Brett A. Perlman, CEO & President, Center for Houston’s Future

Brett Perlman is currently CEO and President of the Center for Houston’s Future, a non-profit focused on developing consensus-based solutions to important social issues for the entire Houston region and on mobilizing community leaders to implement those solutions. Perlman is a former Commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas, after which he founded an entrepreneurial management consulting firm. Brett is an independent Director of Just Energy Group, a gas and electricity retailer. He holds advanced degrees in public policy from Harvard University and in law from the University of Texas.

Vijay Betanabhatla, Director | Industry Solutions at AutoGrid

As an Associate Director at Guidehouse with 15 years of experience in the industry, Vijay Betanabhatla helps electric utilities, power generators, and consumers adopt 21st century technologies. He provides project and program management, financial advisory, data analytics and regulatory policy support to electric utilities, state commissions and corporations across North America. Vijay currently serves on the Central Market Leadership team at Guidehouse. Vijay is working with Guidehouse Data Science team to bring Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions to solve traditional electric industry challenges. Vijay worked at Baker Tilly and in the ERCOT control room before coming to Guidehouse.

Anna Ebers Broughel, Director at Clean Energy Leadership Institute

A passionate educator, Anna Ebers Broughel is a Director of Energy Leadership at Clean Energy Leadership Institute, overseeing six CELI fellowships with ca. 230 fellows in 4 time zones. In addition, she teaches graduate classes in energy economics and policy at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Maryland College Park. Prior to joining CELI, she was a senior energy economist and statistician at the engineering consulting firm Tetra Tech and an ORISE Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy. Since 2020, she has served on the Council of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics and has been a visiting fellow at the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. A native of Estonia, she is an academic director of a summer school in sustainability at the Estonian Business School and a nano-degree lead, teaching classes in artificial intelligence in business. Anna is a co-Founder of Academics on FI(RE), a community that connects professionals interested in passive investing.

Alexander Girau, CEO at Group1

Alexander Girau is the CEO and Co-founder of Group1, the first company commercializing potassium-ion battery technology—a critical-mineral-free alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries. A recognized leader in energy security and advanced materials, Girau has worked on two Nobel Prize-winning technologies—quantum dots and lithium-ion batteries—both made possible by groundbreaking material innovations. He is now spearheading the commercialization of a next-generation battery material from the lab of UT-Austin Professor Nobel Laureate John Goodenough, co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery. Girau’s strategic focus on bolstering the global energy supply chain has seen him raise over $40 million in venture capital for advanced material startups. Earlier in his career, he worked as a chemical process engineer for several of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, helping to design and improve over $2 billion in downstream refineries and upstream oil platforms. He is also a named inventor on 17 granted patents and holds exclusive IP rights for his companies to more than 25 patents from institutions such as Tulane University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Sharp Corporation Japan. As CEO of two high-tech ventures, Girau has built robust business models around battery technologies critical to the energy transition, driving sustainable and secure power solutions. His commitment to decarbonization and resilience underpins his leadership style, ensuring that next-generation battery platforms address both environmental and security challenges. Girau earned an M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Tulane University, where he was pursuing a Ph.D. before launching a silicon battery material startup based on core technology from his research. He also holds a B.S. in Chemistry (Honors) and Mathematics from Loyola University New Orleans. An alumnus of Y Combinator—the renowned Silicon Valley accelerator—Girau is a Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund and an Energy Transition Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute, where he continues to advance the role of energy storage and security in a sustainable future.

Dana Harmon, Executive Director, Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute

Dana Harmon serves as the Executive Director of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute in Austin. She is working to ensure the radically evolving energy sector provides opportunities for underserved communities to thrive, leading collaborative efforts between industry, academia, and the social sector. Previously, Dana held leadership positions in multiple successful energy technology start-ups. She is a Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She serves on the City of Austin Resource Management Commission as well as on the Board of the Association of Women in Energy. She earned a B.S. of Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Tim Latimer, CEO at Fervo Energy

Tim Latimer is the CEO of Fervo Energy. Fervo commercializes technology to develop geothermal assets as the foundation to a 100% clean energy future. Tim was previously a Drilling Engineer with BHP where he worked in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins. With a growing appreciation of the urgency of climate change, Tim left the petroleum industry 2015 to pursue an MBA/MS in Environment and Resources from Stanford University where he launched Fervo Energy. Tim is a Fellow at Activate and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa and is a native of Texas.

Michael E. Legatt, CEO & Founder, ResilientGrid, Inc.

Dr. Michael E. Legatt founded ResilientGrid, Inc. to empower critical infrastructure operations that continually strengthen resilience and reliability. His current work with electric utilities facilitates and fosters a transformation towards improved organizational culture, enhanced collaboration in emergency situations, and a support of organizational creativity as a means to both reduce operating errors and operational costs. For ten years prior to founding ResilientGrid, Dr. Legatt served as the principal human factors engineer for ERCOT. He has PhDs in both Energy Systems Engineering and Clinical Health Psychology/Neuropsychology.

Scott Nguyen, CEO, Bodhi

Scott Nguyen is co-founder and CEO of Bodhi, a design-focused clean energy software company that strives to usher in the next wave of wide-scale solar adoption. He has spent his career inventing technology and business models to accelerate our transformation to a cleaner, more efficient energy economy. Previously, he helped spur Austin's inaugural low- income solar program, sent robots to explore the oceans, and introduced renewable energy technology into Shell’s Portfolio. Scott is the holder of 17 USPTO patents and received a PhD in Physics from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sudeshna Pabi, CEO, Acclime Labs

Sudeshna Pabi is currently the Founder and CEO of Acclime Labs, and also serves as Principal Advisor to Larta Institute where she provides guidance to innovative start-ups. She has also served as Technical Leader at Electric Power Research Institute with focus on clean energy solutions for problems related to energy and environment. Dr. Pabi holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and a B.S. from Indian Institute of Technology. As a NASA graduate research fellow at Stanford University, Dr. Pabi assessed the climate impacts on the carbon budget of the Arctic Ocean by coding numerical models and developing remote sensing algorithms.