Symposium

executive dialogue speaker bios

1B: INDUSTRY & UTILITIES – Creative Financing for Industrial and Utility Energy Efficiency

Moderator

 Paolo Bertoldi
Directorate General JRC
Institute for Energy - Renewable Energy Unit
European Commission  

Mr. Bertoldi has been working with the European Commission since 1986. Since May 2001, he is Principal Administrator at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy), in charge of research activities for energy efficiency policy, the efficient use of electricity and innovative policy instruments (e.g. white certificates, financing mechanisms, emission trading).

From 1986 to 1993 he was working in the EU nuclear fusion project, Joint Undertaking Torus (JET) in the UK. For 1993 until April 2001, he was Administrator with the European Commission, DG Energy and Transport (DG TREN, Brussels Belgium), in charge of EU regulatory and voluntary programmes for the rational use of energy in end-use equipment, buildings and industry. He was also in charge of negotiated and long term agreements with industry and tertiary sectors and the GreenLight programme. He continues to manage the GreenLight, Motor Challenge and Standby Initiative programmes on behalf of DG TREN.

Listen to Paolo Bertoldi’s EE Global Voices podcast.

Rapporteur

Jeff Harris
Vice President, Programs
Alliance to Save Energy

Jeffrey Harris is the Vice President for Programs at the Alliance to Save Energy. Harris oversees the buildings and utilities, industrial, and international programs and is responsible for maintaining and expanding existing programs; advocating for energy efficiency in the buildings and utilities, industrial, and international arenas; and supporting the development of market based energy-efficiency programs, both domestic and international. He also is responsible for overall management of the Building Codes Assistance Program. 

From 1993-2006 Harris led the Government and Industry Programs Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).  From 1982-1990, Harris led the Buildings Energy Data Group of 30 LBNL staff scientists and research associates. On detail from LBNL, he served from 1990 - 1993 in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Building Technologies as senior assistant to the deputy assistant secretary for building technologies. He developed DOE buildings initiatives for the National Energy Strategy, Energy Policy Act of 1992, and Climate Change Action Plan and evaluated the energy-savings potential of proposed legislation and DOE initiatives. Harris organized and chaired the international Consortium for Energy-Efficient Office Equipment. Before joining LBNL in 1982, Harris worked at the California Energy Commission as the Conservation Division’s deputy division chief.  Harris has an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Speakers

Claire Boasson
Special Adviser, Energy & Climate
UNEP DTIE – Energy Branch

Claire joined UNEP DTIE in January 2009. One of her current projects deals with Responsible Property Investment and EE buildings in collaboration with UNEP FI and UNEP’s Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative.

In previous years, she worked extensively with Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), which joined the UNEP Finance initiative Climate Change Working Group in January 2007. In 2008, as co-chair of this WG, Claire monitored a Survey on EE and the finance sector.

Within CDC, Claire's focus was on climate change policy, carbon finance and the integration of climate related impacts in investment decisions, both in listed equity and private equity investment. She ran Caisse des Dépôts' programme 'Horizon Climat', to assess and reduce CO2 emissions and managed CDC emissions offset 2006-2008.

George Sorensen
Chief Executive Officer
FE Clean Energy Group, Inc.

Mr. Sorenson is the founder and Chairman of FE Clean Energy Group and has spent the past 10 years originating and closing direct equity investments in electric, gas, water, and telecommunications utilities in emerging markets throughout the world. He has also spent significant time in developing business methodologies to derive carbon credits from smaller renewable projects using alternative fuels such as wind and biomass. Mr. Sorenson has a B.A. in Finance from the University of Utah, and an M.A. from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

Josué Tanaka
Corporate Director, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Josué Tanaka is currently Corporate Director for strategic and corporate planning at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and is also responsible for leading the energy efficiency and climate change activities of the EBRD.  He was previously Country Director for EBRD activities in Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ukraine and started the municipal and environmental infrastructure activities of the EBRD at its foundation in 1991.

He worked at the World Bank between 1984 and 1991 on strategic planning, tropical forest conservation in Madagascar and on the development of the Environmental Programme for the Mediterranean.  He was Special Assistant to the President between 1987 and 1989.  Previous to the World Bank, he worked in Brazil on urban transport financing.

Josué Tanaka holds a Bachelor in Science and Engineering from Princeton University and a Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robert Taylor
Lead Energy Specialist, East Asia Energy and Mining Unit
World Bank

Mr. Taylor has worked on energy development at the World Bank since 1982. While he has worked on many countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, much of his work over the last 20 years has concentrated on China. In recent years, he has focused in particular on energy and the environment, as well as projects and policies to improve energy efficiency. He was leader of the Bank’s Energy Efficiency and Environment Thematic Group, consisting of Bank staff active in these areas, during 1998-2000. In his current position as Lead Energy Specialist in the East Asia Energy and Mining Unit he manages the Bank’s energy efficiency project and policy work in China. Mr. Taylor received a B.A. in History from Grinnell College in 1977, and an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan in 1979.