Bigger Than Us

Catherine Von Burg’s career spans a diverse portfolio of strategic planning, policy development, executive management, and multidisciplinary team building in renewable energy, biomedical engineering and research, health and human services, environmental conservation, and education. A member of the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) board of directors, Catherine was selected for an exclusive entrepreneurship program hosted by the U.S. Department of State and the Unreasonable Group. As CEO of SimpliPhi Power, she has recently been honored as part of the Meaningful Business 100 and was selected as a Global Power & Energy Elite in 2021, among many other awards. She speaks publicly, has published articles and white papers, and has spearheaded policy initiatives with organizations including CALSSA, Pew Charitable Trusts, Rockefeller Institute, Columbia University, NY March of Dimes Foundation, John Hopkins School of Biomedical Engineering, Wilderness Education Association and First 5 Commission of California. https://simpliphipower.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Skye d’Almeida is a Senior Vice President in Macquarie’s Green Investment Group, where she leads investor coverage for the Americas. Skye has spent the last 13 years working in sustainable infrastructure and energy for private, government and non-profit organizations. In her role at Macquarie, Skye manages relationships with pension funds, infrastructure funds, private equity funds and strategic investors looking to acquire green assets developed by the Green Investment Group. In prior roles, she co-created a sustainable infrastructure investment program for some of the world’s largest cities and worked for the Australian Government on international clean energy negotiations and renewables investment incentive programs. https://www.macquarie.com/au/en.html https://nexuspmg.com/

Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky is the co-founder and CEO of Global Thermostat, and co-creator of a carbon removal technology that can reverse climate change. Under Dr. Chichilnisky’s leadership, the company was awarded a Silver designation on Pepperdine Graziadio Business School’s 2020 Most Fundable Companies List, and its technology was chosen by MIT Technology Review as one of the Ten Breakthrough Technologies of 2019, a list curated by Bill Gates. In addition to her role at Global Thermostat, Dr. Chichilnisky is a Professor of Economics and Mathematical Statistics at Columbia University, and Director of the Columbia Consortium for Risk Management. Dr. Chichilnisky acted as the lead U.S. author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the 2007 Nobel Prize for its work in deciding world policy with respect to climate change, and she worked extensively on the Kyoto Protocol, creating and designing the carbon market that became international law in 2005. Dr. Chichilnisky is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and more than 15 books, including the recently published Reversing Climate Change and the award-winning Saving Kyoto, which won the American Library Association’s 2010 Outstanding Academic Title of the Year and the American Geographical Society’s Book of the Month Award in October 2009. She holds two Ph.D. degrees, in Mathematics and Economics, and her graduate studies were at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. https://globalthermostat.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Jason is a longtime entrepreneur, most recently as founder of Runkeeper, one of the largest fitness apps, which was acquired by ASICS in 2016. He felt compelled to make his next chapter about purpose, and is over 2 yrs into focusing on helping address climate change full-time, via a podcast called My Climate Journey, a vibrant community of thousands of members that former organically around the podcast, and a fund that backs several new climate tech startups every quarter, across many geographies and sectors. https://www.myclimatejourney.co/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Josh Kaufman is currently the President of Nexus Dev, a platform investing development capital in renewable and circular economy projects. Previously he was an energy investor at the Australian fund QIC, and prior to that was on the GE Power M&A team. Josh has a BA in math and economics from Williams College. https://nexusdevcap.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

H.G. Chissell is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Energy Group.  Previously, H.G Chissell served as Chief Commercial Officer at GridMarket and Senior Vice President of Strategic Accounts for Viridity Energy, a software/service firm focused on virtual power generation and advanced energy optimization. Mr. Chissell was with Viridity Energy from its beginning in 2009, leading the company’s growth of MWs under management and strategic expansion throughout PJM, NYISO and ERCOT across all key verticals. Key accomplishments include the first behind-the-meter frequency regulation battery project in PJM, first 1 MW behind-the-meter battery project in Chicago, first full spectrum DR battery project in New York City and multi-site EV2Grid project with the Pentagon in PJM and ERCOT. https://goadvancedenergy.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Lauren Robinson is currently an educator going on her 7thyear of teaching in the greater Houston area.  With a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Science from Texas Tech University, Lauren found a love for teaching during her time being a graduate assistant.  She combined both her loves of teaching and science to become a high school teacher.  Lauren is not only an educator, but is married with two young children that she is excited to share this journey with.   She is super enthusiastic to grow her reach of educating children on Science, Math, and Technology.  She is very active in the education field, and can’t wait to continue to inspire students to love all the fields that the STEAM programs influence. https://nexuspmg.com/category/mira-nexi/

Joshua is a certified Data Scientist and the Founder & CEO of SparkCharge. His experience in entrepreneurship and startups spans over 6 years and he is a dynamic figure in the cleantech community. Joshua is also the most recent winner of the world’s largest pitch competition, 43North. Joshua holds a B.A. in Economics and a Masters Degree in Information Management and Data Science from Syracuse University. https://www.sparkcharge.io/ https://nexuspmg.com/

Ralph Chami is currently Assistant Director in the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), International Monetary Fund, where he oversaw the development and implementation of the internal economics training program for all IMF economists as well as the revamping of the Institute’s  external training program for officials from member countries. Most recently, he was Assistant Director and Division Chief in the Middle East and Central Asia Department where he oversaw surveillance and program work on fragile states: Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen, and was Mission Chief for Libya and Somalia. He is the recipient of the 2014 IMF Operational Excellence Award for his work on Libya. Previously, he was the Chief of the Regional Studies Division, where he oversaw regional surveillance of 32 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia regions, and the production of the Regional Economic Outlook. Prior to that, he was the Chief of the Middle Eastern Division of the IMF Institute where he oversaw capacity development in that region. He joined the IMF in 1999. From 1991 till 1999, he was on the faculty of Finance in the Department of Finance, University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He also served as a consultant to the World Bank, and to the private sector in the US. Ralph Chami has a BS from the American University of Beirut, an MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University. His areas of specialization are: banking regulation and supervision, financial markets, and remittances. His hobbies include music and yoga. Ralph was a semi- professional guitarist for over 40 years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/04/living-whales-are-worth-an-enormous-amount-money/ https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm https://nexuspmg.com

Ralph Chami is currently Assistant Director in the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), International Monetary Fund, where he oversaw the development and implementation of the internal economics training program for all IMF economists as well as the revamping of the Institute’s  external training program for officials from member countries.  Most recently, he was Assistant Director and Division Chief in the Middle East and Central Asia Department where he oversaw surveillance and program work on fragile states: Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen, and was Mission Chief for Libya and Somalia. He is the recipient of the 2014 IMF Operational Excellence Award for his work on Libya.  Previously, he was the Chief of the Regional Studies Division, where he oversaw regional surveillance of 32 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia regions, and the production of the Regional Economic Outlook. Prior to that, he was the Chief of the Middle Eastern Division of the IMF Institute where he oversaw capacity development in that region. He joined the IMF in 1999. From 1991 till 1999, he was on the faculty of Finance in the Department of Finance, University of Notre Dame in Indiana.  He also served as a consultant to the World Bank, and to the private sector in the US. Ralph Chami has a BS from the American University of Beirut, an MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University. His areas of specialization are: banking regulation and supervision, financial markets, and remittances. His hobbies include music and yoga. Ralph was a semi- professional guitarist for over 40 years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/04/living-whales-are-worth-an-enormous-amount-money/ https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm https://nexuspmg.com