Lauren is the deputy director of the Division of Economic and Technical Analysis (DETA) within FERC’s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation (OEPI). Lauren joined the Commission in 2013 as an economist in the Office of Energy Market Regulation where she worked on western electric market and market-based rate filings. In 2020, Lauren joined OEPI as a manager in DETA, where she focused on the Commission’s efforts on interconnection reforms, among other topics. Lauren’s experience prior to joining the Commission includes positions at the USDA Forest Service and in environmental consulting. Lauren holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA and a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University. 

Regan is the Transmission & Interconnection Policy Manager at Pine Gate Renewables.  For the past two years, she has advocated on behalf of her company on regulatory changes happening at FERC and the RTOs/ISOs where Pine Gate develops, particularly on interconnection reform.  Prior to this role, Regan was a Development Associate for almost three years, focusing on Pine Gate’s pipeline strategy and new markets.  She graduated from the dual MEM/MBA program with an Energy & Environment concentration in May 2020 and has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Kenyon College. 

About Pine Gate (from the website). Founded in 2016, Pine Gate Renewables is a developer and owner-operator of utility scale solar and energy storage projects across the United States.  Pine Gate is dedicated to the innovative deployment of clean energy and have extensive experience in the development, financing, construction, and operation of solar and energy storage facilities.  As a trusted partner and leader in the industry, Pine Gate’s operational fleet includes over 100 solar facilities accounting for more than two gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity, and more than 30 GW of projects are in development. 

Mike is Vice President of Strategy for National Grid’s electric and gas utilities and unregulated operations that service six million customers in the Northeast US.  He brings over fifteen years of energy experience supporting utility, power generation, and energy technology companies solving business challenges. Prior to joining National Grid, Mike was a Director with S&P Global’s energy transition practice for the Americas where he primarily consulted on energy storage, battery supply chains, and hydrogen topics impacting the electric sector.  Mike has also held leadership roles at Edison Energy – a renewable energy advisor to corporate buyers – as Director of Analytics, as Principal at Enovation Partners (now Roland Berger), and in Strategic Planning for Siemens Smart Grid. 

Mike holds two Master’s Degrees from Duke University in Business Administration and Environmental Management, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado.​ 

Tanuj Deora is a cleantech executive and thought leader with two decades of experience in decarbonization of the electric power system across the value chain. His skills include launching new initiatives, accelerating growth for existing ventures, and turnaround / pivot management. Tanujparticularly enjoys building high performing teams built from successes spanning wind energy project development, utility market advisory services, State level regulatory engagement, and customer program innovation.

Tanuj has spent several years in the private and non-profit sectors to develop products, markets and business plans for virtual power plants, including commercial and policy leadership roles at ev.energy, Uplight, and the Smart Electric Power Alliance. Levering his deep subject matter expertise to work at the intersection of regulatory policy and commercial strategy, combined with change management experience and stakeholder engagement skills, he has led strategic planning initiatives as an executive leader, consultant to utility and government clients, board member, and advisory partner.

Tanuj also brings experience recruiting, forming, and integrating teams for quick alignment in developing and executing strategies throughout his experience across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Tanuj led many integrations, including the acquisition of Rolling Energy Resources into ev.energy, the formation of Uplight from Tendril, Simple Energy, Energy Savvy, FirstFuel and Ecotagious, and the integrations of the Association of Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) and the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) into the Smart Electric Power Alliance.

Tanuj recently served a two year appointment at the White House working in the Office of the US Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, leading an interagency initiative to implement the carbon-free electricity supply goals of President Biden’s executive order 14057. “Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Goals through Federal Sustainability.” That work included policy development for the Council on Environmental Quality, restructuring the multi-billion dollar electricity procurement authority and function at the General Services Administration, and negotiating the world’s first “24×7” hourly matched green tariff with Entergy Arkansas. His earlier public service includes serving in the Cabinet of Governor John Hickenlooper to run the Colorado Energy Office during implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and as a community health engineer with the US Peace Corps.

Earlier roles in his career included strategy consulting with McKinsey, product management at IHS CERA, and as a research engineer at Dow Chemical. Tanuj lives in Washington DC with his family, where he is an active volunteer supporting his daughters’ sports teams. When he can find the time he enjoys travel, biking, cooking, and playing the blues harmonica.

Arushi Sharma Frank founded Luminary Strategies, a firm that helps global companies integrate energy reliability solutions and remove red tape from market-leading innovation projects in the U.S.  Prior to that, she led Tesla’s strategic market entry to launch its first U.S. wholesale and retail energy businesses in Texas (4 yrs).  Arushi pioneered the ERCOT policy and market design frameworks for (i) ERCOT-integrated residential battery virtual power plants, (ii) Tesla Megapack ERCOT market participation, and (iii) dual use grid-scale storage participation in both front-of- meter ancillary markets and backup microgrid applications. Her advocacy in the early days after Winter Storm Uri led to the foundational work of Texas PUC to create the Aggregated DER Pilot. 

Similarly, her advocacy has been essential to the creation of a VPP framework for residential batteries in PJM, and the launch of the Customer Battery Energy Sharing program in Puerto Rico. Arushi is on the UT Kay Bailey Hutchison Executive Council and a guest lecturer throughout the UT System. 

In prior roles, she led the natural gas utility industry through transformational market and regulatory proceedings like gas-electric coordination, Dodd-Frank implementation, hydraulic fracturing and shale gas policy development, Waters of the US, and linear construction multi-agency permitting. 

She also led the team that built Exelon Generation’s power plant compliance program with operational and technical rules in seven grid operator markets in the US and Canada and has held federal advisory committee appointments twice at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.  She is a member of the Texas Public Utility Commission ADER Task Force today in the independent expert segment, after leading the task force as its vice chair for 2 years. 

She is a graduate of the University of Delhi, the University of Pennsylvania, and George Mason School of Law and a 16 -year veteran of the gas, thermal power, nuclear, renewables, and distributed energy industries. 

Skylar Bee is a Portfolio Manager for the Islands Energy Program, where she leads the coordination of the Caribbean Climate Smart Facility. Previously, Skylar helped manage the Climate Finance Access Network, where she set up the Caribbean and Pacific portfolios. Skylar has expertise in supporting countries in developing and implementing their nationally determined contributions through provision of technical assistance, navigating the international climate finance architecture, developing investment plans, and building communities of practice.

Richard Lambert Jr. is a Manager of Stakeholder Relations at AES, leading community engagement and strategic coalition-building initiatives for utility-scale solar projects within the PJM regional transmission organization. In his current role, he has demonstrated excellence in stakeholder collaboration through proactive stakeholder outreach programs. Recently, he spearheaded a panel during the Solar Summit in Richmond, Va, bringing together diverse industry perspectives on agrivoltaics and clean energy development. Before AES, as Director of Government Relations at ExteNet Systems and Senior Planner for Fairfax County, he successfully led numerous community engagement initiatives, particularly in historically underserved areas. His work included orchestrating infrastructure design charrettes with over 250 participants and facilitating 150+ community meetings, increasing participation in local planning processes. As the past President of the Urban League of Greater Richmond Young Professionals, Richard implemented financial literacy programs in partnership with Citigroup, empowering underrepresented communities. His expertise in stakeholder engagement, coalition building, and equitable development is complemented by his MBA from the University of Maryland and his master’s in Urban Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jen Weiss is the founder and co-director of the North Carolina Clean Energy Fund, a non-profit green bank that utilizes public and private capital to catalyze investments in clean and efficient energy and transportation projects in the state with a focus on traditionally underserved communities. A strong advocate for the importance of creating affordable financing solutions for all, Jen blends 13 years of consumer and small business banking experience with her climate policy work at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. 

The North Carolina Clean Energy Fund is North Carolina’s new green bank, formally organized in November 2020 as the culmination of three parallel stakeholder processes that all called for the development of a statewide green bank/clean energy fund to fill critical financing gaps in the clean energy project landscape. Our mission is to accelerate investment in clean and efficient energy solutions and increase climate resilience in North Carolina, particularly to the benefit of underserved populations. We partner with public and private investors, foundations and other non-profit organizations to deploy sustainable financing solutions that will create long-lasting environmental, economic and social benefits.

Sydney Williams is a graduate student in Environmental Management, concentrating in Energy and Data Analytics. As Student Council President and Diversity, Innovative, Vibrant Environmental Scholars (DIVE) Program Coordinator at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, Sydney is committed advancing equitable solutions in climate justice and energy transition.  Originally from Jamaica, Sydney brings eight years of global and local experience studying and addressing climate change impacts across several countries.

Sydney holds a degree in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, where she focused on the interconnectedness of food, water, and energy systems. Her work in land conservation at the Open Space Institute deepened her expertise in nonprofit funding, development, and data management, laying the groundwork for her current focus on climate finance. Passionate about using finance and data to overcome barriers in the energy transition, Sydney aims to create impactful, just solutions that drive meaningful progress in the environmental field.

Matt is a technology and business leader with experience across sales, marketing, finance, product, and operations. He joined Prelude Ventures as a Managing Director in 2023. Prior to Prelude, Matt was a partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures where he led investments in grid, aerospace, buildings, and SaaS software companies. Matt has fifteen years of operating experience at climate tech companies. At Sunrun, he led the operations and software product functions as the company grew from 30 employees and 2,000 residential solar customers to 1,200 employees and 55,000 customers and raised $300M in equity capital. Matt was also Vice President of North American Sales at Tesla and served in management roles at Bloom Energy, Yardi Systems, and Genentech. He began his investing career on Wall Street with Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. Matt currently sits on the Board of Directors for Graphyte and Luxwall and has oversight for Prelude’s investment in Fleet Robotics.

Matt has a B.S. in molecular biology from Duke University, and an MBA from Stanford. He is a Board member at the Duke University Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment.

Eric Kang is a Commercial Development Manager at TerraPower, where he plays a pivotal role in structuring innovative commercial deals for the cutting-edge Natrium reactor project. With extensive experience in the energy sector, Eric was previously a Commercial Acquisitions Manager at Puget Sound Energy, where he led the design and evaluation of the company’s largest clean energy solicitation at that time.  Eric’s diverse background includes being a Regional Outage Strategy Manager at NRG Energy and serving as an active duty nuclear-trained submarine officer in the US Navy for eight years, providing him with a unique perspective on nuclear technology and energy systems.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master’s in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Akash holds over twenty years of finance experience with expertise in M&A and capital raising within the energy industry. Akash has served as Chief Financial Officer of Net Power since joining the Company in 2020, is responsible for all strategic financing activities as well as corporate build-out, and led the Company through its go-public transaction which closed in June 2023. From 2010 to 2020, he worked in Barclays’ investment banking division, completing over $100 billion in transactions across M&A, equity and debt. Prior to Barclays’, Akash held various roles at Citi and KPMG. Akash holds a bachelors degree from Boston University and an MBA from Duke University. He lives in Durham, NC with his wife, daughter and two dogs.

About Net Power:
Net Power (NYSE: NPWR) is a clean energy technology company developing a proprietary power generation system which transforms natural gas into clean, reliable and affordable power. The Company is on a mission to deploy its utility-scale plants globally by partnering with power producers, energy producers, technology providers, local communities and other stakeholders. Net Power was founded in 2010 and has offices in Durham, North Carolina, (HQ) and Houston, Texas.