Past Confernces

2018 - Tenth Annual Alumni in Energy Conference

March 8th

6:30 PM

Dinner at Elm City Social

266 College Street, New Haven (Pre-registration required)

March 9th

7:45 AM

Shuttle to Yale School of Management

165 Whitney Ave from Omni Hotel

8:00 AM

Continental Breakfast at Yale School of Management

8:30 AM

Welcome & Introduction

  • Ed Hirs ‘79, ‘79 MA, ‘81 MBA, BDO Fellow for Natural Resources

8:45 AM

Modernizing America’s Electricity Infrastructure (Book available on Amazon)

  • Mason Willrich ‘54 - Former Chair, CAISO

9:30 AM

Making Hawaii’s Grid 100% Renewable

  • Constance Lau ‘74 - CEO, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. 

10:15 AM

Break

10:35 AM

Defining the 21st Century Electric Industry:  Puerto Rico is Ground Zero

  • Scott Hempling ‘78, Scott Hempling Law, Advisor to Puerto Rico Energy Commission

11:20 AM

Energy Efficiency for the Machine (the Gigafactory) that Makes the Machine

  • Jacob Miller ‘07, Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, Tesla

12:00 PM

Lunch at the New Haven Lawn Club

1:15 PM

Innovative Carbon Reduction

Carbon Reduction Via Agriculture

  • Howard Newman ‘69, ‘69 MA - CEO Pine Brook Road Partners

Carbon into Ethanol

Staff Sheehan ‘13 MA, ‘16 PhD - President, Catalytic Innovations, LLC

2:15 PM

Energy Storage Technology Development

  • Ken Brown ‘69, CEO of Safe Hydrogen

2:45 PM

Break

3:00 PM

Blockchain in Energy Management

  • Wendy Holland ‘91, Holland Associates
  • Jeffrey Katz ‘89 PhD, Chief Technology Officer, Energy and Utilities Industry IBM

3:45 PM

Renewable Energy:  Market Update, Politics, and Investing Opportunities

  • Thomas Emmons ‘69, Partner at Pegasus Capital

4:15 PM

Energy Future

  • Matt Rogers ‘89 MBA, Senior Partner, McKinsey, and former Senior Adviser to US Secretary of Energy

5:00 PM

Afternoon Open Discussion

  • Dan Fisher ‘95 MLS, Moderator
  • Newman, Sheehan, Holland, Katz, Emmons & Rogers

5:30 PM

Closing Remarks & Reception

 

Speaker Bios

Mason Willrich ’54

Mason Willrich is an independent consultant, advising clients on energy matters.  He served as chair, California Independent System Operator Governing Board, appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2005 through February 2011.  Currently, Willrich is: senior advisor, Renew Energy Partners, LLC; trustee and past chair, World Affairs Council of Northern California; and member, administrative board, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University.  Willrich is also: member, advisory council, University of California, Berkeley, Law School, Center for Law, Energy and Environment; and member, Midland School, Environmental Advisory Board.    

Previously, Willrich was partner of Nth Power, a clean tech venture capital firm, 1996-2002, and director of Evergreen Solar, Inc., a solar photovoltaic manufacturer, 1998- 2003.  Willrich was founder and chairman of EnergyWorks LLC, a joint venture of PacifiCorp and Bechtel Group which provided combined heat and power to industrial firms in less developed countries, 1995-98, when the company was sold.  From 1989 until 1994, Willrich was chief executive officer of PG&E Enterprises, the subsidiary of Pacific Gas and Electric Company for unregulated business, which he started up and grew to profitable operations with assets of $3 billion.  From 1979 until 1989 he was executive vice president of Pacific Gas and Electric Company responsible for strategic planning, corporate budget, controller and information systems, and in various other executive positions. 

Previously, nonprofit, Willrich served as: senior advisor, MIT Energy Innovation Project, 2009-2012; trustee, Winrock International, 1997-2007; member national advisory councils of National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1995-2005, and Electric Power Research Institute, 1994-2002; director, Resources for the Future, 1990-99; and trustee, past president and chair, Midland School, 1986-2002. 

Prior to joining PG&E, Willrich was in academia.  He was John Stennis professor of law, 1975-79, and professor of law, 1965-76, University of Virginia, and founder and director of the University’s Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy, 1968-73.  He was also director, international relations, The Rockefeller Foundation, 1977-79.  Willrich is author or co-author of ten books and numerous articles on energy policy and international security issues.  His books include: Modernizing America’s Electricity Infrastructure, 2017;  Adventures Between History’s Pages, 2007; Radioactive Waste: Management and Regulation (with R. K. Lester), 1977; Administration of Energy Shortages, 1976; Energy and World Politics, 1975; Nuclear Theft: Risks and Safeguards (with T. B. Taylor), 1974; SALT: The Moscow Agreements and Beyond (with J. B. Rhinelander) 1974; International Safeguards and Nuclear Industry, 1973; Global Politics of Nuclear Energy, 1971; and Non-Proliferation Treaty: Framework for Nuclear Arms Control, 1969.

Willrich served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as assistant general counsel, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1962-65, while also serving on U.S. delegations to United Nations nuclear arms control negotiations in Geneva and to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.  After law school, he was law associate, Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, San Francisco, 1960-62.    

Willrich graduated from Yale University in 1954, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, where he was also captain of the varsity soccer team. Following college he served in the U.S. Air Force, 1955-57, including as a pilot in Strategic Air Command.  He received a J.D. from UC Berkeley Law School, law review, Order of the Coif, 1960.  He was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial fellowship in 1973 and the Dreyfuss Distinguished Alumnus/a Award by Midland School in 2008. 

Constance H. Lau ’74

Ms. Lau was named president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) in May 2006. She also serves as chairman of Hawaiian Electric Company and chairman of American Savings Bank. Born and raised in Honolulu, Ms. Lau joined the HEI companies in 1984, serving first as assistant corporate counsel and treasurer of Hawaiian Electric Company, then as treasurer of HEI. In 1999, she became a director and senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of American Savings Bank, rising to president and chief executive officer in June 2001. She also served as an HEI director from 2001 through 2004, and has been serving as an HEI director since May 2006.

Ms. Lau is a director and Audit Committee chair and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Member of Matson, Inc. (NYSE: MATX), the major shipping carrier to Hawaii. Ms. Lau is a nationally recognized leader in the fields of critical infrastructure, resilience and physical and cyber security, banking and energy. Since 2012, Ms. Lau has chaired the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), which advised President Barack Obama through the Department of Homeland Security on the security of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors and their information systems, including both the energy and financial services sectors. In energy, Ms. Lau was named 2011 Woman of the Year by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment in Washington, D.C., and serves on the boards of the Electric Power Research Institute, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Associated Electrical & Gas Insurance Services. In banking, Ms. Lau is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Twelfth District Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council, and was one of U.S. Banker’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking for 2004, 2005, and 2006 when she headed American Savings Bank.

In Hawaii, Ms. Lau was named Pacific Business News (PBN)’s 2004 Hawaii Business Leader of the Year, and in 2013, she was named one of PBN’s 10 to Watch for her leadership in clean energy and transportation. Ms. Lau also serves on the boards of the Hawaii Business Roundtable, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Punahou School, and the Consuelo Foundation, which helps women, children and families in Hawaii and the Philippines. She served as a trustee for Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate from 1999 to 2007.

Ms. Lau graduated from Yale College with a B.S. in administrative sciences. She earned a juris doctor from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and a master’s in business administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Scott Hempling ’78

Scott Hempling has taught regulatory law to a generation of United States practitioners.  He has assisted clients from all sectors in the electric industry, and has appeared frequently before U.S. congressional committees, state commissions and state legislative committees.  He has addressed audiences throughout the United States and in Canada, Central America, Germany, India, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Peru. 

His legal book, Regulating Public Utility Performance:  The Law of Market Structure, Pricing and Jurisdiction, published by the American Bar Association, has been described as a “comprehensive regulatory treatise [that] warrants comparison with Kahn and Phillips.”   A companion volume will address the law of corporate structure, mergers and acquisitions.  His book of essays, Preside or Lead?  The Attributes and Actions of Effective Regulators has been described as “matchless” and “timeless.”  The essays continue monthly at www.scotthemplinglaw.com.  His articles have appeared in the Energy Bar Journal, the Electricity Journal, Energy Regulation Quarterly, Public Utilities Fortnightly, ElectricityPolicy.com, publications of the American Bar Association, and other professional publications.  These articles cover such topics as mergers and acquisitions, the introduction of competition into formerly monopolistic markets, corporate restructuring, ratemaking, utility investments in nonutility businesses, transmission planning, renewable energy and state–federal jurisdictional issues.

At Georgetown University Law Center, he teaches courses on public utility law and regulatory litigation.  From 2006 to 2011, he was the Executive Director of the U.S. National Regulatory Research Institute. 

Hempling received a B.A. cum laude from Yale University in (1) Economics and Political Science and (2) Music, and a J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center.

Jacob Miller ‘07

Jacob Miller is a Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer at Tesla, Inc. Over the past several years, he has focused his career on transitioning the world to a cleaner energy future. His work typically encompasses conceptual engineering and system modeling of large scale thermal systems, where he challenges traditional design with novel approaches that drive down costs and increase efficiency. He was hired at Tesla just after the groundbreaking of Gigafactory 1 as part of a new conceptual engineering team dedicated to improving factory efficiency, reducing battery cost, and hitting net zero energy goals. His contributions include a one-of-a-kind chilled water plant design, tuned to Reno’s unique climate, that will cut energy and water consumption considerably.

He holds a SM in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011), and graduated from Yale with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2007. Prior to Tesla, he worked as an design engineer at a small R&D company developing advanced thermal technologies such as heat pumps, compressors, and heat exchangers. He began his career at GE Aviation designing turboshaft engine components.

Howard Newman

Mr. Newman is chairman and chief executive officer of Pine Brook Road Partners, LLC, which he co-founded in 2006. Pine Brook is a private equity firm focused on making “business building” and other growth equity investments, primarily in the energy and financial services sectors.  Pine Brook manages over $6 billion of investment capital and has made over 50 investments since it was founded. 

Prior to co-founding Pine Brook, Mr. Newman was with Warburg Pincus for 22 years, most recently as vice chairman and senior advisor.  At Warburg, he created its energy and financial services investing practices, and developed the “line of equity” financing technique now common for private equity energy investments.  In addition, Mr. Newman led or co-led Warburg’s media, real estate and general investment practices. 

Before joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Newman spent 10 years in energy and financial services investment banking at Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Newman has been a director or observer on the boards of more than 50 companies, including Bill Barrett Corporation, Encore Acquisition Partners, Kosmos Energy LLC, The Marine Drilling Companies Inc., Newfield Exploration Company, Spinnaker Exploration Inc., Targa Resources, Inc., SLM Corporation, Dime Bancorp, Inc. and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. 

Mr. Newman is a Trustee of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and serves on the board of the Tunisian American Enterprise Fund. During the term of Governor George Pataki of New York, Mr. Newman served as an advisor on energy policy and as a senior advisor to the Long Island Power Authority. 

Mr. Newman served as Co-Chair of Agents for his class and as Special Gifts Chair for his 25th and 40th Reunions.  He served as Chair of the Yale Alumni Fund, was on the University Council as well as Yale’s Climate & Energy Institute External Advisory Board.  He was awarded the Yale Medal in 2006 for his service to the University.

Mr. Newman holds a B.A. in Economics (magna cum laude with Distinction) and an M.A. in Economics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University. He was a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University.

Stafford W. Sheehan ’13 MA ’16 PhD

Stafford W. Sheehan is the president and founder of Catalytic Innovations. He’s been working on start-ups since he was a teenager, and before he went to college, started a software company in Boston that was acquired in 2008. At Boston College he researched artificial photosynthesis (or, ways to turn carbon dioxide into fuel) for three years, continuing this through his PhD at Yale. For the work that Catalytic Innovations has done to bring technology that turns carbon dioxide into alcohols to market, Staff was put on Forbes 30 under 30 list in the energy sector in 2016 and since then the company has made substantial progress.

Kenneth Brown

Kenneth Brown graduated from Yale University with a BS in Engineering & Applied Science in 1969 and from Harvard University with a Masters in Business Administration in 1976.  He co-founded Safe Hydrogen, LLC in 2001.  He has been working on the development of metal hydride slurry technology since 2004 when a US Department of Energy contract was awarded to Safe Hydrogen.  He is currently working on the development of magnesium hydride slurry for storage of electrically created hydrogen.  Previously, he spent four years in the US Naval Submarine force, 14 years at BASF Corporation, 4 years at Anacomp, Inc., 3 years at Data General Corporation, and 2 years at American Power Conversion Corporation.  He contributed to the development of three patents from 2006 to 2017.   

Wendolyn S. Holland ’91

Wendolyn Holland’s work with clients in the clean energy sector is driven by purpose and passion.  As Managing Director of Holland Consulting, LLC, she advises at the nexus of finance, technology, and policy, focusing on early-stage clean energy and sustainability technologies, the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, and Native American communities.  She has a particular expertise in tax strategy and policy. 

Holland served as Senior Advisor for Commercialization in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy from 2008 through 2011 and was a member of the Senior Executive Service.  Holland served in 2012 as Director for Strategic Development and Technical Partnerships at Savannah River National Laboratory, which serves DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.  Prior to federal service, she worked with clean energy and water start-up firms.  She responded to the terrorist attacks of 2001 by joining Global Options, a Washington, D.C. security, investigations, and counter-terrorism start-up, later serving as Vice President. 

Holland received her JD and LLM in Taxation from Georgetown Law in 2017, her MBA in Finance and Strategy from Kellogg School of Management in 2001, and her BA in History and Studies in the Environment from Yale in 1991.  In 1998, Holland published Sun Valley: An Extraordinary History, which grew from her Yale senior thesis.  At Yale, she served as the fifth Director of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition and raced on the Women’s Alpine Ski Team.  She is a frequent lecturer on U.S. renewable energy policy and Western Americana.

Jeffrey S. Katz

Jeffrey S. Katz is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He is a co-chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium’s Energy Task Group, and is a member of the Internet2 working group on the Internet of Things.

He was chair of the Smart Grid Session of the Yale Alumni in Energy conference in 2012, and was a co-chair of the IEEE 2030 Standard on Smart Grid Interoperability Guidelines, IT Task Force. He was on the External Advisory Board of the Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid, and is on the Advisory Board of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center. He was on the “Networked Grid 100: The Movers and Shakers of the Smart Grid in 2012” list from Green Tech Media. He was appointed to the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board for 2014. He is an Open Group Distinguished IT Specialist and an IBM Thought Leader level Distinguished IT Specialist, as well as the holder of an IBM First Plateau Invention Achievement Award. He co-chaired the first IEEE Power and Energy Society workshop on Big Data in Utilities in September 2017, and the first PES workshop on Utility Cybersecurity in December 2017. He has given several industry keynote presentations, including the 2017 ISA Power Industry Division and the inaugural 2016 National Renewable Energy Lab Cyber Security workshop.

Prior to IBM he was the Manager of the Computer Science department at the U.S. Corporate Research Center of ABB, and then of ALSTOM.

He is an author on seven patents, in tele-medicine, robotics and computer vision, intelligent electric power distribution, energy aware cloud computing, with others pending. He has a Commercial General Radiotelephone license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, belongs to Sigma Xi, and is a member of Mensa.

Jeff has organized or taught several volunteer activities around robotics for education, including FIRST, FIRST Lego League, and VEX Robotics. Jeff is also a long time amateur (ham) radio operator. He was a Region 1 finalist in the Johns Hopkins National Search for Computing Applications to Assist Persons with Disabilities. He is the Connecticut District Vice President of the Yale Science and Engineering Association, and is also a Fellow of that organization.

Thomas Emmons

Thomas Emmons is a Partner at Pegasus Capital Advisors LP, a 20-year old private equity and debt fund manager, where he is responsible for renewable energy project mezzanine debt investments. Previously, he was Head of Project Finance - Americas, at Rabobank, a global Dutch bank focused on agriculture and renewable energy. He has held various positions focused on energy, natural resources, and project finance, in the Americas and Asia, with a concentration on renewable energy. He has financed numerous wind, solar, biomass, electric power, oil and gas, mining, water, and infrastructure projects. He is a director of BrightFarms Inc., a greenhouse developer, owner, and operator, with three operating greenhouses. He is a former board member of Solar Energy Industries Association, SkyPower Corporation, and SunEdison. He holds a BA from Yale College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Leadership Council of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and was on the organizing committee for YESS – Yale Environmental Sustainability Summit (November 2107).

Matt Rogers ’89 MBA

Matt Rogers is a Senior Partner in McKinsey & Company’s San Francisco location.  
He focuses on the role technology and innovation play in restructuring markets, especially in oil, gas, power, and other energy and industrial companies.

Matt has spent 25 years serving energy clients globally.  He leads the Firm’s Oil and Gas practice in the Americas and the Sustainability Practice Globally.  He has written and spoken extensively on oil, gas, power, and resource markets around the world.  Currently his work focuses on North American unconventional resources, restructuring US power markets, and how technology is reshaping capital productivity and operational efficiency in oil, gas, and power projects.

During 2009-10, Matt served as the Senior Advisor to the US Secretary of Energy, leading the Recovery Act Implementation.  In this role, he had responsibility for managing the Department of Energy’s $35.2B in Recovery Act appropriations.  The Department of Energy reviewed more than 30,000 applications and funded more than 5,000 projects through the Recovery Act, accelerating US innovation in energy efficiency, advanced transportation, renewable energy, transmission and distribution infrastructure, carbon capture, environmental clean-up, and basic  science.  He held a US Department of Defense Q clearance to address national security issues.

Matt’s book Resource Revolution: Capturing the Biggest Business Opportunity in 100 years was published in April 2014.  In Resource Revolution Matt and his co-author Stefan Heck argue that the combination of information technology with industrial technology is changing the way we produce and use natural resources, restructuring energy, agriculture, transportation, construction markets globally.

Matt graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University.  After graduation
he joined Credit Suisse First Boston as an energy investment banking analyst. 
He earned an M.B.A. from Yale University’s School of Management.

Matt serves on the Board Directors for the United Way of the Bay Area and St Mary’s College Business School.