AGENDA

Ambassador

Rahm Emanuel was confirmed in a bipartisan vote as the 31st United States Ambassador to Japan on December 18, 2021.  Previously, Ambassador Emanuel was the 55th Mayor of the City of Chicago, where he made it a priority to bring global companies to the city, helping Chicago to lead the U.S. in corporate relocations and foreign direct investment for seven consecutive years. Prior to becoming Mayor, Ambassador Emanuel served as President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff. Ambassador Emanuel was also elected four times as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois’s 5th Congressional District (2002-2008). From 1993 to 1998, Ambassador Emanuel was a key member of President Bill Clinton’s administration, rising to serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Politics.

Ambassador

An agribusiness leader who transformed a seventh-generation farm into a scaled commodity and value added businesses in the midwestern United States while launching international operations and deploying new technologies. Kip is recognized by multinational businesses, financial firms, humanitarian organizations and national press as an individual who can explain global agribusiness trends to farmers and corporate board members. So as a family farmer, serving as the US Ambassador in Rome has been a privilege to bring the realities of production agriculture and food systems to the multilateral policy arena. While the slow pace of reaching consensus can be frustrating, the past year has seen the Rome-based UN Agencies effectively act at lightning speed in responding to the global pandemic, reforming themselves to improve governance and resource stewardship, and positioning themselves to be more agile and prepared for future challenges.

Vice President, Business Development

Presentation Title:
Decarbonizing Aviation

As Vice President of Business Development at Twelve, Ashwin is responsible for the sales, commercial strategy and customer acquisition of the sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) domain. He joined Twelve from Pratt and Whitney (P&W), a division of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX; Fortune 50), where he led the Commercial Strategy and Strategic Planning departments. Before that, he spent three years with Bombardier leading the strategy and forecasting role for the Q400, CRJ Series and C Series (now Airbus A220) aircraft. Prior to that, he worked with IATA, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Airline Consulting, Flight Operations and Air Traffic Management. Ashwin has an Executive Leadership degree from Thayer Leadership in the West Point Military Academy, USA. He holds a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an undergraduate degree from St. Petersburg University in Russia.

General Engineer – Alaska
U.S. Department of Energy – Office of Indian Energy

Presentation Title:
Prioritization and Preparation: The Role of Data

Dan Smith serves the Office of Indian Energy as a technical expert supporting the technical assistance program and administering financial assistance awards to Alaska Native entities. He has led his career focused on improving the quality of life through infrastructure development, particularly energy systems.

Center Director

Presentation Title:
Decarbonizing Ground Transportation

Chris Gearhart was appointed director of CIMS after joining NREL as director of the Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center in late 2012. In more than 16 years with Ford Motor Company, Gearhart led research and development teams in that company’s Fuel Cell System, Stack, and Hydrogen Storage division as well as playing pivotal roles in product development, safety research, and quality assurance programs. Gearhart has also served on the faculty of Michigan State University and the School for Renewable Energy Science in Akureyri, Iceland. He holds doctorate and master’s degrees in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, and a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from Drake University.

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Presentation Title:
AI and its Role in the Energy Transition

Alexander Lavin is a leading expert in AI for engineering physics and scientific computing. He is the Founder of Pasteur Labs (and non-profit “sister” Institute for Simulation Intelligence), reshaping industrial R&D with novel AI-driven simulators, commercializing in “energy security” — see simulation.science. He is also an AI Advisor for NASA, overseeing physics-ML efforts on the NASA & ESA Digital Twin Earth initiative. Previously, Lavin focused on artificial general intelligence research with top startups in neuroscience and robotics, namely Vicarious, Numenta, and Latent Sciences (his own that was acquired in 2020). Before working in AI, Lavin was a spacecraft engineer, developing state-of-art optimization algorithms for NASA and Blue Origin, and winning several int’l awards for his work in rocket science and space robotics (including the Google Lunar Xprize). Lavin was a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Science, and a Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Changemaker.

PMEC Co-Director

Presentation Title:
Rising Tide

Ben Loeffler is a research professional with ACEP. He leads its marine energy research group and is a co-director for the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC). His primary efforts include mechanical engineering and project management for research projects at the Tanana River Test Site in Nenana.

Vice Chairman

Daniel Yergin is a respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics, and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He is Vice Chairman of S&P Global, and is chairman of S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference, which CNBC has called “the Super Bowl of energy”. Dr. Yergin’s book The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations is described by NPR as “a master class on how the world works.” He is the author of the bestseller The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. Dr. Yergin’s book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, was a number one New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into 20 languages.