Navigating the EV Ecosystem

In addition to being Veloz’s board of directors chair, Caroline Choi is senior vice president of Corporate Affairs at Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, and its parent company, Edison International. Choi is responsible for overseeing Government Affairs, Public Affairs, Corporate Communications and Corporate Philanthropy on national, state and local levels.

Choi is active in national policy and community engagement, serving on the executive board of Smart Electric Power Alliance, a nationwide organization that supports utilities in the implementation and deployment of clean energy and distributed resources. Choi holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College.

Cynthia Williams is the Global Director, Sustainability, Homologation and Compliance, at Ford Motor Company. She is responsible for sustainable business plans and policies, environmental negotiations with regulatory bodies around the world, reporting on the company’s environmental and social performance, and engaging with non-government organizations and other external stakeholders. Since joining Ford in 1992, as part of the Ford College Graduate Program in the Automotive Emissions and Fuel Economy Office, Cynthia held several positions, which included Ford’s Sustainability, Environment and Safety Director in Asia Pacific, Environmental Policy Manager, Energy Planning and Compliance Manager, and On-Board Diagnostics Production Compliance Programs Manager.

A native of Flint, MI, Cynthia earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Detroit Mercy.

A veteran of the automotive industry, Michael is the Director, EV Policy and Regulatory Affairs for General Motors. He has worked in the Electric Propulsion space for over 10 years as part of GM’s Product Planning and Strategy group. He led the advanced planning effort for GM’s next generation of battery electric vehicles, debuting in the form of the Cadillac Lyriq and Hummer EV.

Michael has worked all over the globe for GM on electrification and strategy projects. He leads GM Policy work on EV and battery supply chain topics.

He is a member of the Massachusetts Zero Emission Vehicle Commission, the Indiana EV Commission, and also sits on the advisory panel for Drive Change, Drive Electric, a public/private partnership between automakers and Northeast states to promote electric vehicles.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Aaron August is Vice President of Business Development & Customer Engagement at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), responsible for the strategy, design, implementation and effectiveness of the company’s clean energy programs including energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, low income and clean transportation. In this capacity, he has oversight of the account management team for small business, mid-market and large commercial business accounts, business development and local customer experience programs, including wildfire customer engagement for Customer Care.

August joined PG&E in 2013. Since joining PG&E his teams have earned national recognition in a variety of functions, including National Key Accounts Team of the year (2017 and 2018), Business Customer Champion Award (2018) and Gold Customer Service Awards for Small Medium Business Experience Delivery (2017).

August graduated from California State University, East Bay with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He has attended executive education programs at Stanford University and the University of Idaho. He has been an advisory board member for the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization.

Dianne Martinez is the Chair of East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), the community-governed power supplier to 14 Bay Area Cities and Alameda County.  She has been a member of Emeryville City Council since 2014, where she also served two one-year terms as Mayor.  She additionally serves on the board of StopWaste, a public agency responsible for reducing the waste stream in Alameda County and is a Trustee at the Garfield Foundation.

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

Miguel Romero is vice president of energy innovation for San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), one of Sempra’s California regulated utilities. As vice president of energy innovation, Romero oversees business development of hydrogen, clean transportation, and advanced clean energy technologies. Romero joined Sempra in 2004, with a majority of the time spent serving in various commercial development and management capacities, including renewable power development for Sempra Renewables, and mergers & acquisitions for Sempra. In his prior role, Romero served as Vice President of energy supply for SDG&E.

Romero holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of San Diego and a master’s degree in international affairs & management from the University of California, San Diego.

Obadiah Bartholomy manages SMUD’s Distributed Energy Strategy team which is responsible for developing enterprise strategy for electric vehicles, building electrification and energy efficiency, behind the meter solar and storage and load flexibility. His team works with customer, grid engineering, market, planning and pricing and financial teams to help evolve utility practices and programs to fully integrate and share benefits from distributed energy resources.

Obadiah has worked at SMUD for 20 years in research and strategy positions and has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly and an MS in Transportation Technology and Policy from UC Davis.

Dr. Shelley Francis, a former medical school faculty member, is a public health executive, entrepreneur and transportation disruptor. Dr. Francis is a managing partner at EVNoire, who’s work focuses on two pillars: E-Mobility Best Practices and E-Mobility Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The EVNoire Team specializes in providing business solutions to enhance electrification strategies for Utilities, Non-Profits, Auto manufacturers, Municipalities, Government Agencies, Public Health Organizations and Regional and National organizations to expand this market share. EVNoire also engages communities on workforce development opportunities in the alternative fuel/electric vehicle economy. The EVNoire Team provides opportunities to engage with multi-modal clean transportation through education and outreach, expanding charging infrastructure, marketing launches, workplace charging, workforce development and beneficial policies.

Adam is Uber’s global lead on sustainability and environmental impact within the Policy & Communications team, based out of San Francisco. Sustainability and cross-disciplinary engagement are running themes throughout his work experience in the nonprofit, government, and for-profit sectors.

Prior to joining Uber, he worked for five years helping investors build impact investing portfolios with positions at Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, Imprint Capital (a boutique investment advisory firm acquired by Goldman), and the Global Impact Investing Network (a research and advocacy nonprofit). Before impact investing, he spent seven years engaged in efforts to commercialize zero emission vehicle technologies with positions at the California Fuel Cell Partnership (a public-private partnership), the California Air Resources Board, and UTC Fuel Cells (a United Technologies Company). He holds an MBA from NYU Stern, an MPA from NYU Wagner, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and materials science from UC Davis.

Phil Pierce is the Senior Public Policy and Safety Strategy Manager at Zoox where he leads local policy strategy for the all-electric, autonomous vehicle company. Prior to joining Zoox, he managed public affairs and government relations for the SFMTA — the government agency charged with overseeing transportation planning and public transit in San Francisco.

He is a passionate urbanist and environmentalist having managed multiple campaigns and worked with advocacy organizations focused on making cities more sustainable and equitable. On weekends, you will find him taking long bike rides and dreaming of a future where AVs usher in a world that is greener, cleaner and safer.

Orville Thomas is CALSTART’s State Policy Director and oversees Budget and Legislative Advocacy in California. In his role, Orville coordinates CALSTART member companies around efforts to ensure public-private partnership around California’s ambitious climate change mitigation strategy in the transportation sector.

Orville has a long history of advocacy and community partnerships in transportation and public health. Prior to joining CALSTART, he worked as Government Relations Director for Lion Electric, a leading manufacturer of all-electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks and school buses. Before joining the clean transportation push, Orville worked on health equity as the Director of Government Affairs at the California Immigrant Policy Center. In that role he worked with the Newsom Administration on historic expansions of health care to disadvantaged communities. After serving the Administration of Governor Jerry Brown in California as a spokesperson for the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority and California Department of Public Health, Orville worked alongside the administration to pass a $5.4 billion annual increase for California transportation infrastructure through the legislature in 2017 and protect it at the ballot box in 2018.

Paul Stith is a recognized leader in the transportation electrification space. At Black & Veatch he is the is associate vice president of global transportation initiatives. With more than 30 years’ experience in technology and business, and active in electrification for over a decade on policy, program development and execution for light, medium and heavy-duty vehicle charging infrastructure in urban, distributed and corridors.

Stith leads teams planning and building sustainable transportation and distributed clean energy infrastructure. He works on BV projects that span the globe, from North America, South America to Europe and Asia, as he supports investors, developers, OEMs, utilities, fleets and transportation service providers to electrify and automate ground, aviation and marine fleets.

Matthew Nelson is the Director of Government Affairs for Electrify America, LLC. He previously served as the Chief of Staff in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Matthew also served as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Senior Policy Advisor for Energy, Transportation and Climate Change for seven years.

Mark Pastrone is the Chief Operating Officer for SemaConnect, Inc. Mark joined SemaConnect in 2010, just before the start of the new mass market EV industry. He led the market launch of SemaConnect’s EV charging solution designed for commercial applications such as multifamily, workplace, retail and hospitality charging services. Today SemaConnect is a leading developer, producer and supplier of networked charging solutions in North America.

Prior to SemaConnect, Pastrone worked in the aerospace industry leading the development of several commercial space ventures at Orbital Sciences Corporation including GeoEye, acquired by DigitalGlobe. He earned a bachelors and masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Josh D. 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 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.