Bigger Than Us

Lauren Clarke is the CEO and founder of Turn Compost. Turn is a DFW-based social enterprise with a vision to change how our urban environment is utilized. Turn works with consumers, businesses, and non-profits in ways which support sustainable development within our communities. Lauren's experience in Culinary school and the Texas A&M master gardener program opened her eyes to the whole issue of food waste and how horrible it is in our environment. https://www.turncompost.com/ https://www.facebook.com/turncompost https://www.instagram.com/turncompost/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/turndallas/

Brett Hogarth has held the position of Director of Business Development, Biomass Advisory Group for nine years. Over that time, he has lead new product development and marketing efforts, managed client relations, and structured work plans for over 250 biomass feedstock supply chain consulting projects across North America. Brett has been integral in identifying and executing on opportunities to leverage Ecostrat’s data and analytics to provide new and innovative solutions to meet the needs of stakeholders across the bio-energy industry. Brett holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto https://ecostrat.com/

Tanya Peacock is a Public Policy and Planning Manager at Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), the largest gas distribution utility in the United States based in Los Angeles, CA. Tanya has served the gas company in this role for 5 years. Previously she was the Environmental and Policy Manager at SoCalGas for 2 years and the Regulatory and Rate Strategy manager for nearly 4 years. Tanya graduated from Mills College with a bachelor’s degree in English and went on to earn her master’s degree in regional planning from Cornell University. Tanya serves as a board member for a number of organizations including the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, MoveLA and the California Hydrogen Business Council. Her expertise lies in her deep understanding of policy analysis, regulatory affairs, legislative analysis, and renewable energy policy. https://www.socalgas.com/

Landon started coding in junior high because he wanted to make video games, but over time I realized what I really wanted to do was make others happy. He saw technology as a tool to accomplish that mission, and came to the University of Southern California excited to build software. There Landon studied in a mixture of design, computer science, and business in the Iovine Young Academy. That's he met his cofounders Mimi and Ben. They launched Wren right after he and Ben graduated, on June 12, 2019, and it's been growing ever since. These days at Wren Landon still codes, but also spends a lot of time working with project partners and thinking about growth. https://projectwren.com/

Julia Kumari Drapkin is the CEO and founder of ISeeChange. Dedicated to connecting communities to each other and their changing environment, Drapkin created ISeeChange after over a decade reporting natural disasters and climate change science across the globe and in her own backyard on the Gulf Coast. Drapkin currently serves on the board of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and is a consultant for the think tank Resources for the Future and NASA. Prior to journalism, Julia did research anthropology and archaeology for over 7 years in Latin America, where she geeked out on Mayan farmer’s almanacs. https://www.iseechange.org/about/team

Sam is CEO and co-founder of Vert Asset Management. He also chairs the Investment Research Group. Sam leads the development of new products to help make sustainable investing easier for investors. He has been a featured speaker on sustainable investing at financial advisor conferences in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia. Prior to launching Vert, Sam spent almost 20 years working at Dimensional Fund Advisors. He started Dimensional’s European Financial Advisor Services business and led the development and launch of Dimensional’s Global Sustainability Core Fund. Sam has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Davis. Sam lives in Mill Valley, CA with his wife and three children. http://www.vertasset.com/

Aidan is the CEO and a co-founder of Hazel Technologies, a post-harvest crop protection company making biochemical solutions to extend produce shelf life. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University, where his doctoral work focused techniques to design and synthesize highly efficient catalysts for transformations of renewables.  He was a member of the Institute for Atom-Efficient Catalytic Transformations and the Institute for Catalytic Energy Processes. His interest in catalysis and energy led him to accept a role as the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) chemistry fellow for 2014 – 2015. He developed an interest in applying his chemistry knowledge to agriscience, co-founding Hazel Technologies before completing his Ph.D. Aidan is one of the inventors of the Hazel® technology platform and a co-author on 20+ patents and filings. Under Aidan’s leadership, Hazel Technologies won the Clean Energy Challenge in 2016 and the VentureWell Sustainable Practice Impact Award in 2019.  Aidan and Hazel Technologies were recently named to ChicagoInno’s “50 on Fire” list. Aidan has raised more than $17.8 million in private equity for Hazel and helped Hazel obtain nearly $1 million in grant funding from ISEN, VentureWell, and the USDA. Most recently, the company completed its Series B finance round with lead investors Pangaea Ventures and S2G Ventures, featuring additional investments from Asahi Kasei Ventures and The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. Other investors in Hazel include Rhapsody Venture Partners, Serra Ventures, and Valley Oak Investments.  Hazel Technologies works with more than 100 grower/packer partners in more than 12 countries to date. In addition to his company duties, Aidan serves as an Advisory Board member at the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship at Northwestern, and as a member of the Board of Advisors for Lilac Solutions. https://www.hazeltechnologies.com/

Blake Bassett is currently the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Step Tire.  Step Tire is a trying to Give Hope Traction by reprocessing old car tires into soles for shoes.  The mission of the company is not only to Give Hope Traction but also to “Teach a Man to Fish” by building self-contained manufacturing facilities that can be placed anywhere in the world to allow locals to learn how to make the soles and sell shoes.  Prior to co-founding Step Tire, Blake was a small business lender and investor in small companies.  He earned his BA from Texas Christian University. Blake has been married to his wife Meg for 18 years and they have three daughters and attend HPUMC. https://steptire.com/ 

Dr. William M. Conlon, P.E., is the founder, and President of Pintail Power, and the inventor of the Liquid Air Combined Cycle™ (LACC) and Liquid Salt Combined Cycle™ (LSCC) technologies. Dr. Conlon’s track record of successfully managing innovation from concept through commercialization, includes Cheng Cycle Steam Injected Gas Turbines, and the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector Solar Steam Generator. Since 2013, he has pioneered hybrid energy storage systems for utility-scale applications to address the CAISO Duck Curve and similar renewable integration problems around the world. After receiving a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he joined Pacific Gas & Electric Company to manage development of the Operator Training Simulator for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. He then joined International Power Technology where he was responsible for I&C functions and developed the control systems for the first Cheng Cycle cogeneration power plants, which are still in operation at several California locations three decades later. He also led new product development, had a key role in operational improvement and supported international business, licensing and technology transfer. Dr. Conlon led the technical turn-around of Ausra Inc., taking its CLFR technology to price-performance leadership in the solar thermal market. He was instrumental in the sale of Ausra to AREVA and the subsequent award of more than $1 billion of new business around the world. While Senior Vice President of Engineering at AREVA, he was responsible for Engineering, Commissioning and Operations teams on three continents. Dr. Conlon is the holder of over 20 patents world-wide as inventor or co-inventor of technologies related to steam injected gas turbines, solar power, water treatment, and both cryogenic and high temperature thermal storage. He is a registered Professional Engineer in California and a member of ASME, IEEE, AAAS, and Sigma Xi. He also serves on the ASME PTC-53 committee for Performance Testing of Energy Storage Systems. http://www.pintailpower.com/  Decarbonizing with Energy Storage Combined Cycles 

Tracy Wallace is a justice warrior—environmental, social, economic—who believes access and equity are the cures to poverty.  With tenacity and passion, Tracy works to connect those with the greatest need for employment to employers in the rapidly growing solar industry. https://greencareersdallas.org/about/