Bigger Than Us

Elena Savostianova has over 15 years of professional experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Prior to Ember, Elena served as a Principal with Global Infrastructure Partners CAPS team, focusing on renewable energy opportunities. Before GIP, Elena spent nearly a decade as part of Credit Suisse’s Power and Renewables group where she was responsible for coverage of energy corporates with...

Allen Tsai is the Founder and CEO of Pani , a smart-home company inspired by his volunteer experience building water wells in rural Nepal. With a professional background in consumer electronics and IoT, Allen took inspiration from a lifetime of water conservation lessons to create Pani to advance the convergence of technology with water sustainability and efficiency. He’s spent nearly 20 years in...

Scott Deatherage is a founding partner in the Austin law firm of Smith and Brown, LLP. Over the last 30 years, Scott has focused on environmental issues, energy, and climate change.  For most of his career, he worked with large law firms in Dallas, but two years ago he formed his own firm and also began pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities. He earned his B.A. in Letters from The University...

Dave is an advisor across Regulated Industries, Government, Tourism, Manufacturing, Human and Health Services. Dave develops and implement business strategies, policy changes, sustainability practises and generative growth with enabling technologies, efficiency, transparency, and accountability. Dave supports business modernization with emerging technologies to enable sustainability, socioeconomic...

Carlos St. James is a board member of the Latin American and Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy (LAC-CORE) in Washington, which promotes development of the industry, as well as a board member of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance (TREIA), based in Austin, Texas. With considerable experience in project finance, technical and non-technical project themes, sustainability issues and ene...

Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy arena. He writes for Forbes.com and other publications on topics related to disruptive innovation and its impact on the electricity infrastructure. He provides strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate this transitional period. Mr. Kelly-Detwiler has spent much of his career in various areas of competi...

CB Bhattacharya is the H.J. Zoffer Chair in Sustainability and Ethics at the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. He is a world renowned expert in business strategy innovation aimed at increasing both business and social value. His research and teaching focuses specifically on how companies can use underleveraged “intangible assets” such as corporate identity, reputation, co...

Architect David Hertz is the founder and president of David Hertz FAIA Architects, inc. and S.E.A., the Studio of Environmental Architecture, which he established as Syndesis in 1984 and skysource.org in 2016  David graduated  with a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) in 1983. In 2006 David was awarded the Distinguished A...

Aaron Ratner is a Managing Director at Ultra Capital. He as over 20 years of international investment, advisory and development experience focusing on technology, energy, waste and agriculture. Ultra Capital specializes in supporting developers, corporations and public entities to successfully deploy projects across waste, agriculture, water and renewable energy. www.ultracapital.com

Builder | Learner | Disruptor | Leader | Visionary | Giver | Father | Hacker Currently Rock is the Co-founder and CEO of eCarra.com , a zero-emissions mobility platform that aims to reduce harmful emissions and accelerate the awareness of electric vehicles by pioneering electric car ride awareness, eCarra brings the growing tech-centric population and automakers together in real time.

After a successful 13 year career in the financial services industry Erik made his first company acquisition in 2006, a NC-based solar equipment distribution business. Soon after the acquisition Erik started a solar construction and development company, Argand Energy Solutions. Argand grew into one of the larger commercial installation and project development companies in the Carolinas. In 2014 th...

For 30 years, Mike has focused on the design, staffing and strategies for winning communications programs. As Tigercomm’s founder, he counsels cleantech executives, investors and philanthropists on strategies for meeting their business objectives. Mike is a top U.S. innovator and strategist on cleantech marketing and communications. He has presented at more than a dozen major conferences, and he w...

Alex Reed co-founded cleaning startup Truman’s following more than a decade at fan and light manufacturer Big Ass Fans, where he led an expansive marketing division that helped the company grow from $30 million in annual sales to more than $250 million. With his innovative approaches, the company’s number of new customers increased nearly  40 percent annually. At the same time, customer loyal...

Sonal Patel is a national award–winning multimedia journalist who has, for more than a decade, covered a wide range of technology, business, and policy issues related to energy and the environment worldwide. She is currently a senior associate editor at POWER magazine, a 137-year-old trade publication dedicated to chronicling power generation history, currents, and advancements. https://www.powerm...

Native Dallasite Michael Martin is a passionate and experienced leader for the widespread adoption of clean and safe solar power. He wasn’t always this way as his first 2+ professional decades were in various business development roles in software/IT market segments.  Upon becoming a solar entrepreneur in 2010, he likewise began advising start up companies in the areas of strategy, value prop...

Kimberly M. Britton is the Chief Executive Officer of EPIcenter, a nonprofit created by CPS Energy, OCI Solar, Itron and Lyndis+Gyr to focus on innovation in energy. EPIcenter drives thought leadership, convenes human intelligence, galvanizes alliances, and catalyzes new technologies and concepts in energy. She has cultivated extensive relationships with energy industry leaders and incubators acro...

Jonathan is a founding partner of Intelis Capital and a member of its investment committee. Jonathan serves in all aspects of the firm’s operations, with particular focus on developing investment theses, creation of internal processes and systems, sourcing potential investments, providing operational and strategic support to portfolio companies. https://www.inteliscapital.com/en  

Jigar Shah is the President and Co-Founder of Generate Capital, the leading investment and operating platform for sustainable infrastructure. Founded in 2014, Generate Capital is the only “one-stop-shop” for pioneers leading the Resource Revolution. Prior to Generate, as the Founder and CEO of SunEdison (NASDAQ: SUNE), Shah pioneered “no money down solar”, which unlocked a multi-billion-dollar sol...

Dr. Arun Gupta is the founder and CEO of Skyven Technologies, a company decarbonizing the industrial sector with clean, emissions-free solutions for thermal energy.  From building prototypes in his garage to winning the $1 million grand prize in New York State’s 76West Clean Energy Competition, Arun has pioneered both the technology and business of clean thermal energy.   He holds a...

Lynn Abramson is President of the Clean Energy Business Network – the small business voice for the clean energy economy. CEBN enhances opportunities for clean energy providers through policy support, business development, and market and technology education. CEBN’s 3,000+ members span all 50 U.S. states and more than 350 Congressional districts.  These business leaders work across a diverse s...

Ben Hubbard is the CEO of Nexus PMG, an engineering firm that specializes in built-to-spec solutions for large scale infrastructure projects Mr. Hubbard is a program management consultant experienced in business strategy, strategic development and construction management. He has a proven track record of leading domestic and international high-profile construction projects in fast-paced environment...

Here's a brief intro to our Bigger Than Us podcast.