Joint Meeting with IFMA Houston
Climate Change and the Race to Net Zero
As the Energy Capital of the World, Houston must lead the way in discovering, implementing, promoting and investing in innovative technologies to lower carbon emissions. Many claim their companies will be Net Zero within the next few decades – how will they get there? We’ve assembled a panel of experts to talk about the Future of Energy; the technologies available today and on the horizon, and how we’ll transition away from fossil fuel dependency to solve the challenges of climate change.
Moderator:
Juliana Garaizar
Head of Houston Incubator and VP of Innovation, Greentown Labs
Juliana is the Head of Houston Incubator and VP of Innovation for Greentown Labs. A Board Member of the Angel Capital Association, Juliana is a Lead Investor of the Portfolia Rising America Fund that invests in BIPOC and LGTBQ founders, as well as the Portfolia Consumer and Rising Tide Funds. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the University of Houston Cougar Venture Fund, the Houston Diversity Fund, the Investors of Color network and Impulse4women. A Kauffman Fellow experienced in Bridging the Gender Gap in investing, she is part of the City of Houston’s Women Commission. Juliana was the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund Director and the Managing Director of the Houston Angel Network. She was the Manager of the in the French Riviera's Sophia Business Angels network and Antipolis Innovation Campus and Project Manager of several International Projects funded by the European Commission. Previously, Juliana worked for 5 years in Singapore: first as an International Trade Consultant for the Trade Commission of Spain in a broad range of industry sectors and then as a Project Manager for the Asia Technology Office of Citigroup, leading projects at the international level. Juliana obtained an MBA at the London Business School and Haas School of Business in Berkeley, specializing in Entrepreneurship.
Panelists:
Gavin Dillingham, PhD
Vice President of Research, HARC
Dr. Gavin Dillingham is Vice President of Research and leads HARC’s Energy team. In this role, he also serves as Director of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Southcentral and Upper West Combined Heat and Power TAP. Dr. Dillingham joined HARC in 2012 where he leads multi-stakeholder efforts focusing on policy and programs to improve the climate resilience of power infrastructure and built environment and to help usher in the energy transition via a variety of clean energy initiatives.
He builds and leads strong, well-balanced teams of experts to successfully implement large, multi-year clean energy projects. His current projects include being the principal investor for the DOEs Solar Energy Technology Office (SETO) grant on rapid deployment of solar+storage in low-income neighborhoods and the DOE’s Advance Manufacturing Office (AMO) grant to develop a micro-grid feasibility analytics tool. Recently, he led the effort to build out and launch the Texas Clean Energy Hub. The Hub includes a variety of tools, resources, webinars, as well as HARC’s Energy Crossroads Podcast, to help spur along the clean energy transition in Texas.
Dr. Dillingham is also leading efforts to commercialize HARC’s research. With the HARC team, University of Houston and Lehigh University, he led the start-up of Pythias Analytics, Inc. Pythias Analytics is a start-up company focused on providing climate analytics and scenario planning for the energy sector.
Dr. Dillingham received a Bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University and his PhD from Rice University in 2008. He holds the Climate Change Professional (CCP) certification from the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) and the Sustainability Associate (SA) from the Institute for Sustainable Professionals.
Scott Gale
Executive Director - External Engagements, Halliburton Labs
Scott helps startups navigate the commercial and technical landscape of the energy transition. As Executive Director at Halliburton Labs, he was responsible for launching the organization in 2020 and currently oversees External Engagements while building the clean energy community in Houston and around the world. He is a professional voice actor and he actively supports multiple startup organizations as a mentor, advisor, and investor. He joined Halliburton in 2014 where he managed multiple strategic efforts taking new technologies from ideation to commercial success at scale. Scott holds a chemical engineering degree from Brigham Young University. Scott is a graduate of Rice Business where he Founded the Jones Student Association for Executives. Scott serves on the Rice Business Alumni Association Board. He also serves on the Energy Advisory Board for the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator.
Scott and his wife Nicole have been married 15 years and together have four children ages 13, 11, 9 and 6.
Alyse Grumbles
Energy Commercial Specialist, Shell
Alyse just recently joined the Shell Supply Chain organization specializing in Energy procurement and reducing emissions from the power we purchase for Shell assets, including the Real Estate Portfolio. Prior to this Alyse was the Environment and Sustainability lead for Shell Real Estate. She was responsible for minimizing Real Estate’s exposure to ESG risks, decreasing the carbon footprint of Shell’s built environment, minimizing waste of resources, and protecting biodiversity on our sites. Alyse started her career at Shell as an Occupational Hygienist at Shell’s largest Technology Center where she assessed and found solutions for workplace health hazards. She spent her time in graduate school, working in Upstream Oil and Gas HSSE in the Marcellus Shale and offshore Gulf of Mexico. Alyse has an B.S. in Bioenvironmental sciences from Texas A&M and a Master of Public Health in Environmental and Occupational Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Alyse is from Houston, Texas but has spent the last 2 years between home and London. Time away from work is spent traveling, indulging in restaurants, reading, listening to podcasts, and showing her New Zealand (aka Kiwi) fiancé how to be a Texan. Her German Shepherd Shiner keeps them both busy and active!
Dr. Nansen Saleri
Chairman, CEO, Co-Founder, Quantum Reservoir Impact
Dr. Nansen G. Saleri is the Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Quantum Reservoir Impact (QRI), a leading advanced analytics and AI firm in oil and gas since 2007, headquartered in Houston with global operations. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in in Chemical Engineering from University of Virginia. He is also the founder and President of the Kristin Saleri Art Foundation.
As the former Head of Reservoir Management for Saudi Aramco for nearly a decade, Dr. Saleri led efforts in managing the company’s 10mm production and played a leading role in its development planning including Ghawar, the world’s most prolific oilfield. Prior to that he worked for Chevron for 18 years.
In 2006 he was the recipient of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ prestigious John Franklin Carll Award, and he is both an SPE Distinguished Member and Distinguished Speaker. Dr. Saleri is also cited among the industry’s game changers in the book titled, Groundbreakers (2015).
Dr. Saleri currently holds seven patents, and he is a sought-after opinion leader on global energy issues with credits including the Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, Financial Times, and China Daily News.
Jane Stricker
Senior Vice President, Energy Transition & Executive Director, Houston Energy Transition Initiative, The Greater Houston Partnership
As the Senior Vice President, Energy Transition and Executive Director of HETI, Jane is responsible for leading the Partnership’s initiative to leverage Houston’s energy leadership to accelerate global solutions for a low-carbon future. She leads a coalition of industry, academia and community partners to ensure the long-term economic competitiveness and advancement of the Houston region towards a more sustainable and net-zero emissions future.
Prior to joining the Partnership, Jane spent over 20 years at bp, where, among her many accomplishments, she developed and delivered the 2019 National Petroleum Council study on carbon capture, use and storage in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy. Her most recent role as Senior Relationship Manager of Regions, Cities and Solutions integrated her as a critical partner to cities and industry to collaborate on low-carbon energy solutions, working closely with the City of Houston to implement their Climate Action Plan.
Jane is a contributing faculty member of the University of Houston’s Center for Carbon Management in Energy, a Regional Advisory Board member for the Energy Industries Council, North & Central America, and member of the Advisory Board of the Houston Chapter of WRISE.