2021 | CHARGING AHEAD TO A CLEANER FUTURE

How can we decarbonize our energy system and meet our climate goals? Join the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative’s Jason Jay (Sr. Lecturer, Director) for an interactive workshop using the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator, a state-of-the art computer simulation that delivers insights into climate policies and actions that drive meaningful impact. Co-developed by the Sustainability Initiative and Climate Interactive, En-ROADS has been seen by over 70,000 people worldwide, from classrooms to the U.S. Congress.

Mr. Bilicic heads the Firm’s global efforts in power, energy and infrastructure. In addition, Mr. Bilicic serves as a member of the Firm’s Global Executive Committee. Other than his time at Sempra and KKR (see below), Mr. Bilicic has been at Lazard since March 2002.

From June 2019 until December 2019, Mr. Bilicic was Group President of Sempra Energy and, from December 2019 until March 2020, was President and Chief Legal Officer of Sempra Energy, in each case with broad responsibilities across various Sempra businesses, legal, compliance, strategy and business development.

From May 2008 to October 2008, Mr. Bilicic served as a Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure at KKR. At KKR, Mr. Bilicic was responsible for initiating and leading KKR’s global infrastructure investing efforts and contributing to other areas, especially alternative energy and power.

Previously, Mr. Bilicic had been a Partner in the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore from 1995. He joined Cravath as an associate in 1989. Mr. Bilicic left the Cravath partnership, effective January 2001, to begin his investment banking career at Merrill Lynch where he was a Managing Director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department focused on power and energy clients.

After graduation from Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Bilicic served in a clerkship with the Hon. Murray M. Schwartz (Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware). Mr. Bilicic was an Articles Editor of the Law Journal at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Bilicic developed a strong interest in the infrastructure area beginning at DeSales University where his senior thesis was entitled “The Federal Role in Infrastructure Revitalization,” and, among other things, recommended a national capital budget as a fiscally prudent measure to address the nation’s decaying infrastructure.

In addition to his membership on the Polaris Industries Board of Directors, Mr. Bilicic serves on the Board of Trustees of the Mayo Clinic and the Board of Directors of HistoryMakers. Mr. Bilicic is also the Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for Culver Academies.

Mr. Bilicic and his wife, Laura, have four sons, William (23), Christopher (23), Henry (19) and Peter (14).

DeSales University, B.A. summa cum laude; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. magna cum laude, Order of the Coif

Ernest J. Moniz served as the thirteenth United States Secretary of Energy from 2013 to January 2017. As Secretary, he advanced energy technology innovation, nuclear security and strategic stability, cutting-edge capabilities for the American scientific research community, and environmental stewardship. He placed energy science and technology innovation at the center of the global response to climate change and negotiated the Iran nuclear agreement alongside the Secretary of State. Dr. Moniz joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty in 1973 and was Founding Director of the MIT Energy Initiative. He is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus and Special Advisor to the MIT President. Dr. Moniz is co-chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative. He served on Boards of numerous companies, non-profits and government agencies in the energy and security arenas. Dr. Moniz received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in physics from Boston College, a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University, and ten honorary doctorates from American and European universities. He received the Distinguished Public Service Medal of the Department of Defense, the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III (Cyprus) and of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator (Portugal), the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan) and the inaugural Award for Excellence in Public Policy and Public Affairs of the American Academy of Arts and Science.

Michael Skelly is a renewable energy entrepreneur and pioneer in the US wind industry.    Michael was the founder and president of Clean Line Energy, a company that successfully permitted some of the longest transmission lines in the U.S. in the last 50 years.

Prior to Clean Line, Skelly led the growth of Horizon Wind Energy, now part of EDPR, one of the largest renewable energy companies in the US.  Skelly’s other entrepreneurial ventures include founding partner and general manager of the Rain Forest Aerial Tram in the early ’90’s, where Skelly led the development, construction and operations of the first large scale canopy tourism project in the Americas.  Skelly is currently a Senior Advisor at Lazard where he advises companies and investors on renewable energy, sustainability and the energy transition.

Skelly applies his expertise in developing infrastructure projects to enhance transportation options and increase access to parks in his adopted hometown of Houston, Texas. In 2012, he led the “Parks By You” campaign, which resulted in the passage of a $150 million bond measure to fund 100 plus miles of trails along the city’s bayous, an effort in which Skelly remains deeply involved.

Skelly sits on the boards of the Houston Bike Share, the Houston Parks Board, LINK Houston, Greentown Labs in Houston, TXRX Labs and Form Energy.  He is an active angel investor in the sustainability field, supporting innovating ventures in lithium production, shared mobility, and energy storage.  Skelly’s public service includes working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America and a run for the US Congress in 2008, where he was the Democratic nominee for the 7th Congressional District of Texas.   Skelly writes occasionally about energy and urban issues for the Houston Chronicle.  He is deeply involved in local politics.

Skelly is the principal protagonist in Superpower, a book by Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Russell Gold.  The book chronicles the growth and development of renewable energy in the 21st century.

Skelly’s family immigrated to the United States from Ireland when he was a small child.  He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Skelly speaks fluent Spanish. Skelly and his wife Anne Whitlock have three children in their twenties.  They live in Firehouse No. 2, a 110 year old fire station which they restored in the East End of Houston.  The firehouse is well known to other civically active Houstonians as Skelly and his wife host dozens of nonprofit and political events every year.  Wikipedia contains further personal information.

Mr. Karsner is a leading corporate innovation strategist and accomplished energy entrepreneur, policymaker, regulator and diplomat with more than three decades of global conventional and renewable energy experience, spanning every natural resource. He is Senior Strategist at X (formerly Google X), the innovation lab of Alphabet Inc., where he is part of the executive leadership team, shaping strategy for technology, policy, and commercialization at the nexus of natural resources and AI, machine learning, geospatial engineering, and high performance computing.

He began his career developing large scale energy infrastructure and has led or contributed to project development, management and finance enabling significant value creation on six continents. As a private equity investor, venture partner and advisor, his portfolios have included some of the most successful clean tech startups of the past decade, including Nest (AI), Tesla (mobility), Recurrent (solar), Codexis (biotech) and Carbon (3D printing).

From 2005 to 2008, he served as US Assistant Secretary of Energy, responsible for multi-billion dollar federal R&D programs and National Laboratories. In this role, he was on point to assemble significant bipartisan coalitions to implement or enact the Energy Policy Act (2005), the Energy Independence and Security Act (2007), and the America Competes Act (2008), all of which remain foundational to the framework of federal energy policy and regulation today.

Mr. Karsner exercised a discrete diplomatic and security role as a principal representative of the United States in the negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other bilateral energy and environmental technology accords.

From 2016 to 2019, Mr. Karsner served as Managing Partner of Emerson Collective, an investment platform funding non-profit, philanthropic and for-profit portfolios advancing education, health, immigration, the environment, and other initiatives. Along with Emerson’s Founder and Principal, Laurene Powell Jobs, Mr. Karsner co-founded Emerson Elemental (since spun out as Elemental Labs) with a deep focus on market-based solutions and technologies addressing conservation and climate change.

Emily Kirsch is the Founder and CEO of Powerhouse and Managing Partner of Powerhouse Ventures, which backs entrepreneurs building the future of energy and mobility. Emily launched and hosts the Greentech Media podcast Watt it Takes and serves on the Investment Advisory Board of NYSERDA. In 2019 Emily was selected as a World Economic Forum Global Leader. Her work has been cited in Bloomberg, The Guardian, TechCrunch, and The New York Times.

Abigail Ross Hopper is the President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the national trade organization for America's solar energy industries. She oversees all of SEIA's activities, including government affairs, research, communications, and industry leadership, and is focused on creating a marketplace where solar will constitute a significant percentage of America’s energy generation. 

Before joining SEIA, Abby served as Director of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Director of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), Energy Advisor to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, and Deputy General Counsel with the Maryland Public Service Commission. Before embarking on a career in public service, Abby spent nine years in private practice.

Abby graduated Cum Laude from the University of Maryland School of Law and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Dartmouth College. She is the very proud mom of three children and loves to read and ride on her Peloton.

Christopher R. Knittel is the George P. Shultz Professor of Applied Economics at the Sloan School of Management, Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, and Co-Director of the MITEI Low-Carbon Energy Center for Electric Power Systems Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty at MIT in 2011, having taught previously at UC Davis and Boston University. Professor Knittel received his B.A. in economics and political science from the California State University, Stanislaus in 1994 (summa cum laude), an M.A. in economics from UC Davis in 1996, and a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley in 1999. His research focuses on environmental economics, industrial organization, and applied econometrics. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Productivity, Industrial Organization, and Energy and Environmental Economics groups. Professor Knittel is an associate editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Journal of Industrial Economics and Journal of Energy Markets. His research has appeared in the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Industrial Economics, the Energy Journal and other academic journals.

Ashley joined the Breakthrough Energy team in 2020 and will lead the new global Breakthrough Energy Fellows program. Her deep expertise and passion surrounding early innovators and the commercialization of clean technologies will help to guide the Breakthrough Energy program, designed to find and fund innovators working to bring climate technology solutions to the market. Ashley has spent the entirety of her career working across the sustainability and impact investment landscape, spending 15 years in various capacities at Wells Fargo where she managed a $100 million impact program and was largely involved as a thought leader in the company's overall ESG and sustainable finance strategies and commitments.  During her time at Wells she immersed herself among cleantech entrepreneurs, universities, incubators/accelerators, national labs, and investors - pioneering an award winning cleantech commercialization program, IN2, that focused on speeding up the path to market for clean technologies. The IN2 program’s 46 portfolio companies have gone on to raise $410M in follow on funding from external sources.

She earned a B.A. degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as a student athlete on the CU NCAA Division One women’s soccer team. She holds a Certified Financial Planning certificate from DePaul University and a Renewable Energy Certificate from CU Boulder. In 2017, Grosh was recognized as a ’40 under 40’ winner in Colorado and also recognized that year as a “Top Women in Energy” in the Denver Business Journal. Ashley is based in Denver, Colorado.
In her free time she enjoys cooking, hiking, camping and fishing with her husband Michael, their two children, Kenley and Charlie and her bernadoodle Tilly. Ashley is also a sports fanatic – and loves cheering on her Colorado Buffaloes.

​​The ClimateTech & Energy Prize is the largest and longest-running competition for student-led climatetech startups in the world with over 550 applicants, over 200 mentored teams, and over $2.8M in awarded cash prizes. Teams compete for more than $100,000 in prize money and have access to mentoring and other resources. Over 220 ClimateTech & Energy Prize @ MIT companies have successfully launched and raised $1.1+ billion in follow-on funding. The 2021 finals are part of the next generation of entrepreneurs who are commercializing breakthrough technologies to combat climate change.

Join rapid fire pitches by the semi-finalist teams. 
Your live vote during the event counts to select three semi-finalists that will get the chance to give a full length pitch including Q&A. Semi-finals and finals of the ClimateTech & Energy Prize will happen in April. ed.