Climate Change: Risk and Opportunity
(January 26: 10 - 11:30 am, GSB 2.126)
Climate change is the hottest topic in sustainability today. How do you prepare your company for a climate-changed world and how can you leverage this to create competitive advantage?
Speaker Bios:
Helen Brauner, Director of Marketing, Green Mountain Energy Company
Greg Trimble, Sr. Director, Global Energy Development, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Cuthbert Roberts, Business Director of Energy and Climate Change, The Dow Chemical Company
Cuthbert Roberts, Business Director of Energy and Climate Change, The Dow Chemical Company
Cuthbert Roberts, Business Director of Energy and Climate Change, is responsible for leading the development of a joint implementation and clean development mechanism (JI/CDM) business plan and the implementation of initiatives necessary to achieve the company’s sustainability goals related to global climate change, including emissions trading and JI/CDM project development. Roberts is also responsible for developing and leading implementation of business development initiatives targeted at accessing cost-advantaged natural resources and power for the company.
Greg Trimble, Sr. Director, Global Energy Development, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Greg Trimble has over twenty two years of experience in the power and natural gas industries, both in the regulated and deregulated arenas. Greg joined Wal-Mart in 2002 as the Director of Energy Procurement where he was responsible for over $1.5 billion in annual energy purchases. Greg led the successful development of Wal-Mart’s internal retail electric provider function in the deregulated market of Texas in order to purchase wholesale electric power directly for Wal-Mart’s own consumption. Prior to joining Wal-Mart, Greg held a number of leadership and staff
positions at Enron Energy Services and Tennessee Gas Pipeline.
Moderator: Jay Banner, Director/Professor, Univ. of Texas, Environmental Science Institute, Jackson School of Geoscience
A professor at the University of Texas, Jay Banner has research interests in the application of field, petrologic, geochemical, geochronologic, and modeling techniques to studies of the evolution groundwater, surface water and soil, and studies of climate change, carbonate diagenesis, and the chemistry of ancient oceans. Jay is the founding director of the Environmental Science Institute, and is also a reviewer of grant proposals and journal articles.
Helen Brauner, Director of Marketing, Green Mountain Energy Company
After a stint as a consultant, Helen began her marketing career at Kindermusik International, where she focused on database marketing, e-commerce and e-mail marketing. She left Kindermusik to earn an MBA at the University of Texas. While in graduate school, she worked for a year and a half evaluating clean energy technologies/business plans and mentoring entrepreneurs at the Clean Energy Incubator in Austin. After committing to both the clean energy industry and Austin, Helen joined Green Mountain Energy Company three years ago.
Greg’s current responsibilities include the development of renewable and energy saving technologies and leveraging those technologies globally through Wal-Mart’s domestic and international operations. He is at the forefront of Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts with respect to quantifying and tracking Wal-Mart’s carbon emissions reduction activities. Greg earned a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Houston, and a MBA from the University of St. Thomas.
She is currently Director of Marketing for Green Mountain, where she oversees marketing for residential green power programs in multiple states.
He also
contributes to the development of Dow’s global energy business strategy, and serves on a team of executives contributing to the company’s global energy advocacy activities.Roberts began his career in 1983 as a process engineer for the Iron and Steel Company of Trinidad. From 1984 to 1992, he progressed through a series of management, market research and strategic analysis roles at the International Lead Zinc Research Organization in New York and subsequently at Kline & Company, Inc., a consulting firm based in New Jersey. In 1992, Roberts was named vice president of the Industry Specialists Group for Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, and he joined Musa Captal Advisors as senior vice president of energy and mining in 1996. Roberts relocated to Houston in 1997 to serve as director of origination and global investments for Enron International and Enron North America. In 2001, he became director of origination for WM Trading, LLC, also in Houston. He assumed the role of Business Development Director at Allied Berton in 2003. In that role, he was responsible for directing and establishing overall policies and strategic initiatives related to global climate change and JI/CDM projects in Europe, Latin America, Central America and Africa.
Roberts holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mineral engineering and a master’s in mining economics and finance from Columbia University, New York, NY. Roberts has also completed the Chemical Bank Financial Management Program in Credit Analysis and Financial Management.
