Burridge Conference

Event Details

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Mile High Station
2027 W Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80204

Program overview:
5:00pm: Check-in at Mile High Station
5:00–6:30pm: Networking
6:30–9:00pm: CO Secretary of State Jena Griswold will kick off the conference. Her remarks will be followed by Sitdown and a Dinner with Keynote Panel

Friday, February 28, 2020

Arrow Touchdown Club @ Folsom Field
2100 Stadium Dr, Boulder, CO 80302

Program overview:
7:00am: Check-in at Arrow Touchdown Club @ Folsom Field
7:00–8:30am: Registration/Check-in, breakfast provided
8:30–9:00am: Welcome Remarks
9:00–10:00am: Session 1
10:15–11:15am: Session 2
11:30am–12:30pm: Presentation & Networking Lunch
12:45–1:45pm: Session 3
2:00–3:00pm: Session 4
3:00pm: Closing Remarks

Conference Panelists and Moderators

Jena Griswold

Secretary of State
State of Colorado

Jena Griswold is Colorado’s 39th Secretary of State, and the youngest Secretary of State in the United States.

Secretary Griswold grew up in a working-class family in rural Colorado and was the first person in her family to attend a four-year college and then law school. She knows first-hand how important it is for every vote to count and for every Coloradan's voice to be heard, no matter their background or income. Griswold has practiced international anti-corruption law and she worked as a voter protection attorney in Colorado on a presidential campaign. She served under John Hickenlooper as the Director of the Governor’s DC Office, where she helped bring back hundreds of millions of relief dollars to help the Colorado communities hit by the 2013 flood. She is also the first Democrat elected to the Secretary of State’s office in 60 years.

During Jena's first year as Secretary of State, she successfully shepherded one of the most comprehensive campaign finance reform package in the nation. Her leadership has made Colorado a national leader in campaign finance, with legislation aimed at increasing transparency and access to elections for everyday people. Some of the laws she championed were:

Clean Campaign Act of 2019: Shines light on dark money and requires corporations to disclose their political ads.
Lobbyist Transparency Act: Gives Coloradans better information about who is working to influence lawmakers' decisions.
Automatic Voter Registration: Increase eligible Coloradans' access to register to vote.
Colorado Votes Act: Expands voting access for all eligible Coloradans, especially young people, working people, and people living on tribal lands.

DAY 1 - PANEL 1

Moderator, followed by Panelists (alphabetically)

Josh Whitney

Executive Director, North American lead
Anthesis Group

Josh specializes in supporting clients to develop strategic programs that anticipate stakeholders pressure and respond to external disclosures like CDP, while delivering corporate and long-term value.

Josh has focused his career at the intersection of technology and sustainability. He has over 17 years of management consulting experience spanning Fortune 1000-sized firms to start-up businesses across a range of sectors including technology, retail and CPG, energy and clean technology, and industrials.

Josh is an expert in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, Scope 3 and supplier engagement, and is currently working with numerous clients on their value chain-wide renewable energy, carbon strategies and emissions reduction programs to achieve targets aligned to climate science.

Josh is a member of the founding team at Anthesis, and previously led the firm’s North American Advisory & Communications practice. Prior to working at Anthesis, he led WSP’s US-based Environment & Energy Corporate Sustainability consulting practice and completed an MBA focused on Entrepreneurship and Sustainability from the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Om Bhatia

Chief Financial and Revenue Officer
Paracel S.A.

Mr. Bhatia has a unique combination of finance and operations experience within Global Pulp and Paper industry and Investment Banking.

During the recent 15 years of working experience in New York at Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Macquarie Bank includes: providing solutions on commodities risk management, project financing, and M&A. He recently participated in sale of assets to Asian companies while working as a CFO of a large pulp & paper corporate in Vancouver, BC. Prior to the 15 years mentioned, Mr. Bhatia had global operational experience including production management, international sales and marketing, process control & information technology, and corporate strategy & finance.

Orcas Global LLC focuses on financial & business consulting for global sustainable brands and initiatives, including fashion industry, plastic replacement, biodegradable fiber for packaging, etc.

Michael LaMotte

Senior Managing Director
Guggenheim Securities

Michael LaMotte is a Senior Managing Director in the Energy Investment Banking group of Guggenheim Securities, LLC.

Mr. LaMotte joined the firm in February, 2010 as a founding partner of the Equities business, where he was Head of Energy Research and a member of the Research Oversight Committee until his move to banking in February of 2019. Michael has over 25 years of institutional equities experience, and has been responsible for all sub-sectors of the oil and gas industry over the course of his career. He is most known for his work in the Oil Services & Equipment sector, where he wasrecognized repeatedly as a top analyst by Institutional Investor magazine and the Greenwich Survey. Prior to joining Guggenheim, Mr. LaMotte served as Head of Americas Energy Research, and Senior Oil Services & Equipment / Integrated Oils & Refining Analyst at JPMorgan Securities, Inc. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University.

Gerrit Nicholas

Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Orion Energy Partners

Gerrit Nicholas is Co-Founder and Managing Partner and is focused on originating and structuring investment transactions.

Mr. Nicholas is Chair of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) Committee and a member of the Management Committee and the Investment Committee.

Mr. Nicholas is an observer to the board of directors of Future Energy Solutions, Midland Basin Partners, Mohegan Energy Trustees, Martin Energy, CarbonLITE, and FuelCell Energy.

Prior to founding Orion Energy Partners, Mr. Nicholas spent six years as President and Managing Partner of K Road DG and K Road Power where he led the acquisition and development of renewable energy and storage companies / assets. Prior to that, Mr. Nicholas spent six years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as Head of Environmental Commodity Sales where he led Goldman’s U.S. renewable energy and carbon market transactions, structuring commodity linked credit and equity transactions for Goldman and its clients. While at Goldman Sachs, he also led commodity risk management and commodity linked capital raising activities for the U.S. municipal and cooperative power sectors.

Previously, Mr. Nicholas headed development and merger and acquisition activities for The AES Corporation in Southern Europe. While at AES, Mr. Nicholas’ activities focused on the company’s investments in thermal and renewable generation assets, natural gas and LNG infrastructure.

Mr. Nicholas received a B.A. from Harvard University cum laude, and an M.A. from The School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Zach Warner

Vice President
Guggenheim Investment Banking

Zach is a Vice President within Guggenheim’s Power, Energy and Renewables Investment Banking Group.

Guggenheim Investment Banking is a global investment banking team, with offices in New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago and Houston, focused on advising companies across the energy value chain. He is based in New York. Zach is a graduate of Union College (NY) with a concentration in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, fine art and classical studies, and holds a MBA from the Leeds School at the University of Colorado Boulder. Zach is passionate about transformative investments focused on global energy supply and scarcity, environmental conservation and sustainability.

DAY 1 - PANEL 2

Moderator, followed by Panelists (alphabetically)

Cyndi Thomas

Managing Director, Institutional Advisory Services, RCLCO

Cyndi is a Managing Director at RCLCO in the Institutional Advisory Services group and is focused on driving performance of asset plans for an extensive portfolio on behalf of various pension funds.

Previously, Cyndi was a partner and executive vice president of Etkin Johnson’s Asset Management team, and oversaw the management, financial performance and business strategy for the company’s extensive Colorado portfolio. Other experience includes real estate acquisitions, financing, restructurings, and asset management at CenterSquare Investment Management, Buchanan Street Partners, and Clarion Partners. Outside of RCLCO, Cyndi is member of the Urban Land Institute – Small Scale Development Product Council and the Chairman of the CU Real Estate Center International Advisory Board.

Stephanie Copeland

Managing Partner
Four Points Funding

Stephanie is Managing Partner at Four Points Funding.

Prior to that, Stephanie Copeland was appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper to his cabinet as Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade in January 2017. She joins OEDIT most recently from The Zayo Group, where she served as a president of the communications infrastructure services firm. She was part of a leadership team taking the company public, managing full P&L and operational responsibilities for Zayo’s network services. Previously, she served as chief operating officer at WildBlue, where she was responsible for the operations of the $500 million rural broadband business.

Copeland started her career in sales and quickly established herself as a thought leader. In the early 1990s, she moved to St.Petersburg, Russia to take a management position with Cable and Wireless, establishing a joint venture to bring competitive telecommunications to the region. Copeland moved back to the U.S. in 1994, as part of the team that started MFS International, a company that built some of the first competitive telecom networks in Europe.

Joining the early team at Level 3 communications in 1997, Copeland developed and ran the first transport products for the company in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In 2001, Qwest communications recruited her to run pricing for the company, spanning the consumer, small and large business segments. She remained at Qwest for ten years until the sale of the company to Centurylink, holding several leadership roles including the vice president of marketing and the vice president of the small business segment.

Copeland holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois in German and Commercial studies. She completed post graduate courses at the University of Paderborn in Paderborn, Germany.

Dixon Dick

Executive Director, CoSolve

Dixon helps to realize resilient local communities through coworking, education and startup development.

Dixon Dick is a Founder of a coworking development company, Founder of a Smart City company and SVP of Creative Innovations for Arcana Capital Group. Dixon’s career followed a technical path through the PC development era at IBM and Compaq Computer Corp. and into the startup era, with deep technical and leadership roles. He is a founder of for-profit startups as well as non-profit startup education and makerspace organizations, designed to build more flexible and productive eco-systems. At Arcana Capital Group, Dixon combines vision, experience, team and opportunity to find unique and valuable solutions to innovate information based problems for cities.

Carla Fredericks

Director of the American Indian Law Clinic and Director of First Peoples Worldwide.

At Colorado Law, Fredericks leads a year-long clinic in which students have the opportunity to represent American Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals in a variety of matters, designed to ready students for the complexities of general counsel work.

Fredericks is also of counsel to Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan LLP, where she focuses on complex and appellate litigation and Native American affairs, representing Indian tribes and organizations in a variety of litigation and policy matters. She is chair of the Board of Trustees for the Mashantucket Pequot (Western) Endowment Trust, and has been appointed by the American Indian College Fund as its representative to the Indian Education Scholarship Holding Fund as part of the Cobell v. Salazar settlement.

Fredericks began teaching at Columbia Law School in New York, teaching Columbia's Legal Practice seminar, focused on development of research, writing and appellate advocacy skills and working with Columbia's National NALSA moot court competition team. Previously a partner at Milberg LLP in New York, Fredericks founded Milberg's Native American practice and directed the firm's civil/human rights litigation. She is an enrolled member of the Mandan Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation of North Dakota.

Carla is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Columbia Law School.

DAY 2 - PANEL 1

Moderator, followed by Panelists (alphabetically)

Tim Wolf

President
Wolf Interests

Tim is President of Wolf Interests, Inc., the investment entity that he established after he retired as Chief Integration Officer of MillerCoors Brewing Company in June, 2010.

Prior to MillerCoors, Tim was CFO of Coors Brewing Company where he helped drive the company’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Bass Breweries. Prior to coming to Colorado, Tim spent time with PepsiCo, the Walt Disney Company, and Euro Disney. Tim graduated from Harvard College in 1974 with a BA in economics, and an MBA in finance and marketing from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Tim serves on the advisory board of the Burridge Center for Finance.

Alice K. Jackson

President, Xcel Energy - Colorado
Xcel Energy

Alice K. Jackson is President of Xcel Energy – Colorado, a company serving 1.4 million electric customers and 1.3 million natural gas customers.

The company is a recognized industry leader in delivering affordable and reliable service, providing clean energy choices, and in reducing carbon and other emissions. Since joining Xcel Energy in 2011, Ms. Jackson has held various positions of increasing responsibility. Most recently Ms. Jackson was Vice President of Strategic Revenue Initiatives, where she built a team to generate new revenues through exploring and integrating new technologies and economic development initiatives in addition to looking at new options for Xcel Energy’s unregulated businesses. Prior to her corporate strategic role, Alice held the lead regulatory position with Xcel Energy—Texas/New Mexico and then with Xcel Energy—Colorado.

Before her time with Xcel Energy, Alice spent close to 10 years with Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) managing the energy needs of this large consumer across the country. Through her involvement in the federal and state electric markets, multiple rate cases, and interaction with customers large and small, Alice developed a unique respect for utilities and their contributions to society.

Because having a full-time career, being married to her high school sweetheart and having four sons is not enough of an adventure in life, Alice recently took on the challenge of advancing her business acumen. In 2017 Alice completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard University. Before her professional experience, Alice obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University.

Reuben Munger

Managing Partner
Vision Ridge Partners

Reuben Munger founded Vision Ridge Partners in 2008 in order to bring decades of value investing experience to bear on financial opportunities presented by sustainable solutions.

A former Partner with The Baupost Group, LLC, a investment firm with over $30 billion in assets, Reuben has also been a consultant to Texas Pacific Group and an investment banker with James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. His passion and expertise in electrified mobility, renewable electricity generation, the built environment, and other assets make him a leader in sustainable investing. Reuben is Chairman of Securing America's Future Energy, a trustee of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a founding member of the Executive Committee of the Electrification Coalition, and a member of the League of Conservation Voters board of directors and serves on the boards of numerous private companies including GSSG Solar LLC, Guzman Energy Inc., EVgo Services LLC, and Key Capture Energy Inc. Mr.
Munger has over twenty years of investment experience in Norway, Europe more broadly and the United States. He graduated magna cum laude from Washington and Lee University with a B.A. in Politics and Economics and a B.S. in Business Administration.

Lang Reynolds

Director of Electric Transportation
Duke Energy Corporation

Lang is responsible for developing and implementing corporate strategy towards increasing adoption of electric transportation throughout Duke Energy’s electric service territories.

Electric transportation technologies covered by his team include on-road light duty electric vehicles (EV) as well as medium and heavy-duty applications, along with non-road applications such as material handling and refrigerated trailers. Lang assumed his current position in 2019 and has managed electric transportation initiatives within Duke Energy since 2017, following the expansion of the economic development team to include electrification strategy. Prior to this role he worked across several teams within Duke Energy Renewables and distributed energy technology including national accounts marketing, commercial solar project finance, utility-scale solar development, battery storage and electric vehicles. Lang joined Duke Energy in 2015 following completion of his MBA at the University of Colorado. Prior to business school, he worked in finance for Morgan Stanley. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Swarthmore College.

See also the Duke Energy EV webpage HERE

Joshua Smith

Director, Innovation and Research
Manna Tree Partners

Dr. Josh Smith specializes on leveraging research to support corporate performance by developing a clear strategy as well as deriving and measuring key metrics.

Josh's international collaboration across companies, governments and academia has resulted in numerous patents and peer-reviewed journal publications. Josh joins Manna Tree Partners from the electric vehicle industry, where he spent the previous 8 years leading international advanced research and development teams at both Audi AG (Germany) and NIO (China). In parallel, he led the development of auxiliary vehicle and powertrain systems to enable autonomous driving. Having capitalized on the significant disruption that the automotive industry has undergone with the emergence of both autonomous and electric vehicles, Josh is thrilled to enter the food space in its current state of upheaval and opportunity.
At Manna Tree Partners, Josh uses his research background to support the team in developing robust reporting and monitoring metrics, including Environmental Sustainability Goals (ESG). Josh leverages Manna Tree Partners’ proprietary network to scientifically analyze the food space, enabling the value creation in companies that truly enhance human performance and longevity.
Josh holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder, as well as a Doctorate of Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) from the Institute of Thermodynamics at the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany).
As a native of Vail, Josh has always been passionate about the outdoors and endurance sports. He was an NCAA cross-country ski racer at the University of Colorado, where he also served as team captain. He enjoys spending as much time as possible ski touring, running and cycling through the mountains with his wife and daughter.

DAY 2 - PANEL 2

Moderator, followed by Panelists (alphabetically)

Elias Bachmann

Director of Private Investments & Portfolio Manager
BSW Wealth Partners

Elias joined the firm in late 2009 as an Investment Advisor. Prior to joining the firm he helped manage a discretionary equity and fixed income portfolio for the clients of a wealth management team at Wells Fargo Advisors. At BSW Wealth Partners he oversees the firm’s direct real estate investing activities, manages client portfolios, and is a member of the firm’s investment committee.

Elias completed both his Bachelors and MBA degrees at the University of Colorado in Boulder. While completing his MBA, he and his team won the Business Plan Competition at the Leeds School of Business and subsequently went on to compete nationally. He also holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.

It seems like another lifetime but he has fond memories of running mountain biking camps for Boulder-based Dirt Camp. He enjoys the outdoors and traveling – taking great pleasure in back country skiing and mountain biking. Travel, when it isn’t to visit his various family members around the globe, probably involves warm water and waves with his wife Trish.

Anthony Eames

Director of Responsible Investment Strategy
Calvert

Anthony Eames is a Vice President and director of Responsible Investment Strategy for Calvert Research and Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eaton Vance Management.

Mr Eames is responsible for the suite of strategies focused on responsible investing, encompassing actively and passively managed U.S. and international equity strategies, fixed-income strategies and asset allocation funds. Anthony is responsible for client communications and insights on investment strategy and portfolio positioning. He joined Calvert Research and Management in 2016 when Eaton Vance acquired the business assets of Calvert Investment Management, forming Calvert Research and Management.

Anthony began his career in the investment management industry in 1995 with Calvert Investment Management. He has been affiliated with the Eaton Vance organization since 2016. Before joining Eaton Vance, he was senior vice president and national sales manager at Calvert Investment Management. Previously, he represented Calvert as senior regional vice president in the Northeast and held various roles in client services and sales.

Anthony earned a B.A. from Wittenberg University. He holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary and Accredited Asset Management Specialist designations, and FINRA Series 7, 24 and 63 licenses.

Patrick Lee

Managing Regional Director
Natixis Investment Managers

Patrick Lee is a Managing Regional Director in the Institutional Development Unit at Natixis Investment Managers.

In this role, he interacts with public and corporate pension plan sponsors, foundations and endowments, and consulting firms serving similar clientele in the Southwest US territory. Since joining the firm in 2011, he has lived in Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas where he worked with a diverse range of clients and prospects in the wirehouse and independent channels.

Prior to joining Natixis, Mr. Lee was responsible for business and partnership development at Cayan, LLC, a Bostonbased electronic payment processing firm. Mr. Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts in public policy from Hobart College. He is FINRA Series 6, 63, and 7 licensed.

Todd Mathias

Franklin Templeton Companies LLC
San Mateo, California, United States

Todd Mathias is responsible for positioning and providing technical expertise for Franklin Templeton's global suite of smart beta and passive ETFs.

Todd Mathias is and is a regular speaker at industry conferences and events. His responsibilities also include leading the strategy and development of the global ETF platform. Mr. Mathias has 13 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton in 2016, Mr. Mathias spent almost 6 years at BlackRock as an ETF Product Strategist working in both the San Francisco and more recently the London office. He partnered with distribution teams to differentiate more technical products, inclusive of the global smart beta suite. Prior to BlackRock, Mr. Mathias worked in global manager research at Callan Associates and in defined benefit sales at Vanguard. Mr. Mathias earned his B.S. in business from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

DAY 2 - PANEL 3

Moderator, followed by Panelists (alphabetically)

Chris Leach

W.W. Reynolds Capital Markets Program Chair Professor of Finance
Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder

J. Chris Leach, Ph.D. has taught undergraduates, MBAs and executives at the Wharton School, Carnegie Mellon, and the Indian School of Business. Prof. Leach is the co-author of the best-selling textbook Entrepreneurial Finance, 7th edition, that applies tools and techniques of corporate finance to the entrepreneurial venture.

Educational Background

PhD (Finance), Cornell University, 1988
MS, (Management – Economics), Cornell University, 1986
MBA., (Finance Concentration), University of New Mexico, 1985 Summa Cum Laude
BS, (Computer Science), Oral Roberts University, 1981 Summa Cum Laude

Teaching Interests

Corporate and venture financing Derivative securities markets

Honors Faculty

Associate, Burridge Center for Securities Analysis and Valuation
Trefftzs Award for Outstanding Research, Western Finance Association
American Association for Individual Investors Doctoral Dissertation
Award, AAII and the Financial Management Association
Graduate Professor of the Year, University of Colorado
MBA Teaching Excellence Award, University of Colorado

Daniel Baruch

Director, Global Energy Markets & Business Development, Ursa Space Systems

Daniel Baruch’s background spans across global physical and financial energy commodity markets with experience in crude oil & natural gas liquids (NGLs) at Glencore, natural gas & power at Morgan Stanley, and multi-asset alternative investments at AllianceBernstein. He is currently the Director of Global Energy Markets & Strategic Business Development at Ursa, a satellite radar-based alternative data firm, where he’s focused on leveraging new technological capabilities to deliver transparency to opaque markets and provide more timely insights for the commodity trading, hedge fund, alternative investment, banking and research sectors.

Daniel also serves on the Strategic Advisory Council of the University of Colorado’s JPMorgan Center for Commodities Global Energy Management Program and has helped shape GARP’s Energy Risk Professional (ERP) certification for professionals across the physical and financial energy markets. He has also consulted on various projects, sharing his expertise across the global commodities sector for clients in the private equity, hedge fund, investment management, and strategy consulting space. Daniel has been named one of the Top 100 People in Finance in 2020 and been a frequent speaker at energy industry and alternative investment conferences.

Zach Dan

Co-Founder and Partner
Act Analytics

As co-founder of Act Analytics, Zach Dan's work is led by the belief that modern investment can evolve to face mounting global crises and change.

He holds expertise in the fields of quantitative analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has extensive experience in developing systematic investment strategies, new product development, workflow automation and the construction of new research platforms. His work exists at the intersection of technology and finance, helping to define Act Analytics as a leading model for ESG investment and sustainable prosperity.
Before Act, Zach was a quantitative analyst with Aventine Asset Management in Toronto. He holds an MS in Computer Science from The Georgia Institute of Technology, specializing in Machine Learning. He also holds a BSE in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Michigan.

Jon Hale

Head of Sustainability Research
Morningstar

Mr. Hale directs Morningstar research into the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing practices of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

An incisive analyst and writer, Hale authors the biweekly "Sustainability Matters" column on Morningstar.com. He's regularly quoted by the media on ESG matters and speaks often on sustainable investing at industry conferences and other events. Prior to assuming his current role, Hale held a number of other leadership positions in Morningstar's research and investment management divisions, most recently serving as head of manager research in North America. Hale, who holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Oklahoma and his doctorate at Indiana University. We're pleased to have him as our guest.

https://www.morningstar.com/authors/1855/jon-hale

Patrick Reilly

Director of Analytics
Factset

Pat Reilly, CFA, is Vice President, Regional Director of FactSet’s Analytics solutions for the Americas.

In this role, he focuses on providing content, analytics, and attribution solutions to clients across equities, fixed income, and multi-asset class strategies.

Prior to this role, Mr. Reilly headed the Fixed Income Analytics team in EMEA and began his career at FactSet managing the Analytics sales for the Western United States and Canada. Before joining FactSet, he was a Credit Manager at Wells Fargo and an Insurance Services Analyst at Pacific Life. Mr. Reilly earned a degree in Finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the University of Southern California and is a CFA charterholder.

DAY 2 - PANEL 4

Moderator, followed by Panelists (alphabetically)

Heidi VanGenderen

Chief Sustainability Officer
University of Colorado

Heidi is currently the University of Colorado Boulder’s first Chief Sustainability Officer.

She returned home to Colorado in 2017 from Washington, DC where she served as the Director of Public Engagement at the U.S. Department of Energy as an appointee of President Barack Obama. Prior, Heidi was Director of National Outreach for the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and Senior Energy Advisor for the Worldwatch Institute. Heidi served as Colorado’s first gubernatorial climate advisor for Governor Bill Ritter. She staffed the Wirth Chair in Sustainability at CU Denver and served as Deputy Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. She is an alumnae of Carleton College.

Shaun Davies

Assistant Professor of Finance
Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Shaun received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics and his B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He obtained his M.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and he earned his Ph.D. in Finance from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Davies is also a CFA charterholder. Dr. Davies' research is best described as the intersection of applied game theory and financial markets. Dr. Davies bridges his practical industry experience with his financial economics training to deliver novel theoretic insights and empirical findings in exchange-traded funds, closed-end mutual funds, open-end mutual funds, investor leverage, corporate finance, delegated investment management, impact investing, socially responsible investments, and financial security design.

Ryan Lewis

Assistant Professor of Finance
Center For Research On Consumer Financial Decision Making
Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder

Ryan primarily researches the impact of financial intermediaries and institutions on asset prices. In particular, his work relates bankruptcy outcomes such as recovery rates, defaulted bond returns, and post emergence distributional efficiency to the influence of specialist distressed investors and the institutional foundations that govern US bankruptcy courts. He previously worked in the macroeconomics division at the NY Fed and remains an active member of the CFA.

Jason Neff

SILC Director, Principal Investigator, Professor, ENVS

Dr. Jason Neff is a Professor in the Environmental Studies program at CU Boulder.

Dr. Neff also directs the Sustainability Innovation Lab at Colorado (SILC), intended to accelerate innovative new approaches to sustainable development. Neff received his PhD in Biology from Stanford University (1999) and has been a professor at CU Boulder since 2003. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and an introductory environmental science digital text titled ‘A Changing Planet’. After many years in academic research Neff is now mostly focused on technology innovation and translation into real world impacts. These efforts include programs that develop mobile applications for land planning and agricultural development, cloud-based modeling tools for mobile agronomic decision support and working on new ways to connect research to market-oriented innovation for sustainability.