MIT CEEP Awards Show
May 13, 2008
Tuesday May 13th, 2008, 5:30pm-8:30pm EST
Le Meridian Grand Ballroom, Cambridge MA 02139
Come watch as 5 Finalist Teams have a showcase showdown their business plans at a chance for a $200,000 cash Grand Prize to start their energy venture.
Two teams will each win $20,000 cash prizes.
The top MIT team will win a $5,000 scholarship, plus reserved exhibition space to attend CopenMind in Denmark this fall!
Agenda
Keynote Speakers
Alexander 'Andy' Karsner
Assistant Secretary Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
The Assistant Secretary manages the nation's $1.72 billion federal applied science, research, development, and deployment portfolio, which promotes marketplace integration of renewable and environmentally sound energy technologies for transportation, generation, and efficiency.
Assistant Secretary Karsner is a principal contributor to the international climate change deliberations towards achieving a Post-2012 global framework and leads the administration's efforts to develop and implement ongoing prominent energy initiatives launched by President Bush in three consecutive State of the Union Addresses. These include:
• "The Major Economies Process" to support the achievement of a Post-2012 Global Framework Accord on climate change through the UNFCCC process by its 2009 meeting in Copenhagen. Karsner is working to establish an internationally binding greenhouse gas emissions reductions target amongst the world’s 17 largest economies (that contribute in excess of 85% of emissions); developing environmentally effective, nationally appropriate plans with measurable and verifiable intermediate milestones for emissions reductions with more immediate trajectories that are consequential; and establishing a global clean technology fund for developing nations.
[Read Tom Friedman’s New York Times Column “What was that all about” regarding Karsner’s representation of the United States during the “Bali Roadmap” negotiations]
• "The 20 in 10 Plan" to enhance security and reduce America's dependency and use of gasoline by 20% with an unprecedented size, scope, and timetable for alternative fuels mandates and increased vehicle efficiency (CAFE) standards, elevated approximately 40%. This initiative manifest in the bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, for which Karsner advocated and testified upon on more than any Administration official. It mandated unprecedented levels of efficiency codes and standards for lighting (phasing out incandescents), major appliances, and federal energy use,.
• "The Advanced Energy Initiative" (“AEI”) to rebalance R and D priorities and accelerate commercialization of technological breakthroughs, fundamentally enlarging our national vision, plans, and metrics for the way we power our cars, homes, and businesses and address America's "addiction to oil". AEI’s components include: doubling investment in vehicle electrification, plug-in battery storage, and efficiency; "The Biofuels Initiative" to build cost-competitive cellulosic ethanol biorefineries at scale by 2012; "The Solar America Initiative" to make photovoltaics cost competitive with peak pricing nationwide by 2015 and transform the built environment with cost-neutral, zero-energy homes for scale production by 2020; and roadmapping wind energy to contribute 20 percent of our national generation capacity.
His Office also bears primary responsibility for technology advancement, education, conservation, regulation and efficient use of our nation's energy resources, including federal energy management and procurement, building codes, appliance standards, and the ENERGY STAR® program, amongst others. During his tenure, the Department of Energy has for the first time in its 30 year history: released regulatory standards on time or ahead of schedule; modernized and expanded ENERGY STAR brand product lines, facilitated record volumes of privately financed efficiency transactions in the Federal government, and pursued national-scale, multi-generational education and outreach campaigns with Disney, Walmart, Yahoo, and other national retailers.
Previously, Assistant Secretary Karsner served as an international developer and energy entrepreneur in the private sector on a wide range of technologies including heavy fuel oil, distillates, natural gas, coal, wood waste/biomass, wind energy and distributed generation based upon renewable technologies. He has been responsible for managing and financing large-scale power projects in North America, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, including unprecedented private structuring and financing in the Philippines and Pakistan.
Before coming to public office, Assistant Secretary Karsner led his company, Enercorp, to win a global competition to develop the world's largest private wind farm outside the United States at that time. He has worked with Tondu Energy Systems of Texas, Wartsila Power Development of Finland, and prominent multinational energy firms and developers including ABB of Sweden, RES of the UK, Tacke of Germany (now known as GE Wind), and Vestas of Denmark.
Assistant Secretary Karsner is currently leading or contributing to the Department's high-level interagency and intergovernmental working groups on Biofuels; Hydrogen; Vehicle Technologies; federal land use for siting, permitting, and interconnection. He contributes substantially to the EU-US Transatlantic Dialogue on Biofuels and Renewables; as well as numerous, high-level bilateral and multilateral relationships, including China, India, and Brazil. Mr. Karsner represents the US Government on several public/private boards, including the Freedom Car and Fuel Partnership with the major automakers and oil companies; International Protocol for Hydrogen Economy; the Defense Science Board; the National Governor's Association Energy Task Force; the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative and the Asia-Pacific Partnership
The Assistant Secretary was a Rotary International Fellow, and received an MA from Hong Kong University. He graduated with Honors from Rice University and subsequently received the prestigious Hugh Scott Cameron Award as Outstanding Alumnus. Mr. Karsner and his wife are multilingual, have visited every continent and more than a hundred nations for work and pleasure, and reside with their growing family in Alexandria, Virginia.
Karsner was nominated by President Bush in December 2005, unanimously confirmed by the Senate as America's ninth Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and sworn-in as a member of the sub-cabinet by Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman in March, 2006. See his confirmation hearing testimony to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Tom May
Chairman, Predident and Chief Executive Officer, NSTAR
During his 30 career with the company, Tom has held various executive positions, including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
He is a director of Bank of America Corporation; Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Inc.; and the Edison Electric Institute. He serves as a trustee of Stonehill College and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. As an active member of the community, Tom participates in several civic and business organizations, serving as chair of Jobs for Massachusetts. A board member of the Kennedy Library Foundation, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and a longtime supporter of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he is also past chair of the Governor’s Board of Economic Advisors and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. In 2003, Tom and his wife, Donna, received the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society Leadership Award.
He is a recipient of The New England Council’s New Englander of the Year Award; the University of Massachusetts’ Distinguished Executive Award; and the Ralph Lowell Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts of America.
Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Stonehill College and a master’s degree in Finance from Bentley College. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.
Ernie Moniz
Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment and the Director of the MIT Energy Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has served on the faculty since 1973. Dr. Moniz served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy from October 1997 until January 2001. In that role, he had programmatic oversight responsibility for the offices of Science; Fossil Energy; Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology; Environmental Management; and Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. He served as DOE chair of the Laboratory Operations Board and of the Research and Development Council, through which he initiated a portfolio approach to managing and advancing the Department’s R&D programs. He also led a comprehensive review of the nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program and served as the Secretary’s special negotiator for Russia initiatives, with a particular focus on the disposition of Russian nuclear weapons materials. Dr. Moniz also served from 1995 to 1997 as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, where his responsibilities spanned the physical, life, and social and behavioral sciences, science education, and university-government partnerships. At MIT, Dr. Moniz served as Head of the Department of Physics and as Director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Center, a DOE user facility. His principal research contributions have been in theoretical nuclear physics, particularly in advancing nuclear reaction theory at high energy. His current research centers on energy technology and policy studies. He served as co-chair of the MIT Energy Research Council, an interdisciplinary faculty group that advanced the MIT President’s energy initiative. Moniz was appointed Director of the MIT Energy Initiative in 2006.
Dr. Moniz received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in physics from Boston College, a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Athens, the University of Erlangen-Nurenburg, and Michigan State University. Dr. Moniz is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Humboldt Foundation, and the American Physical Society and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received the 1998 Seymour Cray HPCC Industry Recognition Award for vision and leadership in advancing scientific simulation. He serves on the Boards of the Gas Technology Institute, Nexant, and American Science & Engineering, on the Keystone Energy Board, and on the advisory councils of EPRI, Cummins, BP, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
Paul Dickerson
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy
Paul Dickerson, J.D., CPA, was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). In this capacity, Dickerson is responsible for day-to-day operational oversight and management of the Office of the Assistant Secretary and for directing the implementation of the EERE priorities, policies, program development and execution, and strategic planning. With its $1.74 billion budget, EERE invests in a diverse portfolio of energy technologies to provide efficient, clean and renewable energy leading toward a stronger economy, a cleaner environment, and greater energy independence for America.
Dickerson joins the Department of Energy having served as Chief of Staff for the United States and Foreign Commercial Service (Commercial Service) at the Department of Commerce where he was responsible for day-to-day management of the Commercial Service's worldwide network of 1,700 employees in 260 offices, and for directing the implementation of the Commercial Service's worldwide priorities and policies.
Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Dickerson served as a corporate attorney in the Houston office of Haynes and Boone, LLP, assisting international and domestic clients with their global business transactions.
Dickerson, a native of Houston, served the people of Texas and the nation on several state and federal boards, and he brings years of experience with trade policy development to this position.
Locally, he founded and serves as President of Dickerson Leadership Alliance, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation granting scholarships and awards to Houston-area students for their demonstrated civic involvement.
Dickerson has published numerous articles and frequently appears on the media circuit discussing politics, business, taxation, financing, and other issues relevant to international trade and business. Through articles, interviews and speeches, he has appeared regularly in the local, statewide, nationwide and international press, including frequent citations in the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle.
Dickerson is a certified public accountant and a graduate of the South Texas College of Law. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.