C.O.B. Tuesday

Today we had the exciting opportunity to host Thomas Popik for a power-focused discussion. Thomas is the Chairman and President of the Foundation for Resilient Societies, a non-profit dedicated to strengthening the resilience and recoverability of critical infrastructure. In addition to his volunteer leadership at the Foundation, Thomas serves as a Principal at Geosegment Systems Corporation. He h...

Today we were delighted to welcome KR Sridhar, Ph. D., Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Bloom Energy. KR’s academic background includes a Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s in Nuclear Engineering, and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering. Before founding Bloom, KR served as Director of the Space Technologies Laboratory at the University of Arizona, where he led a NASA project to develop f...

It was our pleasure to welcome back our good friend Roger Pielke Jr., Author of The Honest Broker on Substack and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, for an insightful discussion on the U.S. Department of Energy’s climate risk assessment report on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions (linked here ). Roger is a Professor Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences at the Univers...

It was our honor to welcome His Excellency Mohamed Al Hammadi, Managing Director and CEO of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC) and Chairman of the World Nuclear Association (WNA), along with Dr. Sama Bilbao y León, Director General of the WNA. H.E. Al Hammadi has served as CEO since 2008 and has led  ENEC in successfully delivering the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program, focusing on the i...

This week we are delighted to welcome Betty Jiang, Managing Director of U.S. Integrateds and E&P Equity Research at Barclays. Betty joined Barclays in 2023 after leading the U.S. ESG Research team at Credit Suisse and has more than 15 years of equity research experience, with prior roles at UBS, Illuminate Capital Group, and Bank of America. We were thrilled to hear Betty’s insights on what’s...

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University. On Monday, we spent the day in Phoenix with Dr. Crow and his team, learning how ASU has been rethinking and reshaping the traditional university model to better reflect today’s fast-paced, high-tech world. The changes we saw are significant. Michael and his team are bringing innovation and disruption...

We were honored this week to welcome Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jack Balagia for a Special Edition COBT. Senator Hutchison is a Founding Member of the KBH Energy Center at the University of Texas, with a distinguished career spanning both public and private sectors, from bank executive to U.S. Senator to most recently U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Jack served as Vice President and General Counsel...

Today we had the pleasure of welcoming Jillene Connors Belopolsky, Chief of Staff and Chief External Affairs Officer at the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA), to our Houston studio. Jillene joined the CCA in 2021 and has over a decade of experience in energy sustainability, strategy, and innovation. She previously served as Head of North America for Earth Security Group and in several senior roles at B...

We are back on the road this week for an exciting visit with Emily Morris, CEO and Founder, and Tom Cuthbert, CTO, of Emrgy. Our team traveled to one of Emrgy’s hydropower facilities on Colorado’s Front Range to see their technology up close and in action before sitting down for a hydropower focused discussion. Emily founded Emrgy in 2014 and brings 15 years of experience in emerging hard tech dev...

We are excited to share this “on-the-road” COBT episode featuring Tim Latimer, CEO and Co-Founder of Fervo Energy. Our team traveled to Milford, Utah, to tour Fervo’s Cape Station project before connecting with Tim for an in-depth conversation. Tim earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa and started his career as a drilling engineer in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins....

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Isabelle Boemeke, author of the forthcoming book, “Rad Future: The Untold Story of Nuclear Electricity and How It Will Save the World.” The book will be published on August 12 and is available for preorder here . Isabelle is a passionate advocate for nuclear energy and is also the creator of Isodope, a social media persona she uses to engage and educate the pub...

Today we were thrilled to welcome Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta. Premier Smith was elected in October 2022 and previously served as MLA for Highwood and as Leader of the Official Opposition in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly. Most recently, she was President of the Alberta Enterprise Group. Before re-entering politics, Premier Smith spent several years as a talk radio host and has a diverse bac...

Today we were delighted to welcome Jack Belcher and Sarah Venuto of Cornerstone Government Affairs, along with Brook Papau, CEO of Orennia, for a discussion focused on the energy implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). Jack, a Principal at Cornerstone, has over 30 years of experience in energy and energy policy, having previously served as Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Policy at She...

We are very pleased to share a special Fourth of July edition of COBT. Earlier in the week, we had the opportunity to tour the Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) and to sit down with Jerry Scott, LSFM’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of Flight Operations. The museum draws visitors from all over the world and features flying historical aircraft, many of them iconic military planes. Jerry was name...

Today we had the very exciting and interesting opportunity to visit with Jim Grech, President and CEO of Peabody. Jim was appointed as CEO in June 2021 and brings more than 30 years of experience across the coal and natural resources space. His career includes leadership roles as CEO of Wolverine Fuels, President of Nexus Gas Transmission, EVP and CCO of CONSOL Energy, and Vice President of DTE En...

Today we’re excited to welcome Patrick White, Group Lead for Fusion Energy Safety and Regulation at the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), and Nicholas McMurray, Managing Director of International and Nuclear Policy at ClearPath. Patrick recently joined CATF and leads the organization’s international working group focused on fusion energy safety, waste, and non-proliferation. He holds a Ph. D. in Nuclea...

Today we had the pleasure of hosting our good friend Dr. Ken Medlock, Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and Senior Director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute. Ken joined the Rice University faculty in 2004 and holds adjunct professor appointments in the Department of Economics and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in addition to servin...

Today we’re delighted to welcome back Mike Sommers, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API). Mike has led the API since 2018 and previously spent two decades in senior leadership roles in the U.S. House of Representatives and the White House, including as Chief of Staff to Speaker of the House John A. Boehner and as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush on the National...

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Michael Mische, Associate Professor of Management at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Michael joined the USC faculty in 1997 and also serves as CEO and a Managing Member of the Synergy Consulting Group. At Marshall, he leads and coordinates the school’s undergraduate and graduate curricula in management consulting. Our intere...

Today we had a fantastic conversation with Daan Struyven, Co-Head of Global Commodities Research and Managing Director, Head of Oil Research, alongside his colleague Lina Thomas, Commodities Strategist, with Goldman Sachs. Daan joined Goldman in 2015 and previously co-led the Goldman Global Economics team as well as the firm’s Canada Economics research effort. He holds a Ph. D. in Economics from M...

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Francesco Sassi for a wide-ranging discussion on global energy and geopolitics. Francesco is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo and previously served as a Research Fellow in energy geopolitics and markets at Ricerche Industriali ed Energetiche (RIE). Francesco holds a Ph. D. in Political Science – Geopolitics from the University of Pisa, where...

Today we were thrilled to welcome our good friend Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes, former Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Materials at the U.S. Department of Energy, to our offices in Houston. Ashley brings more than a decade of experience in acquiring, financing, and developing greenfield and brownfield mining projects, with deep expertise across the global mining supply chain. She served in the...

Today we were delighted to host the team from the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a leading Washington NGO dedicated to bringing stakeholders together to address critical policy issues for the U.S. and find areas of alignment for action. Joining us for the session are Margaret Spellings, President and CEO, along with her colleagues David Hill, Executive Vice President of Energy, and Bill Hoagland,...

Today we had the distinct pleasure of hosting Mark Lashier, Chairman and CEO of Phillips 66. Mark joined Phillips 66 as President and COO in 2021 and assumed the CEO role in July 2022. Prior to that, he served as the President and CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (CPChem), where he held several senior leadership roles, including Executive Vice President of Olefins and Polyolefins, Senior V...

It was our privilege today to welcome the Honorable Jason Kenney, former Premier of Alberta, for a timely and insightful discussion on Canada’s upcoming federal election (April 28). Jason holds 25 years of public service at both the federal and provincial level with wide-ranging policy and leadership experience. He served as the 18th Premier of Alberta from 2019 to 2022 and now serves as a Senior...