What Starts Here Energizes the World





UT Energy Week 2016

Speakers and Panelists

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

David Allen headshotDavid Allen
Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering, UT Austin
The Science of Fracking

Dr. David Allen is the author of six books and over 200 papers in areas ranging from coal liquefaction and heavy oil chemistry to the chemistry of urban atmospheres. For the past decade, his work has focused primarily on urban air quality and the development of materials for environmental and engineering education. Dr. Allen was a lead investigator for the first and second Texas Air Quality Studies, which involved hundreds of researchers drawn from around the world, and which have had a substantial impact on the direction of air quality policies in Texas. He has developed environmental educational materials for engineering curricula and for the University’s core curriculum, as well as engineering education materials for high school students.

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Scott Anderson headshotScott Anderson
Senior Policy Director, US Climate and Energy Program
Environmental Defense Fund
Regulatory Responses to Fracking

Since 2005, Scott Anderson has served as Environmental Defense’s point person on policies relating to the land and water impacts of oil and natural gas development and to the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide. Mr. Anderson is a frequent speaker at conferences and participates in stakeholder groups focused on reducing the environmental footprint of oil and gas operations.

Scott spent many years in the oil and gas industry prior to joining Environmental Defense Fund. He is the former Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO). He was the long-time Secretary of the LIAISON Committee of Cooperating Oil and Gas Associations and currently is a member of the Committee of Visitors for the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Norma de la Salud Alvarez Girard headshotNorma de la Salud Álvarez Girard
General Director, Electric Systems Unit
Comisión Reguladora de Energía CRE
Electric Power Reform

Norma Álvarez earned her bachelor degree on Laws at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico and her master’s degree at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, on Environmental Policy and Management. She has an expertise on environmental and energy legal, regulatory and policy issues working on private and public sector. On the private sector, she worked for Santamarina y Steta, a Law Firm as associate of the environmental group. Regarding the public sector, she has worked as advisor on the Mexican Senate and the Deputy Chamber. She has also worked for the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) as International Affairs Coordinator. She is currently working at the Electrical Systems Unit at the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE by its Spanish acronym) as Director General of Integration of Clean Energy being responsible of designing the applicable regulation for the Clean Energy Certificates Mechanism, as well as for the implementation, managing and verification of the tracking system. She also works on developing the corresponding regulation for promoting the use of clean energy and its integration into the grid.

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Ross Baldick headshotRoss Baldick
Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UT Austin
De-Carbonizing the Grid

Ross Baldick is Professor and Leland Barclay Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He has undergraduate degrees from the University of Sydney, Australia, and graduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. His current research involves optimization, economic theory, and statistical analysis applied to electric power systems, particularly in the context of increased renewables and transmission. Dr. Baldick is a Fellow of the IEEE and the recipient of the 2015 IEEE PES Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award.

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Rob Baldwin headshotRob Baldwin
National MLP Tax Partner
PwC
Financing Hydrocarbons

Rob joined PwC as a tax partner in the MLP practice in 2007. Since joining PwC, Rob has assisted MLPs with modeling and structuring the impacts of mergers, acquisitions, and dispositions, as well as tax shield calculations, partnership agreement interpretations, technical termination analysis, basis adjustment calculations, Section 704(c) remedial income allocations, and compliance reporting to various federal and state governmental agencies.

Prior to joining PwC, Rob served as the Vice President of Tax at Kinder Morgan Inc, the general partner of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, one of the largest MLPs in Houston, TX.

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Fred Beach headshotFred Beach
Assistant Director for Policy Studies
Energy Institute
Storage, Renewables, and Grid Management

Dr. Beach is the Assistant Director for Energy & Technology Policy at the Energy Institute. He is responsible for conducting research and supervising studies related to the development of Energy Policy, Environmental Policy, and Technology Policy. Dr. Beach also teaches Energy Technology Policy and International Energy Policy in the Cockrell School of Engineering and McCombs School of Business.

Prior to joining The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Beach served for 25 years in the U.S. Navy, where he was a qualified Submariner, Naval Aviator, Surface Warfare Officer, and Acquisition Professional. Since retiring in 2003 he has served as a consultant on defense-related topics for the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group, MITRE, Naval Research Advisory Committee, Naval Research Laboratory, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Defense Science Board.

Dr. Beach holds a Ph.D. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin; an M.S. in Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School; and a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. He is also a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University and Certified Level III DoD Acquisition Professional and Program Manager.

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Erika Benson headshotErika D. Benson
President
Benson International Group, LLC
Electric Power Reform

Erika D. Benson assists clients with developing, strategizing and managing renewable energy transactions, primarily utility-scale solar projects, and providing policy and regulatory advice to generation and transmission project developers in emerging and expanding electricity markets. She helps develop and provide guidance on generation and transmission procedures and policies for developers, governments, investors, and energy product manufacturers who are navigating or creating new market structures around the world, while emphasizing on Mexico and cross-border opportunities with the United States.

Prior to Erika’s time with the Benson International Group, she spent several years as a partner and shareholder with top international law firms in Washington DC and Austin, Texas. She was also with the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., as a Senior Advisor for the Americas in the Office of Policy and International Affairs. There, she handled the DOE role within the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), bridging her public and private sector experience by assisting U.S. companies with developing foreign public and private sector relationships for mutually-beneficial energy sector programs, projects and initiatives. She took this expertise and now represents clients interfacing with U.S. and multi-lateral financial institutions or foreign governments for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) or other structures for energy project development.

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Art Berman headshotArthur E. Berman
Director
Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc.
Oil & Gas Limbo: How Low Can Price Go?

Arthur E. Berman is a petroleum geologist with 37 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector.

During the past year, he made more than 25 keynote addresses for energy conferences, boards of directors and professional societies. Berman has published more than 100 articles on oil and gas plays and trends. He has been interviewed about oil and gas topics on CBS, CNBC, CNN, CBC, Platt’s Energy Week, BNN, Bloomberg, Platt’s, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and The New York Times.

Berman is an associate editor of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, and was a managing editor and frequent contributor to theoildrum.com. He is a Director of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, and has served on the boards of directors of The Houston Geological Society and The Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists.

He worked 20 years for Amoco (now BP) and 17 years as consulting geologist. He has an M.S. (Geology) from the Colorado School of Mines and a B.A. (History) from Amherst College.

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Matthew Bey headshotMatthew Bey
Stratfor
Energy and Geopolitics

Matthew Bey is an energy and technology analyst for Stratfor, where he monitors and tracks a wide range of global issues and trends. In particular, he focuses on energy developments in Africa their impact on the geopolitical constraints of African countries. Mr. Bey has worked on numerous projects, including assessments and forecasts of the global effects of expanding shale gas production, China’s demand for and consumption of iron ore and steel, and the prospects for increased U.S. energy independence.

Mr. Bey is a native of Houston, Texas. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas Lutheran University and a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Texas.

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Steven	Biegalski headshotSteven Biegalski
Director
Nuclear Engineering Laboratory, UT Austin
Menace or Miracle? Rethinking Nuclear Waste

Dr. Steven Biegalski earned his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 1996. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 2002. Dr. Biegalski is currently the Director of the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory (NETL). He is licensed as a Professional Engineer in the states of Texas and Virginia. His research focuses on nuclear analytical methods, nuclear instrumentation, nuclear reactor design, and nuclear reactor operations. Dr. Biegalski’s research includes the development and utilization of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), prompt gamma-ray activation analysis (PGAA), neutron depth profiling (NDP), and neutron radiography. He also conducts research that supports nuclear explosion monitoring and nuclear forensics. He has experience modeling environmental pathways with a special focus on atmospheric transport modeling. In the past he has worked to develop technology in support of nuclear treaties.

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Andy Bowman headshotAndy Bowman
Founder and President
Pioneer Green Energy
Financing Electrons

Andrew Bowman is a serial entrepreneur who has been active exclusively in renewable energy for the last 20 years. Currently he is an investor in clean energy companies in the US and Europe and serves as chair of the board of Pioneer Green Energy LLC. Bowman founded Pioneer in 2010 with six others and he led the company as president through January 2015. With 1,051MW of wind and solar projects completed or in construction across the US, and more on the way, Pioneer is one of the most successful renewable energy project development companies active today.

Prior to Pioneer, Bowman served as Chief Development Officer at E.On Climate & Renewables North America (EC&RNA), a major US renewables company. EC&RNA is the US affiliate of German utility E.On, the largest investor-owned utility in the world. E.On had acquired renewable energy company Airtricity in 2008, which in turn in 2005 had acquired Renewable Generation Inc., a company Bowman started with two others in 2001. Bowman led development work for these three companies across the US and Canada over 2001-2009, first as President of Renewable Generation Inc., then as Senior Vice President, Development at Airtricity and finally as CDO at EC&RNA. His work during this time led to 1,275MW of operating wind projects across the US.

Bowman has graduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and he received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1991. Prior to his work in renewable energy he was an adjunct professor at UT Law School and he still lectures business and law classes on occasion. He believes that renewable energy is not just good for business but also good for our communities, economy, national defense and environment. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.

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Joshua Busby headshotJoshua W. Busby
Associate Professor
LBJ School of Public Affairs
Energy and Geopolitics

Joshua Busby is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs and a fellow in the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service as well as a Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. He originally joined the LBJ School faculty in fall 2006 as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer.

Prior to coming to UT, Dr. Busby was a research fellow at the Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School (2005-2006), the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s JFK School (2004-2005), and the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution (2003-2004). He defended his dissertation with distinction in summer 2004 from Georgetown University, where he also earned his M.A. in 2002.

Busby is a Life Member in the Council on Foreign Relations. His works have appeared in Political Geography, International Security, Perspectives on Politics, Security Studies, International Studies Quarterly,Current History, and Problems of Post-Communism, among other publications.

Busby served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador (1997-1999), worked in Nicaragua (Summer 1994, Spring 1996), and consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank (2000). Prior to working with the Peace Corps, he was a Marshall Scholar at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, England), where he completed a second B.A. (with Honors) in Development Studies (1993-1995). He completed his first B.A. (with Highest Distinction) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science and Biology.

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John Corrigan headshotJohn Corrigan
Principal
PwC strategy&
Financing Hydrocarbons

John Corrigan is a Principal with PwC strategy&. John is a member of the North American Oil and Gas practice, and serves clients in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors. His experience includes 12 years industry experience in natural gas trading, midstream project development, natural gas retail and finance. John has over 15 years consulting experience providing corporate and business unit strategy, corporate performance transformation and energy market strategies. John has a bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. John resides in Dallas with his wife and two sons.

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Calvin Crowder headshotCalvin Crowder
President
Electric Transmission Texas, LLC
Electric Power Reform

Calvin Crowder is president of Electric Transmission Texas, LLC, an Austin-based joint venture transmission utility company with equal shares owned by subsidiaries of American Electric Power (AEP) and Berkshire Hathaway Energy. ETT is a $2.5 billion company that constructs, owns and operates transmission facilities in ERCOT as a regulated utility.

Mr. Crowder has over twenty six years’ experience in the utility industry which spans executive leadership, public policy, industry restructuring and RTO development. He has provided expert testimony in multiple regulatory proceedings and directed major initiatives in business development and organizational restructuring.

Mr. Crowder currently serves as Chair of the Governing Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and South Texas. Previously he served as Treasurer from 2014-2015. He also serves as a Board Member and previously served as President of the Board of Directors for the Gulf Coast Power Association (“GCPA”).

Mr. Crowder earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from New Mexico State University, and a Masters’ degree in Economics from the Center for Public Utilities graduate program at New Mexico State University.

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Genevieve Dufau headshotGenevieve Dufau
Deputy Director
SolarCity
Storage, Renewables, and Grid Management

Genevieve Dufau is Deputy Director for Policy at SolarCity. Prior to joining SolarCity, she was a Senior Policy Expert at Pacific Gas and Electric Company and a Strategy Consultant for EDF.

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Roger Duncan headshotRoger Duncan
Research Fellow
Energy Institute
Powering the Cities of the Future

Roger Duncan is a Research Fellow with the Energy Institute and a Research Associate at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Roger serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance to Save Energy, and is Chairman of the Board of the Pecan Street Project, an Austin smart grid initiative.

A former General Manager of Austin Energy, the municipal utility for Austin, Texas, Roger was twice elected to the Austin City Council, serving from 1981 to 1985. In 2005, Business Week magazine recognized Roger as one of the top 20 carbon reducers in the world. He has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin with a major in philosophy.

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name headshotCameron Dunn
Principal
Natural Gas Partners
Financing Hydrocarbons

Mr. Dunn joined NGP in 2012 and serves as Principal. He concentrates on NGP’s efforts in sourcing investments, transaction analysis, and execution as well as the monitoring of active portfolios.

Prior to joining NGP, Mr. Dunn was an Associate at NGP Midstream & Resources. Mr. Dunn was also an investment banking Analyst with UBS Investment Bank’s Global Energy Group in Houston, where he focused on financing and merger and acquisition transactions in the oil and gas industry.

Mr. Dunn received a B.B.A. and an M.P.A. in Accounting in 2007 from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. in 2012 from Harvard Business School.

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Tom Edgar headshotThomas Edgar
Director
Energy Institute, UT Austin
UT Energy Week Opening Remarks

Professor Thomas F. Edgar, a chemical engineer who has been on The University of Texas at Austin faculty for more than 40 years, serves as the director of the Energy Institute. Edgar holds the George T. and Gladys H. Abell Chair in Chemical Engineering. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas and the Ph.D. from Princeton University. He served as Department Chair of Chemical Engineering (1985-93), Associate Dean of Engineering (1993-96), and Associate Vice President for Academic Computing (1996-2001) at UT Austin. For the past 40 years, Edgar has concentrated his academic work in process modeling, control, and optimization. He has published over 450 articles and book chapters. He has supervised the thesis research of over 45 M.S. and 80 Ph.D. students. Edgar has co-authored the textbooks Coal Processing and Pollution Control Technology (Gulf Publishing, 1983), Optimization of Chemical Processes (McGraw-Hill, 2001) and Process Dynamics and Control (Wiley, 2010). He was President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 1997. He is board secretary of Pecan Street Inc. in Austin, Texas, which deals with renewable energy and smart grids. He is a member of the National Academy Engineering. Dr. Edgar’s current energy research covers renewable energy, combined heat and power, energy storage, and improved oil recovery. In the area of teaching, Edgar initiated a popular engineering elective, “Energy Technology and Policy,” in 2005 and has co-taught a similar signature course for students outside of engineering.

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Gregory Fenves headshotGregory Fenves
President
The University of Texas at Austin
UT Energy Week Opening Remarks

Greg Fenves began his appointment as president of The University of Texas at Austin on June 3, 2015. Previously, he served the university as executive vice president and provost.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the highest national honor awarded to engineers in the United States, and holds the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #15 at UT Austin.

Bringing a career of teaching, research and administrative experience to his new position, Fenves’ accomplishments included defining strategic academic goals and priorities to advance excellence, streamlining operations for more cost effectiveness, focusing on continuing UT Austin’s leadership in transforming undergraduate education, and the launch of the Dell Medical School.

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Cliff Frolich headshotCliff Frolich
Associate Director
Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT Austin
The Science of Fracking

Dr. Frohlich is a seismologist with an enduring interest in deep earthquakes, Texas earthquakes, moonquakes, and the statistical analysis of earthquake catalogs.

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James Fowler headshotJames Fowler
Editor
ICIS Mexico Energy Report
The Role of Natural Gas

James Fowler is editor of the ICIS Mexico Energy Report, the first English language report focused exclusively on Mexico’s power and natural gas sectors. He has covered energy markets, policies and projects across Latin America over five years for a range of different publications including The Santiago Times, Business News Americas and the Economist Intelligence Unit. Since joining ICIS in 2012, he has led coverage of the Latin American LNG and natural gas markets from both Santiago, Chile and Houston, USA.

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Carlos Garcia headshotCarlos Garcia
International Business Development Manager
Lewis Energy Group
The Role of Natural Gas

Carlos Garcia has been involved in the energy space for close to 20 years, much of that in Mexico. He currently is the International Business Development Manager at Lewis Energy Group and as such is responsible for heading up the company’s business development and external affairs efforts in Mexico. Lewis Energy is a vertically integrated exploration and production company and is one of the most experienced operators in the development of shale gas in the Eagle Ford. Lewis has been working in Mexico for over eleven years.

Prior to joining Lewis Energy, Carlos was the Vice President of Business Development for the energy storage startup General Compression. Prior to this he was Director for Business Development for Vestas North America, Vice President for the marketing and communications firm Garcia 360 and also spent 11 years as co-founder and CEO of IGASAMEX, a natural gas transportation and marketing company in Mexico. As head of IGASAMEX, Carlos was responsible for building and operating the first privately owned natural gas pipeline after the Mexican energy regulatory changes of 1995.

Carlos earned his B. S. in Accounting from Indiana University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. He heads up the unconventional resource task force at AMEXHI; the newly formed Mexican E&P association and is an advisor to the Energy Subcommittee of the AEM (Asociacion de Empresarios Mexicanos). Carlos is a native of Mexico and now resides in San Antonio, Texas.

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Beth Garza
Vice President
Potomac Economics
De-Carbonizing the Grid

Beth Garza is a Vice President at Potomac Economics and is the Director of the ERCOT Independent Market Monitoring group. Over the course of her thirty year career in the electric utility industry she has held a variety of leadership roles in generation and transmission planning, system operations, regulatory affairs and market design for both regulated and competitive entities. Prior to joining Potomac Economics in 2008 she was responsible for developing and implementing ERCOT’s inaugural congestion revenue rights market.

Beth received her Engineering degree from the University of Missouri and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

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David Gee headshotDavid Gee
Partner
The Boston Consulting Group
De-Carbonizing the Grid

David Gee is a Partner in BCG’s Washington DC office. He leads BCG’s North American Energy Practice. He has over 36 years in the energy industry. He has an extensive operating career in industry along with over 20 years in consulting. Prior to BCG, he worked at Baker Hughes, was VP Strategy for PG&E Corporation, and was President North America for AES Corporation. He has worked across the energy sector from E&P through refining and marketing and petrochemicals as well as electric power generation and utilities. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with highest distinction from the University of Virginia and an S.M. in Management (Finance) from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.

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Bob Gibb headshotBob Gibb
Associate Director
Navigant
The Role of Natural Gas

Bob is an Associate Director in the Energy practice, and brings over 40 years of experience in most aspects of up- and mid-stream E&P and pipelining including drilling, reservoir management, marketing, regulatory, dispute management (arbitration and litigation), and business development.

In addition to projects in North America, Bob has lead successful efforts in Australia, Mexico and Alaska -most recently establishing the first commercial gas storage project in Alaska (including establishing the regulatory regime under which it would be managed), and later managing a project to provide adequate gas supply for the highly fluctuating seasonal demand in Southcentral.

Previously, Bob worked with Marathon Oil Company, Tenneco Inc., El Paso Corporation, and as the head of Business Development for TransCanada’s major US pipeline and storage projects. While with El Paso Corporation he was responsible for implementing cross-border pipeline interconnects between Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Pemex, and between Tennessee and Gasaducto de Chihuahua serving the Rio Bravo power complex.

Bob has worked extensively in aiding international LNG export clients in securing supply and pipeline connections for the source gas for Liquefaction Facilities. These facilities, a key to future demand for North America’s abundant natural gas reserves are, along with growing gas-fired electric generation and Mexico exports, the growth engine for future markets for North American natural gas development.

Bob is a regular contributor to Navigant’s NG Market Notes.

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Kirk Goehring headshotKirk Goehring
Manager of Corporate Development
Jones Energy
Oil & Gas Limbo: How Low Can Price Go?

Kirk Goehring is the manager of corporate development at Jones Energy (NYSE: JONE), an independent oil and natural gas exploration company headquartered in Austin, TX. At Jones, Kirk is responsible for the identification, evaluation and execution of all strategic growth initiatives for the company.

Prior to joining Jones in 2012, Kirk worked in private equity at Metalmark Capital in New York. Kirk began his career as an M&A investment banker at Greenhill & Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co., both in New York. Kirk graduated from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas – Austin in 2007 with a BBA in Finance.

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Russell Gold headshotRussell Gold
Energy Journalism Fellow
Energy Institute, Wall Street Journal
Wednesday Keynote

Russell Gold is an award-winning investigative journalist at The Wall Street Journal and is the inaugural Energy Journalism Fellow at the University of Texas.

He started his journalism career at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Antonio Express-News. In 2000, he joined The Wall Street Journal and covered Texas and economics, before switching to energy in 2002. His reporting has taken him to five continents and above the Arctic Circle twice.

In 2010, he was part of the Wall Street Journal team that covered the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The Journal’s work was awarded the Gerald Loeb Award for best business story of the year and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting.

His book, The Boom, was a finalist for the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the year prize in 2014.

He earned a B.A. in history from Columbia University in 1993. He lives in Austin with his wife and two children.

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Corey Grindal headshotCorey Grindal
Vice President – Supply
Cheniere Energy
Energy and Geopolitics

J. Corey Grindal, Vice President – Supply, at Cheniere Energy. Mr. Grindal joined Cheniere in 2013 and is responsible for the gas and power supply at the Cheniere facilities. This includes acquiring and managing transportation capacity, enabling and managing the relationships with suppliers and markets, buying and hedging the required commodity, and managing any load disruptions. He has over 20 years of experience in engineering and project management, operations, energy trading and risk management. Prior to joining Cheniere, Mr. Grindal was with Deutsche Bank managing physical and financial trading for their natural gas business. Prior to Deutsche Bank, he worked with Louis Dreyfus and the Tenneco/ El Paso regulated natural gas pipelines (Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Southern Natural Gas, and ANR Pipeline). Mr. Grindal received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with Honors from The University of Texas.

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Claudia Hackbarth headshotClaudia Hackbarth
Vice President, Unconventional Resource Technologies
Shell International Exploration and Production Inc.
Perpetuating the Boom? Advancements in Operations and Technology

Claudia Hackbarth leads Shell’s R&D program in unconventional resources including shale gas, shale oil, and bitumen. She has spent her 30-year career at Shell alternating between the R&D function and the exploration and production business. Areas of inquiry or application have included turbidite, aeolian, and fluvial projects, oil geochemistry, oil shale, shale gas and shale oil, and various novel engineering technologies of use in E&P. Highlights include leading Shell’s exploration for unconventional gas and tight oil in the U.S. 2007-2009 and in China’s Sichuan Basin 2010-2011, before returning to the R&D function to seek out improved models, methods, and technologies for the unconventional resource business.
Claudia is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia (Chemistry, Environmental Sciences) and Masters and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University (Geological Sciences).

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John Hackney headshotJohn W. Hackney
Director
Wells Fargo Securities
Financing Electrons

John Hackney is a Director in the Energy and Power Investment Banking group at Wells Fargo Securities. He joined in 2004 and has focused on the power, utility, midstream and infrastructure services sectors. He holds extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance including numerous transactions with YieldCos, MLPs, REITs and other total return vehicles having completed over $50 billion of transactions since 2006. Since March 2009, John has advised on numerous buy-side and sell-side transactions including NextEra Energy Partner, LP’s acquisition of NET Midstream, Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s sale of one-third undivided interest in the Luna Energy Facility to Samchully Power & Utilities, Carlyle’s sale of Park Water Company to Algonquin Power & Utilities and Laclede Group Inc’s acquisition of Missouri Gas Energy and New England Gas.

John earned a B.A. in Economics and Finance from the Wofford College and serves on the College’s Investment Advisory Committee.

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Helge Haldorsen headshotHelge Hove Haldorsen
Director General
Statoil Mexico
Friday Afternoon Keynote: “E&P 2.0”

Helge Hove Haldorsen holds the position of Director General Statoil Mexico in Mexico City after serving as Vice President Strategy & Portfolio Statoil North America in Houston, Texas.

Prior to his tenure at Statoil, Haldorsen worked for Norsk Hydro in various roles including Chief Reservoir Engineer, Vice President Technology and Competence, Vice President Exploration and Research, Senior Vice President International Exploration and Production, and President Hydro Gulf of Mexico. He has also held various engineering positions at British Petroleum, Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio), and ExxonMobil in Anchorage, London, San Francisco, Stavanger and Houston. He was a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Navy and Professor of Industrial Mathematics at the University of Oslo as well as a Lecturer at Stanford University in California. He has served on the Society of Petroleum Engineer’s Board of Directors for three years. He also has been an SPE Distinguished Lecturer and a Distinguished Author in JPT. He has authored numerous technical papers and articles on reservoir engineering and other E&P themes.

Haldorsen earned an MS in Petroleum Engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim and a PhD in Reservoir Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He served on the Offshore Technology Conference Board of Directors for 5 years and currently serves on the ‘OTC d5: The Next Big Thing’ Advisory Board and on the External Advisory Board for the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Haldorsen is the 2015 President of The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) with 143,000 members in 139 countries and he writes his Presidential Columns each month in the Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT). Haldorsen was awarded the 2013 Rhodes Petroleum Industry Leadership Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

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Bert Haskell headshotBert Haskell
CTO
Pecan Street Inc.
Powering the Cities of the Future

Bert is Pecan Street’s CTO. He has been working in technology and product development since starting his career in 1984 with Eastman Kodak, where he worked for 5 years as an electronics manufacturing process development engineer while earning his master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rochester. Bert then worked for 9 years at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC) in Austin, concluding his tenure there as vice president of portable electronics product research. Since 2000, he has held product development, product marketing and advisory rolls at a number of start-up companies including Stellar Display Corporation, Wireless Age, Motion Computing, Portelligent and most recently, Heliovolt, where he was director of product development for CIGS based thin-film photovoltaic modules.

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Robert Hebner headshotRobert Hebner
Director
Center for Electromechanics
Menace or Miracle? Rethinking Nuclear Waste

Dr. Robert Hebner is the Director of the Center for Electromechanics. The Center develops advanced technology, generally in the areas of power and energy, and teams with companies to get the technology into the market. Prior to joining UT, Dr. Hebner was the acting Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), He also served as Deputy Director of NIST and the Director of NIST’s Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory. Dr. Hebner also worked in the Office of Management and Budget, at Sandia, and at the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense.

Throughout his career, Dr. Hebner has been active in technical activities having received a Ph.D. in physics and having authored or coauthored more than 115 technical papers and reports. He is a past vice president for technical activities of the IEEE, a 400,000+ member engineering society.
He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Member of American Physical Society, a Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science. Awards he has received include the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals and the 1990 Harry Diamond Memorial Award.

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Tom Hiddemen headshotTom Hiddemen
Managing Director, Strategy
KPMG
Financing Hydrocarbons

Tom brings extensive experience across the Energy sector, including upstream and midstream oil and gas, power and utilities, alternative energy, and related service industries. He joins KPMG from Booz & Company, where he worked with energy clients on a variety of issues including shaping overall corporate and business unit strategies, launching new businesses, transforming the performance of existing businesses, and enhancing integrated planning and performance management systems. Previously, Tom was a commercial banker at Bank One Corporation in Houston, managing a portfolio of middle-market companies in the energy services and construction industries. He also was the founder and CEO of Canvas Art Designs, an online retailer that sells canvas prints from a virtual art gallery directly to customers.

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Shaila Hossain headshotShaila Hossain
Partner
Captra Capital LLC
Financing Electrons

Shaila Hossain is a partner at Captra Capital LLC. She has more than 25 years of experience in the energy industry. In her roles at Willow Bend Capital Management and IS Jacana, Hossain provided strategic energy advisory services to hedge funds, private equity funds, energy companies, development companies and other investors on energy assets ranging in values from $20 million to more than $2 billion. At Panda Energy, she focused on power and gas reliability strategies to support Panda’s North American gas-fired power generation development projects. Hossain began her career at Panhandle Eastern Corp. and affiliates as a marketing analyst, and served as a chemicals business analyst and senior transportation representative at FINA, Inc. Her in-depth understanding of gas and power assets and her ability to evaluate strategic asset plays are the keys to her success. Hossain holds a bachelor of business administration in accounting and finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Kevin Howell headshotKevin Howell
Chairman of the Board
Illinois Power Generating Company
Financing Electrons

Mr. Howell has over 35 years of industry experience. He is an accomplished power and natural gas executive with extensive commercial leadership at the executive levels of affiliates of Duke Energy, Dominion Resources, NRG Energy and Dynegy. Following a brief retirement from NRG in 2010, Mr. Howell most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Dynegy, where he ran commercial and plant operations as well as environmental health and safety. Mr. Howell retired from Dynegy in January of 2013. Mr. Howell currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Illinois Power Generating Company, an affiliate of Dynegy and also serves on the Board of Directors of Atlantic Power Corp, a publicly traded power generator. Mr. Howell has previously served on the Board of Directors for Entrust Energy, a privately held energy retailer and Nanosolar, a thin film solar manufacturer.

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Monty Humble headshotMonty Humble
Managing Member
AFCI Texas LLC
Menace or Miracle? Rethinking Nuclear Waste

Monty Humble is currently a managing member of AFCI Texas LLC, a company formed to pursue siting in Texas of facilities related to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, and is also an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law, teaching a courses on federal energy policy and energy project development. Previously, he served as senior vice president for a renewable energy company owned by Boone Pickens, and led the renewable policy portion of the Pickens Plan, and before that, Mr. Humble was a partner at Vinson & Elkins for over 20 years where he headed the firm’s public policy group.

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Rob Jackson headshotRob Jackson
Professor
School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Stanford University
The Science of Fracking

The Jackson lab examines the different ways that people affect the Earth. They seek to produce the building blocks of basic scientific knowledge and to use that knowledge to guide policy solutions for global warming, energy extraction, and other environmental issues. They’re currently examining the effects of climate change and droughts on forest mortality and grassland ecosystems. Recently they’ve also published the first studies looking at fracking and drinking water quality and mapped thousands of natural gas leaks across cities such as Boston, Manhattan, and Washington, D.C.

An an author and photographer, Rob has published a trade book about the environment (The Earth Remains Forever, University of Texas Press), two books of children’s poems, Animal Mischief and Weekend Mischief (Highlights Magazine and Boyds Mills Press), and recent or forthcoming poems in the journals Southwest Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Southern California Review, The Lyric, Avocet, and Light. His photographs have appeared in many media outlets, including the NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, US News and World Report, Science, Nature, and National Geographic News.

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Rob Jones headshotRob Jones
Director
Shell Midstream Partners GP LLC
Financing Hydrocarbons

Mr. Rob L. Jones is the Director of Shell Midstream Partners GP LLC, Chairman of Audit Committee and Member of Conflicts Committee, Shell Midstream Partners, L.P. Previously, Mr. Jones served as Co-Head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Commodities from 2007 to June 2012. Mr. Jones served as co-head of Merrill Lynch’s Global Energy and Power Investment Banking Group and is the founder of Merrill Lynch Commodity Partners. He is an advisory board member of Climax Global Energy, Inc. He serves as Director of Shell Midstream Partners GP LLC. Mr. Jones served as a Lead Independent Director of Susser Petroleum Partners GP LLC, and Sunoco GP LLC from September 2013 to August 29, 2014 and its Director from September 2012 to August 29, 2014. From 1980 to 1985, Mr. Jones was a Financial Associate with the oil and gas exploration and production division of Sun Company, primarily based in Dallas, Texas. From September 2012 to June 2014, Mr. Jones served as an Executive in Residence at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin (McCombs). He serves as Member of Advisory Council at Red McCombs School of Business. Mr. Jones continues as a Guest Lecturer and speaker at McCombs. Mr. Jones is a life member of the advisory council of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a graduate of the University of Texas where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance with Honors and an MBA with High Honors and was a Sord Scholar.

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Brad Keating headshotBrad Keating
President
Electric Drilling Technologies
Perpetuating the Boom? Advancements in Operations and Technology

Brad Keating is President of Electric Drilling Technologies. Since 2008 Electric Drilling has assisted Oil & Gas Exploration companies to reduce drilling impact by providing equipment and services for rig operation on utility power. Prior to Electric Drilling he was President of Rapid Power Management, an energy consulting firm assisting commercial and industrial clients manage electric cost.

In addition to roles at Electric Drilling and Rapid Power, Brad is past president of the Dallas Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE). He is currently a member of the Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE) in multiple chapters and American Petroleum Institute. He resides in Plano, Tx.

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Todd Kiehn
Vice President, Product Management and Modular Solutions
Active Power, Inc.
Storage, Renewables, and Grid Management

Todd Kiehn brings a broad and deep skill set in leading product development and technology strategies with more than 15 years of experience in the critical power infrastructure and telecommunications markets. At Active Power, Kiehn leads all product development and positioning efforts in the mission critical, modular infrastructure, and energy storage markets and aligns strategy across the company’s organizations and products.

Prior to Active Power, Kiehn held numerous marketing and product management roles in the telecommunications industry. Kiehn earned a master’s in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in Government from Georgetown University.

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Sheril Kirshenbaum headshotSheril Kirshenbaum
Director
UT Energy Poll
UT Energy Poll Presentation

Sheril Kirshenbaum is director of The Energy Poll at The University of Texas at Austin. She works to enhance public understanding of science and energy issues and improve communication between scientists, policymakers and the public. She is also executive director of ScienceDebate, a non-profit initiative working toward a presidential debate on science and technology policy.

Sheril co-authored Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future with Chris Mooney, chosen by Library Journal as one of the Best Sci-Tech Books of 2009 and named by President Obama’s science advisor John Holdren as a top recommended read. She is also the author of The Science of Kissing, which explores one of humanity’s fondest pastimes. In addition, she blogs at Scientific American.

Sheril is a 2015 Presidential Leadership Scholar; an initiative launched by four presidential centers to foster growth in a diverse group of leaders. She has also been a Marshall Memorial Fellow, a legislative Knauss Science Fellow in the U.S. Senate and a Next Generation Fellow through the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law.

Sheril’s writing has appeared in publications such as Bloomberg and CNN frequently covering topics that bridge science and society from hydraulic fracturing to climate change. Her work has also been published in scientific journals including Science and Nature and she is featured in the anthology The Best American Science Writing 2010.

Sheril speaks regularly around the country to audiences at universities, federal agencies, and museums. She has appeared in documentaries and been a guest on such programs as CBS This Morning and The Today Show. She has also served on the program committee for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and been a TEDGlobal and TEDx speaker.

Previously, Sheril was a research scientist with the Webber Energy Group at UT Austin’s Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy. In addition, she was a research associate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment with The Pimm Group and has been a Fellow with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and a Howard Hughes Research Fellow.

Sheril holds graduate degrees in marine biology and policy. She has hosted blogs at Wired and Discover. She also regularly contributes to a variety of science websites such as NPR and Think Progress. She was born in Suffern, New York and lives in East Lansing, MI with her husband David Lowry and son.

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Ramkumar Krishnan headshotRamkumar Krishnan
Chief Technology Officer
Fluidic Energy
Storage, Renewables, and Grid Management

Dr. Krishnan is the Chief Technology Officer of Fluidic Energy, the first and only company to commercialize rechargeable metal-air battery technology, long known as the least expensive way to store energy from an electron. Dr. Krishnan brings over 20 years of education, leadership and expertise in the areas of electrochemistry and energy storage, generation and conversion technologies. Dr. Krishnan joined Fluidic in March 2008 and has led product and R&D teams in the development of world’s first rechargeable metal-air battery system with integrated controls intelligence at the cell level. Fluidic’s commercial energy storage systems have been installed at hundreds of sites and have reliably provided backup power for over 650,000 grid power outages. Prior to Fluidic Energy, he was a member of the technical staff in the Energy Technology Laboratory of Motorola’s Embedded Systems Research Laboratories in Tempe, Arizona. He has also served as a lecturer in the Department of Electronic Systems at Arizona State University.

Dr. Krishnan received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT; an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville; and a bachelor’s degree in chemical, and electrochemical engineering from the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Tamil Nadu, India. Dr. Krishnan holds several patents both from Fluidic and Motorola in the areas of energy storage and fuel cells. He has also published a variety of journal articles in nanotechnology and electrochemistry related areas.

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Matt Lepore headshotMatt Lepore
Director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
Colorado Department of Natural Resources
Regulatory Responses to Fracking

Matt is the Director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates oil and gas exploration and production in the State. Immediately prior to joining the Department in August 2012, Matt was a member of the law firm Beatty & Wozniak, P.C., where his practice focused on oil and gas regulatory matters, enforcement proceedings, and litigation. Prior to joining Beatty & Wozniak, Matt was a Colorado Assistant Attorney General and was counsel to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Mr. Lepore represented the Commission before the state trial and appellate courts, and advised the Commission on regulatory and enforcement matters, and as well as agency rulemaking.

Matt earned his B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Colorado, Boulder and his J.D. degree from Stanford University. In 2011-2012 Matt was Chairman of the Colorado Bar Association Environmental Law Section.

Matt is married and has one son. Matt is a Colorado native who enjoys skiing, cycling, and backpacking with his family and friends in Colorado’s high country.

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Jon LewisJonathan Lewis
Senior Vice President, Completion and Production,
Halliburton
Friday Lunch Keynote: “What will shape the global supply mix?”

Jonathan Lewis is Senior Vice President of Halliburton’s Completion and Production Division and a member of the Company’s Executive Committee. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Lewis was Senior Vice President of Halliburton’s Europe/Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

He has also served as Senior Vice President of the Company’s Drilling and Evaluation Division and, earlier, as Vice President of Halliburton’s Wireline and Perforating product service line.
Dr. Lewis joined Halliburton’s Landmark Graphics in 1996 as Vice President of the Geology and Reservoir Engineering product service line. He has held various senior management positions, covering technology development, marketing, corporate strategy, business development and sales operations.

Before joining Landmark, Dr. Lewis taught graduate students and managed commercially funded research groups in the United Kingdom through academic positions at Imperial College in London, England, and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr. Lewis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Kingston Polytechnic in 1984 and received a doctorate in reservoir description from the University of Reading in 1987. He has published and given keynote presentations on various exploration and production topics and is a past Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Distinguished Lecturer. He is a member of SPE and serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of the Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, and on the University of Houston Energy Advisory Board. Dr. Lewis is also a member of the board of CHC Helicopter Group.

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Petra Liedl headshotPetra Liedl
Assistant Professor
School of Architecture, UT Austin
Powering the Cities of the Future

Petra Liedl has been Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Thermal Lab in the School of Architecture at University of Texas at Austin since 2012. She served as faculty co-advisor for the 2015 UT/TUM Solar Decathlon project NexusHaus. Petra received her Dr.-Ing. in Architecture in 2011 from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) Germany and was awarded the Dr. Marschall-Award of the Faculty of Architecture for outstanding doctoral theses. She was a Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellow at The University of Texas School of Architecture 2012-2013. Interdisciplinary orientation and practical relevance is the basis for Petra Liedl`s work. Petra is co-author of Buildings to suit the Climate- A Handbook, ClimateDesign- Solutions for buildings that can do more with less technology, ClimateSkin- Building-skin concepts that Can Do More with Less Energy. Her new book EnergyXChange will be published in February 2016.

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Jessica Lovering headshotJessica Lovering
Director of Energy
Breakthrough
Menace or Miracle? Rethinking Nuclear Waste

Jessica earned an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, where her studies focused on energy policy. During her last year of school, Jessica created a graduate course in nuclear energy, which she co-taught in the Spring of 2012 with a nuclear physics professor. The course was an interdisciplinary look at all aspects of nuclear power including social, environmental, financial, security, and legal issues. In 2011, Jessica was a Breakthrough Generation Fellow, researching energy access.

In an earlier life, Jessica received a BA in Astrophysics from the University of California Berkeley and an MS in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado. She also worked for two years on NASA’s New Horizons mission, which will fly by Pluto in July 2015. In her free time, she enjoys dystopian fiction, ballet, and enjoying the great outdoors.

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David Madero headshotDavid Madero
General Director
Centro Nacional de Control del Gas Natural CENAGAS
The Role of Natural Gas

David Madero is an economist from ITAM, with a masters and PhD degree in economics from University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Madero has worked more than sixteen years in the Mexican Federal Government and currently is the General Director at the National Control Center for Natural Gas (CENAGAS). His past responsibilities include Chief Financial and Management Officer at the Treasury’s Service for Asset Management and Disposal, Credit Director at the national development bank for infrastructure (Banobras), management positions and Advisor to the Minister at the Ministry of Energy – overseeing upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas activities and participating within the PEMEX Board of Directors, and several positions in macroeconomic and financial analysis and policy design at the Mexican Treasury and Central Bank. As a result, David Madero has a broad experience in the Mexican public sector, and his expertise includes public finance, macroeconomics, and public policy, with a particular emphasis in oil and gas.

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Charles Maguire headshotCharles W. Maguire
Director, Radioactive Materials Division
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Menace or Miracle? Rethinking Nuclear Waste

Charles Maguire is currently the Director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) Radioactive Materials Division in the Office of Waste. Previously, Charles was director of the Water Quality Division, where the primary function is issuance of wastewater and stormwater discharge permits. Charles joined the TCEQ in January 2006 as a Team Leader for the Agriculture Permitting Team in the Water Quality Division and held that position until becoming Manager of the Water Quality Assessment Section. In October 2008, Charles became the Assistant Director of the newly formed Water Quality Planning Division and served in that capacity until October 2009 when he became the Director of the Water Quality Division. In 2012, Charles was chosen by the Executive Management of TCEQ to head the Radioactive Materials Division.

Charles holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from Texas A&M University. Charles is also a graduate of the Governor’s Executive Development Program.

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Jim Malewitz headshotJim Malewitz
Texas Tribune
Water Initiatives in Texas: Energy, Technology, and Policy

Jim Malewitz reports on energy for the Texas Tribune. Before arriving, he spent two covering energy and environmental issues for Stateline, a nonprofit news service in Washington, D.C., where his work also appeared in The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, among other newspapers. Malewitz studied political science at Grinnell College in Iowa and holds a master’s from the University of Iowa, where he helped launch the nonprofit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism.

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Jim Marston headshotJim Marston
Director, Texas office
Environmental Defense Fund
De-Carbonizing the Grid

Jim Marston is the founding director of the Texas office of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), located in Austin, where he has served since its beginning in 1988. Jim is EDF’s Vice-President for Climate and Energy and also serves as Regional Director of EDF’s Texas Office.

Jim led the successful fight to stop TXU from building a dozen coal plants in Texas and ultimately negotiated a first-of-its-kind deal with private equity buyers involving more than a dozen commitments on climate change. He is also a leader of the Pecan Street, Inc., a partnership that includes Austin Energy, the University of Texas, the Chamber of Commerce, and several large high/clean tech companies aimed at making fundamental changes in the nation’s electricity grid. Jim also helped to design and to advocate for some of the most innovative state legislation in the country including the Texas Renewable Portfolio Standard that led to almost 10,000 MW’s of new wind energy in Texas and the first-in-the-nation “no regrets” global warming law.

Jim was EDF’s State Climate Initiatives director from 2002 until 2009. In that position, he helped direct EDF’s successes in states from the west coast to New England and Florida on a wide-range of legislation and regulations to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Among EDF’s most important state climate victories was the passage of the California Car Greenhouse Gas Standards in 2002 that ultimately lead to national greenhouse standards for automobiles in 2010 and the passage of AB32 in 2006, the first state legislation with a cap on statewide emissions of greenhouse gases.

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Brewster McCracken headshotBrewster McCracken
President and CEO
Pecan Street
Water Initiatives in Texas: Energy, Technology, and Policy

Brewster McCracken is president and CEO of Pecan Street, a research and commercialization institute focused on the utility industry and headquartered at The University of Texas. In July 2014, Time Magazine described Pecan Street’s work as “the most extensive energy-tracking study in U.S. history. . . That kind of data is unprecedented in the electricity industry. . . The Pecan Street team is already using it to upend long-held theories about electricity use.” Mr. McCracken was one of three global smart grid project leaders invited by the government of Japan to present at the one-year anniversary conference for the reconstruction of Fukushima in March 2012. In 2013, Smart Grid Today named him one of the nation’s “50 Smart Grid Pioneers,” and GreenBiz.com named him to its VERGE 25 list of 25 U.S. smart grid leaders. He is the author of numerous research reports on customer energy use. He was elected to two terms on the Austin City Council, serving in a city-wide at large position. Through his elected position, he served as a board member of Austin Energy and Austin Water, founded and chaired the city council’s Emerging Technologies Committee and led the city’s collaboration with The University of Texas to establish technology incubators in bioscience and wireless technologies. Prior to holding elected office, he practiced commercial litigation for nearly a decade with two large international law firms. He is an honors graduate of The University of Texas School of Law and Princeton University, and he holds a master’s degree in public affairs from UT’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

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Seamus McGraw headshotSeamus McGraw
Author
The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone
Wednesday Keynote

Seamus McGraw is the author of a few books, including the critically acclaimed The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone, and the forthcoming Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Line of Climate change, due in April 2015 from The University of Texas Press.

Seamus has been a regular contributor to many publications, incuding the New York Times, Huffington Post, Playboy, Popular Mechanics, Reader’s Digest, The Forward, Spin, Stuff, and Radar, and has appeared on Fox Latino. He has received the Freedom of Information Award from the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Golden Quill Award, as well as honors from the Casey Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists.

A father of four, he lives in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, Kren, his children, and a neighborly bear named “Fardels” with boundary issues.

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Ken Medlock headshotKenneth B. Medlock III
Senior Director, Center for Energy Studies
Baker Institute, Rice University
Energy and Geopolitics

Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ph.D., is the James A. Baker, III, and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics at the Baker Institute and the senior director of the Center for Energy Studies. He is also the director of the Masters of Energy Economics program, holds adjunct professor appointments in the Department of Economics and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and is the chair of the faculty advisory board at the Energy and Environment Initiative at Rice University. He teaches advanced courses in energy economics and supervises Ph.D. students in the energy economics field. Medlock is a principal in the development of the Rice World Natural Gas Trade Model, which is aimed at assessing the future of international natural gas trade. He has published numerous scholarly articles in his primary areas of interest: natural gas markets, energy commodity price relationships, gasoline markets, transportation, national oil company behavior, economic development and energy demand, and energy use and the environment. He has testified multiple times on Capitol Hill on U.S. oil and natural gas exports, has spoken at OPEC, and is frequently asked to speak about global and domestic energy issues.

Medlock is currently the vice president for conferences for the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), and previously served as vice president for academic affairs. In 2001, he won (joint with Ron Soligo) the International Association for Energy Economics Award for Best Paper of the Year in the Energy Journal. In 2011, he was given the USAEE’s Senior Fellow Award, and in 2013 he accepted on behalf of the Center for Energy Studies the USAEE’s Adelman-Frankel Award. In 2012, Medlock received the prestigious Haydn Williams Fellowship at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. He is also an active member of the American Economic Association and is an academic member of the National Petroleum Council. Medlock has served as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission in their respective energy modeling efforts.

Medlock received his Ph.D. in economics from Rice University in May 2000.

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Neil Modeland headshotNeil Modeland
Business Development Technology Manager
Halliburton
Perpetuating the Boom? Advancements in Operations and Technology

Neil Modeland is Halliburton’s Business Development Technology Manager for the Southeast US land area. In this role, he manages a basin-focused team of engineers and geoscientist. During his career at Halliburton, he has worked international assignments for unconventional development in Austria and Saudi Arabia, as well as worked both in field engineering operations and as a Technical Sales Advisor for production enhancement in the East Texas/North Louisiana basin. He has authored and co-authored multiple technical publications and intellectual property filings on various aspects of completion techniques and perforating methodology. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University.

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Bill Muston headshotBill Muston
Manager of R&D
Oncor
Storage, Renewables, and Grid Management

Bill is the Manager of R&D at Oncor, a regulated electric utility delivering electric energy in the competitive market in Texas. The role of emerging technologies and ways in which they can be brought to fruitful use to improve electric delivery services are his core work. Energy storage in utility distribution systems, customer utilization of energy storage, and distributed control systems to integrate all forms of distributed energy resources into the grid are his focus 2016. Scope includes micro grids that provide both grid-connected and islanded operations. Bill graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering.

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Peter Nance headshotPeter Nance
Principal
ICF International
Electric Power Reform
Oil & Gas Limbo: How Low Can Price Go?

Peter K. Nance is a Principal with ICF International, a Managing Director at Que Advisors, and a Board Member at Prosport Science. He is an energy economist who has directed over 200 projects for renewable and conventional power, refined products, liquids, metals, and agricultural clients in strategic planning, commodity trading risk management, and marketing. He has served as an Executive Director of Research and publishing analyst for J.P. Morgan, a money-center investment bank; in business and project development; providing third party opinions; market design; in market supply and demand assessment; in business and integrated resource planning; on institutional reform; and, in financial and economic evaluation. He is a Senior Fellow of the United States Association of Energy Economics and in the past served as President.

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Rajeev Patel headshotRajeev Patel
Research Professor
LBJ School of Public Affairs
Food for Thought: Energy-Food Nexus

Raj Patel is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He studies the global food system and alternatives to it. He is currently working on a ground-breaking documentary project about the global food system with award-winning director Steve James.

Before coming to Austin, Dr Patel co-taught the 2014 Edible Education class at UC Berkeley with Michael Pollan. He was also an IATP Food and Community Fellow from 2011-2013. He has testified about the causes of the global food crisis to the US House Financial Services Committee and was an Advisor to Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

In addition to numerous scholarly publications in economics, philosophy, politics and public health journals, he regularly writes for The Guardian, and has contributed to the Financial Times, LA Times, NYTimes.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Mail on Sunday, and The Observer. His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.

He has degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cornell University, has worked at the World Bank and World Trade Organization, and protested against them around the world. He has been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and continues to be a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First.

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Darrell Peckham headshotDarrell Peckham
Hydrogeologist
Peckham P.G., LLC
Water Initiatives in Texas: Energy, Technology, and Policy

Darrell S. Peckham is a licensed Professional Geologist with more than 30 years of experience working with ground waters of Texas. His expertise includes ground-water studies in aquifers across Texas, ground-water resource evaluation, ground-water protection, regional water management and conservation planning, and recharge studies. In the 2000s, Darrell was a consulting hydrogeologist for Thornhill Group, Inc., and moved on to become a hydrogeologist at Water Quest Inc. in 2012. In 2015, Darrell formed Peckham P.C., LLC to provide strategic planning, guidance, management, and policy development for clients seeking to prudently develop municipal, industrial, agricultural, environmental, and recreational water supplies. Currently, Darrell serves on the Texas Desalination Association Board, and is a founding member of the Texas Association of Groundwater Owners and Producers. When the weather allows, Darrell enjoys hiking, skiing, growing wildflowers, and coaching youth lacrosse and youth baseball..

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Jorge Pinon headshotJorge Piñón
Director
Latin America and Caribbean Energy Program, UT Austin
Tuesday Opening Remarks

Jorge R. Piñón has had a 30+ year career in the international oil and natural gas sector. He was president of Amoco Oil de México and president of Amoco Oil Latin America, based in Mexico City. After the merger between Amoco and BP; he was then transferred to Madrid, Spain to manage BP Europe’s Iberian petroleum supply and logistics operations. As VP and member of the board of AMCHAM-Mexico, Mr. Piñón received the “Yiacatecutli” award for distinguished service in U.S.-Mexico business relations. He was also a member of the board of INROADS de Mexico, an organization supporting socio-economic disadvantage university students. He has testified before various committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate on energy and Latin America – U.S. geopolitical issues. He holds degrees in International Economics and Latin American Studies from the University of Florida.

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Charles Porter headshotCharles Porter
Assistant Professor
St. Edward’s University
Water Initiatives in Texas: Energy, Technology, and Policy

Charles Porter is an Assistant Professor at St. Edward’s University, and a testifying Water Rights and Real Estate expert nationwide. His newest book is Sharing the Common Pool: Water Rights in the Everyday Lives of Texans (Texas A&M University Press), one of the only primers on water rights in Texas ever published. He is also the author of Spanish Water/ Anglo Water, a history of the San Antonio water system during the Spanish colonial era.

He was awarded the 2009 Austin Board of Realtors’ Realtor of the Year, and the 2007 Travis County Dispute Resolution Center’s Peacemaker Award for Business. He serves on the Professional Standards committee of the Texas Association of Realtors.

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Josh Rhodes headshotJosh Rhodes
Postdoctoral Fellow
Webber Energy Group and the Energy Insitute
Powering the Cities of the Future

Joshua D. Rhodes, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in The Webber Energy Group and the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research is in the area of residential smart grid applications, including system-level applications of energy efficiency and distributed generation. He is also interested in policy and the impacts that good policy can have on the efficiency of the local economy, especially policy that utilizes market forces to increase the efficiency of the residential building stock. He holds a double bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Stephen F. Austin State University, a masters in Computational Mathematics from Texas A&M University, a masters in Architectural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He enjoys CrossFit, mountain biking, rock climbing, and living it up in ATX.

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Bridget Scanlon headshotBridget Scanlon
Senior Research Scientist
Bureau of Economic Geology
Water Initiatives in Texas: Energy, Technology, and Policy

Dr. Bridget Scanlon is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, where she’s served since 1987. Some of BEG’s research focuses on water and energy issues, including water use at power plants and water for hydraulic fracturing in Texas. She received her PhD in Geology from University of Kentucky and was recently inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.

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Khalil Shalabi headshotKhalil Shalabi
Vice President, Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning
Austin Energy
De-Carbonizing the Grid

Khalil Shalabi is Vice President of Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning. He joined Austin Energy in December 2013.

Shalabi has more than 20 years of leadership and management experience in the electric utility industry. His diverse work history includes research and development; resource planning and acquisition; project evaluation including renewable energy, business development, long-range planning, and market analysis; and nuclear power plant engineering, maintenance, and operations. He also has experience in treasury and corporate risk management. Prior to joining Austin Energy, Shalabi served as chief technology officer and director of Research and Development and Strategic Planning for the New York Power Authority.

Shalabi has a Master of Business Administration in finance and management from New York University, a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He also completed a certificate course at the Vermont Law School on legal essentials for utility executives.

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Mukul Sharma headshotMukul Sharma
Professor
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, UT Austin
Perpetuating the Boom? Advancements in Operations and Technology

Mukul M. Sharma is currently a Professor and W. A. “Tex” Moncrief, Jr. Centennial Chair in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He received a Bachelor of Technology in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MS and PhD in chemical and petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California. Sharma has been on the faculty at the University of Texas for the past 29 years and has served as Chairman of the Department from 2001 to 2005.

Sharma is the recipient of the 2009 Lucas Gold Medal, SPE’s highest technical award and the 2004 SPE Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2002 Lester C. Uren Award and the 1998 SPE Formation Evaluation Award. He served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2002 and has served on the Editorial Boards of many journals, and taught and consulted for industry worldwide.

Beyond academia, Sharma founded Austin Geotech Services an E&P consulting company in 1996 and co-founded Layline Petroleum and Karsu Petroleum private E&P companies in 2006.

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Xuan Si headshotXuan Si
Head of Exploration and Production
Arete Investment
Oil & Gas Limbo: How Low Can Price Go?

Xuan Si heads up the E&P research for Arete Investment, an energy, industrials and materials dedicated market neutral long/short hedge fund. Previously he covered E&Ps and oilfield service companies at Invesco for the Energy Fund and for the domestic growth funds. Xuan started his career as an equity research associate on the buy-side at Federated Investors.
Xuan graduated with a B.S in Finance from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

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Amit Singh headshotAmit Singh
Well Stimulation Specialist
Chevron Energy Technology Company
Perpetuating the Boom? Advancements in Operations and Technology

Amit Singh serves as technical expert in Productivity Enhancement technologies at Chevron Energy Technology Company. He joined Chevron in 2012 in his current role and his focus is to solve the technical challenges for Chevron’s business worldwide in area of Well Stimulation technology to produce energy in a safe, efficient, environmentally responsible manner. He champions development and implementation of new technology and strategy for completion and stimulation optimization.

Amit began his career in India in 2000 as Assistant Executive Engineer at the R&D facility of ONGC Ltd. Before taking his current position with Chevron, he served several technical roles of technology development and field operation for well stimulation and sand control completions with various organizations in USA and India, including the BJ Services and the Baker Hughes.

Amit graduated from the Indian School of Mines, India with a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering. He has published over 15 technical papers in well stimulation and completion technology areas. He is a member of the SPE and technical editor for SPE Journals.

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John Smelko
North Region Environmental and Regulatory Compliance Manager
Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation
Regulatory Responses to Fracking

Mr. John J. Smelko has been serving as the North Region Environmental and Regulatory Compliance Manager for Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation since February of 2010. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and has more than 25 years of professional experience in the environmental field. Mr. Smelko spent much of that time in environmental consulting, starting with a part-time entry level position and working into high-level management. He has developed a diversified background serving both public and private sectors, and has served various industries, including oil and gas and petrochemical. He has worked as a chemist in both analytical and treatability laboratories, performed work as a field and project chemist, worked as a sampling and remediation technician, performed oversight and leadership roles in the areas of EH&S and demolition, and held field, project, operations, and office management positions.

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Chris Smith headshotChristopher Smith
Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy
U. S. Department of Energy
Tuesday Lunch Keynote

Christopher Smith serves as Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy at the U. S. Department of Energy. President Obama nominated Smith for the position in November 2013. He was confirmed by the U. S. Senate and sworn into office in December 2014.

As Assistant Secretary, Smith leads the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, including scientists and engineers working at eleven sites across the United States. In this capacity, he oversees the Department’s fossil energy’s research and development program (coal, oil and natural gas) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. He is also responsible for the U.S. Petroleum Reserves, the largest strategic petroleum stockpile in the world.

Prior to his Senate confirmation, Smith served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas. During that tenure, he served as the Designated Federal Official for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, established by President Obama to investigate the root causes of the Gulf oil spill.

Before his appointment in October 2009, Smith served in managerial and analytical positions of increasing responsibility in the private sector. Most recently he spent eleven years with two major international oil companies focused primarily on upstream business development and LNG trading, including three years negotiating production and transportation agreements in Bogotá, Colombia.

Smith began his career as an officer in the U. S. Army and served tours in Korea and Hawaii. He subsequently worked for Citibank and JPMorgan in New York City and London in the area of emerging markets and currency derivatives. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from Cambridge University.

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Mike Smith headshotMike Smith
Executive Director
Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission
Regulatory Responses to Fracking

Since 2008, Carl Michael Smith has served as the Executive Director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and continuing its mission to assist its 38 member states and 10 international affiliates in efficiently maximizing oil and natural gas resources through sound regulatory practices while protecting our nation’s health, safety and the environment.

From 2002 to 2004 Carl Michael Smith served as assistant secretary of fossil energy for the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Smith served as the primary policy advisor to Secretary Spencer Abraham on federal coal, petroleum, and natural gas programs, including extensive research and development efforts.

His responsibilities included overseeing an organization of nearly 1,000 scientists, engineers, technicians and administrative staff in two national laboratories, four field offices and at DOE’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was responsible for several high-priority presidential initiatives, including the implementation of the Bush Administration’s $2 billion development of a new generation of environmentally sound clean coal technologies and the $1 billion FutureGen project. Duties also included managing the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, both key emergency response tools available to the president to protect Americans from energy supply disruptions.

Mr. Smith’s international experience includes service with the secretary general, Ministry of Science and Technology, People’s Republic of China as a co-chair of the US-China Oil and Gas Forum and as chairman of the policy group, Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). CSLF is a Bush Administration initiative with a 21country membership seeking technical solutions to the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from energy generating facilities. Additionally, he led U.S. bilateral fossil energy protocols in Australia, India, Norway and Russia.

From 1995 to 2002, Mr. Smith served as Oklahoma’s secretary of energy in the cabinet of former Gov. Frank Keating. He was responsible for fossil energy policy and oversight of seven major state energy agencies and commissions. He served as the governor’s official representative to the IOGCC, the Southern States Energy Board, the Interstate Mining Compact Commission and the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition. He served IOGCC as its vice chairman in 1999.

Mr. Smith served as president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association in 1994 and operated an independent oil and gas exploration company based in Oklahoma City. He practiced energy law and earned Bachelor of Arts and law degrees from the University of Oklahoma.

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Barry Smitherman headshotBarry Smitherman
Partner, Energy Regulation
Vinson & Elkins
The Role of Natural Gas

Barry is the only person to ever serve on both the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), and is a nationally recognized authority on a number of emerging energy trends. With this background, Barry brings unique experience and perspective when advising clients on issues relating to state and federal regulations, energy project development, legislative matters, and energy litigation.

Barry’s experience at the PUCT and RRC, coupled with his service on a number of national and regional energy-focused boards and committees, gives him particular insight into emerging developments such as unconventional oil and gas development, electric transmission development, renewable energy generation, and energy storage.

Barry was appointed to the RRC in 2011 to serve an unexpired term and, in 2012, was elected statewide for a two-year term. He was later chosen by his colleagues to serve as chairman of the RRC. During his chairmanship, he also served as chair of the Gas Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners from 2013 to 2014.

Prior to his service with the RRC, Barry was a member of the PUCT for more than seven years and served as chairman of the agency for most of 2007 to 2011. In addition to a number of significant achievements, Barry is best known for leading the PUCT’s adoption and management of the 3,600-mile Competitive Renewable Energy Zone transmission line project, handling routing disputes and acting as the agency’s liaison with the Texas Legislature, service providers, and landowners.

Prior to beginning public service, Barry spent 16 years as an investment banker. He held leadership positions with several firms, including Lazard, where he led the Houston office; The First Boston Corporation, where he was co-head of the “sunbelt infrastructure” group; J.P. Morgan Securities, where he was head of Texas public finance; and Banc One Capital Markets, where he was the National Head of tax-exempt origination. During this time, he managed billions in municipal bond offerings on behalf of state and local governments.

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David Spence headshotDavid Spence
Professor
McCombs School of Business and the School of Law, UT Austin
The Science of Fracking

David Spence is Professor of Law, Politics & Regulation at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches in both the McCombs School of Business and the School of Law. Professor Spence is co-author of the leading energy law casebook, Energy, Economics and the Environment (Foundation Press), and has published numerous scholarly articles on subjects relating to energy policy, regulation and the regulatory process. Professor Spence’s research focuses on the law and politics of energy regulation, broadly defined. His scholarly writings address the environmental regulation of the oil and gas industry and the electric utility industry, as well as economic regulation (regulation of price and competition) in the public utility industry. He has Ph.D in political science from Duke University and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina.

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Melinda Taylor headshotMelinda Taylor
Executive Director
Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business
Regulatory Responses to Fracking

Melinda E. Taylor is a Senior Lecturer and Executive Director of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business. Taylor joined the faculty of the Law School in January 2006. Prior to joining the faculty, she was the director of the Ecosystem Restoration Program of Environmental Defense where she managed a staff of attorneys, scientists and economists engaged in projects to protect endangered species and water resources across the United States. Taylor has also served as deputy general counsel of the National Audubon Society in Washington, D.C. and was an associate at Bracewell & Patterson in Washington.

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Sheridan Titman headshotSheridan Titman
Professor
Department of Finance, UT Austin
Oil & Gas Limbo: How Low Can Price Go?

Sheridan Titman is a professor in the Department of Finance who holds the Walter W. McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services. He is also the director of the Energy Management and Innovation Center at UT. Dr. Titman took his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include both investments and corporate finance.

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Dave Tuttle headshotDave Tuttle
Energy Week Coordinator
Energy Institute, UT Austin
Financing Electrons

Dr. Tuttle is a Research Fellow in the Energy Institute at University of Texas at Austin. His lifelong passion in the automotive space intersects with his decades of experience in information technology and interest in the diffusion of innovation in the research areas of Plug-In Vehicle adoption and integration with the grid, alternative fuel and advanced powertrain vehicles, the Smartgrid, and renewable energy systems. In the past, Dr. Tuttle advised the UT GM/DOE Challenge-X hybrid development team and was the team manager for the 2007 UT DARPA Urban Challenge Autonomous vehicle team. Today, he is one of the electric vehicle researchers in Austin’s Pecan Street Consortium/UT-Austin Plug-In Vehicle Smartgrid research project.

Dr. Tuttle is a former IBM and Sun Microsystems executive with a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, B.S. & Master of Engineering degrees with highest honors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Louisville and an MBA from UT-Austin. His diverse career has included leading the design of the Data Cache Unit of the high-performance microprocessor in the original IBM POWER-1 RISC/UNIX computer system, leading the team in the Apple/IBM/Motorola alliance that designed the first high-performance microprocessor used to launch the original Power MacIntosh, leading the team that designed the POWER2-SC microprocessor used in the 1997 IBM Deep Blue Supercomputer that beat World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, and building from scratch Sun Microsystem’s Austin design center for power efficient highly multi-threaded CPUs.

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Ty Vaughn headshotTy Vaughn
Director, Global Regulatory Affairs
Monsanto Company
Food for Thought: Energy-Food Nexus

Ty has held several roles in Monsanto’s Technology and U.S. Commercial organizations. He is currently the Global Regulatory Affairs Lead responsible for Chemistry and Seed, International and NALAN Regulatory Affairs. These teams drive coordination and global focus to obtain and maintain product approvals on import and cultivation of our current and future Biotech portfolio. This team is also responsible for enabling global freedom to operate for Monsanto’s vegetable and row crop seed businesses. Prior to joining the Global Regulatory team, Ty led the Technology Development and Agronomy team that is responsible for Knowledge Transfer, Agronomic Systems, Field Compliance, Field Technology Development, U.S. Data Strategy and Agronomy support to ensure our pipeline provides insights, solutions and value to customers.

Within the commercial organization, Ty led the U.S. Corn Product Management team responsible for managing the corn portfolio and pricing strategy. Within Technology, he served as VP of Global Cotton and Specialty Technology, and spent seven years in the Biotechnology organization leading teams responsible for discovering and evaluating new genes, including several patents on the use of RNAi, to control insect pests in a variety of transgenic crops. Ty has been part of, or led, the development and launch of several major projects, including the first and second generation corn rootworm traits, the first industry leading multi-trait product for both corn rootworm and lepidopteran control, and the second and third generation cotton insect control products.

Ty has had the opportunity to travel to many international locations to support agriculture, including India, Pakistan, China, South Africa, Europe, Australia and Latin America. Meeting with farmers and government agencies in these countries has provided insight into the extensive range of farming operations and challenges which has facilitated the development of agronomic tools and systems to optimize farming practices.

Ty is a Senior Science Fellow in Monsanto’s Technology Community and has won the Queeny Award, Monsanto’s highest recognition for achievement in innovative science and technology. He also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Colorado State University.

Before joining Monsanto in 1999, he completed a post doctorate at the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis where he studied epistatic effects on the developmental and genetic constraints imposed on the rate and direction of evolution by heritable variation patterns. Ty received his PhD from Colorado State University in Ecological Genetics, his Master of Science from The Ohio State University in Entomology and Bachelor of Science from Kent State University.

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Michael Webber headshotMichael Webber
Deputy Director
Energy Insitute
Food for Thought: Energy-Food Nexus

Michael Webber is Deputy Director of the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition, he is the Josey Centennial Fellow in Energy Resources and serves as Co-Director of the Clean Energy Incubator and Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy. Dr. Webber also is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, where he teaches and conducts research on energy and environmental issues.

Dr. Webber holds four patents and has authored more than 150 publications. He is on the board of advisers for Scientific American and is an originator of Pecan Street Inc., a public-private partnership for smart grid innovation and deployment. Previously Webber studied at the RAND Corporation and was a Senior Scientist at Pranalytica, where he invented sensors for homeland security, industrial analysis, and environmental monitoring.

Dr. Webber has a B.A. and B.S. with High Honors from UT Austin, where he has been honored for exceptional teaching. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering) from Stanford. He has been an American Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, a White House Fellowship finalist and an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow.

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Max Yzaguirre  headshotMax Yzaguirre
Chief Executive Officer
The Yzaguirre Group, L.L.C.
Electric Power Reform

Max Yzaguirre has over 30 years of leadership experience in domestic and international business, government and law, and expertise in a wide variety of industries and sectors, including electricity, oil and gas, banking, real estate, telecommunications and private equity investing.

Max is the Chief Executive Officer of The Yzaguirre Group, L.L.C., an Austin, Texas-based business and public affairs advisory firm. Max also serves on the Boards of Directors of BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc. and BBVA Compass Bank.

Max was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. During Max’s tenure as Chairman of the Texas PUC, the State’s retail electric market was restructured from a regulated model to a competitive model.

Max has a long track record of experience in Latin America and, in particular, in Mexico as an executive and as an attorney. Max has served as President of both Hunt-Mexico, Inc., an investor in energy, real estate and private equity opportunities, and Enron Mexico, where he led the successful development of a 245 megawatt cogeneration plant in the Monterrey area. Max also served as President of Hunt Resources, Inc., an investor in energy production and transportation opportunities throughout this hemisphere.

Max graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree with honors, and in 1983 from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (Finance).

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