Argus North American Biofuels, LCFS & Carbon Markets Summit

Rajinder Sahota

Deputy Executive Officer, Climate Change and Research, California Air Resources Board

Rajinder Sahota is the deputy executive officer, climate change and research, with the Air Resources Board whose primary portfolio of responsibilities includes management of the Cap-and-Trade Program, development and implementation of the State's AB32 Scoping Plan, and Energy Policy. Due to the global nature of climate change and interest in CA's programs, the role requires coordination and collaboration with subnational and national governments pursuing climate change mitigation action. Other climate programs within the division include the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, methane reduction strategies, and fuels initiatives. Prior to this position, Rajinder managed the design and implementation of the Cap-and-Trade Program, including its linkage with Quebec's program. She holds a BS and MS in Atmospheric Sciences from UC Davis.

Melita Kyriakou

Low Carbon Fuels Regulation Manager - Trading & Shipping, bp

Dirceu Piga

Manager Trading Biofuels and Feedstock, PetroChina International America

Nicole Singh

Climate Protection Manager, Office of GHG Programs, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Derek Nixon

Cap-and-Invest Section Manager, Washington State Department of Ecology

Anant Patel

Global Biofeed Origination Manager, ExxonMobil

Parviz Salimov

Manager Compliance & Credit Management, Environmental Commodities, Suncor

Bruce Fleming

Chief Executive Officer, Montana Renewables

Bruce Fleming is Chief Executive Officer of Montana Renewables, a controlled subsidiary of Calumet Specialty Products (NASDAQ: CLMT).

Fleming was previously Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions at Tesoro Corporation and an officer of Tesoro Companies Inc. from 2004-2016. He founded and was Managing Director of Hong Kong-based Orient Refining Ltd 1997-2004, and served in various operations, business development and planning roles with Amoco Oil and Amoco Corporation from 1981-1996.

Fleming holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Princeton University) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (University of Delaware).

Karel Kapoun

Global Head of Feedstocks & Ethanol, Shell

Ezra Finkin

Lead Advisor, Corporate Affairs & Development, Chevron

Amy Malaki

Director of Policy & Sustainability, SkyNRG

Phillip Garcia

Director, SAF Marketing & Commercial Development, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas

Gary Compean

Fuel Compliance Trader, Par Pacific

Matthew Botill

Division Chief, California Air Resources Board (CARB)

Matthew Botill is a Division Chief at the California Air Resources Board. Matthew is responsible for overseeing several of the state’s climate programs, including the Scoping Plan, Cap-and-Trade Program, and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Matthew also serves as the agency’s policy lead for natural and working lands, including their relationship to carbon neutrality.

Sydney Vergis

Ph.D., Assistant Division Chief, Industrial Strategies Division, California Air Resources Board (CARB)

Vinod Konaganti

Sr. Research Scientist, Amazon World Wide Sustainability, Amazon

Ryan Flamerich

Senior Manager, Environmental Sustainability, United Airlines

Martin Croft

Head of US Ethanol Trading, Shell

Michael Fulton

Chief SAF Guy & Strategy Leader, FedEx

Katherine Preston

Staff Vice President, Sustainability, Atlas Air

Ryan Spies

Managing Director, Sustainability, Alaska Airlines

Brian Owen

Vice President, Renewable Feedstocks, Saint Bernard Renewables

Adam Raphaely

Managing Director, Trading – Carbon and Environmental Products, Mercuria Energy America

Luis Poch Rodrigo

Chief Executive Officer and Founder, UCO Trading

David Rubenstein

Chief Executive Officer, California Ethanol & Power

Nathalie Flores

VP, Carbon Markets, StoneX

Charlotte Lollar

Director of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Delta Airlines

Alan Haven

Manager of Energy Origination & Carbon Trading, SoCalGas

Greg Staiti

Compliance Director, Montana Renewables

Dan Lieberman

Global Sustainability Strategy & Engagement Lead, Nufarm

Dan Lieberman joined the Nufarm Carinata global team May 2023 in the role of Sustainability Strategy & Engagement Lead. Dan brings over two decades’ experience at the climate-energy nexus across the public and private sectors in both consulting and industry. At Nufarm, Dan is advancing the Carinata program’s sustainability strategy and engagement with external stakeholders globally. His work is focused on unlocking opportunities to remove atmospheric carbon, regenerate soil, and grow non-food sustainable energy sources that can replace fossil oils.

Prior to joining Nuseed, Dan spent 16 years at Chevron, where he held various roles that spanned corporate strategy and sustainability, communications, and government relations, serving most recently as Senior Advisor for Climate Policy for global legislative and regulatory affairs.

Dan has previously held roles in corporate strategy and as a managing consultant for the consulting firm ICF International. There he helped public and private sector clients develop and navigate nascent carbon markets and approaches to greenhouse gas management and accounting. In the standards space in particular, Dan led or contributed to numerous publications on the estimation, modeling and forecasting of GHG emissions and markets and contributed to the development of methodologies and tools under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol, IPCC Good Practice Guidelines, US EPA Inventory of GHG Emissions and Sinks, and others.

In addition to his extensive sector experience Dan also earned an M.B.A. in Strategic Environmental Management from the George Washington University School of Business, and a B.S. in Economics and Environmental Science from Brandeis University.
Dan and his family reside in Livermore, California.

John McDougal

VP Environmental Products, Anew

Charles Martin

VP Business Analytics, Pacific Ag

Holly Mayton

Lead – Research Partnerships & Science Policy, John Deere

Hardik Shah

Senior Licensing Manager, Topsoe

Sean Newsum

Managing Director, Environmental Affairs, Airlines for America

Edwin Makkinga

Manager, Carbon Policy, Enbridge

Fred Ghatala

President, Advanced Biofuels Canada

Scott Cockerham

Partner, Latham & Watkins

Greg Morse

Director of Policy and Planning, Vermont Gas Systems

Madison Carroll

Executive Director, CoSAFA

Leonie Karkoviata

Director, Strategy & Market Development, South Jersey Industries

Todd Campbell

Vice President, Public Policy & Regulatory Affairs, Clean Energy Fuels

Monte Shaw

Executive Director, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association

Mr. Shaw has worked on behalf of the biofuels industry for 25 years, serving as the Executive Director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) since 2005.

Working with a team of three colleagues to pursue IRFA’s mission of fostering the development and growth of the renewable fuels industry, Mr. Shaw is responsible for the management, policy and political agenda, and trade efforts of IRFA.

Previously, Mr. Shaw spent nearly six years as Director of Communications for the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) in Washington, DC. He began his career by working for the campaigns and official offices of numerous candidates and elected officials, including Steve Forbes, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, U.S. Senator Bob Dole, and U.S. Rep. Jim Lightfoot.

Mr. Shaw was raised on a corn and soybean farm just outside of the southwest Iowa town of Shenandoah, where he still helps his father and brother bring in the harvest. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He currently resides in West Des Moines with his wife Tina, daughter Eden, son Max, and rescue dog Jackson.

Josh Bledsoe

Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP

Josh Bledsoe advises clients on complex infrastructure and development projects, particularly those utilizing renewable or low-carbon technologies. He has broad experience in the permitting, entitlement, environmental review, and financing of cleantech projects; and also handles related administrative and judicial challenges. Mr. Bledsoe has deep experience with climate change law, including California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (commonly known as “AB 32”) and associated Air Resources Board regulations such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and the Cap-and-Trade Program. He guides clients to monetize the low-carbon attributes of their products or services under various carbon pricing and regulatory regimes. He also possesses in-depth knowledge of the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act (and its state and local counterparts throughout California), the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the Warren-Alquist Act.

Veronica Bradley

Director of Environmental Science, Clean Fuels Alliance

Eric Scheriff

Senior Managing Director, Capstone

Adam Kirby

Senior Sustainability Manager – Sustainable Fuels, ISCC (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification)

Adam Kirby is a Sustainability Manager at ISCC, specializing in the certification of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and Sustainable Marine Fuels.

Adam brings a diverse background to his role, with extensive experience in agriculture, business and IT consulting, communications, and governmental policy. He holds a B.Sc. in Agribusiness Management from the University of Missouri Columbia, a M.Sc. in Agriculture and Food Economics from the University of Bonn, Germany, and a M.Sc. in Business and Economics from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Driven by a passion for agriculture and sustainable systems, Adam leverages his varied expertise to develop innovative solutions with key industry stakeholders to support the renewable fuel sector on its pathway to net zero. He supports ISCC's mission to promote transparency and sustainability through third-party certification in markets worldwide.

Katelyn Sutter

California State Director, Environmental Defense Fund

Michael Wang

Director, Systems Assessment Center - Environmental Assessment Leader, Argonne National Laboratory

Timothy Urban

Senior Principal, Bracewell LLC

Tim Urban leads the tax policy practice at Bracewell’s Policy Resolution Group. He is an experienced tax lobbyist who has advocated for clients on every major tax bill introduced in Congress over the past 20 years. Tim represents companies on business tax issues, extension of temporary tax provisions and federal tax policies within the energy sector. Drawing on his two decades at a “Big Four” accounting firm’s tax policy group, Tim’s work has spanned the breadth of the energy world. He has coordinated ad hoc coalitions of taxpayers pursuing extension of temporary tax provisions, and sector-wide groups of Washington-based energy trade associations. He has represented companies on tax issues affecting conventional energy companies; production credits for electricity from renewable resources; investment incentives for purchases of renewable energy plant property, and production and blending tax credits for biofuels including biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol. Tim previously served as the Committee on Ways and Means Staff Associate for a member of the House tax-writing committee. In that capacity he advised on tax, trade, pension and health policy issues; created and implemented an annual tax legislative agendas; drafted legislation and related materials; and coordinated closely with Committee and Joint Committee staff.

Ankit Chandra

Senior Manager – Global Ethanol Market, U.S. Grains Council

Edmond Yi

GMA Manager, Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA)

Brendan Jordan

Vice President, Transportation and Fuels, Great Plains Institute

Heather Dziedzic

VP Policy, American Biogas Council

Alex Marcucci

Senior Principal, Trinity Consultants

Katie Sullivan

Managing Director, IETA

For nearly 20 years, Katie’s been a trusted leader and facilitator on market solutions to tackle climate change and drive clean private capital at scale. She leads policy advocacy and strategy on behalf of IETA’s 350+ multi-sector business members across the Americas and globally. Katie participates on numerous steering committees and sits on Boards of the Climate Action Reserve and the International CCS Knowledge Centre. She remains actively involved in climate advisory groups and expert panels for multiple business low-carbon start-ups, non-profits and governments. Prior to IETA, Katie worked at ICF International as a Senior Associate.

Geoff Tauvette

Executive Director, Canadian Council for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (C-SAF)

Geoff is a senior leader in commercial aviation and an engineering professional at the forefront of airline sustainability with more than 25 years of experience in integrating aviation fuel procurement, environment, and climate risk management, giving him a unique perspective on creating a sustainable aviation fuels market in Canada to support decarbonizing the aviation industry.

His past responsibilities have centred around setting direction on aviation environmental sustainability strategies, being an industry advocate in the design of aviation climate policy and regulatory measures and reducing aviation emissions through stakeholder collaborations to advance the use of sustainable fuels and other emissions reduction initiatives.

Geoff holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering. He is also an ambassador with the Alberta Energy Futures Lab, a sustainability-driven, innovation-focused initiative whose vision is to accelerate the clean transition of Alberta’s energy system and a board member of the Clean Resource Innovation Network.

Steve Csonka

Executive Director, CAAFI (Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative)

Steve is a commercial aviation professional with 38 years of broad, strategic airline, aviation OEM, and SAF experience. Over his career, Steve has been a strong industry advocate who has worked in roles of developing pragmatic solutions to the challenges of aviation growth, and such engagement led him to accepting the current CAAFI Executive Director role in 2012. CAAFI (the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, www.caafi.org) is an industry partnership fostering the development and commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). CAAFI engages in public-private-partnership activities designed to convene the group of participants needed to stand up an entirely new industrial sector.

Steve also continues to serve in leadership, steering committee, consultancy, and BOD roles with multiple aviation industry organizations in areas of applying technology and business concepts to enable commercial progression with SAF, both through the work of CAAFI, as well as independent activities through his consultancy.

Sam Wade

Director of Public Policy, RNG Coalition

Sam Wade serves as the Director of Public Policy at the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. Previously Mr. Wade worked as Chief of the Transportation Fuels Branch at the Californian Air Resources Board, where he oversaw the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program for four years. In other roles at CARB, Mr. Wade served as Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs, developed the Cap-and-Trade rule, and authored portions of California’s first Greenhouse Gas Scoping Plan. He’s also worked in energy policy at Pacific Gas and Electric and with a bioenergy/biochar start-up. Sam holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Davis, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii, and an M.P.A in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University.

Robin Vercruse

Executive Director, Low Carbon Fuels Coalition

Jessica Dell

Editorial Manager, Environmental Markets, Argus

Nick Kapur

Vice President, Energy Transition, Argus

Nick joined Argus in March this year to lead its expansion into the energy transition sector in the US. Before this, Nick spent eight years working for ratings agency S&P Global, where he held three roles — Head of Product Management for the Gas, Power and Climate Solutions unit of S&P Global Commodity Insights, Senior Director of S&P Global Platts, and Senior Director of S&P Global Market Intelligence’s energy business. Prior to joining S&P Global, Nick spent close to seven years working for global news agency Bloomberg, where he ran the commercial and client support team for the company’s consultancy arm, Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Nick has also worked for US bank Lehman Brothers in its corporate development group, and as a venture capitalist at investment company Platinum Equity and venture capital firm Pequot Ventures. Nick has a BBA Emory University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Louise Burke

Business Development, Argus

Zander Capozzola

Principal, Argus