Today we spoke with Will Phelan, a graduate of Rice University working in Corporate Development at Electric Hydrogen Co. Will begins the episode by telling us how he got his start in energy, and more specifically, green hydrogen. He shares a useful exercise to help students pick their vertical, and gives advice on how to approach this process of finding your niche. Will then explains why he took an interest in green hydrogen and how he used cold-outreach to find experiences and opportunities in the space. We then discussed how students can use a similar strategy to find companies they want to work for and show the team that they will be a valuable asset. Finally, the episode concludes with a discussion around misconceptions about entrepreneurship, advice on finding your passions in energy, and what’s next for Will!

Keynotes:

- Green hydrogen’s role in the energy transition

- Finding your passion and vertical within energy

- Utilizing cold outreach and LinkedIn to get a job

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Join us for an engaging discussion with Katie Kross, sustainability champion from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, as we uncover the secrets to building impactful careers in energy and climate. With over 15 years of experience in this space, Katie understands the importance of building business careers and outcomes that are sustainability forward. From defining positive-impact careers to navigating evolving trends, we explore how to drive change and overcome obstacles in the pursuit of a sustainable future.

Learn more about Katie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiekross/details/experience/

Check out Katie's ClimateCAP: https://www.climatecap.org/

Keynotes:

- How to weave success and impact into one rewarding career

- How to determine what passions drive you

- How to build the skills and background to achieve your career goals

Hazel Horvath is the Founder and CEO of Ecolytics, a business management tool that streamlines sustainability work for companies so that impact is easily trackable and better business decisions can be made using these metrics. Her environmental work began in high school during a formative experience where she learned about droughts, and then she went to Duke University and studied Environmental Science & Policy and Global Health. She tells us about her diverse array of experiences throughout college, from working internationally to in the nonprofit sector, and how she eventually decided to pursue entrepreneurship. Hazel explains the process of finding the gap for Ecolytics to fill, iterating the company to create the biggest value add, and the steps she took to overcome the challenges of being a young solo-founder. She ends the episode by leaving her biggest pieces of advice for students interested in energy and climate, and sharing what is next for her!

Keynotes:

- The value of getting a diverse range of experiences

- The importance of metrics in sustainability work

- Challenges of being a young startup founder

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/energyterminal/

In this episode, we are joined by Scott Martin, CTO of Net Power, an innovative company revolutionizing carbon capture technology. NetPower's technology focuses on capturing emissions while producing power from natural gas, addressing the challenge of decarbonization of fossil fuels. We explore Scott's journey in the energy industry, the genesis of Net Power's vision, the challenges and triumphs encountered in advancing carbon capture technology, and the implications of Net Power's breakthroughs for the future of sustainable energy production.

Thank you to Energy Dialogues for making content like this possible!

Keynotes:

• The importance of mission-focus leadership, and how to develop a leadership skillset
• Carbon capture's role in driving a future of reliable and sustainable energy
• Challenges and opportunities surrounding Net Power's development and deployment journey

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/energyterminal/

McKenna Dunbar is a recent college graduate, founder of MOCOKONO and the Ecological Justice Initiative, and Building Electrification Lead at the Sierra Club. When they were young, they had a passion for robotics and technology, which then grew into a desire to be involved in energy. We begin by delving into their long list of environmental experiences then dive into topics including energy burden, building electrification, and the importance of empathy in the energy space. The episode concludes with a conversation on climate mental health and supporting yourself while working towards such an urgent issue, in addition to McKenna’s post-grad plans.

Keynotes:

- More young people are needed in energy for the dialogue to truly be intergenerational

- Fostering open conversation and empathy in the energy space

- Climate mental health and energy burden

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Throughout her career in the oil & gas industry, Katie Mehnert became used to sometimes being the only woman in the room in a male-dominated industry. Unaccepting of the status quo, Katie Mehnert sought to create change in the energy industry that she loved by creating opportunities for women and diverse groups through founding ALLY Energy (formerly Pink Petro).

Joining us on the show today is Katie Mehnert, Founder and CEO of ALLY Energy, a workforce development company that works with both companies and individuals to advance careers in the energy industry. Over the last 10 years, Katie and her team have worked with top global energy companies and helped countless people.

In the episode, we talk about Katie’s career path in the energy industry, how she refined her vision for ALLY Energy, how she dealt with criticism as she built the company, how the energy transition is changing her approach to energy workforce development, and the most important steps energy professionals can take to grow in their careers.

Be sure to tune into this insightful discussion on the most important piece of the energy transition: people!

Keynotes:

-Why human capital is the most important investment a company can make

-How professionals can stay relevant in a quickly-changing energy industry

-How Hurricane Harvey influenced her perspective on climate change

-Why the energy industry isn’t just for engineers, but for everyone

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Today, we got to speak with the Co-Founder of Energy Terminal, Hope Pratt! Hope is a senior at Duke University studying Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, but her passions lie within sustainability and energy. Hope tells us about how she first got her start in energy working for Aspire Power Solutions, a Nigerian energy company, and how this led her to realizing the amount of potential within the industry. She then went on to intern at Ford Motor Company and Everbright, a NextEra subsidiary, and she’ll be continuing at Everbright post-grad as a Software Engineer. Aside from talking about Hope’s work experiences, we also discuss the founding of Energy Terminal and how she and Michael grew it from a podcast with 0 episodes to the community, career, and media organization that it is today. We finish the episode by hearing the advice Hope has for other students about forging your own path, talking to people, and more! 

Keynotes:

- Value of a technical background to solve sustainability problems

- Using energy as a vehicle to tackle climate issues

- Starting and growing youth led organizations

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

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Over the last several years, climate tech has emerged into the spotlight as more than $120B in venture capital funding has poured into the sector and interest for decarbonization solutions have surged. Through it all, CTVC has tracked, analyzed, dissected, and reported on the biggest news and deals in the climate tech ecosystem.

CTVC (now Sightline Climate) founder and CEO Kim Zou joined us on the show to talk about the quickly changing climate tech sector and about her journey building CTVC from a popular newsletter into a market intelligence platform used by some of the top investors and companies in the industry.

In the episode, we talk about the state of climate tech VC, where it’s changing the most quickly, where the opportunities are, and where the industry is heading. We also discuss Kim’s hopes for Sightline to mitigate some of the mistakes made in Cleantech 1.0 and to direct investment to the most critical areas.

Keynotes:

-How Kim’s work building Energy Impact Partners’ Frontier Fund influenced the transition of CTVC into Sightline Climate

-Which sectors within climate tech are changing the most quickly

-How we can avoid the challenges faced in Cleantech 1.0

-Where the biggest opportunities in climate tech are

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/energyterminal/