Bigger Than Us

Michael Beitler, Founder/CEO:  30yrs experience at IBM and Texas Instruments semiconductor engineering 

Korina has over 20 years of experience leading teams on humanitarian missions to deliver humanitarian aid and facilitate sustainable projects in villages, relief camps, and orphanages around the world.  She has lived abroad and loves to travel internationally.  She considers herself to be a global citizen and speaks Spanish, Portuguese and (used to speak) French. Korina has served as a public speaker in various capacities, including as an advocate for education. She spent the last several years as an Executive Director for an international trade network and a community service and advocacy non-profit organization in Dallas, Texas.  She now serves as a consultant to nonprofits and social impact organizations with Greater Society Consulting. Korina recently launched a website, called “The Conscious Citizen Effect”, designed to help us all learn to make more conscious consumer choices and everyday habits that are kinder our planet, animals and our local and global communities.   http://theconsciouscitizeneffect.com/ 

Roshan Vani is the COO of Nexus PMG, an engineering firm that specializes in built-to-spec solutions for large scale infrastructure projects Mr. Vani is a Project Management Professional with experience in the EPC, EPCM & PMC industry working on large capital projects ranging in value from $0.5B to $11B in the Power and Mining & Metals industries. He has experience in managing lump sum and cost reimbursable contracts in North America and Saudi Arabia. Prior to starting Nexus he was a Risk Manager & Project Controls Manager for a Fortune 500 firm and subject matter expert in project planning (Primavera), schedule (Primavera Risk) risk analysis and cost risk (@Risk) analysis. Mr. Vani is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP certificate from the Project Management Institute) and holds a B.S in Electrical Engineering from the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. www.NexusPMG.com

Hear the advice our previous guests have shared and then decide on the actions you want to take. 

Dr. Luis Aguirre-Torres is President and CEO at GreenMomentum Inc., a market intelligence and innovation company focused on the Latin American cleantech industry. He is also President of Cleantech Challenge Mexico, Latin America’s top green business accelerator program. He is considered an expert in clean energy, climate change and climate financing. In 2012 and 2013 he was recognized by the US President Barack Obama as Champion of Change and High Impact Entrepreneur for his work promoting the development of the cleantech industry in Mexico. In 2017-2018 he was co-Chairman of the Board at LAC-CORE and since 2015 he has been Chair of the Energy Subcommittee of the US-Mexico Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council. Since 2014 he leads the Energy Sustainability Fund’s Specialized Services Office managing the Fund’s relationship with the Mexican Energy Innovation Centers. Early this year, he joined the Technical Council of the National Council of Science and Technology’s Added Business and Knowledge Value Subprogram. He holds a first degree in Computer Engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, an M.Sc. in Computer Science and a doctorate degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University College London, University of London.

Elena Savostianova has over 15 years of professional experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Prior to Ember, Elena served as a Principal with Global Infrastructure Partners CAPS team, focusing on renewable energy opportunities. Before GIP, Elena spent nearly a decade as part of Credit Suisse’s Power and Renewables group where she was responsible for coverage of energy corporates with a focus on renewable energy and infrastructure, as well as financial sponsors active in the energy and infrastructure space. Her responsibilities included deal sourcing and execution of the complete capital stack, from equity transactions on the corporate side to senior secured debt underwritings at the asset level.  Elena joined Credit Suisse in 2005. Prior to that Elena was a member of Deloitte’s Management Consulting division and the JPMorgan Chase Oil & Gas Investment Banking team. Elena holds an M.B.A. from Yale University and a B.A. in Philosophy and Economics from Hamilton College. https://ember-infra.com/

Allen Tsai is the Founder and CEO of Pani, a smart-home company inspired by his volunteer experience building water wells in rural Nepal. With a professional background in consumer electronics and IoT, Allen took inspiration from a lifetime of water conservation lessons to create Pani to advance the convergence of technology with water sustainability and efficiency. He’s spent nearly 20 years in the consumer electronics industry, having shipped millions of units of connected products through global brands such as Sony, Microsoft XBox, Panasonic, and Sonos. A multi-exit founder, Pani is Allen’s 6th startup, with Allen also having held leadership roles at large companies such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. When he’s not thinking about how to leverage technology to usher in the era of “decentralized water,” he spends his time with his wife and three kids, playing instruments, riding his motorcycle, and singing in the shower. www.getpani.com  

Scott Deatherage is a founding partner in the Austin law firm of Smith and Brown, LLP. Over the last 30 years, Scott has focused on environmental issues, energy, and climate change.  For most of his career, he worked with large law firms in Dallas, but two years ago he formed his own firm and also began pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities. He earned his B.A. in Letters from The University of Oklahoma in 1984 with highest honors, with minors in Botany and French, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1987 cum laude, where he served as the Articles Editor for the Harvard Environmental Law Review. Scott was one of the founders of the American Bar Association’s Environmental Disclosure Committee. He has published a book entitled Carbon Trading Law and Practice, originally published by Oxford University Press. He has taught Climate Change Law at the University of Texas Law School. Over the last 30 years of his career, Scott has focused on environmental issues, energy, and climate change. As a partner in nationally-known large law firms, he has advised clients in transactions, development, litigation, and government regulatory matters. He has also worked with companies in emerging technologies such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage. Scott has worked on over $5 billion of energy projects. His work with solar project developers has involved over 55 separate projects. Over the last few years, Scott has represented companies in blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency mining, and smart contracts. He has served and currently serves on several company advisory boards, including, Principal Solar, Crescendo Power, Alternative Resource Group, and AR3 Global. These companies are engaged in solar development, funding of solar and other renewable energy and energy storage projects, and blockchain applications to energy and environmental matters.

Dave is an advisor across Regulated Industries, Government, Tourism, Manufacturing, Human and Health Services. Dave develops and implement business strategies, policy changes, sustainability practises and generative growth with enabling technologies, efficiency, transparency, and accountability. Dave supports business modernization with emerging technologies to enable sustainability, socioeconomic outcomes and generative growth., and is known for delivering talks that combine culture, human behaviours, socio-economics, psychology, and technology with current events, personal anecdote, and historical precedent—effortlessly transliterating the complex issues of technology out of the abstract and into operations.

Carlos St. James is a board member of the Latin American and Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy (LAC-CORE) in Washington, which promotes development of the industry, as well as a board member of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance (TREIA), based in Austin, Texas. With considerable experience in project finance, technical and non-technical project themes, sustainability issues and energy policy, he is a leading advisor to investors, developers and the public sector. He is the publisher of the Clean Energy Review and he holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.