Charles Vaughan

Managing Director, Fluence

Charles Vaughan is Managing Director, U.S. and Canada – Utilities for Fluence, a Siemens and AES Corporation joint venture company. Fluence is a leader in the energy storage industry with a project portfolio of over 500 MWs in 15 countries. Mr. Vaughan has 20 years of experience in the energy industry focusing on wind, solar, and thermal generation projects in addition to energy storage and has worked for equipment manufacturers, services providers, and project developers. He has helped grow renewable energy businesses at GE, United Technologies, SunEdison, and at venture capital backed start-up companies. He has originated, negotiated and closed transactions worth over $3 billion and 3,000 mega-watts of energy capacity.

Ted Bardacke

Executive Director, Clean Power Alliance of Southern California

Ted Bardacke, Executive Director of the Clean Power Alliance, has forged a unique career focusing on sustainable urbanism and economic development that spans three continents, including major stints in local government, non-profit organizations, journalism and academia. Ted comes to the Alliance from the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, where he was Director of Infrastructure and Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Sustainability Office. In those positions he was instrumental in both crafting and then implementing the city’s first-ever Sustainability Plan, with a particular emphasis on pursuing distributed systems in the electricity and water sectors, and utilizing mobility infrastructure to pursue low-carbon and ecologically-beneficial outcomes. From 2003 to 2013, Ted worked in the Green Urbanism Program at Global Green USA and during the 1990s was a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times of London, based in Mexico City and Bangkok. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University, Ted has been a Visiting Fellow at Mexico City’s Centro de Transporte Sustentable, is a permanent Lecturer in the Urban Planning Program at UCLA, and is co-author with his teaching colleague Walker Wells, of Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing (Island Press, 2007).

Michael Boehm

VP Business, MOEV

Leveraging over two decades of international business experience as a technology entrepreneur, Michael applies his start up and technology skills to cleantech startups, policy, research and education, with a concentration on e-mobility and the new energy economy, as Executive Director of the E4 Advanced Transportation Center. He has experience in EV charging solutions, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and microgrids. He also runs the Industry Partners Program at SMERC, UCLA's Smartgrid Research Center, responsibilities include technology commercialization, and serves SMERC's spin out MOEV, Inc. as Vice President of Business Educated at Northwestern University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Michael combines an understanding of the behavior of organizations and the individuals who make them up and the technical systems they use to deliver service and value.

Yair Crane

Principal LA – Co-Chair, "CTG Consulting Young Professionals in Energy"

Yair Crane serves as Principal of CTG Consulting and the Co-Chair of Young Professionals in Energy – LA Chapter. Crane brings 10+ years of experience and a vast global network focused on clean technology, clean transportation, energy/renewable energy, goods movement and utilities. Crane excels in developing new business and sales in both private and public sectors, consulting on project development and financing/investment, implementing strategic channel partner relationships, and advocating for regulation and policies to support the Clean Energy Economy. He has worked in environmental consulting, government affairs and compliance, as well as prior roles in finance and wealth management including Citibank, UBS, Bank of Ireland, and CSLA Asia. Crane has lived, worked, and traveled in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Israel and Mexico, and maintains solid business relationships throughout Asia and Southeast Asia. He is a graduate of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Rajit Gadh

Professor of Engineering, UCLA & Director, SMERC, UCLA SMERC

Dr. Rajit Gadh is a Professor at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA, and the Founding Director of the *UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center* or *SMERC*. Dr. Gadh's research interests include Smart Grid Architectures, Smart wireless communications, sense and control for Demand Response, Micro Grids and Electric Vehicle Integration into the Grid. He has over 150 papers in journals, conferences and technical magazines, and, 3 patents granted. He has a Doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a Masters from Cornell University and a Bachelor's degree from IIT Kanpur. He has taught as a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, has been an Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did his sabbatical as a visiting researcher at Stanford University for a year. He has won several awards from NSF (CAREER award, Research Initiation Award, NSF-Lucent Industry Ecology Award, GOAL-I award), SAE (Ralph Teetor award), IEEE (second best student-paper, WTS), ASME (Kodak Best Technical Paper award), AT&T (Industrial ecology fellow award), Engineering Education Foundation (Research Initiation Award), William Wong Fellowship award from University of Hong-Kong, etc., and other accolades in his career. He is on the Editorial board of ACM Computers in Entertainment Publication and the CAD Journal.

Samuel Golding

President, Community Choice Partners

Samuel V. Golding founded Community Choice Partners, Inc. in 2013 (a California benefit corporation) to assist municipal governments and community non-governmental organizations in achieving their energy policy goals by evolving and expanding the Community Choice Energy (CCE) industry. He was previously the Managing Director of the consultancy that created Community Choice, and a utility management and Distributed Energy consultant at KEMA, Inc. Mr. Golding is recognized as a pioneer of the "CCE 2.0" and "CCE 3.0" business models — providing CCE agencies advanced operations and inter-agency governmental joint-action collaborations on procurement and services at-scale — and is routinely asked to present at industry events, workshops and webinars as an educator, community organizer, management consultant, CCE regulatory and governance expert, technologist and strategist. Mr. Golding's clients have included start-up and operational Community Choice agencies, county and city municipal governments, labor unions, environmental and social justice nonprofits, and publicly-owned utilities in California. He also serves in a volunteer capacity on the Sierra Club California's Energy and Climate Committee and the California Alliance for Community Energy (comprised of social and environmental justice nonprofits).

Alison Brown, P.E.

Founder and President, Flux Energy Systems

Alison Brown, PMP, PE has over 10 years of experience in renewable energy. She has worked with solar, battery, electric vehicle, fuel cell and smart grid technologies on projects ranging from remote, off-grid mountain cabins to industrial microgrids. In 2016, Alison founded Flux Energy Systems to simplify the design and installation of alternative energy projects. Alison holds a B.A. in Physics from Middlebury College and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She was a recipient of the 2009 Transatlantic Renewable Energy Fellowship.

Dan Hopper

Senior Manager, Strategy, SCE

Dan Hopper is a Senior Manager of Strategy and Integrated Planning Analytics at Southern California Edison. In this role, he leads a team that develops the foundational analyses on grid decarbonization and clean electrification that shape SCE’s Clean Power and Electrification corporate strategy. With over a decade of experience, Dan has a diverse background in economic and electric system analysis, customer program planning, and policy development for distributed energy resources, wholesale renewables, and energy storage resources. Most recently, Dan has been a leader in developing and implementing SCE’s transportation electrification strategy with a focus on charging infrastructure investments and vehicle to grid integration.

Mr. Hopper holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MA in Economics from California State University, Fullerton, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Adam Mandel

Product Strategy Manager, EVGo

Adam Mandel is a Product Strategy Supervisor at EVgo and has worked in the electric vehicle industry for over six years in the US and Germany. Adam’s work includes the rollout of new products such as fleet charging plans and the deployment of new technology such as high-powered charging (150kW+) and battery storage. Prior to EVgo, Adam was a Coro Fellow where he reimagined IBM’s World Community Grid outreach plan, conducted research with Freie Universität Berlin on the adoption of automotive technology and was part of the team that launched Mercedes-Benz’s first publicly available electric vehicle. Adam is currently completing his MBA part-time at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management with a focus on technology management. When Adam is not immersed in kilowatts or case studies he can be found speeding through Los Angeles’ canyon roads on his road bike or searching for the city’s best breakfast burrito.

Julia Pyper

Senior Editor, Greentech Media

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering clean energy policy, the solar industry, grid edge technologies and electric mobility. She previously reported for E&E Publishing in Washington D.C. Her work has been published in Scientific American and The New York Times. Julia has covered clean energy and climate change issues across the U.S. and abroad, including in Haiti, Israel and the Maldives. She holds degrees from McGill and Columbia Universities.

Kiran Srivastava

Lead Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton, Energy Practice

Kiran Srivastava is a renewable energy policy professional with over fifteen years of professional experience. Kiran’s expertise includes research and analysis on renewable energy technologies and trends. She has written numerous highly detailed and thoroughly researched white papers on subjects such as comparative analyses of scenarios in which Islands reach high levels of renewable energy penetration. In addition, she has focused on the strategic development and management of federal energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Ms. Srivastava’s notable contributions include extensive technical and strategic support to the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab on programs such as assisting the State of Hawaii’s clean energy goals through their Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI).

John Boodhansingh

Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm

John Boodhansingh, senior director of product management for Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM), is responsible for leading the product management efforts for Qualcomm Halo™ Technology. Boodhansingh, who has more than twenty years of experience in technology marketing and product management, joined Qualcomm in 2009 as a member of the wireless charging team. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he held various marketing and product management roles in multiple high technology companies. Earlier in his career he held design and manufacturing engineering positions for companies making products ranging from submarines to military vehicles to industrial vehicles.

Patrick Kelly

EDF Renewable Energy, Program Manager

Patrick leads the Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure initiative at EDF Renewable Energy. In this role, Patrick drives an intrapreneurial effort to create a solution that addresses the high capital and operating costs that plague the industry. Prior to joining EDF RE, he was the co-founder and CEO of Arenius Systems - a start-up company focused on creating clean, cost-effective hydrogen from an innovative method of methane pyrolysis. Before that, he served as the chief of staff for the engineering department at Cymer, an ASML company. Patrick spent the first half of his career in the United States Marine Corps as a Weapons Systems Officer for the F/A-18D Hornet where he completed tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and attained the rank of Captain. Patrick holds an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia.

David Pogue

Global Director of Corporate Sustainability, CBRE

As Senior Vice President Global Client Care, Dave Pogue is leading the development of socially responsible, market driven solutions to align corporate responsibility principals into CBRE business practices through a strategy called Shared Advantage.

In his prior role as Global Director of Corporate Responsibility, Dave oversaw CBRE’s development, implementation and reporting for all aspects of corporate social responsibility, including environmental stewardship, community engagement and corporate giving.

His leadership has produced an award-winning sustainability platform leveraging thought leadership, service delivery and industry associations to raise worldwide green building standards. Program achievements include development of CBRE’s $1 million Real Green Research Challenge; delivery of co-branded BOMA BEEP training to more than 24,000 attendees; and recognition as the first manager of commercial property to certify more than 700 buildings in the LEED® for Existing Buildings rating system. CBRE has been honored by the EPA as an eleven-time ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council® with the Leadership Award for Organizational Excellence.

CBRE has also been included in the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America and the FTSE4Good Index for four consecutive years

Steve McDougal

3Degrees, CEO

Steve McDougal founded 3Degrees in 2007 with a simple mission: To make it possible for businesses and their customers to take urgent action on climate change. A certified B Corp, 3Degrees provides renewable energy and carbon offset solutions to the Fortune 1000, utilities, and other organizations that are working to reduce their carbon footprint. As president and now CEO, Steve has worked to build a company focused on addressing climate change, the most important challenge of our generation. When taking a break from his CEO responsibilities, Steve enjoys skiing and learning to play piano. He also sits on the board of the McDougal Family Foundation which has a dual focus on the environment and public education. Steve has a BA from Colorado College and an MBA from Northwestern University.