R. JAMES WOOLSEY has served four times in the federal government for a total of 12 years, holding Presidential appointments in two Democratic and two Republican administrations, including as Under Secretary of the Navy (1977–79) and Director of Central Intelligence (1993–95), among others. He is the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, and is also a Senior Executive Advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he was previously a Vice President. Jim joined VantagePoint as a Venture Partner in 2008 after serving as a member of VantagePoint’s Advisory Council for the prior two years. Jim is a graduate of Stanford University (AB), Oxford University (MA), where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School (LLB).

PEGEEN HANRAHAN is the former Mayor of Gainesville, FL. She was term-limited this May after her 12th year of elective service with the City of Gainesville. In addition to her public service, Pegeen is a registered Professional Engineer. She currently is a consultant to the Trust for Public Land in their Conservation Finance Program, and has spent five years with Terra-Com Environmental Consulting, a groundwater remediation firm where, in 2003, she was promoted to Senior Vice President. Pegeen is a native and lifelong resident of Gainesville, and is married to Tony Malone, a civil engineer with CH2MHill. Their daughter, Evyleen Mary Malone, was born in September 2005 and their son, Quinn Joseph Malone, was born March 2007.

She is Past President of the Florida League of Mayors and is a member of the Mayors Innovation Project, a nationwide network of cutting-edge mayors, and serves on the Steering Committee for the United Way's Success by Six Initiative.  Mayor Hanrahan also is a board member of Alachua Conservation Trust, a non-profit land conservation organization, and served as its Executive Director for over three years.

In 1999, Pegeen developed a successful $80,000 grant application to the USEPA Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention Program to employ urban-area African American teenagers, and continues as a volunteer with that effort. Pegeen also designed and co-wrote a successful EPA Sustainable Development Challenge Grant and a U.S. Brownfield Pilot Project Grant. Vice President Al Gore and Congresswoman Karen Thurman recognized her leadership in the latter at the White House.

She received her Bachelor's (1989) and Master's (1992) degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida, as well as a BA in Sociology (1989), also from UF. Pegeen was a National Merit Scholar, a Florida Graduate Scholar, a National Science Foundation Undergraduate Fellow, and attended UF on full academic scholarship.

RANDY UDALL is a consulting energy analyst and one of the nation's leading activists in promoting energy sustainability. He is the former Director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) in western Colorado. During his tenure, CORE's partnerships with individuals, governments and utilities led to Colorado's first solar energy incentive program, the world's first Renewable Energy Mitigation Program which has raised $6 million, the world's stiffest carbon tax, and some of the most progressive green power purchasing programs in the country. Udall is a Co-Founder of ASPO-USA and was one of the peak oil experts interviewed by the National Petroleum Council when they researched their 2007 report on the Hard Truths about Energy. He writes and speaks widely on why "energy is an IQ test Americans tend to fail."

CRAIG LEWIS is the Founding Principal of RightCycle, a consultancy that achieves desirable Smart Energy outcomes via legislation, regulation, and public funding (grants, loan guarantees, siting incentives, etc). RightCycle also assists clients with the critical project development activities of evaluating project site viability and securing off-take agreements via RFO proposals and PPA negotiations. Mr. Lewis focuses his efforts in California and at the Federal level. He has over 20 years of experience working in high growth industries, including renewables, wireless, and semiconductors. Mr. Lewis transitioned from the wireless industry to the Smart Energy industry in 2005 by spearheading energy policy development for Steve Westly’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign in California. Until early-2009, Mr. Lewis was VP of Government Relations for GreenVolts, a solar technology company, where he served for two years securing successful policy outcomes in legislation, regulation, and public funding; and in supporting the first solar project to successfully navigate California’s RPS RFO process.

Mr. Lewis is a leading Smart Energy strategist and advocate. He is the Founding Principal of the FIT Coalition and is currently leading the legislative effort in California to implement a comprehensive Feed-In Tariff (FIT) that will increase the size of California’s renewable energy market by more than an order of magnitude. Mr. Lewis’ legislative proposal is referred to as the Renewable Energy & Economic Stimulus Act (aka REESA FIT). The REESA FIT is being pursued via AB1106, which is authored by Assemblyman Fuentes, Chair of the Assembly Utilities & Commerce Committee. AB1106 is expected to be signed into law in 2010. Mr. Lewis is also a leading advocate for comprehensive FITs throughout the United States and for using them to unleash the tremendous potential of Wholesale Distributed Generation (WDG), which is the 20MW-and-under, distribution-interconnected market segment that avoids transmission dependencies and the long delays that are associated with transmission build-outs.

Mr. Lewis has held senior government relations, corporate development, and marketing positions at wireless and semiconductor leaders, including Qualcomm, Ericsson, LinCom Wireless, Comarco Wireless, and Altera. He was active in the strategic planning and lobbying efforts to obtain the long-sought approval for CDMA technology in China; and has led the establishment of several successful business operations in Asia. Mr. Lewis received his MBA and MSEE from the University of Southern California, and his BSEE from UC Berkeley.

LOIS BARBER is Co-creator and Executive Director of EarthAction, an international network of over 2,500 citizen’s groups in 163 countries. EarthAction has organized 83 global campaigns on the world’s most serious environment, development, peace and human rights issues. Lois played an active role in helping to create the World Future Council, a global council of 50 highly respected leaders that are a voice for future generations. Lois serves as Co-chair of the Alliance for Renewable Energy Steering Committee. She is also the Founder and President Emerita of 2020 Vision, a US peace and environment organization with over 30,000 members.

MICHAEL BOWMAN s a fifth-generation native of Colorado from the northeastern  ag community of Wray, Colorado. Throughout his adult life he has been active in the rural development initiatives both nationally and internationally. He serves on the National Steering Committee for “25x’25” and was a founding member of the alliance.  He is also a founding board member of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance.

Michael served as Chair of Colorado’s New Energy Future in 2006 and was co-chair of Governor-elect Bill Ritter’s transition team for energy policy and then as a steering committee member for Colorado’s Climate Action Plan where his efforts were centered on the opportunities for agriculture and Colorado’s rural community’s in a low-carbon future.  

He is on the National Council of Advisors for the Heartland Center for Leadership Development in Lincoln, NE and Holistic Management International in Albuquerque, where he has participated in a grasslands and sustainability project near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Michael is a graduate of the Colorado Agriculture and Rural Leadership program, was a Next Generation Fellow in Columbia University’s American Assembly and a 2008 recipient of Gamma Sigma Delta’s Significant Achievement in Agricultural Award by Colorado State University.  He is a candidate for the Colorado State Senate for the largest geographical district in the state encompassing12 eastern rural counties.

TOBY COUTURE is currently Energy and Financial Markets Analyst with E3 Analytics, an energy consultancy based in Canada. His research focuses on the political, economic, and financial aspects of renewable energy markets.

Toby has written extensively on feed-in tariff (FIT) policy issues, having almost ten years of market and policy research experience in the field. In 2008 and 2009, he was working at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), spearheading the Lab’s analysis on FIT policies. He has worked with the states of California, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan and Washington, advising both regulators and state legislators on FIT design and implementation. He is the lead author of an upcoming NREL report on FIT policies, the  "Policymakers’ Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design", which is widely expected to be the most comprehensive analysis of FIT policies published in English to date.

Toby was recently a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Student; he holds a Masters in Sustainable Development from the University of Moncton, as well as Honors in Philosophy and from Mount Allison University. He is beginning a second Master’s at the London School of Economics this Fall in the United Kingdom. He currently lives in Canada.

At SolarWorld, JANET GAGNON heads government relations and lobbying efforts on federal, state and local levels.  Ms. Gagnon is also a licensed attorney in California.  Ms. Gagnon serves on the Board of Directors for the Solar Energy Industries Association, the Solar Alliance, CalSEIA, CoSEIA, and NYSEIA.  In addition, SolarWorld is an active member of several additional state chapters of SEIA as well as several local business associations.  Ms. Gagnon serves as Chair of the labor committee for national SEIA and Vice Chair of the public policy subcommittee for SEMI.

Ms. Gagnon received her Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and her Bachelors of Science Business Administration degree from California State University, Northridge. 

SUSAN PERKINS is the Principal of Perkins Energy Law, a renewable energy law firm in the Denver Tech Center which has as its focus providing legal and energy policy assistance for the development of renewable and sustainable energy resources in Colorado. Ms. Perkins contributes to the formulation of local, state and national renewable energy policies, and represents a wide range of clients who share the common goal of advancing the use of renewable and sustainable energy resources. These clients include municipalities, real estate developers, producers of carbon offsets, and companies involved in distributed and utility-scale solar, wind, biomass and geothermal technologies.

After attending a scientific conference in 2006 which described the severe damage that will occur to Colorado’s fragile ecosystems if temperatures continue to rise, Ms. Perkins refocused her practice on clients working to develop sustainable and renewable energy resources in Colorado. She represents a diverse group of clients ranging from governmental entities, industry associations, and distributed and utility-scale renewable energy developers. As the area of renewable and sustainable energy law evolves, her expertise continues to grow. Professionally, Ms. Perkins is known for her collaborative style, her willingness to take on challenging projects, and her ability to achieve results.

Ms. Perkins is especially interested in encouraging distributed generation and advocating for local energy autonomy. She is a member of the Boulder Climate Action Network as Boulder continues to show national leadership in the development of innovative energy policies. Ms. Perkins is a frequent speaker and lecturer on the subject of renewable energy, including frequent appearances on the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Station program “Colorado State of Mind,” where she encourages and engages in thoughtful discourse on important, energy-related issues.

Ms. Perkins has her MBA, International Business from Regis University and her Juris Doctrate of Law from University of Houston where she was President of Women's Law Association and graduated magna cum laude.

As Senior Consultant at Natural Capitalism Solutions (www.natcapsolutions.org), PAUL SHELDON specializes in organizational development, energy efficiency planning, feed in tariffs, implementing sustainability, and staff training. He consults widely for businesses, governments, non-profit groups, and philanthropists, as well as having served as Senior Manager of Policy and Research for Ecos Consulting. He is formerly a Senior Underwriting Consultant to California's State Workers' Compensation Insurance Fund, and is the primary author of the recent reports Coal Plants in Transition and the REEL in Alaska Roadmap to energy efficiency in the Railbelt Region around Anchorage, Alaska, as well as an upcoming article on the Helix of Sustainable Management.

His clients have included U.S. EPA, Natural Resources Canada, Alaska Conservation Association, Chugach Electric Association, California Energy Commission, California Public Utilities Commission, General Motors, Bank of America, Muzak, Suzuki Motors, and a number of cities and local organizations.

He helped to organize the Los Angeles-based TreePeople, Friends of the Los Angeles River, and many other non-profit organizations. Paul holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Human Development, a lifetime college teaching credential in Business and Industrial Management, and is a certified business analyst.

Since 2003, Paul has worked closely with Hunter Lovins, co-teaching "Principles of Sustainable Business Management," "Implementing Sustainable Business Practices," and "Effective Management, Communication and Action" at Presidio Graduate School, the first fully accredited M.B.A. program in Sustainable Management.

Paul is also the primary author of Natural Capitalism's recent report on Coal Plants in Transition, documenting the transition to efficiency use of renewable energy. He lives in Longmont, Colorado, with his wife and two friendly dogs.