solar summit 2019

Shelee is part of the senior executive team of Hawaiian Electric Company which serves 95% of Hawaii’s population and is pursuing the state’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045. She provides leadership for Hawaiian Electric’s Strategic Transformation Plan, its Transformation Program and several of its strategic initiatives to create more options for customers, integrate more renewables and create new markets. She oversees the areas of business development, corporate strategy, renewable purchased power, demand response and electrification of transportation.

Shelee joined the Hawaiian Electric team in May 2014 as vice president of corporate planning and business development. Prior to that, she served as manager of investor relations and strategic planning and director of corporate finance and investments at parent company HEI. She started her career with Arthur Andersen and was a consulting manager when she left in 2004 to join HEI.

Shelee graduated summa cum laude from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa with a bachelor of business administration degree and was a recipient of the Presidential Scholarship which is awarded to ten students across the University of Hawaii system. She is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2016, the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) program, led by the U.S. Department of Energy in collaboration with the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative, honored Shelee with the C3E award for leadership and achievement in Business. Shelee serves on the audit committee of Kamehameha Schools, the largest independent school system in the nation. She is also an Omidyar Fellow. Shelee and her husband of 20 years have three children.

Hayes Barnard is the founder and CEO of Loanpal, a world-positive lender that focuses on financing residential clean energy projects. Hayes is also the founder and president of GivePower, a nonprofit organization that builds and deploys clean energy-powered clean water and systems to communities around the world. He was the recipient of the 2010 and 2016 Global Impact Award, the Sacramento Business Journal’s 40 under 40, and a 2013 finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Prior to founding Loanpal, Hayes led Paramount Solar, an early-stage residential
solar company that was the first company
to leverage centralized sales centers to offer
solar systems to homeowners. This new model enabled the company to quickly garner significant market share, as well as the attention of SolarCity, which acquired the company in 2013. After spending three years with SolarCity as its chief revenue officer and growing its business 400 percent, Hayes returned to his entrepreneurial roots and created Loanpal.

In 2014, Hayes founded the GivePower Foundation, a non-profit using its renewable energy expertise to provide clean water, food security and light to create healthier economic growth in impoverished communities around the world. GivePower has provided electricity access to more than 300,000 people in 17 countries, installed solar for light in over 2500 schools and ranger stations throughout Virunga National Park and Sarara, Kenya, protecting endangered wildlife. Most recently, GivePower constructed a solar-powered desalination system to deliver up to 70,000 liters of clean, healthy water to villagers in rural Kenya.

Hayes lives in Tiburon, California with his wife Jessica and their three children.

Tom Werner serves as SunPower’s CEO and chairman of the SunPower board of directors. Prior to joining SunPower, he held the position of chief executive officer of Silicon Light Machines, Inc., an optical solutions subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation.  Previously, Werner was vice president and general manager of the Business Connectivity Group of 3Com Corp., a network solutions company, and has also held a number of executive management positions at Oak Industries, Inc., and General Electric Co. He currently serves as a board member of Cree, Inc., Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and is a member of the Marquette University board of trustees. Werner holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University and a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.

Alex McDonough is a Vice President for Public Policy at Sunrun, the largest residential solar and batter storage installer in the United States. He leads Sunrun’s federal and state advocacy in the West and Southeast.

Alex formerly served as US Senate Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) top energy and environmental policy advisor. With 11 years of experience as an advisor to Reid, he counseled the Leader and a diverse group of high-profile government officials on energy and environmental policy matters nationally, internationally, and in Nevada.

Alex is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Juris Doctor from the Washington College of Law at American University.

Kyle Goehring has led the JLL Clean Energy group since early 2016 and joined JLL in May 2014. The Clean Energy group serves corporate, investor and public-sector clients by advising owners on clean energy strategies and technology opportunities such as on-site solar PV installations, integrated energy solutions (aka microgrid), energy storage, demand side management technologies, offsite renewable energy, waste-to-energy (anaerobic digestion and gasification), environmental attribute trading and energy savings as a service.

Mr. Goehring supports clients in their review of sustainability objectives through an assessment of their portfolio for the site specific feasibility of clean energy technologies and installations; advises on third party and ownership deal structures; negotiates applicable agreements; and can recommend ongoing onsite support services from market-leading organizations.

A diversified representation of programs at JLL include a significant onsite carport solar PV programs for several health care organizations, procurement of off-site renewable energy for a global software client, integrated energy solutions for a retail client, rooftop solar leasing for the installation of solar PV and solar plus storage.

Melanie Santiago-Mosier serves as the Managing Director, Access & Equity for Vote Solar, where her work centers on implementing the organization's vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.  In her role, Ms. Santiago-Mosier manages Vote Solar's work to build partnerships with underserved communities, and to work with them to design and advocate for programs that spread solar's opportunities and benefits equitably.  She also coordinates Vote Solar's work to grow as organization that welcomes and supports people from all races, genders, identities, and backgrounds.    

Melanie has worked to advance clean energy policy for a decade, leading regulatory and legislative affairs at a number of organizations.  She is an attorney licensed to practice law in Maryland.  In 2015, she was named one of Maryland’s “Leading Women” by The Daily Record.  In 2018, she won the prestigious C3E Award for Clean Energy Advocacy.  She is a co-author of the Low-Income Solar Policy Guide, www.lowincomesolar.org, a comprehensive tool for policymakers, community leaders and others who are working to make solar accessible and equitable.

Caroline Choi is the Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs for Southern California Edison (SCE). She is responsible for analysis of federal and state energy and environmental policies; analysis and development of a long-term environmental, energy and technology strategy for SCE; and directing case management for key regulatory filings. Prior to joining SCE in 2012, Choi was executive director of Environmental Services & Strategy at Progress Energy, where she was responsible for leading environmental permitting, compliance and policy. She served the company in various roles, including director, Energy Policy & Strategy, and manager, Federal Public Affairs. Choi has served on various non-profit boards and is a board member of the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, the National Forest Foundation and the California Advisory Board of The Trust for Public Lands. Choi has a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College.

Dr. Charlie Gay is the Solar Energy Technologies Office Director for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In this position he is leading the SunShot Initiative, a team that is dedicated to research, manufacturing and market solutions to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.

Dr. Gay is an internationally recognized pioneer in photovoltaics. After starting his career in 1975 designing solar power system components for communications satellites at Spectrolab, he later joined ARCO Solar, where he established the research and development program and led the commercialization of crystalline silicon and thin film technologies.

In 1990, he became president and chief operating officer of Siemens Solar Industries, and from 1994 to 1997, he served as director of DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In 1997, he was named president and chief executive officer of ASE Americas, and from 2001 to 2005 served as founding chairman of the technical advisory board at SunPower Corporation.  He joined Applied Materials in 2006 as corporate vice president and general manager of the Solar Business Group. He served as president of Applied Solar and chairman of the Applied Solar Council from 2009-2013. As president, Dr. Gay was responsible for positioning Applied Materials and its solar efforts with important stakeholders in the energy industry, technical community and governments around the world.

He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside and was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2013. He established the Greenstar Foundation in 1997 to demonstrate an economically sustainable model that delivers solar power and internet access for health, education and microenterprise projects to developing world villages.

Kenneth leads solar business development for Avangrid Renewables. In this role he identifies and executes on potential co-development solar opportunities for our business. In addition he supports our solar PPA origination. Prior to Avangrid, he was at NRG Solar where he had a leadership role on a team that developed, financed and acquired approximately ~$3BN of large scale solar projects. Prior to that he was at Credit Suisse in investment banking covering the energy sector and his experience included executing on a $2.4BN utility acquisition, a $700MM project financing and asset sales. Labeja is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a first class Bachelor of Commerce degree in finance and accounting from the National University of Lesotho. On the weekends, Labeja can be found hiking with his wife, 8 year old daughter and 10 year old son.

Thomas is an engineer by education, trained in operations and drilled in business acumen at McKinsey & Company. He built the very first ‘McKinsey Marginal Abatement Cost Curve’ in 2005 and spent following 8 years building what would become a full scale Practice (business area) around Sustainability and Resource Productivity. Thomas brings broad cross-sector insight in Energy and Climate related opportunities and extensive experience from on-site work with industrial facilities to improve productivity of energy, carbon and other resources, through 100+ site visits globally.