CLIMATE SYMPOSIUM 2022
A STUDENT-RUN CONFERENCE AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
TACKLING CLIMATE TOGETHER
Schedule of Events
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2022
Breakfast and Registration
8:00 AM
Join us in Klarman Hall Atrium to check in for the day, grab coffee and a bite, and chat with your fellow attendees
Welcome Remarks
8:50 AM
Conference Co-Chairs Angela Son, Laura Romine, and Nina Dewees
Located in Klarman Hall
Keynote Address: Food as a Climate Solution
9:00 AM
Irina Gerry, Chief Marketing Officer, Change Foods
Located in Klarman Hall
Keynote Address: The Role of Policy in the Climate Crisis
9:25 AM
Moderated by Dan Schrag, Professor, Director, Harvard University Center for the Environment
Karen Skelton, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Department of Energy
Located in Klarman Hall
Panel Discussion
10:00 AM
Moderated by Sonal Chaudhry, MBA Candidate, HBS
Amrit Jalan, Principal, ENI
Edward Young, Director, National Grid
Matt Simpson, Head of Strategy & Transformation - Family Vehicles, Ford Motor Company
The Energy Transition panel will explore how different sectors - Oil & Gas, Utilities and Mobility, are leading their Net Zero efforts. The goal is to understand perspectives on opportunities and limitations of various decarbonization strategies adopted by traditional industries which have primarily relied on fossil fuel consumption.
Located in Spangler Auditorium
Morning Coffee and Extended Networking
10:45 AM
Sip a coffee and chat with your fellow climate enthusiasts outside Aldrich 112
Panel Discussion
11:00 AM
Moderated by Ashwin Bhanot, MBA Candidate, HBS
Christina Chang, Partner, Lowercarbon Capital
Dan Goldman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Clean Energy Ventures
Bill Lese, Partner, Braemar Energy Ventures
Michael Campos, Partner, Energy Impact Partners
Panel will focus on the role of angel, seed and early stage venture capital to help climate startups hit the ground running. It will especially focus on how VCs differentiate themselves strategically through criteria such as fund horizons, carbon reduction hurdles and thematic focuses.
Located in Spangler Auditorium
Luncheon
12:00 PM
Enjoy lunch and company chats in the Williams Room and Food Court in Spangler Center
Panel Discussion
1:00 PM
Moderated by Boris Vallée, Professor, HBS
Daisy Chen, Principal, Bain Capital
Marco F. Gatti, Managing Director, ArcLight Capital
Kojo Ampaw, Vice President, Global Sustainable Finance, Morgan Stanley
Nike Opadiran, Counsel, Energy and Infrastructure Projects, Skadden
Panel will focus on private capital’s role in advancing the sustainable transition, providing perspectives from fund managers in asset management and private equity. The discussion will explore the opportunities and challenges climate finance faces in the next decade, how investors prioritize various climate solutions (wind, solar, storage, carbon capture, etc.), and the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on investment strategy.
Located in Spangler Auditorium
Start-up Pitch Competition
2:00 PM
Hear emerging start-ups pitch to a panel of judges
Dan Goldman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Clean Energy Ventures
Cliff Ryan, Partner & Co-Head, Galvanize Innovation & Expansion Fund
Lakshana Huddar, Investor, The Engine
Christophe Chantre, Co-Founder & CEO, Tender Food
Located in Klarman Hall
Keynote Interview: Tackling Climate Together
3:00 PM
Moderated by Jim Matheson, Special Advisor, BEV, Senior Lecturer, HBS
Tom Steyer, Co-Executive Chair, Galvanize Climate Solutions
Located in Klarman Hall
Start-up Pitch Competition Winners Announced
3:40 PM
Hear the start-up pitch winners announced
Located in Klarman Hall
Closing Remarks
3:50 PM
Conference Co-Chairs Angela Son, Laura Romine, and Nina Dewees
Located in Klarman Hall
Closing Reception and Company Showcase
4:00 PM
Please join us for a closing reception, happy hour, and final networking opportunity in the Williams Room in Spangler Center
Key Locations
Speakers
Irina is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and marketing leader, on a mission to transform the food system and drive widespread adoption of sustainable ways to feed the world. She is a Chief Marketing Officer at Change Foods, a precision fermentation food tech company, creating animal-free dairy products. Irina has over a decade of experience in consumer marketing space with global giants Procter & Gamble and Danone, as well as business strategy and operations with Deloitte.
Karen Skelton joins the Biden-Harris Administration, as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, from California, where she spent the last decade as the CEO and Founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology, economic justice, and women’s health.
Daniel Schrag is the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. He also co-directs the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Amrit is a Principal at Eni Next, the corporate venture arm of Eni, with responsibilities spanning deal execution and post-investment portfolio engagement. He serves on the board of multiple portfolio companies in the climate-tech domain. Amrit is a chemical engineer by training with over a decade of technology development and commercialization experience in the energy transition space.
Edward (Ed) Young is Director of the New England Future of Electric team at National Grid, where his work focuses on transforming our transmission and distribution businesses to drive a step change in performance and delivering an affordable energy transition. Ed holds an BA from the University of Oxford, an MA from London University, an MBA from MIT, and an MPA from Harvard University.
Matt Simpson (HBS’17) is a proven automotive and strategy leader who specializes in things that haven’t been done before. He currently serves as the Head of Strategy & Transformation for the Family Vehicles business at Ford Motor Company. In this role he leads all strategy for the global business based on iconic brands including the Ford Explorer, Expedition, & Everest, as well as managing the P&L for the business.
Sonal Chaudhry is currently a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. She spent the summer interning at AES, where she researched renewable technologies such as green hydrogen, geothermal systems and conducted life cycle analysis of solar, wind and storage supply chains. Prior to business school, she held various engineering roles at General Motors.
John is a Strategy partner and a leader in Monitor Deloitte’s ESG & Sustainability Strategy practice serving clients across industries. John also leads the Sustainability Hybrid Business team, which is developing technology- and analytics-enabled Operate businesses to help companies and investors set and implement decarbonization plans, commercialize abatements, and understand climate-related risks.
Tao Zhang is a co-founder of Dao Foods International, Inc., a cross-border impact venture established to invest in eco-friendly alternative protein ventures in China. Tao is also the founder and managing director of Dao Ventures, a cross-border environmental impact investment and advisory consortium with co-headquartered offices in China and the U.S.
Priyanka Srinivas is the Founder & CEO of The Live Green Co, a Boston-based Food Tech startup and also one of the few certified B Corps across the globe. Pri is a Masters in Retail Management and also did her Exec Entrepreneurship Program at The Wharton School.
Eleanor’s career has spanned the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors. She currently splits her time between teaching at HBS and leading Workshop Venture Partners, a venture studio that helps build and fund early-stage startups in climate and education. At HBS, Eleanor has taught first year strategy and launched Accelerating Climate Solutions, a SIP focused on climate entrepreneurship.
Rebecca is a data scientist and leader passionate about the potential of agriculture to create sustainable food systems. She leads the Comparative Genomics & Expression team in the Data Science organization in R&D at Bayer Crop Science. In this role, she and her team are developing new genomics approaches and building foundational genomics resources for row crops and vegetables.
Lynsey Wenger is Chief Financial Officer of Pairwise and oversees financial strategy, planning, and management. Lynsey most recently served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at Calysta, a biotechnology company developing alternative protein ingredients using a novel fermentation technology platform. She also spent 16 years with Goldman Sachs, including spending the greater part of a decade specializing in global natural resources investment banking.
Jenette Ashtekar is the SVP of Product Management at CIBO, a science-driven software startup. Jenette is an entrepreneurial scientist and agricultural technology innovator experienced in translating and delivering novel IP into real world solutions. Jenette spent ten years as an academic soil scientist, modeler, and entrepreneur developing and commercializing algorithms that predict soil properties, water dynamics, and productivity from sub-field to continental scales.
Dr. Afreen Siddiqi is a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an adjunct lecturer of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Her expertise is in systems modeling and simulation for informing design and policy for technical systems operating in the natural environment. Her work is at the intersection of technology, environment, and policy for equitable and sustainable development.
Marvi Mazhar is an architect and researcher, her practice combines visual culture, spatial advocacy and interventions. Recently completed her Masters (MA RA) at Goldsmiths, University of London (2021) and in 2022 started teaching at Indus Valley School of Architecture (IVSAA) M.Phil Program, Pedagogies of Place. Her present ongoing research focuses upon the representation and production of Karachi’s Urban Coastal Periphery, and its Ecology.
Insiya Syed is a photographer who lives and works in Karachi, Pakistan. Syed’s portraits have been published in esteemed publications, including TIME Magazine, The New York Times, Le Monde, Intelligent Life Magazine, The Telegraph, and The Wall Street Journal. Her accolades include having taken one of the “35 Breathtaking Photos Taken By Women Throughout History” – a compilation by Huffington Post. Currently, Insiya is working as a freelance, independent photojournalist.
Dr. Elizabeth Baca is a clinician strategist at Deloitte providing systems thinking and insights to health care and life science clients to support care delivery innovation to foster total health and well-being recognizing health equity and sustainability are central to this work. She helps strategically address ESG issues in a comprehensive way. She served in both administrations of Governor Brown and Governor Newsom.
Mariam Alsikafi heads the Climate Impact Initiative for the Citizens Archive, a community development organization focused on change through education and partnership. Mariam is a founding member of the Leadership Now Project, a political membership organization, and serves on various education related boards including the Lincoln Park Music Center Foundation. Mariam Alsikafi was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan. She attended Dartmouth College and the Harvard Business School.
Christina Chang is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, the venture capital firm backing kickass companies that make real money unf**king the planet. Dr. Chang was previously a Fellow at ARPA-E in the U.S. Department of Energy, where she developed new chemistry for sustainable manufacturing of commodities, including iron and steel. She completed her PhD in physical chemistry at Harvard.
Daniel Goldman is a co-founder and managing partner at Clean Energy Ventures, a venture capital firm with AUM of over $300M focused on investing in early-stage climate tech companies commercializing disruptive advanced energy technologies that can grow to scale and address global climate disruption. Mr. Goldman has over 30 years of energy industry experience and has been investing at the corporate, project and venture stages for most of his career with over $4 billion of transactions completed.
Bill Lese co-founded Braemar in 2003 and leads the firm’s activities in the power, resources, and infra-tech segments. He currently serves on the boards of Carbonfree Chemicals, Utility Associates, CRB Innovation, Lusbio and Brightvolt, and is responsible for Braemar’s investments in General Fusion, Metalenz and Renew Financial. With experience that spans technical, operating, strategy, and investment roles, he has been active in energy innovation for over 30 years.
Michael Campos is an Investor at Energy Impact Partners, backing exceptional companies that advance the net zero carbon economy. Michael joined EIP from Azolla Ventures and Prime Impact Fund, where he was a Principal. His work at Azolla and Prime covered sourcing, due diligence, transaction execution, and board service. Prior to entering the world venture capital, Michael served as an ARPA-E Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy in the U.S. Department of Energy.
Ashwin Bhanot is currently an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School. Previously, Ashwin worked on the investment team at Clean Energy Ventures, and was also the founding data scientist at Bulb, a renewable energy utility and one of the fastest growing start-ups in Europe. Ashwin holds an M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London, where he Chaired the London Climate Symposium, the UK’s largest student-run conference on Climate Change.
Dan Shurey is an SVP, Carbon Business Development at Aspiration. Aspiration has a portfolio of nearly 500M primarily nature based removal credits that being issuing in 2022. Dan's team's job is to place this stream of forward credits with companies already on a science-based pathway toward net zero.
Randy Spock runs Patch’s carbon partnerships team, which helps carbon credit project developers scale their businesses. Randy previously helped launch Indigo Carbon, the first large-scale project for certified carbon credits from regenerative agriculture. Beyond the world of carbon markets, his experience includes consulting at BCG and the Gates Foundation, founding a socially minded staffing startup, and running a business unit at Wayfair. He lives in Somerville with his wife and two daughters.
Gabe Sheets-Poling joined Ripple Labs in 2021 and is their SVP of Operations. Part of his responsibilities include running Ripples carbon credit investment portfolio, and as a senior member of the team fulfilling Ripples $100M commitment to climate investments. Prior to joining Ripple, Gabe spent time worked with carbon project developers and aggregators notably working with Perennial on remote soil organic carbon MRV business and at Indigo Ag on the Strategy and Business Development team.
Anthony Kane is president & CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, where he oversees the organization’s overall operations and leads the development of the Envision framework for sustainable infrastructure. Anthony was formerly a research director at Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, a research associate with the Materials, Processes, and Systems Group at Harvard, and an instructor at Boston Architectural College.
Dr. Samuelson is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, teaching architectural technology courses. Her teaching and research focus on issues of building design that impact human and environmental health. Her current projects harness advanced building simulation to investigate issues of energy efficiency, heat vulnerability, and indoor environmental quality, while considering the future of buildings in a changing electricity grid.
Courtney is Vice President North America Building & Infrastructure at Wavin Group.
Owen Woolcock is a Founder and Partner for Climate Core Capital, an investment management firm developing a new category of climate-oriented real estate. Owen has a 15+ year career in international environment agreements, real estate and family office services. He is a graduate of Harvard University, London Business School and University of Notre Dame Australia.
John Macomber is a Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School. His professional background includes leadership of real estate, construction, and information technology businesses. At HBS, Mr. Macomber's work focuses on climate adaptation and the future of cities, particularly as aided by the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure projects in both the developed and emerging worlds. He teaches Finance, Real Estate, Urbanization, and Entrepreneurship courses.
Ms. Chen is a principal at Bain Capital Double Impact. Prior to joining Bain Capital Ms. Chen worked at Abry Partners where she focused on investments in the tech-enabled services software and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining Arby Partners, Ms. Chen was at Cerberus Capital Private Equity specializing in the consumer and healthcare space. Ms. Chen holds a Master in Finance from Princeton University and BA in Economics from the University of Toronto.
Mr. Gatti is a Managing Director at ArcLight Capital Partners and has over a decade of energy and private equity experience. Prior to joining ArcLight, Mr. Gatti was a Vice President in the Energy group at Warburg Pincus, where he focused on the sourcing, execution and portfolio management of equity investments in the energy and heavy industry sectors. He also worked at Bain Capital, McKinsey & Company and Praxair. Mr. Gatti earned a Master of Business Administration from Wharton.
Mr. Ampaw is a Vice President in Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance group where he is focused on the Firm’s climate strategy. Prior to Morgan Stanley Mr. Ampaw worked at Bank of America as a Vice President in its Energy Services Group. Mr. Ampaw also served as a policy analyst within the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama Administration where he was a budget and policy subject matter expert for the Department of Energy.
Ms. Opadiran concentrates her practice on the development, tax equity and debt financing, acquisition and divestiture of energy and infrastructure-related projects. She is experienced in drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, financing and collateral agreements, power purchase agreements, transmission service agreements and ownership agreements. Ms. Opadiran holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.S. from the University of Waterloo.
Boris Vallée is an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. Professor’s Vallée’s research traces the motives behind and the effects of financial innovation in recent decades. He pursues this line of inquiry through empirical studies of corporate finance, household finance, public finance, and financial institutions, developing novel data sets and measures. His work has been cited by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe.
Scott Robertson is the Chief Commercial Officer of Solugen.
Murtuza Marfani currently serves as Syzygy’s VP of Finance and Corporate Development. He works closely with the executive team on developing corporate strategy, supporting fundraising, and investor outreach activities, advances business development efforts with the VP of Commercialization, and interfaces with the technology team to help translate lab performance into economic projections for commercial systems.
As business group lead for Health, Safety, Environment, Process Safety and Sustainability Matthew Allen is responsible for strategy and implementation of programs to protect employees, contractors, and communities in which Koura operates. Koura’s team of HSE professionals work with our sites to ensure we meet our governmental and social obligations and thus our license to operate.
Clean energy & climate leader, with a track record of success in the public and private sector. Passionate about building a better, brighter tomorrow for everyone, everywhere.
Mike Leonard is Chief Executive Officer of Motif FoodWorks. He brings nearly two decades of experience in senior industrial science and technology roles in the specialty food ingredient and fast-moving consumer goods industries, with an emphasis on combining innovation, commercial execution, and organization-wide collaboration to deliver business results across developed and emerging markets. He served as Motif’s Chief Technology Officer from 2019 to 2022.
Laura ("Laine") Clark serves as an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager, helping to position GFI as a valuable resource for emerging companies in the alternative proteins sector as they launch and scale. In addition to founding her own company that she exited through acquisition in 2016, she has worked with numerous startups for more than 20 years. Since 2017, she has been an Entrepreneur in Residence for Georgetown University’s Entrepreneurship Initiative at the McDonough School of Business.
Robert is the Chief Technology Officer of Reel Seafoods, a platform company with a species-agnostic approach, focused on extending cell-based seafood products from thin pieces of sushi to thick structured fillets. He recently completed a PhD from Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, where his research was focused on developing new 3D printing approaches to fabricate architected materials.
Cliff Ryan is the Co-Head of Galvanize Climate Solutions’ Innovation & Expansion Fund. He was previously a Managing Director with Riverstone Holdings, a private equity firm with over $40 billion under management across energy and infrastructure markets, where he worked for over a decade. At Riverstone, Cliff was involved with sourcing, structuring, and negotiating transactions entailing over $25 billion of value and represented Riverstone on the boards of twelve portfolio companies.
Dr. Lakshana Huddar is an investor at The Engine. She brings over a decade of experience in academic research and the commercialization of climate-focused technologies. Before joining The Engine, Lakshana helped build Activate Boston, an entrepreneurial fellowship program supporting science innovators from concept to first product. Lakshana holds a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California - Berkeley.
Dr. Christophe Chantre is the Co-founder and CEO of Tender Food - a company creating alternative meats with the right taste and texture. Previously he worked as a program lead (Postdoctoral) at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering to develop and validate functionality of regenerative heart valve bioprosthetics in preclinical studies. Dr. Chantre also supported various efforts to commercialize technologies developed at the Parker Lab.
Tom Steyer is a successful investor, business leader, philanthropist and activist who is fully committed to fighting the climate crisis. Tom is the Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, a mission-driven investment platform solely focused on mobilizing and deploying the capital and expertise needed to accelerate important and equitable climate solutions.
Jim is passionate about supporting and advising a select group of exceptional leaders & organizations in their Mission to solve the world’s most important challenges. He brings to this personal Mission a variety of insights, ideas and relationships developed from over 30 years of experience as a leader, investor, and entrepreneur as well as a lifetime of adventures, friendships and mistakes.
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