Derek is the Managing Director of the Permian Integrated Energy System (PIES) at PEDL. He brings deep cross-sector experience in power generation, energy storage, renewable energy, oil and gas, and decarbonization technologies. Derek leads the development and execution of integrated energy projects at PEDL Lands, working across public, private, and research domains to advance innovation in the Permian Basin. His work focuses on translating complex energy challenges into actionable strategies by aligning technical design, stakeholder engagement, and commercial feasibility. Derek is committed to accelerating the deployment of next-generation technologies that will define the future of energy systems.

Monica is a Business Fellow at Breakthrough Energy, where she supports climate tech startups in the Breakthrough Energy Fellowship program. She previously spent 20 years at Chevron, holding a variety of technical and commercial roles across Upstream, Downstream, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Chevron New Energies.

She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering, an MBA from the Bauer College of Business, and a graduate certificate in Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) from the Colorado School of Mines.

Monica is passionate about inspiring the next generation to pursue STEM. She currently serves on the Board of Allies in Energy and previously served on the Board of Directors for Girlstart, a nonprofit focused on empowering girls in STEM. She also mentors female founders through the DivInc consortium at the Ion Houston.

She lives in Houston with her husband and their two children.

Tingting Chen serves as a Senior Technical Leader within the Advanced Generation and Carbon Capture and Storage Program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). She brings over 12 years of multidisciplinary engineering experience in the energy sector, with a strong focus on subsurface technologies and economic analysis.

Her expertise spans underground carbon dioxide (CO₂) geologic sequestration, CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (EOR), underground hydrogen storage, techno-economic evaluation of petroleum systems, and reservoir modeling and simulation. At EPRI, Dr. Chen leads several strategic initiatives, including integrated prefeasibility assessments for carbon capture, transport, and storage at power generation facilities, as well as the evaluation of underground hydrogen storage in depleted gas reservoirs and saline aquifers

Dr. Chen has worked extensively across major geologic basins in the United States and internationally, including regions in Africa, Canada, China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and South America. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil, Environmental, and Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Wyoming.

Mike Curtis currently serves as the Carbon and Energy Technology Fellow in Dow's Energy and Climate Technology Center, where he is responsible for developing and communicating strategies related to low carbon electricity and heat technologies for chemical manufacturing. Mike began his career in applied R&D and spent several years in Manufacturing & Engineering before joining Dow’s Energy and Climate business.

Mike holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Organometallic Chemistry and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University before joining Dow.

Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon is CEO of Gold H₂, a climate technology and energy company revolutionizing energy through subsurface biotechnology. His company uses microbiology coupled with existing hydrocarbon infrastructure to transform depleted oil fields into cost-effective, sustainable hydrogen underground. He brings 20 years of global experience leading multi-billion-dollar projects across five continents in energy, climate tech, venture capital, and private equity. At Gold H₂, Prab is scaling one of the world’s lowest-cost hydrogen solutions.

Previously, Prab held leadership roles at NextEra Energy Resources, where he was charged with shaping and executing a $2 billion Haynesville development program. He also led corporate venture capital and energy strategy initiatives focused on decarbonization and FOAK technologies. At Hess Corporation, he held technical and business development roles, delivering exploration, appraisal, and development projects in offshore West Africa and North American unconventionals. He is a founder and Managing Director of GreenLite Resources, a lithium exploration company that acquires critical mineral assets in North America. Prab is also a founding member of Cotogna Sports Group, a private equity firm investing in and transforming global sports franchises. Prab holds an MBA from Wharton, an M.Eng. from Texas A&M, and a B.Sc. from the University of Calgary, where he competed as an international athlete.

Marilu Hastings is executive vice president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation in Austin, Texas. Marilu also directs CGMF’s Mitchell Innovation Lab, a varied portfolio of breakthrough sustainability ideas and opportunities that the foundation develops and incubates. She launched the foundation’s most recent philanthropic venture, the Permian Energy Development Lab, a cross-sector consortium bringing advanced energy technology, workforce development, and economic development to enrich the world’s most important energy producing region. Marilu was raised in Midland, Texas.

Marilu is a member of the National Petroleum Council and co-chaired the Societal Impacts and Considerations chapter of the NPC’s most recent study, Charting the Course: Reducing GHG Emissions from the U.S. Natural Gas Supply Chain. 

She is chair of the University of Texas’s Energy Institute Advisory Board, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.

Marilu earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Duke University, an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin.  

Dr. Toti Larson is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology and PI of the Mudrock Systems Research Laboratory (MSRL) research consortium. Toti is the PI of an ARPA-E project titled: “Sustainable H2 production from abiotic catalyst-enhanced stimulation of iron-rich rocks”. As a geologist and geochemist his research focuses on subsurface reservoir characterization using core-based measurements and characterizations. Toti’s research on hydrogen is focused on experimentally-derived reaction rates of hydrogen production from iron-bearing rocks, exploring subsurface hydrogen systems, and developing abiotic catalysts that will enhance production of hydrogen from iron-bearing rocks.

Trevor Best is the CEO and Co-Founder of Syzygy Plasmonics. Before starting Syzygy, Trevor worked for the oilfield services company Baker Hughes. There he held a variety of management positions and gained expertise in technology development, project and personnel management, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance. As CEO of Syzygy he has raised $135 million to successfully scale the technology and has become a trusted leader in the hydrogen and Sustainable Aviation Fuel sectors.