Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Electrifying EVerything

Gabe Klein

Executive Director

Joint Office of Energy and Transportation

Gabe Klein is the executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Previously, he served as the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation and director of the Washington, D.C., District Department of Transportation, where he revamped technology platforms and government processes while focusing on putting people (versus cars) first on city streets. This included launching two of the first and largest solar-powered bikeshare systems in the country and building protected bike lanes and better pedestrian infrastructure for vulnerable citizens citywide, as well as facilitating private services like carshares and rideshares to support city mobility goals.

Dan O’Shea

Vice President of Business Development

ABB E-Mobility

Dan serves as Vice President of Business Development for ABB E-Mobility in the United States. For over a decade Dan has worked in the EV Infrastructure market, going back to 2010 with the EV Project. He’s held prior roles at Chargepoint, as well as working as an independent EV charging consultant. Dan currently leads ABB E-mobility’s business development efforts across public and fleet segments. Dan joined ABB in 2018 and frequently provides subject matter expertise to utilities, investors, retailers and other organizations for the electrification of transportation. Prior to working in the EV space, Dan managed advertising sales and business development in the radio industry over a 25-year career in NYC, LA and Seattle. His career change came while attending the Sustainable Business graduate program at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Seattle. Dan’s been driving electric since 2010 and is patiently waiting for an all-electric camper van.

George Kivork

Head of U.S. State & Local Policy

Joby Aviation

George Kivork is Head of State and Local Policy at Joby Aviation. He is an attorney with extensive experience in legislative affairs and communications, having advised public advocacy campaigns, business executives, and officials at the local, state and federal levels. Prior to joining Joby, George oversaw government relations for Lyft in California and the Southwest states. Previously, he served the City of Los Angeles in numerous capacities on behalf of Mayor Eric Garcetti. First, managing the City of L.A.’s federal affairs office in Washington DC, then as press secretary, and ultimately as associate counsel advancing the City’s strategic initiatives. Prior to that, George worked in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers. He is a graduate of University of Southern California and Georgetown Law School.

Keith Dickerson

Sales Director

Black & Veatch

Keith Dickerson is a Sales Director at Black & Veatch. His focus areas include planning and building sustainable transportation and distributed clean energy infrastructure. He brings 30 years of expertise in engineering, operations, sales, and strategic business development with companies such as Siemens, Schneider Electric and Verizon. Keith holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Alabama. He also served as a search and rescue aircrewman in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Dianne Martinez

Director

Garfield Foundation

Dianne Martinez serves as Director at the Garfield Foundation, a family philanthropy focused on combating climate change.

She was a founding member of and served as Chair at East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), the community-governed power supplier to 14 Bay Area Cities and Alameda County.  She served on Emeryville City Council from 2014-2022, during which time she served two one-year terms as Mayor.  She additionally served as President on the board of StopWaste, a public agency responsible for reducing the waste stream in Alameda County.

Dianne is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, and has over 20 years of experience as a producer of Television and New Media for clients such as MTV, SONY, PlayStation, Comedy Central and PBS.

Julia Thayne

Principal

Rocky Mountain Institute

An expert in accelerating equitable climate action in cities, Julia Thayne helps governments, private companies, and not-for-profit organizations translate ambitious visions into tech, policy and programs that benefit the communities they impact. Before joining the global climate action non-profit Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), she served as Executive Officer of Economic Development at the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, where she oversaw $150 million of financial assistance to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, drove sustainability policy at the Port of Los Angeles, and led mobility innovation programs across L.A.’s transportation departments. Julia previously worked as Director of Urban Development at the infrastructure and technology company Siemens, consulting on sustainability initiatives for 35 cities across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. She is also Founder and Board Member of the community-based, transportation technology non-profit Urban Movement Labs, an advisor at Micromobility Industries, and an educator at USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Ruben Aronin

Principal

Better World Group

Ruben is a principal at Better World Group where he leads the firm’s clean transportation campaigns in California and in more than a dozen states across the country. He also oversees a growing practice of equity-focused policy advocacy and communications strategies for zero-emission vehicle pilot projects and initiatives. His demonstrated commitment to developing and scaling solutions to create a clean economy has yielded enduring relationships with a vast network of stakeholders from the nonprofit, media, government, philanthropy, and private sectors.

Tejus Shankar

Policy Development Manager

Lyft

Tejus Shankar is passionate about transportation, land-use and the sustainability implications to create more equitable futures for our cities. As a Policy Development Manager, Tejus leads Lyft’s transit, bike and scooter policy research and strategy while further solidifying opportunities for public-private partnerships in mobility. Tejus brings nearly a decade of experience working in both public and private sectors. As a former management consultant, he has a background in finance, modeling, project management, and has served as a future of mobility thought leader. His public sector experience includes working as an innovation fellow with both the MBTA and LA Metro.

His academic background also integrates business and public policy: Tejus holds an MBA from UCLA with a focus on real estate and supplementary coursework in urban planning and has a BA in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Chicago. Tejus currently lives in San Francisco and can be found often riding a bike on the slow streets!

Bonnie Soriano

Chief of the Freight Activity Branch (Transportation and Toxics Division)

California Air Resources Board

Bonnie Soriano is the California Air Resources Board’s Chief of the Freight Activity Branch (Transportation and Toxics Division). At CARB, the Transportation and Toxics Division is working with agency partners and stakeholders to implement a broad program that includes regulations, incentives, and policies designed to support the transformation to a more sustainable freight system and reduce community impacts from freight operations in California.

Matt Hart

Chief Executive Officer

Momentum

Trained in civil engineering and economics, Mr. Hart has worked with clean technology and sustainable environmental practices throughout the United States, South America, Asia, and Africa. Mr. Hart’s expertise focuses on zero-and near-zero-emission, on-and off-road equipment demonstration and community-scale renewable energy generation, including micro-grids, solar, wind, hydro-power and organics waste management.

In his work, he focuses on a complete life-cycle approach to clean technology solutions that results in sound economic, environmental, and equitable projects that shift energy production and utilization toward a sustainable future. Mr. Hart brings a comprehensive and analytical engineering and financial approach to his work with Momentum that includes: technology evaluations, greenhouse gas life cycle modeling, carbon pathway modeling, environmental review, air permitting, financial and economic feasibility studies, sensitivity modeling and analysis, resource assessments and siting study & evaluation.

Kai Martin

Vice President for Strategic Programs

Pasha Group

Kai Martin is the Vice President for Strategic Programs at the Pasha Group. Kai leads Pasha’s ESG Environmental Sustainability, Energy Management, Quality, Security and Business Resiliency programs and was recently recognized by NAMEPA as the 2022 Marine Environment Protection Individual Award recipient.

Prior to The Pasha Group, Kai held the position of Commercial Transportation Chief, US Forces Iraq, serving as a U.S. Naval Officer and continues to serve as a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Kai’s earlier experience included extensive marine port and inter-modal operations managing terminals, and led programs and teams for advanced automation, terminal improvement and greenfield projects. He holds an MBA-Global Management from American Military University, BS-Marine Transportation from California Maritime Academy.

Leela Rao

Senior Environmental Specialist

Port of Long Beach

Leela Rao is a Senior Environmental Specialist at the Port of Long Beach. In this capacity, she is working to implement the Clean Air Action Plan, a joint effort with the Port of Los Angeles to reduce emissions from all freight transportation sources operating at the ports. Leela is the environmental staff lead on the Clean Truck Program, which aims to achieve zero emission drayage operation by 2035, and manages the Port’s largest demonstration grant, a project valued at over $100 million to demonstrate over 100 pieces of zero and near-zero emission equipment. She also manages the Port’s harbor craft and air monitoring programs. Prior to her work at the Port of Long Beach Leela was a manager at the California Air Resources Board and a staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Carolina Chacon

Coalition Manager

Alliance for Electric School Buses

Carolina leads the Alliance for Electric School Buses, a national coalition of not-for-profit groups committed to an equitable transition of the nation’s school bus fleet, starting in the communities most harmed by air pollution and creating good U.S. jobs along the way. Carolina has over a decade of experience in community outreach and education, community organizing, communications and strategy, and project management.

For the last six years, she has worked as a consultant within the environmental field on advocacy work for clean energy, lands protection, and climate action, with a focus on elevating marginalized voices. Since 2017, she has worked on the Clean Buses for Healthy Niños campaign for Chispa, a Latinx organizing program by the League of Conservation Voters, pushing to prioritize Black and Brown communities in the transition to a clean ride for kids.

Gilbert Blue Feather Rosas

Director II Sustainability & Adaptation

Modesto City Schools

Gilbert Rosas has specialized in energy conservation, emissions reduction, and grant project management for the past ten years. His passion is seeking environmental justice for disadvantaged communities through electric school bus adoption and empowering students through sustainability initiatives and green career path choices.

Gilbert serves as a co-chair for World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Advisory Council. In addition to WRI’s Advisory Council, Gilbert serves on Generation 180’s Solar Advisory Council and the District Innovation Hub for the California Environmental Literacy Initiative (CAELI). Gilbert has gained national attention with 2 of the fastest Electric School Bus (ESB) deployments in California’s history. In 2020, Stockton Unified School District went from design to construction, to buses arriving and charging in less than 11 months!

Lynn Ames

Vice President of Partnerships

Nuvve

Lynn Ames is the Vice President of Partnerships at Nuvve, managing the company’s global portfolio of strategic partners covering North America, Europe and Asia with a focus on integrating Nuvve’s V2G platform throughout the electrification ecosystem.

Nate Baguio

Senior Vice President of Commercial Development

The Lion Electric Co.

Sue Gander

Director, Electric School Bus Initiative

World Resources Institute

Josh D. Boone

Executive Director

Veloz

Josh Boone is the founding executive director of Veloz. Josh has worked in the zero-emissions vehicle field for more than 10 years, bringing the public and private sectors together to advance awareness, understanding and consideration for electric cars. He creatively brings his policy and technical background to grow engagement across a variety of networks to passionately implement Veloz’s Electric For All mission.

Previously, Josh was the deputy executive director of the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative upon which Veloz was founded. He led all Veloz development efforts to foster the initial concept, including directing work efforts to give the organization a name, brand, visual identity, philosophy and workplan while also spearheading board development.

Josh holds MS and BS degrees from the University of California, Davis, and has authored several scientific publications. He and his wife have three children and drive electric.

Munni Krishna

Strategic Partnerships Director

Veloz

Munni Krishna is the Strategic Partnerships Director for Veloz. She is leading Veloz’s ambitious new strategic phase of revenue growth to realize the full potential of current members, expand Veloz’s membership base and build new relationships and funding partnerships in philanthropy.

Previously, Munni has worked in the electric vehicle industry for a decade, developing partnerships with local government entities, building electric highways throughout California, and most recently in a global business development role for electric vehicle manufacturers. Throughout her career, she has partnered with state entities to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles and access to charging for all Californians.

Munni holds a BA in English Literature from UC Santa Barbara. She is a proud Bay Area resident and has driven electric since 2015.