*Speakers are listed in alphabetical order. Check back for more speakers!*
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Viney Aneja
Viney Aneja is a Professor in the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University. He obtained his B. Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India; and MS and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Chemical Engineering, N. C. State University, Raleigh, N.C. Before joining the faculty of the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at N. C. State in 1987, he conducted and supervised research at Corporate Research and Development, General Electric Company, New York, and Northrop Service, in Research Triangle Park in the areas of environmental engineering and separations technology. In 2001 he was also appointed Professor of Environmental Technology, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. In addition, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Uppsala, Sweden in 1979; at Jawahar Lal Nehru University in New Delhi, India in 1980; and at the Arrhenius Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden in 1985. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture appointed him as a member of the U.S. Agricultural Air Quality Task Force. He is a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board Environmental Engineering Committee, and also a member of the US EPA’s SAB Integrated Nitrogen Committee. He is a Member Representative of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. |
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Laura Boothe
Laura Boothe has worked for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Air Quality for over 18 years. She worked in the Planning Section as an environmental engineer for 11 years and while in this position, worked on the development of area and nonroad mobile source emission inventories, coordinated the ozone modeling effort for the State and served as the emission inventory contact for North Carolina in regional modeling efforts. |
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Mr. Clarke serves as the General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Affairs for NGVAmerica. NGVAmerica is the national trade association dedicated to promoting natural gas as a transportation motor fuel. Mr. Clarke has extensive experience in energy policy and regulatory affairs, having previously worked in government relations for the American Gas Association and in a previous role for NGVAmerica. Prior to rejoining NGVAmerica in August of 2006, he worked for New West Technologies, serving as a Senior Project Manager, providing regulatory and legislative support for government agencies. He also previously worked for several years in the Washington Office of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), serving as a policy analyst, supporting transportation programs for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Mr. Clarke has a J.D. in law from the University of Baltimore and an undergraduate degree from James Madison University. |
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Gene Conti has over 30 years of public service and private business management experience. From 2001-2003, Conti, 63, served as Chief Deputy Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. He was responsible for cash management, safety initiatives, transportation planning and programming, and technology. Before his appointment to Chief Deputy Secretary in 2001, Conti served three years as Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the United States Department of Transportation. He was a principal advisor to USDOT Secretary Rodney Slater on infrastructure, finance, transportation safety, environmental impacts, economic growth, technology and mobility, and strategic planning. Conti worked as District Director for PBS&J’s mid-South district, overseeing all business development efforts and community relations. Given his background and expertise, he consults nationally on transportation finance, programming, and management issues. This is Conti’s second cabinet level appointment. From 1995-1998, he served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
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Todd Eaton
Todd Eaton is a sales representative for Altech-Eco Corp in Arden N.C. His comprehensive undersanding of the Natural Gas industry has made him very successful at conveying the benefits and dynamics of the natural gas industry as a whole. Altech-Eco Corporation is located in Western North Carolina in a 27,000SQFT State of the art, fully equipped conversion center including onsite research development, in-house emission testing facilities, with CNG Conversion System preassembly and assembly conversion areas and is leading the charge in the Alternative Fuels industry by creating real change, and real solutions for the CNG Market. |
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Dawn Fenton
Dawn Fenton joined the Diesel Technology Forum in 2005 and currently serves as the Forum’s Director of Policy. Dawn has worked in the government relations field for 20 years on a range energy, environment, foreign policy and trade related issues. Prior to joining DTF, Dawn worked as a lobbyist for Asea Brown Boveri where she had responsibility for energy and environment issues as well as the company’s U.S. based sustainability activities. She received her Masters degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and her Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University. |
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Leif Forer has been developing biofuel projects and advocating policy in the
renewable fuels sector for over a decade. Leif is President of the North
Carolina Biodiesel Association, a trade group convened with other industry
leaders and stakeholders for the purpose of establishing positive and sound
legislation to foster growth of a sustainable industry. He also oversees operations of Piedmont Biofuels, a producer, marketer and distributor of
biodiesel and related chemical co-products that he co-founded. Piedmont’s
leadership in the renewable energy industry is often called upon in
legislative policy needs, fuel quality concerns, technical problems and
biodiesel education efforts. The company manufactures an extensive line of
process components and turnkey plants with over 20 operational projects in
North and South America and is actively engaged in research and development programs with corporate, government and educational partners on enzymatic and cavitation conversion technologies, brown grease processing and value-added glycerin derivatives among others.
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Gov. Beverly Perdue named Mr. Dee A. Freeman Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Jan. 6, 2009, as part of her new Cabinet and administration. Freeman is a career public servant having served 36 years as a city manager and regional council director. Over his many years of public service in North Carolina, Secretary Freeman’s experience spans a wide array of environmental stewardship, economic development interests, and, most of all, the professional administration of government services for the people of the Tar Heel State. Secretary Freeman is a native of Lenoir and has managed four North Carolina cities during his career, including the city of Brevard and the city of Shelby. He concluded his service to local and regional government on Jan. 1, 2009, by retiring from his position as the executive director of the Triangle J Council of Governments in Research Triangle Park, an office he had held since 2000. In his professional management career Freeman has served on numerous state and national boards. Freeman is a past president of the North Carolina City & County Management Association, served as vice president of the National Association of Regional Councils, and is a past president of the North Carolina Association of Regional Council Directors, to just mention a few.
Secretary Freeman has an MPA from Appalachian State University, a B.S. from N.C. State University, and he holds a Municipal Administration Certificate from the UNC School of Government in Chapel Hill. He is a “Credentialed Manager” as designated by the International City & County Management Association. Secretary Freeman is married to Emily Reynolds Freeman and they have three children and two grandchildren. Secretary and Mrs. Freeman reside in Raleigh.
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Dan Gallagher
Dan Gallagher earned a Master’s of Science degree, in 1992, from Florida State University in Urban and Regional Planning. Over the last 17 years, Dan has worked to integrate land use and transportation for citizens in Orlando, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina. Before coming to Charlotte, Dan was the Transportation Planning Bureau Chief for the City of Orlando. In 2003, Dan joined the Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT). As CDOT’s Transportation Planning Section Manager, Dan currently supervises a staff of 10 transportation planners and engineers who are tasked with making Charlotte the premier city in the nation for integrating land use and transportation choices. Dan and his staff are responsible for Charlotte’s award winning Transportation Action Plan (TAP), $75M+ annual Capital Investment Program for transportation, including the $7.5M annual Pedestrian Program, and $1M annual Bicycle Program. Dan and his staff are helping to implement an array of transportation improvements that create a better community and a more livable Charlotte. |
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Drew Harbinson
He is a 1973 Graduate of Appalachian State University and a 1976 Graduate of UNC-Wilmington. Drew began his career as a small business owner from 1976 to 1985.In 1985 he sold his business and began his career with State Government as the Assistant State Purchasing Officer for the Division of Purchase and Contract in the Department of Administration. In 1991, Drew became the Director of Purchasing for the NC Department of Transportation, handling all of the contracting for services, materials, equipment, and supplies. In 2001, Drew became the Director of Fleet and Material Management where he currently manages the DOT Fleet made up of 23,000 pieces of light and heavy construction equipment. In addition to the fleet, Drew is responsible for the maintenance of 22 weigh station sites, 114 Fuel Sites, and the DOT Central Inventory. |
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As vice president of Air Group Ground Support Equipment, Bill Jacob oversees the maintenance, engineering and acquisition of ground support equipment, as well as environmental compliance. A native of Long Island, N.Y., Jacob joined UPS in 1988 as a ground support technician in the Louisville Air District. Three months later he was promoted into management and spent the next few years building experience and taking on increasing responsibilities. In 1990, Jacob was named ground support fleet manager in Louisville. In 1992, he was named ground support equipment division manager of UPS’s West Zone. He served as the Air Group’s ground support engineering manager from 1993 to 2000, then relocated to Hartford, Conn., to serve as automotive manager for UPS’s South New England District. He took on his current role in 2004. While serving a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy, Jacob received technical training in electronics. He is certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. A member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Jacob serves on the boards of the Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition, Wesley Manor Retirement Community and the Louisville Air Pollution Control District. |
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Michelle Kautz
Michelle Kautz is the Market Development Manager for Growth Energy, a proactive group committed to the promise of agriculture and growing America's economy through cleaner, greener energy. Through the Market Development office in Jefferson City, MO, she promotes and educates on E85 and ethanol blender pumps. Previously, Kautz held the position as Deputy Director of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) prior to the acquisition of NEVC by Growth Energy in June 2009. She began work with the NEVC in 2001. As an ethanol advocate, Kautz currently holds a seat on the Board of Directors of the Ethanol Producers and Consumers (EPAC).
Kautz graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in Communications, Mass Media and Journalism and a minor in Theatre. She currently resides in Lake Ozark, MO where she and her husband own a Mexican restaurant.
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Peter Maass is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and has reported on oil and conflicts across the globe, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the author of Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil, published in 2009 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. He is also the author of Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War, a memoir about the conflict in Bosnia that was published in 1996.
For Crude World, Maass conducted research in nearly every major oil-producing country, interviewing Saudi sheiks, Russian billionaires, Nigerian warlords, Venezuelan politicians, Iraqi leaders, Texas oilmen and many others. While investigating oil corruption in Equatorial Guinea--a relatively new oil producer in Africa--Maass was accused of being a spy and expelled. Crude World has received widespread acclaim. The Financial Times described it as an “outstanding” work of reportage. USA Today’s review stated, “Thousands of books about the oil culture exist in English, and thousands more in other languages. Maass’ book is in a class by itself, as he constructs his relentless indictment on a foundation of first-rate reporting and superb writing.” According to the Observer of London, “The strength of Crude World, filled with vivid reporting, is that it leaves you no option but to care.”
Maass began his journalism career in Brussels in the 1980s with The Wall Street Journal/Europe and subsequently was based in Seoul and Budapest for The Washington Post. After covering the Bosnian war in 1992 and 1993, Maass wrote Love Thy Neighbor, which won book prizes from the Overseas Press Club and the Los Angeles Times. On top of his work in recent years for The New York Times Magazine, Maass was a professor of journalism at Princeton University in 2008 and a Berlin Prize fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in 2009. He is a fellow this semester at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and is working on a new book about the political iconography of modern warfare. |
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Neil is responsible for defining vehicle and infrastructure solutions to accelerate demand of xEVs , and brings 20 years of experience in the automotive, advanced battery and technology industries. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, he ran Sales, Marketing and Business Development at Imara Corporation, a Silicon Valley venture-backed start-up in lithium-ion batteries. Neil started his career at General Motors/Delphi in Flint, Mich., as a metallurgist and chemist. He moved into product design and program management roles, including responsibility for all GM Truck fuel systems. He led the design and validation of GM’s first E-85 fuel system. After Delphi, he worked for Meritus Consulting, where he helped build a new chassis systems group at Visteon and consulted for fuel-cell engineering teams at General Motors and Visteon. |
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Brent McKinney
Brent received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from N.C. State and his M.S. in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. He began his career with the North Carolina Department of Transportation in 1972 and later worked for the City of Winston-Salem as City Traffic Engineer and Director of Transportation until 2001 when he became the Executive Director for the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation. Brent is active in professional transportation organizations at the state, regional, and international levels, and has received several awards from his peers at all levels. He has been an Adjunct Professor of Civil Engineering at North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro since 1997, and is a registered professional engineer in North Carolina.
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Todd Mouw
Todd is a 15 year veteran of the automotive, wireless and semiconductor industries. In 2009 Todd took a position with ROUSH, a leading Tier 1
powertrain development company, to lead the charge on developing, marketing and selling liquid propane injection technology to fleets for use in their light & medium duty trucks and vans.
He spends time working with small and large fleets across the country discussing how propane can help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, operating costs and their carbon footprint
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Julian Prosser was born and raised in Gainesville, Georgia. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Davidson College and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the City of Raleigh, he served as the Town Administrator for the Town of Wake Forest for 8 years. He began his career with the City of Raleigh in September 1980 in the Public Utilities Department. In 1984, he became the Director of the Community Development Department and remained there until 1995 when he became the Director of Administrative Services. In 2004, he was appointed Assistant City Manager. Currently he is involved in many projects including the development of Randleigh Farm as a model of sustainability, a 420-acre tract jointly owned by the City of Raleigh and Wake County. He serves in the staff leadership role for the City’s Environmental Advisory Board and is working with departments across the City to implement various environmental initiatives including efforts to reduce the City’s fossil fuel consumption by 20% and efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In conjunction with several city departments he hopes to raise awareness of what it means to be a sustainable city and help make Raleigh the most sustainable city in the Southeast |
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Vikram Rao is Executive Director, Research Triangle Energy Consortium, a non-profit in energy founded by Duke University, North Carolina State University, RTI International and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He recently retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Halliburton Company where he was responsible for the Company’s technology effort, as well as the setup and management of the intellectual asset management function. Previously Dr. Rao also held executive management positions in Research and Development, Product Launch, Reservoir Studies, and Sales and Marketing. He joined the Company in 1974 as a Senior Research Engineer. Dr. Rao serves in a technical advisory capacity to energy companies, technology companies, NGO’s and universities, in the US and elsewhere. Dr. Rao holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, along with a master’s degree and a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University. He is the author of more than 40 publications and has been awarded 26 patents. |
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Mike Rowand is Director, Advanced Customer Technologies for Duke Energy and is responsible for evaluation of emerging customer technologies and their integration with Duke’s smart grid planning. In this role, Mike has responsibility for Duke’s strategy and planning for electric transportation, including determining the impacts of plug-in vehicles on power delivery systems, customer service processes, and marketing programs. Mike joined Duke Energy in 1985 and has experience in a variety of areas including Transmission and Distribution Engineering, Customer Service, Rates and Regulatory processes, and Marketing. He is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a licensed Professional Engineer in NC and SC; and is a Certified Energy Manager. |
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Josh Stein
Josh was sworn in to the North Carolina Senate representing Senate District 16 on January 15, 2009. In his first year, he has hit the ground running, becoming one of the five most effective Senators at passing public bills benefiting his district and the state. Josh’s priorities include job creation, public education, health care reform, public transportation, clean water, and clean energy. Josh has been recognized as “Legislator of the Year” by the following diverse group of organizations for his work on these priorities:
As Senator, Josh is continuing a career already dedicated to public service.
Josh and his wife Anna Harris Stein have three children – Sam (11), Adam (8), and Leah (6). Josh grew up in the Triangle. He and Anna both attended North Carolina public schools, and so do their kids.
Josh recently successfully completed a three-year campaign as co-chair of Interact’s effort to raise $5 million to create a national model program for women and children who have been victims of domestic violence. In 2008, Interact recognized Josh as its volunteer of the year.
He and Anna are members of Temple Beth Or. He enjoys playing soccer, coaching his children's sports teams, participating in Y Guides with his boys, biking and watching college basketball.
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Nina Szlosberg-Landis is in her third term as an At-large member of the NC Board of Transportation representing environmental issues. She is Chair of the Board’s Environment Planning and Policy Committee (which she helped establish); Chair of the Board’s Multi-Modal Committee and Chair of the Transit Subcommittee. In 2000, Nina founded and continues to serve on the board of the non profit organization "The Hillsborough Street Partnership' which has successfully organized the community around the revitalization of a historic |
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Mike Waters
Mike Waters is the Advanced Transportation Program Manager for Progress Energy, a Fortune 500 energy company serving more than three million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. He is responsible for managing a variety of electric transportation initiatives and for developing the corporate strategy in regards to plug-in vehicle grid integration. Mike is currently involved with several industry working groups and partners, including GM, Ford, Nissan and EPRI, to help demonstrate vehicle technology and prepare the grid and communities for widespread plug-in vehicle adoption. Prior to joining Progress Energy in 2007, Mike worked as a professional manufacturing engineer for nine years with Corning Optical Fibers. He holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. |
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Steve Whaley
Steve Whaley is a member of the Alliance AutoGas Research & Development team for Blossman Gas, the nation’s largest independent propane company, and an Alliance AutoGas founding partner. The principal focus of his work with Alliance is promoting propane AutoGas as a clean alternative motor fuel for on and off-road engine platforms. Whaley has been integral to Blossman and Alliance AutoGas' research, testing, and implementation efforts for public and private fleets across numerous industries.
Steve has worked with fleets to secure federal funding for AutoGas vehicle conversions and fueling, through partnerships with Carolina Triangle Clean Cities and Virginia Clean Cities. Together with VCC, Alliance fleets were awarded over $9 million, fully funding conversions for nearly 1,200 vehicles and helping create green collar jobs (under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act).
Steve and his family currently reside in Greenville, South Carolina. He received a Bachelors of Science from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in Industrial Education from Clemson University. Steve was also honored with lifetime teaching credentials from the state of California. He is a frequent speaker at regional, as well as national, alternative energy transportation programs and conferences.
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Greg Zilberfarb
Greg Zilberfarb is currently working with the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC) to provide commercialization and outreach support for new products utilizing propane powered engines. His alternative fuels background is extensive and diverse. In addition to his work with PERC he is working with the National Biodiesel Board on OEM outreach and education. He was Executive Director of National Clean Cities Inc., a National Account Manager of AFVs with Ford Motor Company and Director of Marketing for the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition.
Greg is currently President of theSales.NetWork, a provider of education and outreach services to the alternative fuel industry headquartered in Virginia.
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