Speakers

Cullen Bash

Vice President and Director, Systems Architecture Lab, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Cullen Bash is a vice president of R&D at Hewlett Packard Labs and director of the Systems Architecture Lab. Focusing on a wide range of interrelated topics—including system and fabric architecture, system software, simulation and modeling, software-hardware co-design, optimization, and sustainability—the multidisciplinary lab is tasked with advancing next-generation systems architecture from research to revenue.

Previously, he served as director of the Platform Architecture Lab, where he led a cross-functional hardware, software, and architecture team that spanned several organizations and business units as part of the Machine program within Hewlett Packard Labs.

Bash also served as interim director of the Sustainable Ecosystems Research Group at Hewlett Packard Labs, where he led wide-ranging research into the sustainability of IT equipment and the use of IT to improve the sustainability of customer ecosystems. During this time, he was also principal investigator of the Sustainable Data Center project, which investigated the design and operation of data centers to reduce overall resource consumption. In previous roles, he has led research in thermal technologies over a variety of length scales, from integrated circuits to data centers. Bash has also taught undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in heat transfer and electronics cooling. He is a fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Cristina Botero

Senior Manager, Beneficial Electrification, ComEd

Cristina Botero is senior manager of the Beneficial Electrification (BE) team at ComEd, which is part of the Clean Energy Solutions organization. In her role, she serves as ComEd’s primary subject matter expert on electric vehicles, and her team is responsible for shaping and evolving ComEd’s BE plans, strategy, and offerings, including recently launched residential, business, and public sector rebate programs for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and fleet electric vehicles. She has been with ComEd for 4 years, previously managing the Distributed Energy Resources Engineering and Distribution Reliability Programs teams.

Prior to joining ComEd, Botero held multiple engineering roles with Tesla, BP, Argonne National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and GE focusing on diverse energy technologies, including carbon capture, power generation, biofuels, energy storage, and oil refining. She also has hands-on manufacturing experience at BP’s largest oil refinery in Indiana and Tesla’s battery gigafactory in Nevada.

Botero holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a diplom-ingenieur (bachelor’s and master’s degree) in chemical and bioengineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. She is currently pursuing an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Loren Burnett

President, CEO, and Co-Founder; Prometheus Materials

A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Loren Burnett is a high-energy, intensely engaged leader of technology companies—from early-stage to mature organizations. Burnett has founded six businesses, four of which were based on tech transfer agreements from NREL and universities. While at one such company—e-Chromic Technologies, an energy-efficient electrochromic window and film manufacturer—he developed a deep passion for making meaningful reductions in CO₂ emissions on a global basis.

Having worked with several venture capital and private equity- funded organizations, Burnett has secured approximately $190 million in financing. He has led one initial public offering filing, directed 17 mergers and acquisitions transactions, and executed five exits that netted shareholders more than $375 million in gains.

In pursuit of a single life-changing, world-shaping enterprise to which he could devote all of his professional passion, Burnett co-founded Prometheus Materials in March 2021 and now leads the company as its president and CEO.

Andrew Fang

Energy Advisor; Center for Energy, Infrastructure, and Cities; USAID

Andrew Fang is an energy advisor in the Center for Energy, Infrastructure, and Cities, supporting the Energy and Green Cities divisions of USAID. He co-manages the USAID-NREL partnership and Energy Efficiency for Development programs with a focus on electric vehicles and net zero buildings. Fang holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, a master’s degree from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs in science, technology, and environmental policy.

Gene Rodrigues

Assistant Secretary for Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy

Gene Rodrigues is the assistant secretary for electricity for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Office of Electricity drives technological and operational advancements in grid systems and components, grid controls and communications, and grid-scale energy storage to ensure that our nation’s power grid remains reliable, resilient, secure, and affordable.

Rodrigues also serves as DOE’s senior official on the federal interagency working group for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

Rodrigues brings more than three decades of industry experience to DOE as a nationally recognized expert in clean energy policy and programs. Prior to joining DOE, Rodrigues was vice president in the Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure practice at ICF, a global advisory and digital services provider. Before that, he garnered 23 years of industry experience as an executive at Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities.

Throughout his professional career, Rodrigues has held leadership positions in industry associations, including most recently as a member of the board of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the chair of the board for the California Efficiency + Demand Management Council, and the chair of the outreach committee for the bipartisan Alliance to Save Energy’s Active Efficiency initiative. Previously, he served as chair of the board for the Consortium for Energy Efficiency and as a board member on the China-U.S. Energy Efficiency Alliance and California’s Low-Income Oversight Board.

Rodrigues received a juris doctor from University of California Law, San Francisco (formerly U.C. Hastings College of the Law), and a bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University.