Brandeis International Business School
Best-selling author and New York Times columnist
Thomas L. Friedman, an internationally renowned author and journalist, has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. His foreign affairs column in The New York Times reports on U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, Middle East conflicts, international economics, the environment, biodiversity and energy.
For his coverage of the Middle East, Mr. Friedman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 and 1988 for international reporting. He was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary for “his clarity of vision…in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.” In 2004, he was awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement and the honorary title, Order of the British Empire (OBE), by Queen Elizabeth II.
Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won both the National Book and the Overseas Press Club Awards in 1989; a revised edition was released in December 2012. The Lexus and the Olive Tree won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best non-fiction book on foreign policy. Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, issued in 2002, consists of columns Friedman published about September 11. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, issued in April 2005 and updated in 2006 and 2007, received the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. In 2008, Friedman authored Hot, Flat, and Crowded, which was published in a revised edition a year later. His sixth book, That Used to Be Us: How American Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back, co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, was released in 2011. His latest book, Thank you For Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations 2.0, was updated and released 2017.
Moderator
Energy and climate change reporter, Axios
Amy Harder covers energy and climate change for Axios, and writes a weekly column called Harder Line. Harder's reporting includes exclusive scoops and analyses of national and global trends. She was the inaugural journalism fellow for the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute in 2018, contributing to the school's work through events, workshops and other discussions. Previously, she covered similar issues for The Wall Street Journal and National Journal.
Founder and CEO, GeoOrbital
Brandeis Alumni Entrepreneurship Award recipient
Michael Burtov has founded and led four companies — two of which he grew from a crazy idea to millions in revenue and millions in funding. He has funded his companies by using diverse methods that include being the first to raise over $1M with Rewards Crowdfunding and over $1M with Equity Crowdfunding. If you are a fan of SHARK TANK, you've likely seen Michael pitch to celebrity investors on TV or might have seen his work on the cover of TIME Magazine and in hundreds of media outlets ranging from the Discovery Channel to CNN to Forbes. He developed and teaches his controversial, and often counterintuitive, Evergreen startup funding method to hundreds of founders and executives all over the world at the invitation of organizations that include Harvard Business School, Harvard Innovation Labs and the MIT Sloan School of Management. He currently teaches his Evergreen framework at the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, where he is also the vice-chair of the Board of Directors.
Managing Director, Conveyor Ventures
This event has been cancelled.
Course: FIN 202a Corporate Finance
Jonathan focuses on investments in the consumer, businesses services, industrial and manufacturing sectors. He is experienced in helping companies go from concept to deployment and scaling beyond the early adopter phase of commercialization. His current project is Unity Laundry Systems, a disruptive, rapidly growing commercial laundry equipment business.
Before forming Conveyor Ventures, Jonathan was the global president of Xeros Cleaning Technologies, a UK public company that commercialized polymer-based technology to reduce our global water footprint. Before his role at Xeros, Jonathan was co-founder and CEO at Envoy Services, a diversified management holding company that owned and operated several B2B service businesses located in the eastern United States. Earlier in his career, Jonathan oversaw investments in early stage technology companies working in strategy and corporate development at Converge, a supply chain software company and at Gateway Computer. He began his career at GE Capital.
Jonathan received his undergraduate degree in business from Bucknell University and earned an MBA in general management at MIT Sloan School.
Chairman, Greentech Media and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables
Time: March 31, 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Course: BUS 253a Marketing Research
Scott Clavenna serves as Chairman of Greentech Media and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, where he contributes to the strategic guidance of Wood Mackenzie’s work in the global Energy Transition. Mr. Clavenna was the co-founder and CEO of Greentech Media and helped develop it into the leading source of integrated news, industry research, conferences and executive councils in the clean energy economy. Greentech Media was acquired by Wood Mackenzie in 2016 and is currently part of its Power & Renewables breakout. Prior to Greentech Media, Mr. Clavenna was a market analyst in the broadband telecommunications industry in various media and research organizations.
Team Leader, Product Development at VIA
Time: March 17, 5:00-6:20 p.m.
Course: BUS 212a Analyzing Big Data II
Ashley DaSilva, PhD, is the Team Leader, Product Development at VIA. In her role, Ashley is making a significant impact at the intersection of energy and technology at VIA. She is responsible for understanding user needs for one of VIA's solutions, GDAC™ Transformers, determining the timeline for implementation based on urgency, and distributing tasks between different team members based on abilities and career goals. Prior to VIA, Ashley was a visiting researcher at McGill University, where she also volunteered and led outreach efforts. Before moving to Montreal with her partner, she held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Texas, Austin.
Ashley holds a PhD in physics from the Pennsylvania State University, where she researched the electronic properties of graphene and topological insulators as part of an interdisciplinary research effort to study nanoscale materials. During her PhD, she also led a women in physics group and volunteered in physics outreach projects. In addition, Ashley holds a bachelor's degree in physics with a minor in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Co-Founder and CEO, Desalitech
Time: April 3, 2:00-3:20 p.m.
Course: BUS 248b Business in Global Markets: Israel
Nadav is the co-founder and CEO of Desalitech, the world’s leading water startup, whose breakthrough industrial water and wastewater purification appliances have revolutionized the way Fortune 500 companies treat their water. Under Nadav’s leadership, Desalitech has developed and pivoted its business strategy, productized its technology and brought its product to market, relocated its headquarters to Boston, built an all-star team, earned the repeat business from dozens of world-class companies across all six continents, consistently doubled its revenues and won the industry’s most prestigious water innovation and leadership awards.
Through his experience and accomplishments, Nadav has become a recognized thought leader, bridging between water and modern entrepreneurship through numerous international trade missions, public speaking appearances, including television and radio, and guest lectures at conferences and leading business schools. Prior to Desalitech, Nadav held various roles in an enterprise IT data storage company that was acquired by Dell, and that similarly to Desalitech, has challenged its industry’s status quo, bringing innovative appliances to enterprise customers. Before that, Nadav served in the Israeli Air Force as a search and rescue helicopter pilot from which he retired as a major. Nadav completed both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in computer science in fewer than three years, received summa cum laude designation for both and was awarded nine prizes, awards and scholarships.
In his free time, Nadav enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, and as much as he can, running, skiing, and playing soccer and basketball.
Executive Director, Project Drawdown
Time: April 3, 12:00-12:30pm
Course: BUS 260a Competition and Strategy
Dr. Jonathan Foley is a world-renowned environmental scientist, sustainability expert, author, and public speaker. His work is focused on understanding our changing planet, and finding new solutions to sustain the climate, ecosystems, and natural resources we all depend on.
Foley’s groundbreaking research and insights have led him to become a trusted advisor to governments, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and business leaders around the world. He and his colleagues have made major contributions to our understanding of global ecosystems, food security and the environment, climate change, and the sustainability of the world’s resources. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including many highly cited works in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named him a Highly Cited Researcher in ecology and environmental science, placing him among the top 1 percent most cited global scientists.
A noted science communicator, his presentations have been featured at hundreds of international venues, including the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club, the National Science March in Washington, D.C., and TED.com. He has taught at several major universities on topics ranging from climate change, global sustainability solutions, the future of the food system, and addressing the world’s “grand challenges”. He has also written many popular pieces in publications like National Geographic, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Scientific American. He is also frequently interviewed by international media outlets, and has appeared on National Public Radio, the PBS NewsHour, the BBC, CNN, and in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Salon, WIRED, the HBO documentary on climate change “Too Hot Not to Handle”, and the upcoming film series “Let Science Speak.”
Co-founder and Managing Director, Clean Energy Ventures; Board Chairman, New England Clean Energy Council
This event has been cancelled.
Course: FIN 202a Corporate Finance
Daniel Goldman is the co-founder and managing director of Clean Energy Ventures, a $110 million early-stage, advanced energy technology venture fund. He has more than 25 years of energy industry operational and investment experience, having been involved in more than $4 billion of energy infrastructure and venture finance transactions.
Prior to Clean Energy Ventures, Dan co-founded CEVG, one of the most active early-stage advanced energy investors in the U.S. with more than 30 portfolio investments between 2007 and 2018.
Previously, Dan was president and CFO at GreatPoint Energy, a venture/strategic-backed clean energy technology company that raised $280 million for development of commercial gasification technology, and prior to that served in executive positions in Asia and the U.S. at InterGen, a global power development company. Early in his career, Dan was a member of the energy consulting team at Arthur D. Little, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Singapore.
Dan holds board roles at REsurety, SparkMeter, LineVision and ConnectDER, as well as a number of board observer and advisory positions. He also serves as chair of the board of the Northeast Clean Energy Council. Dan received a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and is a member and past chair of the board of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
Dan lives in Newton, Massachusetts, and is a competitive masters’ road cyclist and world-qualifying triathlete.
ESG Reporting at Hershey Co.
Time: March 31, 6:30-9:20 p.m.
Course: FIN 235a Investing in Energy
Carly joined The Hershey Company in June 2019 and oversees Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting and sets the company’s science-based greenhouse gas goal. Prior to joining Hershey, Carly was the manager of ESG Investing at Boston Trust Walden Company, where she managed the evaluation of existing and potential securities relative to ESG factors and lead shareholder engagement initiatives on a range of sustainability issues including workplace equality, ESG reporting, and climate change.
Carly also served on the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advisory committees (2017-2019) and as president of the Boston Chapter of Building a Sustainable Investment Community (BASIC), a sustainable, responsible, and impact (SRI) investing professionals’ group (2015-2017).
Carly earned a BA magna cum laude in economics and international and global studies from Brandeis University and a Master of Arts in international economics and finance (MA) from Brandeis International Business School. Carly worked for two years with Walden as an intern while she completed her Master’s degree. She is also a Phi Beta Kappa key holder. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a member of the CFA Society Boston and the CFA Institute.
President, Environmental League of Massachusetts
Time: March 31, 6:30-9:20 p.m.
Course: FIN 235a Investing in Energy
Elizabeth Turnbull Henry took the lead of the Environmental League of Massachusetts in 2017, drawn to the ambitious goals and pragmatic strategies that have long been ELM’s hallmark. She is committed to making Massachusetts lead the nation in environmental policy and getting on a pathway to net zero emissions by 2050. She has particular passion for pricing carbon and expanding offshore wind.
Under Elizabeth’s leadership, ELM’s Corporate Council and the ELM Action Fund have grown. Both organizations build political will to create policy solutions that match the urgency of the challenges we face as a Commonwealth and a planet.
A proven sustainability leader, she previously directed climate and energy programs for Adidas. She also consulted to the U.S. Department of Energy, worked as sustainability lead for a Massachusetts-based residential construction firm, and led international travel programs to more than 30 countries.
Elizabeth has an MBA and Master of Environmental Management (MEM) from Yale University, and a BA in environmental policy and economics from Colby College. Raised in West Virginia, she now lives in Concord, Massachusetts, with her husband and three children.
Managing Director, Sustainability, Canaccord Genuity
Time: March 30, 6:30-9:20 p.m.
Course: FIN 232a Mergers and Acquisitions
Marc serves as a Managing Director and is principally involved in identifying, negotiating, structuring and executing investment banking transactions for growth companies in the Sustainability and Industrial Technology sectors. Before joining us in 2004, Marc worked at Standard & Poor’s Corporate Value Consulting and previous to that at Ernst & Young LLP. He has extensive experience with mergers and acquisitions, Initial Public Offerings, follow-on equity offerings and private placements of equity securities. Marc graduated with an MBA from Cornell University and holds a Bachelor of Science from Boston College.
Co-founder and COO of VIA
Time: March 17, 5:00-6:20 p.m.
Course: BUS 212a Analyzing Big Data II
Kate Ravanis is Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of VIA. As a co-founder, Kate established VIA’s client service program in 2016 to help make the company’s technologies more accessible to a broader group of individuals, beyond artificial intelligence specialists and mathematicians. Since then, she has been certified by FERC as an expert in the field of artificial intelligence. Her primary focus has been on the use of machine learning to solve high impact problems in the energy sector such as predictive maintenance for high priority equipment. Kate’s previous experience with smart grid technology is the reason why VIA is providing solutions to the energy generation, transmission, and distribution space. In addition, as part of her role as COO, Kate personally oversees all aspects of project delivery and talent management.
Before VIA, Kate was with Grail Research, where she was a director personally overseeing 10 to 20 clients per year across financial services, consumer brands, and online retail sectors. Kate joined Grail Research in its first year of operation and helped build the firm’s marketing, finance, and account management functions. Kate eventually co-led the consumer brands practice with clients across the US, UK, and South Africa. She was responsible for business development, account planning and project delivery for some of their most important accounts. Kate brought in several new clients each year and grew select accounts to multi-year, million-dollar per year contracts. Prior to joining Grail Research, Kate worked with one of the world’s leading public relations firms, Weber Shandwick.
Kate graduated summa cum laude from Northeastern University with a degree in organizational communication.
Cambridge Health Alliance
Time: April 2, 12:30-3:20 p.m.
Course: BUS 261a Managing Technology and Innovation
Jim became a climate activist in 2013 after learning about Bill McKibben’s work from friends and colleagues in the Occupy movement. A passionate supporter of the campus fossil fuel divestment campaign, he co-founded Harvard Faculty for Divestment and serves on Better Future Project’s Campus Divestment Advisory Committee, supporting student leaders in advancing climate justice. Together with Dr. Caren Solomon and like-minded colleagues, Jim recently launched Climate Code Team, a health justice organizing group of physicians and allied health professionals. A Harvard Medical School faculty member since 1996 and adjunct at Tufts University School of Medicine since 2014, Jim supervises medical students and psychiatry residents in community mental health and addictions.
Executive in Residence, Greentown Labs
This event has been cancelled.
Course: FIN 202a Corporate Finance
Dr. Rife works with the Field Studies Program at Brandeis International Business School. In previous years, he taught Management in Engineering and Mechanical Design as a member of the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT. He mentors startup companies on business strategy, operations, and product development in the Boston cleantech community and serves as Executive in Residence at Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech hardware based incubator in North America.
A serial entrepreneur and expert in engine technology, enterprise software, distribution, supply chain and management of early-stage business organizations, he brings extensive corporate and academic experience. He worked as a C-level member of several turnaround teams. Leadership positions include; founder/president of GENEVA Group, Inc., an enterprise software and consulting company, founder of American Brake and Wheel, a heavy-duty distributer of truck and bus running gear components, and executive director of MIT Sloan Automotive Laboratories.
Dr. Rife served on several industry and NPO boards and worked with the White House Staff at OSTP to develop programming for unifying government research in fuels and vehicles. He is currently a director of FORGE, an organization linking startups and local manufacturers.
Dr. Rife earned three degrees in mechanical engineering at MIT.
Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioner
Time: March 31, 6:30-9:20 p.m.
Course: FIN 234a Social Impact Investing
Matthew Schuerger was appointed to the Public Utilities Commission by Governor Mark Dayton, effective February 1, 2016.
Commissioner Schuerger is a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and serves on the NARUC Board of Directors and Committee on Electricity. He serves as vice-president of the Organization of MISO States Board of Directors and Executive Committee and is a member of the MISO Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Council and Executive Committee. In addition, he has been elected to serve on the Member Representatives Committee of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation where he represents state government interests in maintaining reliability of the electric grid.
Commissioner Schuerger has more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry as a senior manager and professional engineer, including work focused on power system planning and reliability, energy markets, grid modernization, distributed energy resources, grid integration of renewable energy, strategic planning, and business development. From 2001 until he was named to the Commission, Schuerger was the president of an engineering and management consulting firm. Prior to that, he was the executive vice president of District Energy St. Paul Inc., a privately held provider of district heating, district cooling, and cogenerated electricity.
Commissioner Schuerger earned a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas, and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School
Deputy Editor, New England Journal of Medicine
Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Time: April 2, 12:30-3:20 p.m.
Course: BUS 261a Managing Technology and Innovation
Dr. Caren Solomon is a Deputy Editor at the New England Journal of Medicine, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a physician at the Fish Center for Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. At the New England Journal of Medicine, she founded and edits the Clinical Practice series, is the editor for a series or print and on-line (interactive) clinical cases and original articles related to women's health, and has published on climate change and health. Dr. Solomon co-chairs the Harvard Medical School Faculty Council’s subcommittee on climate change.
CEO and President, New England Aquarium
This event has been cancelled.
Course: BUS 297c Leadership Internships in Social Impact Organizations
Throughout her career, Vikki N. Spruill has worked to strengthen ocean conservation. As president and CEO of the New England Aquarium and its research and conservation institute, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, Ms. Spruill seeks to combine the convening power of the Aquarium’s 1.4 million annual visitors with cutting-edge scientific research and education to advocate for vital and vibrant oceans.
Spruill previously served as president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, the largest association of philanthropic grant-making organizations, and Ocean Conservancy, one of the nation’s foremost science-based advocacy organizations dedicated to the oceans. Ms. Spruill founded the Trash Free Seas Alliance, an industry collaborative that has produced seminal research on the impacts of plastic in the ocean, and helped found and currently serves on the board of COMPASS, which works to empower scientists to better engage in the public discourse on environmental issues.
She was also the founding director of SeaWeb, an innovative initiative that worked at the intersection of policy, science, and communications in support of ocean conservation. Her research and leadership helped catalyze the sustainable seafood movement.
Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management
Professor, MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society
Faculty Director, MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative
Director, System Dynamics Group
Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This event has been cancelled.
Course: BUS 261a Managing Technology and Innovation
John D. Sterman is the Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Professor in the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. He is also the Director of the MIT System Dynamics Group and the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative.
Sterman’s research centers on improving decision-making in complex systems, including corporate strategy and operations, energy policy, public health, environmental sustainability, and climate change. His work ranges from the dynamics of organizational change and the implementation of sustainable improvement programs to climate change and the implementation of policies to promote a sustainable world. Sterman pioneered the development of “management flight simulators” of corporate and economic systems which are now used by corporations, universities, and governments around the world.
He is the author of many scholarly and popular articles on the challenges and opportunities facing organizations today, including the book, Modeling for Organizational Learning, and the award-winning textbook, Business Dynamics.
Sterman is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received an honorary doctorate from the Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland. He has twice been awarded the Jay W. Forrester Prize for the best published work in system dynamics; has won an IBM Faculty Award as well as the Accenture Award for the best paper of the year published in the California Management Review. He received the Best Application Award from the System Dynamics Society for his work on climate change policy. At MIT, he has been recognized with the Samuel E. Seegal Faculty Prize, given to a professor who “inspires students in pursuing and achieving excellence,” the Jamieson Award for Excellence in Teaching, numerous other awards for teaching excellence; and was named one of MIT Sloan’s “Outstanding Faculty” by the BusinessWeek Guide to the Best Business Schools. His research has been featured in media around the world including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe ,Public Television’sNews Hour, National Public Radio’s Marketplace, WGBH, and other media for his innovative use of interactive simulations in management education and policymaking, particularly in climate change and energy policy.
Sterman holds an AB in engineering and environmental systems from Dartmouth College and a PhD in system dynamics from MIT.
Founder and CEO, 1366 Technologies
Time: April 1, 12:30-1:50 p.m.
Course: ECON/FIN 243a Technological Rivalry
Frank van Mierlo is the CEO of 1366 Technologies, a solar technology company he started with a team of engineers from RPI and MIT in 2008. The goal of 1366 Technologies is to make silicon-based solar competitive with coal-generated electricity.
Van Mierlo’s previous venture was Bluefin Robotics Corp., a company that enjoyed double digit growth and was always profitable under his leadership. Bluefin became the leading robotics company in its field and is known for its technical competence and a customer-centric approach. The company maintained a strong balance sheet, a healthy cash flow and a team of highly qualified engineers. In May 2005 the company was sold to Battelle.
Frank holds engineering degrees from MIT and Stanford and a business degree from INSEAD.
Managing Director for Venturing and VP for Innovation, DSM
This event has been cancelled.
Course: FIN 202a Corporate Finance
DSM Venturing, the corporate venture capital arm of Royal DSM, is currently invested in close to 40 startup companies across various domains, including nutrition, biomedical, solar, and additive manufacturing. Pieter is an active board member of Miach Orthopeadics, Bio2 Technologies, Leading Edge Crystal Technologies, Frontier Nutrition, Interface Biologics, Essential Medical (until it was acquired by Teleflex in 2018) and was the lead investor in Isobionics (acquired by BASF in 2019). A valued member of the Boston cleantech ecosystem, Pieter is on advisory boards of MIT.nano, Greentown Labs and Prime Coalition. Before his current role, Pieter built 15 years of startup operating experience as co-founder and CEO of OrthAlign (privately owned) and IsoTis (public, acquired by Integra Life Sciences) in California.
Pieter started his career in 1988 in international M&A, investment management and transaction advisory in Europe. He holds a law degree from Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Founder, Way.Cups
Time: March 30, 12:30-1:50 p.m.
Course: BUS 233a Entrepreneurship and Rapid Prototyping
Inbar Zanir is an Israeli designer based in Tel Aviv. She earned her B. Des Industrial Design from Holon Institute of Technology (2018), and her BA in economics and management from Ben-Gurion University (2014). In 2019, Inbar was a part of Our Generation Speaks (OGS) fellowship program, a startup accelerator hosted by Brandeis University and MIT's Design-X accelerator in Boston, where she developed the idea for her venture Way.Cups. Inbar likes to experiment with many different fields, and, more than anything, to combine and fuse them with each other.