Natalya Gallo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Bergen. Her current research focuses on understanding the effects of hypoxia on fish communities and marine ecosystems by using western Norwegian fjords with different oxygen regimes as natural model systems. This work supports sustainable ecosystem and aquaculture management in these unique and beautiful, nearshore deep-sea ecosystems. Prior to arriving in Bergen, she studied at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego where she received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. There, she was a member of the Center of Marine Biodiversity and Conservation and an NSF IGERT Scholar in Global Change, Marine Ecosystems, and Society. After receiving her Ph.D., she worked as a quantitative fisheries and ecology postdoc with the CalCOFI ecosystem monitoring program at Scripps and the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Her overarching interest is in how climate change impacts fish communities and fisheries and how scientific research can support sustainable ocean management and development. During her time at Scripps, she had the opportunity to participate in UNFCCC COPs 19, 20, 21, 22, and 25, as well as the UN Oceans Conference, and continues to follow how international attitudes towards the ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus are evolving. She was a previous recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Switzer Environmental Leadership Fellowship, and was an honoree on the Forbes 30 under 30 science list. She is a currently a member of the Early Career Ocean Professionals group of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative Climate Change working group, the Research Coordinated Network for Evolution in Changing Seas, and the SDG Bergen Initiative. As a deep sea ecologist with a passion for the science-policy interface, she equally enjoys working in the field and working with stakeholders and policy makers to find innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to protecting our global ocean.

Dr. Jeremy Jackson is emeritus professor of oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he led the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation and research paleobiologist at the American Museum of Natural History. He studies threats and solutions to human impacts on the oceans and the ecology and evolution of tropical seas. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has won numerous international prizes and awards. He is the author of more than 160 scientific publications and eleven books, most recently Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental Crises and Shifting Baselines in Fisheries: Using the Past to Manage the Future.

Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering.Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL).Kammen is also the Co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.

Kammen received his undergraduate (Cornell A., B. ’84) and graduate (Harvard M. A. ’86, Ph.D. ’88) training is in physics After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Harvard, Kammen was professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1993 – 1998.He then moved to UC Berkeley.

Through RAEL Kammen works with faculty and industry colleagues, fellows, and 20 students on a wide range ofenergy science, engineering, economics and policy projects.The focus of Kammen’s work is on the science and policy of clean, renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, the role of energy in national energy policy, international climate debates, and the use and impacts of energy sources and technologies on development, particularly in Africa and Latin America.Kammen has published five books, over 200 journal articles and 30 research reports.He has testified many times to the U. S. House and Senate, and to the legislatures in California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, and Washington.

Daniel Kammen is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In 1998 was elected a Permanent Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. In February, 2007, Kammen received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Commonwealth Club of California.

Kammen is a primary author and serves on the executive committee of the $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute funded by BP.The institute is a joint venture of the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Kammen is the chair of the research board of Enphase Energy, a solar and energy efficiency company, and is on the board of EDP-Renewables (Lisbon, Portugal).

Website: http://rael.berkeley.edu & http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kammen.

Notable Activities

Developed “Berkeley First” energy efficiency and solar energy financing plan – to permit installation of clean energy systems on residences with no up-front costs (service on the Measure G Advisory Committee for the City of Berkeley, 2007 – present).

Co-Author, California Global Warming Solutions Institute (2007/8), A $1.2 billion ratepayer and private sector funded 10-year program to address global warming.

Chairman of the Research Board, Enphase Energy (Petaluma, CA), company to develop solar energy systems.

Nobel Peace Prize (2007), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Contributing Lead Author on IPCC Reports (1999 – present).

Distinguished Citizen Award, Sustainable Energy, Commonwealth Club of California (2007).

Energy Biosciences Institute, Proposal lead-author and Executive Committee Member, $500 million BP funded institute on sustainable biofuels.

Worked with Assemblywoman Fran Pavely on the development of AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act (2007).

Conducted first ever field-based exposure-response study on traditional biofuels, cooking, and health (Laikipia, Kenya, 1993- 2002).Publications: The Lancet, Science, Scientific American.

21st Century Earth Award (Japan, 1993): for research addressing the amelioration or solution of such global environmental problems as climate change, deforestation or biodiversity preservation.

He is married to Bamidele Fayemi Kammen, a pediatric radiologist from Nigeria, and has two daughters, Folasade (11), “Sade”, and Omolara (5) “Lara”.The family lives in Oakland, California.

Dr Margaret Leinen, Director of Scripps institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Margaret Leinen, a highly distinguished national leader and oceanographer, was appointed the eleventh director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego in July 2013. She also serves as UC San Diego’s vice chancellor for marine sciences and dean of the School of Marine Sciences. She joined UC San Diego in October 2013.

Leinen is an award-winning oceanographer and an accomplished executive with extensive national and international experience in ocean science, global climate and environmental issues, federal research administration, and non-profit startups. She is a researcher in paleo-oceanography and paleo-climatology. Her work focuses on ocean sediments and their relationship to global biogeochemical cycles and the history of Earth’s ocean and climate.

Leinen leads UC San Diego’s ocean, earth, and atmospheric sciences research and education programs at Scripps Oceanography, the foremost environmental research institution that addresses the most pressing environmental problems facing our planet, provides the knowledge necessary to address these challenges, and teaches the next generation of science leaders.

Leinen enhances Scripps and UC San Diego through her impressive academic and administrative career.Prior to joining Scripps, she served as Vice Provost for Marine and Environmental Initiatives and Executive Director of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, a unit of Florida Atlantic University. Prior to that she served for seven years at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as Assistant Director for Geosciences and Coordinator of Environmental Research and Education. She oversaw a budget of $700 million, led government-wide planning for climate research, and co-led government planning for ocean research. While at NSF, she presided over and directly influenced some of the most consequential programs in marine, atmospheric, and earth science.

She is the founder and served as president of the Climate Response Fund, a non-profit organization that works to foster discussion of climate engineering research and to decrease the risk that these techniques might be called on or deployed before they are adequately understood and regulated. Previously, she spent two years as the chief science officer of Climos, Inc., a startup focused on green technology for climate mitigation.

Leinen has also served in other academic leadership positions. At the University of Rhode Island, she was Vice Provost for Marine and Environmental Programs and Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography.

She is Past President of the American Geophysical Union, a member of the distinguished Leadership Council of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, past chair of the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Science Section of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and past president of The Oceanography Society. She serves on the board of the National Council for Science and the Environment and previously served on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). She also served as vice chair of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and on the board on Global Change of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. She is vice chair of the Research Board of the $500 million Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Leinen began service in February 2016 as a U.S. Science Envoy focusing on ocean science in Latin America, East Asia, and the Pacific. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and has been awarded Distinguished Alumni Awards from all three universities she attended as a student, University of Illinois, Oregon State University, and University of Rhode Island.

She received her doctorate in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island (1980), her master’s degree in geological oceanography from Oregon State University (1975), and her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Illinois (1969).

Matt Mulrennan is the CEO of EnVest – the world’s leading environmental investing event, which has helped raise $130M+ into (pre-Seed to Series A) environmental companies. EnVest matches up leading environmental investors with the most compelling environmental entrepreneurs. Prior to EnVest, Matt was a Director at the XPRIZE Foundation working on fundraising, designing, and operating prizes for technologies that solve ocean and environmental grand challenges. He also worked as a marine scientist at ocean conservation group Oceana, as a lab researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, marketing for a residential energy efficiency software tool, and as an advocate on congressional and environmental campaigns. He was one of 20 candidates nominated for the 2018 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award and was the Grand Prize winner of the Con X Tech Prize a prototyping competition for conservation technology. He is a public speaker and community builder, with a passion for supporting entrepreneurs, innovations, and investors working to preserve the environment. His work has been featured in various media outlets; Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, BBC, and National Geographic. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree from Miami University and a master’s from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

George Patterson is an independent index expert in the industry, having previously run the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext index businesses. He is the prior manager for the CAC 40, AEX, BEL20 and PSI indexes in Europe.George has had over $10bn invested into the indexes he created and over $100bln in indexes he oversaw.Prior to working at NYSE and Euronext, George was part of the new product development team at the American Stock Exchange and a research analyst for Salomon Smith Barney’s Global Equity Indexes. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Florida.

The Honorable Claudine Schneider represented ‘the Ocean State’, Rhode Island – in the U.S. Congress from 1980 to 1990. She served on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, where she authored the Ocean Dumping Ban Acts (HR-3938 & HR – 5430) regulating the disposal of sewage sludge and industrial waste. In addition, HR 3124 required an overhaul of the response and effectiveness by the Coast Guard. of oil & other hazardous discharges. She proposed a National Oceans & Great Lakes Policy. Sports Illustrated recognized her leadership & courage for passing a moratorium on commercial & recreational striped bass fishing at a time when the stocks were becoming increasingly depleted.

In addition, she authored the first and only bipartisan, and revenue neutral Global Warming Prevention Act in 1988.

Claudine also received an Emmy from ABC for conceiving & co-producing ‘Capitol to Capitol,’ a five part series of unedited televised conversations between Members of Congress and Members of the Supreme Soviet – to lessen the tensions of the Cold War.

She is also a successful businesswoman, as co-Founder of Energia Global; consultant on all matters related to climate mitigation; TV host, and artist (The National Museum of Women in the Arts).

Claudine lives in Boulder, Colorado – to be near the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – and to protect the ‘great outdoors’!

Jen is a coral reef ecologist with primary expertise in benthic communities (marine plants, corals and other invertebrates). Her primary interests are in determining how various physical and biological processes affect the structure and function of marine communities. Jen has been interested in determining how human impacts affect or alter marine communities. Currently Jen and her students are working on understanding how local stressors such as pollution, overfishing or the introduction of invasive species affect coral reefs. Jen’s lab is also working to determine how global stressors associated with climate change such as warming or ocean acidification will alter reef species. Much of the research in the Smith lab is focused on marine conservation and restoration of degraded habitats and often involves multidisciplinary activities. Jen and her students are actively working to develop effective management strategies for coral reef communities around the world.

Deborah Sunter, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Tufts University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a secondary appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University. She was formerly an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy and a Data Science Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science. Using computational modeling and data science techniques, her research explores the interface of technology innovation and policy for improved environmental sustainability and social justice. An area of particular interest is novel ocean energy technologies, such as offshore wind and wave energy, in national and regional planning.

Kristian has more than two decades of strategic and senior management experience in the areas of ocean policy and science, environment, sustainability and development. He has broad international high-level experience in more than 35 countries, negotiating and managing projects in the public and private sectors.

In addition to serving as director of the Sustainable Ocean Initiative at WRI, Kristian is head of the Friends of Ocean Action for the World Economic Forum. Until early 2018, he was the senior marine adviser to the Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit, and the director of engagement for the Ocean Unite network, an initiative of the non-profit arm of the Virgin Group. From 2012 to 2016, he was the director of global engagement at the Global Ocean Commission. Kristian has also served as vice president of SeaWeb (2009-2012), where he was responsible for sustainable-markets, science, and Asia-Pacific programmes, head of the marine programme at UNEP – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (2006-2009), and director of the International Coral Reef Action Network (2001-2009).

Kristian is on the boards of several environmental, development and social initiatives, and the editorial board of the journal Aquatic Conservation. He has degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Cambridge University.

Laura Stout studies both Finance, and Accounting in the School of Business at University of San Diego. She is lead Apprentice here for the Clean Energy Index (ECO), for the New Energy Global Innovation Index (NEX) – and for new themes in Wind, and Hydrogen. Laura has MS Office Specialist and Excel Certifications, has enjoyed assisting local community organizations, and helping the Culver City Department of Transportation launch a new bus tracking app. She has a strong personal interest in climate change solutions and is passionate about making substantial changes to climate change strategies.

Gustavo Moro is the webmaster for Wildershares. He has worked as an information consultant and system adminstrator for several companies and Municipalities. He holds a degree from Cambridge University.

Anupa Asokan comes to the XPRIZE Foundation with eight years of experience in ocean science and communications. Ms. Asokan is stoked to bring her creative spirit and passion for ocean advocacy to support the Ocean Initiative at XPRIZE.

Prior to joining XPRIZE, Ms. Asokan was a Senior Communications Specialist for NOAA Research— sharing NOAA’s advancements in atmospheric and oceanic science and helping scientists and leadership better tell their research stories. She’s also worked for a few ocean-focused non-profit organizations, and spent several years teaching marine science on Catalina Island, California.

Ms. Asokan earned both a master’s degree in oceanography and an MBA from the University of Rhode Island, and attended UCLA as an undergraduate to study atmospheric, oceanic and environmental sciences. She is a SCUBA divemaster and enjoys stand-up paddleboarding, surfing and fishing. Ms. Asokan is an active volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation and received their Wavemaker Award for Environmental Leadership for her efforts with the Washington, DC chapter of the organization.

Rona Fried is founder and CEO of SustainableBusiness.com, a global news and networking website dedicated to green business. Online since 1996, the website was one of the first in the world to focus on green business news, green jobs and green investing.

Rona is widely known for her deep knowledge that cuts across all green business sectors and environmental issues in general. She is widely quoted as an expert in green business and writes many hundreds of articles a year on these topics, including commentaries for Nasdaq, The Hill, and her column in Solar Today.

Known as a thought leader in the field, SustainableBusiness.com provides daily green business news that cuts across all relevant sectors including climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency, green building, the organic industry, corporate sustainability, legislation and policy trends and all subjects that impact sustainability. SustainableBusiness.com also runs Green Dream Jobs, a leading national green jobs service, and produces two directories – one that profiles green degree programs around the world and another that profiles investors focused on financing green businesses.

For nine years, SustainableBusiness.com produced Progressive Investor, one of the few green investment newsletters worldwide. Because of her knowledge of green stocks worldwide, she serves on the Advisory board of three clean energy indexes: WilderHill Clean Energy Index (ECO), the benchmark for the bellweather Powershares Clean Energy ETF (PBW); WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index (NEX), the benchmark for Powershares Global Clean Energy ETF (PBD); and PowerShares WilderHill Progressive Energy (PUW). She developed – and maintains – Nasdaq’s Green Economy Index, including two water ETFs: PowerShares Global Water ETF (PIO) and PowerShares Water Resources ETF (PHO).

Rona received her Ph.D. in Social/Organizational Psychology from SUNY/Buffalo in 1982, and her B.A. in Psychology from University of Wisconsin/Madison in 1976 (a long time ago!). She is a passionate environmentalist, living for wildlife and wild places.

Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering.Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL).Kammen is also the Co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.

Kammen received his undergraduate (Cornell A., B. ’84) and graduate (Harvard M. A. ’86, Ph.D. ’88) training is in physics After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Harvard, Kammen was professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1993 – 1998.He then moved to UC Berkeley.

Through RAEL Kammen works with faculty and industry colleagues, fellows, and 20 students on a wide range ofenergy science, engineering, economics and policy projects.The focus of Kammen’s work is on the science and policy of clean, renewable energy systems, energy efficiency, the role of energy in national energy policy, international climate debates, and the use and impacts of energy sources and technologies on development, particularly in Africa and Latin America.Kammen has published five books, over 200 journal articles and 30 research reports.He has testified many times to the U. S. House and Senate, and to the legislatures in California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, and Washington.

Daniel Kammen is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In 1998 was elected a Permanent Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. In February, 2007, Kammen received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Commonwealth Club of California.

Kammen is a primary author and serves on the executive committee of the $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute funded by BP.The institute is a joint venture of the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Kammen is the chair of the research board of Enphase Energy, a solar and energy efficiency company, and is on the board of EDP-Renewables (Lisbon, Portugal).

Website: http://rael.berkeley.edu & http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kammen.

Notable Activities

Developed “Berkeley First” energy efficiency and solar energy financing plan – to permit installation of clean energy systems on residences with no up-front costs (service on the Measure G Advisory Committee for the City of Berkeley, 2007 – present).

Co-Author, California Global Warming Solutions Institute (2007/8), A $1.2 billion ratepayer and private sector funded 10-year program to address global warming.

Chairman of the Research Board, Enphase Energy (Petaluma, CA), company to develop solar energy systems.

Nobel Peace Prize (2007), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Contributing Lead Author on IPCC Reports (1999 – present).

Distinguished Citizen Award, Sustainable Energy, Commonwealth Club of California (2007).

Energy Biosciences Institute, Proposal lead-author and Executive Committee Member, $500 million BP funded institute on sustainable biofuels.

Worked with Assemblywoman Fran Pavely on the development of AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act (2007).

Conducted first ever field-based exposure-response study on traditional biofuels, cooking, and health (Laikipia, Kenya, 1993- 2002).Publications: The Lancet, Science, Scientific American.

21st Century Earth Award (Japan, 1993): for research addressing the amelioration or solution of such global environmental problems as climate change, deforestation or biodiversity preservation.

He is married to Bamidele Fayemi Kammen, a pediatric radiologist from Nigeria, and has two daughters, Folasade (11), “Sade”, and Omolara (5) “Lara”.The family lives in Oakland, California.

Sanjay Ranchod is General Counsel at OhmConnect, which he joined in March 2021. Ranchod previously was the Chief Legal Officer at Firefly, which he joined from Tesla, where he was Director and Counsel, Business Development and Policy. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Policy & Electricity Markets and Regulatory Counsel at SolarCity from 2011 through 2017. Previously, Ranchod represented renewable energy companies and other businesses on regulatory matters as an attorney at the Paul Hastings law firm.

Ranchod serves as a Commissioner of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency. He served on Sierra Club’s board of directors from 2004 to 2010, on the board of the Sierra Club Foundation from 2010 to 2016, and on the board of the California Solar and Storage Association from 2014-2019. Ranchod also served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Environmental Health / Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He received a BA from Brown University and a JD from Stanford Law School.

Dr. Sugihara (Ph.D., Princeton University) is a theoretician who has worked across a diverse variety of fields including algebraic topology, algal physiology and paleoecology; more recently, ecology, neurobiology, atmospheric science, and finance. His research interests include complexity theory, nonlinear dynamics, food-web structure, species abundance patterns, conservation biology/ biological control, empirical climate modeling and systemic risk in the financial sector.

One of his most interdisciplinary contributions involves the work he developed with Lord Robert May concerning methods for forecasting nonlinear and chaotic systems. This took him into the arena of investment banking, where he took a 5-year leave from academe to become Managing Director for Deutsche Bank. There he made a successful application of these theoretical methods to forecast erratic market behavior.

During the last financial crisis, he was called upon to provide advice on questions of systemic risk to the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and to The United States Federal Reserve System, and has appeared on panels on this subject with Peter Orsage, Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney and Paul Volker. In 2009 he was interviewed and subsequently solicited for the position of Chief Scientist of NOAA at the level of Assistant Secretary Department of Commerce. His long-standing academic interest in true out- of-sample forecasting and in nonlinear (unstable, non-equilibrium) systems is having impact in various practical realms, where the implications of such behavior (eg. for management of risk or resources) are profound.

A former holder of the John Dove Isaacs Chair of Natural Philosophy at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, Dr. Sugihara is also the recipient of various international awards, and currently holds the MacQuown Chair in Natural Science at Scripps. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford.

Josh Landess is a Co-Creator of the WilderHill Clean Energy Index. The origins of the WilderHill Clean Energy Index concept grew in part from a predecessor Hydrogen Fuel Cell Index conceived by Mr. Landess in 1999, which was subsequently jointly developed further by Dr. Wilder and Mr. Landess, and then posted on a dedicated website where it received broad attention. (The “Hill” of the “WilderHill” brand name derives from his family). Josh is a long-time analyst of clean energy issues and a former Contributing Editor at EVWorld.com. He holds a degree in Economics from University of Illinois at Chicago. His concrete dome home in Arizona is a demonstration of several clean energy technologies.

Mr. Wedaa served seven years as a member of the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD). He served as Board Chairman for the last three years and as a Vice-Chairman during the preceding four years. He was involved in the 1989, 1991 and 1994 Air Quality Management Plans and participated in their evolvement with each succeeding plan. Upon leaving the Board, he was named Chairman Emeritus by his fellow Board Members.

Currently, he serves as Vice-Chairman and Director of Hydrogen 2000, a non-profit Corporation dedicated to dispensing educational information regarding hydrogen as well as encouraging its use. Also he is a member of the Orange County Business Council; he is President of the California Hydrogen Business Council; a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel (HTAP) where he co-chairs the Strategic Planning Committee; and a member of the National Hydrogen Association as well as other related energy organizations.

In October 2003, the South Coast AQMD held their annual Clean Air Awards ceremonies, and Mr. Wedaa was honored with an award in the category of Leadership in Government.

Michael Raphael works in placement of debt and equity and private placement transactions including identification of prospective investors and timely execution of transactions. He has more than six years of financial service experience and a track record of managing complex transactions across a variety of asset classes from inception to delivery.

He served as the head of investment strategy for the Baltimore Angels, an angel investor group that provides growth equity for early-stage, technology-based companies. His responsibilities included deal-sourcing, due diligence and valuations, and portfolio support and management. He has also worked for Tejas Securities, a broker-dealer based in New York City. There, he worked closely with institutional investors to identify, analyze and execute investment opportunities in the high-yield and distressed debt market and co-founded a trading desk focused on bankruptcy trade claims.

Michael received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, concentrating in financial analysis and entrepreneurship. Michael holds a degree in economics & political science from the University of Miami.

Michael holds his Series 7 (General Securities Representative) and Series 63 (Uniform Combined State Law) securities licenses.

Michael is a member of the Young Leadership Council for The Associated and sits on The Associated’s Real Estate Committee.

He currently resides in Pikesville with his wife and two children.

Rona Fried is founder and CEO of SustainableBusiness.com, a global news and networking website dedicated to green business. Online since 1996, the website was one of the first in the world to focus on green business news, green jobs and green investing.

Rona is widely known for her deep knowledge that cuts across all green business sectors and environmental issues in general. She is widely quoted as an expert in green business and writes many hundreds of articles a year on these topics, including commentaries for Nasdaq, The Hill, and her column in Solar Today.

Known as a thought leader in the field, SustainableBusiness.com provides daily green business news that cuts across all relevant sectors including climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency, green building, the organic industry, corporate sustainability, legislation and policy trends and all subjects that impact sustainability. SustainableBusiness.com also runs Green Dream Jobs, a leading national green jobs service, and produces two directories – one that profiles green degree programs around the world and another that profiles investors focused on financing green businesses.

For nine years, SustainableBusiness.com produced Progressive Investor, one of the few green investment newsletters worldwide. Because of her knowledge of green stocks worldwide, she serves on the Advisory board of three clean energy indexes: WilderHill Clean Energy Index (ECO), the benchmark for the bellweather Powershares Clean Energy ETF (PBW); WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index (NEX), the benchmark for Powershares Global Clean Energy ETF (PBD); and PowerShares WilderHill Progressive Energy (PUW). She developed – and maintains – Nasdaq’s Green Economy Index, including two water ETFs: PowerShares Global Water ETF (PIO) and PowerShares Water Resources ETF (PHO).

Rona received her Ph.D. in Social/Organizational Psychology from SUNY/Buffalo in 1982, and her B.A. in Psychology from University of Wisconsin/Madison in 1976 (a long time ago!). She is a passionate environmentalist, living for wildlife and wild places.

Dr. Nathan Lewis, George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry, has been on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology since 1988, and has served as Professor since 1991. He has also served as the Principal Investigator of the Beckman Institute Molecular Materials Resource Center at Caltech since 1992. From 1981 to 1986, he was on the faculty at Stanford, as an assistant professor from 1981 to 1985 and a tenured Associate Professor from 1986 to 1988. Dr. Lewis received his Ph.D in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr Lewis has been an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, and a Presidential Young Investigator. He received the Fresenius Award in 1990, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry in 1991, the Orton Memorial Lecture award in 2003, and the Princeton Environmental Award in 2003. He has published over 200 papers and has supervised approximately 50 graduate students and postdoctoral associates.

His research interests include Light-induced electron transfer reactions, both at surfaces and in transition metal complexes. Surface chemistry: photochemistry of semiconductor/liquid interfaces. Novel uses of conducting organic polymers and polymer/conductor composites. Development of sensor arrays from these polymers that use pattern recognition algorithms to identify odorants, mimicking the mammalian olfaction process.

Lewis Group Publications at: http://nsl.caltech.edu/pubs.html

Claudine served in the U.S. Congress from 1980 to 1990. She was the first woman ever elected to major political office in Rhode Island. She distinguished herself by authoring and passing into law several pivotal, energy related pieces of legislation including the first Appliance Efficiency Standards Act, Least-Cost Utility Planning Act, and Demand-Side Management Act. She also authored the comprehensive, ahead of its time, Global Warming Prevention Act. Co-sponsored by 100 Members of Congress and supported by 40 corporations and NGOs, the bill established a revenue-neutral, least-cost energy planning process throughout the federal government that would reduce greenhouse gases while reducing costs to taxpayers. Only parts of this omnibus bill became law while the remainder is still relevant as a climate strategy today.

Congresswoman Schneider co-founded and served as Senior Vice President of Energia Global, an energy efficiency and renewable energy development company exporting services and technology to Central and South America. Their 10 year exit strategy was realized when the company was sold to the world’s largest company dedicated solely to renewable energy.

Claudine was a Presidential Appointee to the Competitiveness Policy Council, a 12 member business dominated council focused on enhancing U.S. productivity. This position came about as a result of her leadership in co-founding, along with John Young, then CEO of Hewlett Packard, the Congressional Competitiveness Caucus. Together they crafted a report calling for 10 legislative measures that would improve U.S. economic stature. Under her leadership, and working closely with the business community, all 10 measures were passed.

For the Export-Import Bank, Claudine has served on the Advisory Board for Renewable Energy. She has been the Environmental and CSR Advisor to the British utility, National Grid, one of the world’s largest and most socially responsible transmission and distribution companies. Her Board membership of NGOs includes: A Trustee of the American Solar Energy Society, The Climate Institute, the Center for Resource Solutions (developers of the Green-e certification), the Tata Energy Research Institute (India) and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. In addition, Claudine has taught leadership at Harvard, received an Emmy for the first televised diplomatic exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, assisted more than 30 companies in the reduction of their Green House Gases and, is multi-lingual.

Dr Jessica Seddon is the Director of Integrated Urban Strategy at the WRI Ross Center for Cities, where she leads that global Urban Development team and works with teams across the Cities and other programs at WRI to develop and implement information platforms that motivate and support government, business, and community collaboration toward sustainable urbanization.

Prior to joining WRI, Jessica co-founded and led Okapi, an India-based strategy group incubated at IIT Madras that focuses on institutional design for social innovation. Her earlier career spans academic and strategic advisory roles focused on institutional design for integrating science into policy and social initiatives. Jessica has worked with a number of institutions in India, including as Visiting Fellow at IDFC Institute (Mumbai); Senior Fellow at the Center for Technology and Policy, IIT Madras; Head of Research at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (Bangalore); and Director of the Centre for Development Finance at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (Chennai). In her U.S.-based work, she has served as Strategic Advisor for the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2) and Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego. She was also a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, working on institutional design for global air quality management.

Jessica has published book chapters and articles on infrastructure, Indian political economy, IT and governance, environmental regulation and other institutional design topics in international academic and policy venues including Cambridge University Press, Journal of Development Economics, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Foreign Affairs, Bloomberg Business Week and Harvard Business Review. She writes a monthly column for Mint, a leading business daily in India.

Dr. Seddon earned her Ph.D. in Political Economy from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and her B.A. in Government and Latin American Studies from Harvard University.