Solarplaza Summit Asset Management North America

Lara Hamsher

Director of Stakeholder Relations

Tony Seba

Author, Educator, Co-Founder

Shala Akintunde

Solar Artist

Steph Speirs

CEO

Boris Schubert

COO

Doseke Akporiaye

Executive Director

Doseke Akporiaye

Executive Director

WRISE

Doseke Akporiaye has an extensive career and executive experience that spans over 20 years, in Strategy and Business Development, Strategic Human Resources, Performance Management, Organizational design and Operations Management. She also has worked with and sat on Boards, bringing these experiences to bear on, and delivering value to, wherever she has served. Her experience and knowledge working in Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Telecom, IT and Financial Services, are invaluable. Before joining WRISE, she was the Managing Director of the Nigerian subsidiary of Oolu LLC and a member of the Executive Committee of the group company. Together with her team, she grew the business’ geographic coverage from a single location to its nationwide presence in 3 years, deploying a national distribution and service delivery network. She also founded a boutique start-up and entrepreneurial-consulting firm which transforms ideas, irrespective of its stage of development, into competitive business realities. Doseke has successfully led/delivered several Strategy, Acquisition, Performance Management and Organizational Development projects. She is adept at partnering, advocacy, networking and building relationships with multiple and diverse stakeholders in government, private sector and special interest groups, to facilitate buy-in, change and the achievement of set objectives. Her vast personal network of professionals, business leaders, regulators, technocrats, development agencies and C suites across all key industries/sectors, will serve as an advantage to further the cause and objectives of WRISE. Her experience to date, her passion for social impact and her eagerness to contribute to building and driving socially & ethically conscious and sustainable organizations, are her key motivators and a perfect alignment to WRISE’s ethos.

Javier Rico

Solar Associate

Mark Culpepper

Founder

Leila Garcia da Fonseca

Director Renewables Research America

Rob Andrews

Renewable Energy Entrepreneur

Richard Matsui

Advisor

Kelly Weger

Director of Sustainability

Ann Will

CEO

Nick de Vries

Chief Technology Officer

Nick de Vries

Chief Technology Officer

Silicon Ranch

As Silicon Ranch’s Chief Technology Officer, Nick is charged with identifying and leveraging emerging technologies that enable Silicon Ranch to support the US domestic supply chain and demonstrate the sequestration of carbon. Nick has more than 20 years of diverse renewable energy, semiconductor, and military experience that inform his current work, including executive positions at SolarCity, Phoenix Solar, and Applied Materials. Nick’s renewable energy industry expertise spans module and cell manufacturing, photovoltaic project design and operation, auxiliary grid services, as well as the prediction and demonstration of the energy harvest of novel PV technologies. He has also worked on manufacturing amorphous silicon modules, and on process machine control of cell splitting and cascading cell bonding processes with heterojunction crystalline cells. Silicon Ranch owns projects that Nick himself designed nearly a decade ago, including the first transmission interconnected PV plant in the Southeast. Nick holds patents in both PV module manufacturing and design. While at Applied Materials, he advanced the use of statistical process control to enhance the reliability of production equipment. He has led the commissioning of process equipment at Intel semiconductor factories in both the U.S. and Europe, and entire solar cell factories in India, Germany, Spain, and China. Nick served his country on active duty as an Infantry Captain in the United States Army, with tours in Kuwait and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nick is currently leading Silicon Ranch’s efforts to develop Cattle Tracker, working with the DOE, leading universities, and regenerative ranchers; Cattle Tracker is Silicon Ranch’s Integrated PV System Design and Management Platform for the co-optimization of cattle-grazing and PV solar generation while measuring the impacts of these efforts on the surrounding ecosystem dynamics and soil health.

Lynsey Tibbs

Vice President, Asset Management

Kristen Wagner

Product Manager

Keith Rose

CEO

Patty Liao

Director, Offtake Advisory

Armando Solís

Vice President of Engineering, Americas

Britta von Oesen

Partner & Managing Director

Lauren Collins

Tax and Renewables Partner

Michael Eyman

Managing Director

Reegan Moen

VP of Business Development

Katie Guillen

Vice President - Asset Management

Christina Hebb

SWPPP & Vegetation Senior Manager

Lakshmi Nandakumar

Manager Asset Management

Peter Kobliska

VP Business Development

Zoe Berkery

Chief Operating Officer

Melissa Marsh

Renewable Energy Underwriter

Matt Tappin

President of Asset Management

Michael Valerino

Co-founder & CEO

Jim Crimmins

CEO

Amanda Bybee

CEO

Kelly Leslie Hadayia

Vice President, Revenue Operations

Lee Connor

Head of Global Energy Asset Management

Kara Gunn

Head of Asset Management Operations

Eric Wright

Senior Research Analyst

Andrea Herman

Associate

Gary Blitz

Global Co-CEO of M&A, Transaction Solutions

Gary Blitz

Global Co-CEO of M&A, Transaction Solutions

Aon

Gary P. Blitz is Global Co-CEO of Aon’s M&A and Transaction Solutions practice. Gary heads the global Transaction Solutions side of the practice, which is the leading insurance broker for Representations and Warranties Insurance/Warranties and Indemnities Insurance, Tax Insurance, Litigation Insurance and bespoke transactional insurance solutions in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Gary also leads the tax insurance practice specializing in the placement of tax insurance programs for M&A transactions, tax credit investments and non-transactional situations. Throughout Gary's career, he has been a leader in the tax and transactional insurance business. Gary played an instrumental role in the development of Reps and Warranties Insurance and Tax Insurance and the growth of transaction solutions generally. Gary is often called upon to create unique solutions where no “off the shelf” product exists. Gary joined Aon after a twenty-year legal career at firms, including Mintz Levin and predecessors of DLA Piper and Katten Muchin Rosenman. Gary began his career as a tax lawyer and acted as legal counsel to U.S., London and international insurers, and was a nationally recognized expert in the insurance of financial and transactional risks. Gary also founded ML Insurance Strategies, the insurance brokerage affiliate of Mintz Levin, and Kingswood Group, a tax credit insurance underwriter. Gary graduated from the University of Michigan School of Business Administration with a B.B.A. with Distinction and from New York University School of Law with a J.D. He is a member of the New York State and District of Columbia Bars, and a licensed property and casualty insurance broker. Gary previously served on the Board of Directors of Adoptions Together Inc., a Maryland not-for profit, in various capacities. Gary is a frequent speaker at industry events and is often quoted on topics relating to tax and transactional insurance solutions.

Ken Elser

Technology & Technical Services Director

Janell Hills

Director Workforce Programs

Nikhil Vadhavkar

Co-founder and CEO

Ananda Hartzell

Vice President Business Development

Stephen Branscum

Senior Project Manager, Energy Efficiency

Rogér Balyon

Sr. Technical Program Manager Solar

Jeremy Hunter

Manager, Solar Performance Analytics

Camelia Miu

CFO

Andreas Karelas

Executive Director

Jamie Link

VP Product Management

Hilary Lefko

Partner

Ian Boccaccio

Principal and Income Tax Practice Leader

Neil Bautista

Vice President of Services

Keith Gordon

Shareholder

Kellie Macpherson

Executive Vice President Compliance & Risk

Derek Chase

CEO

Garrett Hanrahan

Asset Manager

Brent Wachter

NERC Realtime Operations Manager

Mario Kovacs

Platform Product Manager

Annette Roberts Webb

M.Ed., Dean of Extension

Nathan Wojcik

Principal Restoration Ecologist

Benjamin Zanetti

Utility Solar Team Leader, Due Dilligence

Nellie Tong

Principal Consultant, Storage and DER

Garima Kalra

Business Development Executive

Kimberly Tran

Director, Project Onboarding

Amanda Smith

Sr. Director of Operations

Jason Kaminsky

CEO

Bryan Villano

Co-Founder

Matt Houser

Director of Enterprise Sales

Lisa Yops

Client Success Director

Jim Stuart

Associate Director

Fausto Perez

Head of Delivery & Support

Patrick Allen

Head of O&M

Bari Wien

Director Renewable Energy & Finance

Ryan McCauley

Vice President, Business Development

Rhone Resch

President & Chief Revenue Officer

Nicole Thompson

Data Science Manager

Andrew Griffiths

Vice President, Asset Management

Juan Camilo Garcia

Senior Manager, Capital Markets

Aaron Marks

Consultant

Cathy Grover

Senior Vice President

Blerta Kumbaro

Vice President of Asset Management and Services

Blerta Kumbaro

Vice President of Asset Management and Services

Akuo Energy

Ms. Kumbaro is a renewable energy expert with more than 14 years of expertise in managing energy asset portfolios for large investors. Since 2022, she has been the Vice President of Asset Management and Services for AKUO Energy USA where her work focuses on managing the company’s North American assets with an eye toward ensuring financial growth and steady returns as well as compliance with all national and international regulations. Prior to her current position, Ms. Kumbaro spent four years in a similar role as director of asset management for BayWa-r.e. and Longroad Energy Partners, and between 2017 and 2019, she was the Vice President of residential asset and risk management for the Greenbacker Group. She began her career in 2005 as an analyst for Universal Ensco and held accounting and financial analysis positions before moving into the renewable energy sector as an Assistant Vice President of Asset and Risk management for Enfinity America Corporation. Ms. Kumbaro held the same position for TerraForm Power from 2014 until 2015, when she was named Head of Integration and Asset Management at SunEdison. Ms. Kumbaro graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and earned her Master of Business Administration in finance from San Francisco State University in 2011. In 2017, she completed an additional professional certificate in energy innovation and emerging technologies from Stanford University, and she continues to pursue professional growth and continuing education as a member of industry groups including Women in Cleantech and Sustainability and Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy. Ms. Kumbaro has a passion to positively impact teams in a challenging industry, she advocates for workplace diversity, and is pushing renewable energy forward to make a difference for the generations to come.