Secretary Granholm, Property Brother Jonathan Scott, Investors & Industry Leaders to Address Annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in Texas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, May 22, through Friday, May 24, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will host the 14th annual Energy Innovation Summit at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center outside Dallas, Texas. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm will address the Summit from the Main Stage on the morning of Friday, May 24.
ARPA-E Director Evelyn N. Wang will kick off the event on May 22, and a list of Main Stage speakers is featured below.
Livestream will not be available. Speaker agenda is subject to change. Media must RSVP and register here.
Main Stage Speakers
- The Honorable Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy
- The Honorable Evelyn N. Wang, ARPA-E Director
- Mr. Jonathan Scott, Co-Founder at Scott Brothers Global
- Mr. Rudy D. Garza, CEO of CPS Energy
- Dr. KR Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy
- Ms. Molly Wood, Climate Tech Journalist and Investor
- Professor Ioannis Michaloudis, Ph.D., Visual Artist, Researcher and Academic
- Dr. Taylor Eighmy, President of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)
- Mr. Shayle Kann, Managing Partner at Energy Impact Partners
The list of Main Stage speakers will continue to be updated as the Summit approaches.
Secretary Granholm is leading DOE's work to advance the cutting-edge clean energy technologies that will help America achieve President Biden’s ambitious climate goals while creating millions of good-paying, high-quality jobs and building and inclusive clean energy economy. She has addressed Summit attendees every year she has led the U.S. Department of Energy, frequently referring to ARPA-E as DOE’s “Moonshot Factory.”
Director Wang leads ARPA-E’s development, launch, and execution of high-risk, high-reward energy research and development programs. Prior to joining the agency, Dir. Wang served as the Ford Professor of Engineering and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During her time at MIT, she developed thermal management, thermal energy conversion and storage, and water harvesting and purification technologies.
Jonathan Scott is a changemaker, investor, and philanthropist who advocates for affordable housing, clean energy, and sustainable living. He and his brother Drew are Property Brothers co-hosts and the founders of Scott Brothers Global, a leading lifestyle and entertainment company producing content, consumer brands, and products. Jonathan produced and starred in an award-winning documentary, Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip, which investigates renewable energy and the struggle to make it more available to families across the United States.
Rudy D. Garza is the President & CEO of CPS Energy, the nation’s largest community-owned electric and natural gas utility. He is the first Hispanic leader to hold the position. Rudy has more than 25 years of experience as a leader in the utility industry and has served in both the public and private sectors over the course of his career. Rudy successfully led the company through the approval of two rate cases in 2022 and 2023. He also led the comprehensive strategic engagement plan for Board of Trustee approval of a blended generation planning approach to power our growing community now and in the future. To deliver on CPS Energy’s mission to serve our community, Rudy developed a strategic plan called Vision 2027, a roadmap to guide CPS Energy through the rapid transformation of the utility industry.
Molly Wood is a longtime journalist turned climate tech investor. She is the founder and CEO of Molly Wood Media, a climate solutions media company, where she hosts the podcast "Everybody in the Pool." The podcast and newsletter by the same name focus on the startups, business practices, and everyday consumers who are working on real solutions to the climate crisis. Molly also scouts and advises climate tech startups as a venture partner at the investment firm Amasia. Previously, she was a managing director at LAUNCH, an early-stage venture capital firm, and was a writer and broadcaster at CNET/CBS, the New York Times, and a host at Marketplace on NPR.
Dr. Sridhar is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Bloom Energy. Prior to founding Bloom Energy, Dr. Sridhar was Director of the Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona, where he was also a professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Under his leadership, STL won several nationally competitive contracts to conduct research and development for Mars exploration and flight experiments to Mars. Dr. Sridhar has served as an advisor to NASA and has led major consortia of industry, academia, and national labs. His work for the NASA Mars program to convert Martian atmospheric gases to oxygen for propulsion and life support was recognized by Fortune Magazine, where he was cited as “one of the top five futurists inventing tomorrow, today.”
Professor Ioannis Michaloudis is a visual artist, researcher and academic, internationally acknowledged as a leader in Art & Science, and the first researcher worldwide to apply NASA’s nanomaterial, the ethereal silica aerogel, in visual arts and design. Professor Michaloudis was instrumental in creating Coperni’s Air Swipe bag, which is the largest object every created with the nanomaterial. His career began in Paris, at Sorbonne University, where he presented his thesis on Visual Arts in 1998. After receiving a “Greek Artists” Fulbright Award in 2001, he undertook research on art and nanotechnology at MIT where he started his research on the application of the silica aerogel in visual arts.
President Eighmy is the 6th president of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and is passionate about the critical role that research universities play in creating and applying knowledge to improve the world. He believes deeply in higher education as a great equalizer, especially when grounded in student success. Under his leadership, UTSA is producing more graduates than ever before, driving job creation and the city's growing knowledge economy. He is nationally recognized for advancing top research universities through strategic government-university-industry collaborations, public-private partnerships and community engagement. These principles are at the heart of his conviction that UTSA is “the university of the future in the city of the future.”
Shayle Kann is a Managing Partner at Energy Impact Partners, where he leads EIP’s Frontier Fund, dedicated to investing in revolutionary technologies to enable deep decarbonization. He has invested in deeptech climate companies such as Form Energy, Electric Hydrogen, Sublime Systems, and Nitricity. Prior to EIP, Shayle built and ran GTM Research, the market intelligence arm of Greentech Media, through and beyond GTM’s successful 2016 acquisition by Verisk Analytics. Shayle was also previously a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Australia, worked on carbon markets at Conservation Services Group, and crafted regulatory policy at the California Public Utilities Commission. Shayle is a member of the Investor Advisory Board at Azolla Ventures and host of the popular climate tech podcast Catalyst.
About the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit
The Summit is an annual conference and technology showcase that brings together thought leaders and experts from a wide variety of technical disciplines and professional communities to collaborate on how to address America’s energy challenges in new and innovative ways.
The three-day conference features Main Stage programming, thought-provoking breakout panels, ARPA-E Fast Pitches, a Technology Showcase, and a series of networking events.
The 2024 Summit’s theme is “Bolder Today, Brighter Tomorrow” and programming will focus on the need to boldly build the future Americans want for themselves and for the generations that will follow.
This will be the first Summit hosted in Texas and the largest Summit ever held, with over 400 exhibitors in the Technology Showcase.
For additional information on the 2024 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, please visit the Summit website.