paramount Solar, which was acquired by SolarCity in 2013.

M. Sanjayan CEO, Conservation International

M. Sanjayan is a conservation scientist and chief executive officer of Conservation International, an organization working primarily in the Global South to secure nature for humanity. He has led two landmark capital campaigns totaling $2.7 billion; the development of critical scientific tools; and the multilateral Blue Nature Alliance, which aims to protect 18 million square kilometers of the ocean in over five years.

Sanjayan holds a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. in conservation biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His peer-reviewed scientific work hasappeared in Science, Nature, and Conservation Biology. He has been a visiting researcher at UCLA, a distinguished professor of practice at Arizona State University, and a fellow at the Aspen Institute. Sanjayan also serves as a trustee for The Earthshot Prize and a climate advisor for the Clinton Global Initiative.

Featured Speakers

Lauren Riley

Chief Sustainability Officer, United Airlines

As a chief sustainability officer and managing director of global environmental affairs at United Airlines, Riley is responsible for leading United’s environmental sustainability strategy, including progressing its climate commitments, scaling sustainable aviation fuel, evaluating decarbonization technologies, and achieving environmental compliance. This portfolio supports United’s commitment to achieve 100% green by zeroing out carbon emissions by 2050 without relying on traditional carbon offsets and by 2035, reducing carbon intensity by 50% compared to 2019.

Riley has been recognized among Business Insider’s 100 People

Transforming Business and as a 2021 Environment+Energy Leader 100. She earned an MBA from the University of Maryland and a bachelor of arts in environmental science from Bucknell University. She is a certified change management advanced practitioner through Georgetown University and PMP Certified.

Nicole Steele

Workforce and Equitable Access Team Manager, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and Senior Advisor to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Nicole Steele is a nationally recognized leader and expert in clean energy, focusing on frontline communities and workforce development. She has 20 years of experience working with government officials, policymakers, advocates, and entrepreneurs to develop and implement inclusive clean energy policies and programs. Steele is currently the senior advisor on energy justice and workforce for the Solar Energy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy and the head of the National Community Solar Partnership. She was the founding executive director of GRID Alternatives Mid-Atlantic, policy director at the Alliance to Save Energy, and ran the EECBG program for Loudoun County, Virginia. She started her career in affordable housing, community planning, and politics. She is an AmeriCorps alumnus and a passionate supporter of community service.

Additional Speakers and Panelists

Scott Breen (C’11) Vice President of Sustainability, Can Manufacturers Institute

Scott Breen is the vice president of sustainability at the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), where he promotes the CMI as a sustainable/circular package, advocates for federal and state legislation and regulation that reflect the CMI’s sustainability advantages, and leads the industry’s efforts to build upon the CMI industry’s leading recycling rates.

Before CMI, Breen was the associate manager of the Sustainability and Circular Economy Program at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and attorney-adviser at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Along with his position at CMI, Breen also explores various aspects of sustainability as a creator and co-host of the monthly podcast Sustainability Defined, which reaches thousands of listeners across 100 countries and all 50 states.

Benjamin Materna Vice President of Deployment, GivePower

With almost two decades of experience in solar and microgrid deployment, Benjamin Materna seamlessly combines strategic leadership with hands-on expertise while maintaining a relentless commitment to alleviating adversity through clean energy solutions. Before his tenure at GivePower, he successfully led various microgrid endeavors at Tesla, overseeing executive special projects and directing teams focused on disaster relief deployment. These formative experiences have solidified his unwavering dedication to implementing renewable energy technical innovations, particularly within projects that generate the most significant impact.

As the driving force behind the engineering and project management teams at GivePower, Materna supervises the execution of a multitude of global initiatives, ranging from solar water farms to solar impact projects and treks. His guidance is instrumental in upholding the highest standards in realizing efficient, inventive, and sustainable projects in alignment with GivePower’s overarching mission.

Additional Speakers and Panelists

David Antonioli

Former CEO, Verra

David Antonioli is a leading international expert in harnessing markets’ power to solve critical environmental issues and support sustainable development. Antonioli has developed projects and managed organizations operating under major international agreements, including the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement to address climate change. Antonioli’s experience has enabled him to work with the private sector, governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs, and philanthropies.

Nancy Fuchs Marshall

Senior Vice President of Marketing, ClimeCo

Nancy Fuchs Marshall brings over 25 years of consulting experience in environmental and sales/marketing to ClimeCo. She has served many industrial clients through various roles in environmental engineering firms, including forest products, chemical manufacturing, and pharmaceutical production.

Marshall propels and solidifies ClimeCo’s global brand by overseeing its marketing team and working directly with clients to craft content to demonstrate transparency in their journey to reduce emissions. Marshall is also a member of ClimeCo’s senior leadership team to increase synergy across ClimeCo’s end-to-end sustainability business solutions that are proven to help drive a positive impact on our planet while creating growth for clients. Marshall holds a bachelor of arts in communications with a minor in marketing and graphic design from Notre Dame of Maryland University.

Additional Speakers and Panelists

Emily Easley Founder and CEO, NOVUS Energy Advisors

Building on her Texas oil and gas roots and an almost two-decade-long career in the renewable energy and power businesses, Emily Easley founded NOVUS Energy Advisors, a D.C.-based boutique consulting firm, to bridge the traditional and alternative energy markets. Leveraging insights across the energy business and political landscape, NOVUS delivers strategic counsel and tailored solutions that enable clients to seize opportunities for growth and profitability and capitalize on the transition to a lower carbon future.

Previously, Easley worked with midstream and exploration and production companies at ERE Strategies, a renewable energy consulting practice focused on project acquisition, deal flow, fundraising, and new market exploration. Before ERE Strategies, Easley spent a decade working with Washington, D.C.-based national clean energy associations, the Solar Energy Industries Association, and the Smart Electric Power Association. Easley graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University

Caitlin Smith Manager of Carbon Markets, RMI

Caitlin Smith manages RMI’s carbon markets initiative. She helps design, shape, and guide the implementation of the team’s work on how to build trust, integrity, and credibility in the voluntary carbon market. She works closely with RMI partners and internal teams to ensure the data-focused, analytical work of the carbon markets team captures the complexity and creativity of the technical solutions required to reach 1.5°C and helps address the VCM’s structural data and process issues in a manner that improves the market’s overall credibility, integrity, and overall climate performance.

Before joining RMI, Smith spent six years examining public climate finance issues on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the World Resources Institute’s Sustainable Finance Center, and as an embedded advisor with the climate change division in the Fijian Ministry of Economy. This included policy work on the institutional design at the Green Climate Fund, the Paris Alignment among the international financial institutions and G20, and helping the Fijian government improve its use of and access to global public climate finance. Before finding climate finance, she consulted briefly on water scarcity pricing and electricity policy. She also taught English in South Korea and the Republic of Georgia.

Additional Speakers and Panelists

Dr. Lacey Pyle

Chief Soil Scientist, Arva Intelligence

Following her time at The University of Texas at Austin, where she received her M.S. in Geological Sciences, Dr. Pyle obtained her Ph.D. in geological and earth sciences/geosciences from Rice University in Houston, TX, where she studied the impact of black carbon on soil chemistry in a variety of climates. Before Arva Intelligence, Dr. Pyle gained extensive experience at the Shell Technology Center and through continued research efforts in collaboration with Rice University. At Arva, she leads a team of soil and data scientists to perform analytical predictions for agricultural trials. Dr. Pyle is responsible for scientific proposals and project design, implementing machine learning models for geospatial data sets. She is a key contributor to Arva’s expanding research efforts around optimization within agriculture, bringing soil science and data engineering together to model sustainable agriculture systems.

Sarah Mihalecz

Senior Director of the Transaction Acceleration Group, Clean Energy Buyers Association

Sarah Mihalecz is the senior director of the Clean Energy Buyers Association’s (CEBA) Transaction Acceleration Group team. She focuses on developing and delivering resources to the CEBA community to accelerate the movement to renewable energy. Mihalecz previously led sustainability for North America at Tata Sons and was a senior manager of Deloitte’s sustainability practice for five years.

Mihalecz has a BS in integrated science and technology from James Madison University and a master’s in environmental management focusing on industrial environmental management from Yale University. She has served on the alumni board of Yale University and the advisory board for the nonprofit Nature Generation.

Additional Speakers and Panelists

Christie Gamble Director of Business Development, Cloverly

Christie Gamble is the director of business development for Cloverly, a climate action platform driving accessibility, transparency, and trust in the Voluntary Carbon Market. In her role, Gamble provides climate solutions expertise to support companies seeking to build carbon credit purchasing products or purchase carbon credits directly to support their ESG goals. Before joining Cloverly, Gamble spent nearly a decade leading a mission to decarbonize concrete as the sustainability lead at CarbonCure, the world leader in CO2 utilization. Gamble has an MBA from Dalhousie University and a B.A. from McGill University. She lives in Regina, Canada, with her husband and school-aged kids and is a top-ranked competitor on the World Curling Tour.

Vanessa Miler-Fels

Vice President of Global Environment and Climate, Schneider Electric

Vanessa Miler-Fels currently serves as Schneider Electric’s vice president of global environment and climate. In this role, she is responsible for Schneider’s environmental strategy and decarbonization roadmap. With 15 years of experience in climate change mitigation and adaptation in both developed and emerging markets, Miler-Fels has a deep understanding of energy transitions and expertise across public and private sectors – from climate policy with the French Ministry of Energy to Microsoft and now Schneider Electric.

Before joining Schneider Electric, Miler-Fels was the director of energy innovation and impact at Microsoft. She is a U.S. Department International Visitor Leadership Program alumna (2013), holds a master’s degree from Sciences-Po Paris and an MBA from ESCP Paris, and graduated from Ecole Nationale d’administration. She is an executive-in-residence at Insead and was an assistant professor at Sciences Po from 2010 to 2014.