2020 New York Climate Week Panel and Whitepaper

Kristin Barbato

Co-Founder, Dynamo Energy Hub 

Kristin Barbato is Co-Founder of Dynamo Energy Hub. With 25 years in energy, Kristin has a background in energy innovation as an executive in utilities, government, and private sector energy operations and investment. She is also Founder and CEO of Build Edison, which helps early-stage energy companies get to scaled commercialization faster. 

In her previous executive roles, she helped cities and corporations optimize their capital planning, commodity supply, efficiency projects, renewable investments, and smart operations performance. Kristin served as Managing Director of Enterprise Development at Edison Energy, Vice President of Customer Energy Solutions at the New York Power Authority (NYPA), and was appointed to Deputy Commissioner / Chief Energy Management Officer for New York City during Mayor Bloomberg’s Administration to manage the long-term sustainability plan (PlaNYC) for the country’s largest municipal energy infrastructure and operations with an annual budget of $1.3B. Kristin also worked for Veolia Environment, ConEdison, and Florida Power & Light in various technical and strategic leadership roles.  

Kristin graduated Cornell University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. She also holds an M.S. in Organizational Leadership from Mercy College and completed her MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia University in May 2008. For the last four years, she has been a Professor of energy management for graduate level international policy schools at Columbia and New York University.  

Christopher Galle

Chief Operations Officer, Bioenergy Devco

Christopher joined Bioenergy Devco as the Chief Financial Officer in 2019 and became the Chief Operating Officer in 2020. He leads the Company’s evaluation of new project and strategic acquisition economics. In addition, he oversees the administrative and corporate operations of Bioenergy Devco. Prior to joining BDC, Mr. Galle worked in the Investment Banking Division of Barclays from 2011 to 2018 focusing on financial institutions. While at Barclays, Mr. Galle executed both M&A transactions as well as a variety capital markets offerings including debt and equity for clients. Prior to his time at Barclays, Mr. Galle worked in Lehman Brothers Private Equity Group from 2005 to 2009 where he conducted analysis on private fund investments as well as direct co-investment opportunities. Before joining Lehman Brothers, he worked at Commerce Street Capital (fka SAMCO Capital Markets) focused on providing advisory services to community banks in Texas. Mr. Galle has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BBA with Honors from Texas Tech University.

Brad Gammons

Global Industry Managing Director for Energy, Environment & Utilities, IBM

Brad is currently serving as Global Managing Director of IBM's Energy, Environment, and Utility Industry. He is responsible for the industry's strategy, sales, consulting services, solution development, and partnerships. Before taking his current position, Brad served as IBM's Global Industry General Manager for Energy and Utilities. Brad completed a seven-year assignment to China in 2016 and currently based in New York, NY. 

Before joining IBM, Brad served as a Captain in the United States Air Force. He held positions in Strategy and Planning and as a Flight Crew member on the B-52. Brad's formal education includes a BA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance. He also has extensive professional training while serving in the military.

Brad is a member of the IBM Acceleration Team and the IBM Industry Academy. Brad has testified in front of the US Congress on Energy issues, featured in articles in Forbes, Business Week, and numerous industry and business periodicals. Brad is also a frequent speaker and panelist at industry conferences and forums. He is on the Boards of the Terrawatt Initiative, irth Solutions and served in the Paulson Institutes Council on Sustainable Urbanization.

Rene Kerkmeester

Director, Equigy 

Rene Kerkmeester is the Director of Equigy, the Crowd Balancing Platform. Rene leads the efforts from European Transmission System Operators (TSOs) TenneT, Swissgrid and Terna, to found Equigy and provide a solution that would address the increasing need for flexible power in the electricity system. Prior to his role at Equigy, Rene was responsible for the Digital Transformation Program at TenneT in Germany and The Netherlands. Rene was the CEO at APX, Europe’s premier provider of power exchange and clearing services for the wholesale market. Rene is married, has two daughters and lives in Blaricum, The Netherlands.

Ted Michaels

Head of Renewables North America, Credit Suisse

Ted Michaels is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Investment Banking division, based in New York. Mr. Michaels is a member of the Power and Renewables Group and is responsible for coverage of a variety of clients in the power, utility and renewables spaces.

Mr. Michaels joined the Power and Renewables Group at Credit Suisse in 2006. Recent relevant experience includes serving as exclusive financial advisor on BlackRock’s acquisition of Everpower; advising Duke Energy on its $2.4bn sale of its LatAm generation business to CTG and I Squared Capital; advising Talen Energy on the $654mm sale of the Ironwood CCGT facility; advising Actis and Mesoamerica on the 100% divestiture of GME to SunEdison; advising Sunrun on its U.S. $250mm IPO and private placement; advising GIP’s strategic investment in Terra-Gen Power; and advising on the sale of Community Energy to Iberdrola.

Prior to Credit Suisse, Mr. Michaels worked in the Investment Banking division at Dexia Global Structured Finance and in the Management Consulting group at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Michaels received his M.B.A. in Finance from the NYU Stern School of Business and his B.S. in Engineering at the University of Virginia.

Cathy Zoi

Chief Executive Officer, EVgo

Cathy Zoi is a distinguished executive with decades of experience in the energy industry, government, academic, and non-profit sectors. Prior to EVgo, she was President and co-founder of Odyssey Energy, a distributed generation software company she continues to chair. Zoi served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary and Acting Under Secretary at the Department of Energy, where she oversaw more than $30 billion in energy investments. In the early 1990s, she was Chief of Staff for Environmental Policy in the Clinton White House and she pioneered the Energy Star program while at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

During her career Zoi has served as the founding CEO of several organizations focused on climate solutions, including Frontier Power, a rural electrification company incubated by SunEdison; the Alliance for Climate Protection, established and chaired by U.S. Vice President Al Gore; and the Sustainable Energy Development Authority, a $50m fund to commercialize clean energy technologies in Australia. Prior roles include energy investor at Silver Lake and Bayard Capital; management consultant at ICF and Next Energy; and adjunct professor and Precourt Energy Scholar at Stanford University. Zoi has a B.S. in Geology from Duke University and an M.S. in Engineering from Dartmouth.

Emily Chasan

Former Sustainable Finance Editor, Bloomberg

Emily Chasan is a Sustainable Finance Journalist, most recently at Bloomberg News. She edited the weekly “Good Business” newsletter for Bloomberg Green. She writes about trends in sustainable and impact investing, as well as corporate responsibility and governance.

She was previously a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal, and a senior correspondent at Reuters where she covered accounting, law, hedge funds, manufacturing, and the U.S. stock market. She led the wire service's team of bankruptcy reporters during the financial crisis from 2008 to 2010.

She has won two Front Page Awards from the Newswomen's Club of New York and in 2012 was named to the National Association of Corporate Directors' "Directorship 100" list of people most influential on corporate boards of directors.

Emily graduated from Tufts University cum laude with a degree in Economics and International Relations. You can follow her on twitter @echasan.