Tristan Grimbert President & CEO EDF Renewables

Tristan leads EDF Renewables’ activities throughout North America, overseeing four primary business lines: Grid-Scale Power, Distribution-Scale Power, Asset Optimization, and Onsite Solutions. An experienced industry leader, Tristan is well placed to kick off our event with a keynote speech on the current market and next generation of energy storage projects.

Tristan Grimbert President & CEO EDF Renewables

Tristan leads EDF Renewables’ activities throughout North America, overseeing four primary business lines: Grid-Scale Power, Distribution-Scale Power, Asset Optimization, and Onsite Solutions. An experienced industry leader, Tristan is well placed to kick off our event with a keynote speech on the current market and next generation of energy storage projects.

Austin Willis Director of Solar & Storage Belltown Power

A key member of the ERCOT development team, Austin is responsible for managing project development workstreams from land acquisition to M&A transactions. As the senior development lead on the M&A sell-side transactions for Texas’s portfolio of solar and storage projects, he has successfully developed three ERCOT solar projects to construction, which are now operational, totaling 335 MW. Austin joins Tristan Grimbert, President & CEO of EDF Renewables and keynote speaker on this panel.

Christine Weydig Operating Partner Tiger Infrastructure Partners

Christine Weydig is an Operating Partner at Tiger Infrastructure Partners and also the Executive Director of the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility, which seeks to advance equitable and sustainable transportation globally.  Previously, she was Director of Sustainability at the Port Authority of NY & NJ, where she led efforts to achieve that organization's industry-leading net-zero climate commitments across the agency's airports, seaports, bridges and tunnels, rail systems, and buildings and transportation hubs. Christine’s career in public service also included tenures at the US Departments of State and Energy, where she specialized in international energy development in the Middle East and Africa.  A recognized subject matter expert in sustainable solutions and technologies, she also spent several years in management consulting, primarily in emerging markets and change management, working with public and private sector clients. Christine holds a master's degree in International Energy Management and Policy from Columbia University and a BA from Cornell University.

Patrick Verdonck Founder Verdonck Partners

Patrick Verdonck is the founder of Verdonck Partners and has 20 years of energy and infrastructure industry experience.  

At Verdonck Partners, he advises investors, power companies and renewable project developers on M&A and capital raising, as well value-add asset management projects such as repowering thermal power plants with solar and storage. 

Prior to founding Verdonck Partners, he spent nearly 10 years with Starwood Energy where he led the creation of a $100mm battery storage partnership with Stem, Inc., and led the purchase of several natural gas and coal-fired power plants. 

He previously was an investment banker in Citigroup’s London-based Energy & Power team and was a corporate strategy analyst in the Bangkok office of Tractebel EGI (now Engie).  Patrick started his career as an oil & gas lawyer with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London. 

Patrick holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Law degree from the Catholic University of Leuven.

Vanessa Wilson (Moderator) Partner and the US Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Sector DLA Piper

Vanessa Richelle Wilson is a partner and the US Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Sector at DLA Piper. Vanessa focuses exclusively on energy transactions. She represents energy companies, infrastructure funds, utilities, lenders and tax equity investors in the purchase, sale, development, construction and financing of energy projects, portfolios and companies, including renewable generation projects (utility-scale, distributed and residential solar, onshore and offshore wind, biomass and hydro), energy storage facilities, transmission systems, hydrogen production facilities, gas-fired power generation facilities, natural gas pipelines, and other energy-based transactions. Vanessa also regularly advises commercial and industrial companies in the procurement of renewable energy and renewable energy credits pursuant to corporate power purchase agreements. Vanessa has more than 20 years of experience with energy infrastructure, including M&A transactions, project financings (traditional construction and term loans, tax equity investments, 144A offerings, and holdco and term loan B facilities) and joint ventures. She has also spent significant time negotiating power purchase agreements (including virtual and physical transactions), engineering procurement and construction agreements and storage service agreements. 

Daniel Davies Chief Innovation and Data Officer New Project Media

Daniel leads NPM’s new product innovation as well as heading up our research and data team.  Daniel joins NPM following seven years with a leading global infrastructure product and founding James Street Global, a financial media consultancy. 

Shawn E. Marshall Chief Operating Officer Peninsula Clean Energy

Shawn Marshall serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Peninsula Clean Energy, a position she has held since May 2022. In this role, Shawn works closely with the CEO and Director team on all aspects of the agency’s strategy and management, including becoming the first community choice aggregator (CCA) in the nation to deliver 100% renewable power on a time-coincident, 24-hour basis. Prior to her role with Peninsula Clean Energy, Shawn was the Director of CCA Market Development for Calpine Energy Solutions which expanded Calpine’s suite of data management and retail energy services to the CCA market on the east coast.

In the community choice aggregation space, Shawn is regarded as an early pioneer, having served on the development team and founding Board of MCE Clean Energy, the first clean energy CCA in California that now serves over 500,000 customers in San Francisco’s north bay region. As executive director of LEAN Energy US for over a decade, Shawn directly influenced state policy to support and protect the rise of the CCA energy model in California, New York, Illinois, and New Hampshire. She also had a direct hand in the start-up of most of the largest CCAs in California, including most recently, San Diego Community Power. Through this decade of market growth and expansion, Shawn assisted California CCAs in the procurement and implementation of innovative clean technologies including community solar, energy storage, electric vehicle programs, and building electrification – work that continues with Peninsula Clean Energy today.

During and prior to her career in the energy sector, Shawn served as a management consultant and local elected official in the San Francisco Bay area. She also held staff and management positions in banking regulation and community development, most notably at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and private-sector firms in Washington DC.  Shawn holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and completed post-graduate work at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC. In her spare time, Shawn enjoys hiking, biking, and hanging out with her twin sons when they are home from college.

Peter Cavan Director of Market Development Convergent Energy + Power

Peter leads Market Development for Convergent - uncovering the real & repeatable opportunities on the horizon for mid-market energy storage.  His team has recently done a deep-dive on the specific storage opportunity in CA, which appears particularly relevant.  He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the market and regulatory dynamics across North America that allow (or in some cases, do not allow) storage to be leveraged for its full potential as a grid asset.  Before joining Convergent Peter led regulatory affairs for Centrica Business Solutions NA, the distributed energy arm of Centrica plc. Prior to this, Peter held a variety of go-to-market roles at the demand response firm EnerNOC (now EnelX) and Pulse Energy, a software startup.

Patrick Brown VP of Project Development Q Cells

As VP of Project Development, Patrick leads on Qcell’s goal to develop, invest and deliver utility-scale solar (PV) and energy storage system (ESS) projects through Development and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) solutions in North America. He brings to the conversation 15 years of experience in obtaining complex land use entitlements from public agencies for small to large scale renewable energy projects.

Witt Duncan Director of Corporate Development Black Mountain Energy Storage

Witt has spent over 10 years in the energy storage and renewables sector, developing and managing greenfield development and M&A for utility-scale energy storage projects in Texas’ ERCOT region and managing greenfield development of wind farms throughout the Southwest in MISO and SPP.

Tom Dubel Senior Director, Locations & Incentives Strategies Altus Group

A CPA, Tom directs Altus Group’s Baltimore, MD, office and leads the group’s Location and Incentive Strategy Services practice. With more than 27 years’ experience in economic development and location consulting, real estate, accounting services, cost segregation and property tax, Tom brings a wealth of knowledge to the table.

Jillian Ward (Moderator) Senior Reporter New Project Media

NPM’s senior reporter, Jillian Ward, covers the Western Region of the US. Ward keeps an eye on new projects, utility and developer news, state policies impacting renewable energy facilities, and the ongoing unfolding of a Western RTO. She also assists on the editing front for NPM’s North America utility-scale news.

Don Harris VP C&I Solutions FlexGen

Don has been in the storage industry for 10 years.  Currently Don is on the commercial team at FlexGen providing C&I solutions and Distribution level projects interconnected to the grid.   With past experience in lithium-ion technologies as well as Zinc based batteries Don has been part of teams that have integrated over 1GWh of battery storage. 

FlexGen sits at the crossroads of the now & the next. We ensure the persistence of our existing grid, while being a driving force behind the technology that will help the world transition to the greener, smarter grid of the future.

Corrie Kutkey Director of Business Development Fractal EMS

Corrie brings over eighteen years of experience managing people, projects, and business development to the Fractal EMS team. Prior to joining Fractal, Corrie spent over five years at Dynapower, where she specialized in utility-scale Power Conversion Systems and integrating Battery Energy Storage Systems for standalone and hybrid storage projects.  She was instrumental in deploying the first to market DC to DC Converter for PV plus Storage applications and continues to drive the successful execution of grid-scale energy storage.

Jorg Heinemann CEO EnerVenue

Jorg Heinemann is the CEO at EnerVenue. The company builds simple, safe, maintenance-free energy storage for the clean energy revolution. Based on technology proven over decades under the most extreme conditions, EnerVenue batteries are refined and scaled for large renewable energy integration applications. 

Previously, Jorg led strategy, sales and operations for Primus Power, a disruptive long-duration energy storage provider. He led SunPower’s global power plant business unit ($1.5B+ P&L) and several other transformational leadership roles. Jorg’s teams built over 2000+ MW of solar power plants, SunPower’s primary profit driver at that time, and achieved over 60% reduction in cost reductions while driving major improvements in business development, sales, engineering, procurement, construction, operations, customer service and support. 

Before joining SunPower, Jorg served as an Executive Partner and practice leader at Accenture where he was instrumental in driving large-scale system integration and business process change programs for prominent high-tech companies including Apple, Autodesk, Cadence, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Intuit, and Sun Microsystems. Jorg began his career developing custom capital markets trading systems based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Scott Zimmermann (Moderator) Partner Wilson Sonsini

Scott brings more than 25 years of experience working in the energy industry to his practice. As partner in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Scott is a member of the firm’s energy and climate solutions practice. He represents leading and emerging companies that are decarbonizing the global economy. He assists his clients developing technology innovations and building the next generation of projects in the solar, wind, energy storage, nuclear, CCUS, green hydrogen, electrification, energy efficiency, water, and distributed energy resources industries. His clients include Siemens, Lilac Solutions, Kairos Power, Sunrun, Ember Infrastructure, Redaptive, and OhmConnect.

Jack Godshall CCO Jupiter Power

Jack is co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Jupiter Power LLC, overseeing the development, commercial and transmission groups for the business. Jack and his team have built one of the first and largest stand-alone storage portfolios in the U.S. and have supported numerous transactions to facilitate our build program, including the most recent acquisition by BlackRock in December of 2022.

Prior to his current role, Jack was part of the leadership team at Invenergy, where he had overall sales responsibility for the company’s global development portfolio, and led the company’s origination, customer engagement, strategic planning and product development efforts. Previously, Jack formed and led Invenergy’s Corporate Development group, responsible for M&A and strategic planning. Jack was the youngest member promoted to Invenergy’s management and investment committees.

In addition to 15 years in the infrastructure development business, Jack’s experience includes sourcing digital solutions for the clean energy industry, as well as transmission and distributed generation investments.

Jack received an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Political Science from Kenyon College.

Julie Chao Manager, Origination & Trading Broad Reach Power

Julie is a Manager of Origination at Broad Reach Power with 12 years of experience in the energy industry.

Prior to joining Broad Reach Power in June 2020, Julie was a Project Finance Advisor at Anadarko Petroleum Corporation focusing on raising debt for their Mozambique LNG Project. She has also held prior roles at Anadarko as a Senior Financial Analyst in Credit, Marketing/Trading and Investor Relations.

Julie attended Rice University where she received her B.A in Economics and a minor in Business.

Felipe Arrazola Managing Director Marathon Capital

Felipe Arrazola, Managing Director, is responsible for originating and executing M&A and private placement engagements in the renewable energy and power sectors, specifically focusing on developing wind, solar, storage, and hydrogen assets and associated platforms.

Gabriel Wapner VP Business Development Hecate Energy

Gabe is Vice President of Business Development at Hecate Grid, a leading US battery storage IPP.  Gabe oversees project development and offtake origination for Hecate Grid.

Jack Godshall CCO Jupiter Power

Jack is co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Jupiter Power LLC, overseeing the development, commercial and transmission groups for the business. Jack and his team have built one of the first and largest stand-alone storage portfolios in the U.S. and have supported numerous transactions to facilitate our build program, including the most recent acquisition by BlackRock in December of 2022.

Prior to his current role, Jack was part of the leadership team at Invenergy, where he had overall sales responsibility for the company’s global development portfolio, and led the company’s origination, customer engagement, strategic planning and product development efforts. Previously, Jack formed and led Invenergy’s Corporate Development group, responsible for M&A and strategic planning. Jack was the youngest member promoted to Invenergy’s management and investment committees.

In addition to 15 years in the infrastructure development business, Jack’s experience includes sourcing digital solutions for the clean energy industry, as well as transmission and distributed generation investments.

Jack received an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Political Science from Kenyon College.

Audrey Copeland Head of Strategy and Origination Spearmint Energy

Audrey Copeland is the Head of Development Strategy at Spearmint. Audrey has 15 years of renewable energy and sustainability experience. Prior to Spearmint, she managed the energy storage strategy and origination efforts for Q CELLS. She also has previous experience at Vesper, Orsted, and Borrego Solar. She has led the development of 5 GW+ of energy storage and renewable projects. Audrey has an MBA in Sustainable Management and her certificate in Sustainable Energy Management from the Presidio Graduate School and graduated from Eckerd College with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Anthropology.

Ken Meehan (Moderator) Founder & CEO New Project Media

• Ken is the Founder of NPM, based in Princeton.

• He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of Fixed Income information products globally for Acuris and a Senior Reporter for Refinitiv.

• He is an avid Liverpool supporter and an enthusiastic Knicks apologist.

Mark Domine Managing Director - Head of Origination Fundamental Renewables

Mark has over 14 years of experience in the renewable energy finance industry, including origination, project development, project acquisition and fund development. During his career, Mark has been involved in the development and financing of more than 1.5GW of distributed generation, community solar and utility-scale solar projects. Prior to joining Fundamental Renewables, Mark worked for several leading renewable energy companies, including Conergy, Enfinity, SunEdison and MMA Energy Capital. Mark received his BA from Georgetown University.

Randolph Mann Founder & President esVolta

As Founder & President of esVolta, Randolph leads a team of experts in development, design, construction, financing and management of advanced energy storage projects. With over twenty-five years’ experience identifying, creating and scaling strategic growth initiatives in the energy business.

Aaron Klein Managing Director, Utility, Power & Renewable Energy KeyBanc Capital Markets

Mr. Klein is a Managing Director in KeyBanc’s Power & Renewable Energy Investment Banking team.  He’s a founding member of Key’s renewable energy practice with more than 17 years of experience providing advisory and capital raising solutions to sponsors and developers across both conventional and renewable power markets.  Mr. Klein holds a BBA from Ohio University in Finance and Management Information Systems and is a registered representative of KeyBanc Capital Markets with Series 7, Series 79 and Series 63 designations.

Steven Greene Director, Mergers and Acquisitions Aypa Power

Steven has over 10 years of experience in the energy industry and currently serves as Director of M&A for Aypa Power. Steven leads all project acquisition efforts for Aypa’s utility-scale storage and hybrid portfolio. These efforts include origination, diligence, and negotiation for projects of all stages and span across the US.

John O'Brien Senior Director – Storage Solutions Private Energy Partners (a Quinbrook company)

John O’Brien is the Senior Director of Storage Solutions for Private Energy Partners, an affiliate of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners. At PEP, John is responsible for helping portfolio companies address all matters related to energy storage.

Prior to PEP John was a Managing Director within Siemens Financial Services’ Project and Structured Finance team. Over 14 year he helped SFS lend in excess of $20 billion to power projects while leading efforts in emerging clean technology transactions. At SFS he lead the financing of four stand-alone battery project portfolio financings totaling over $100 million in commitments.

Prior to Siemens, John worked in the utility investment banking groups for Wachovia Securities and KeyBanc Capital Markets. John has an MBA in Finance from Wake Forest University and a BA in Economics from Colgate University.

Jonathan Berke (Moderator) Managing Editor New Project Media

Jon Berke is the managing editor of New Project Media, where he covers capital markets activity across all of the major renewable generation verticals. He has been covering alternative asset classes over the course of his 20-year career in journalism, including of infrastructure and private credit.