Greentown Houston Agenda + Venue Information
On Nov. 4, we’re inviting you, your colleagues, and all the climate champions in your life into our incubator for a day of hands-on exploration with our world-changing startups and their climatetech solutions; keynotes and sessions featuring leaders across climatetech, finance, policy, and justice; and networking with key climate action pioneers.
Featured Speakers
Simon Bellemare
CEO, MMT
Amram Bengio
CEO, Wootz
Trevor Best
CEO, Syzygy Plasmonics
Soudip Roy Chowdhury
Founder + CEO, Eugenie.ai
Anna Dai
Founder + CEO, Varea Energy
Nisha Desai
CEO + Founder, Ennuity Holdings
Neal Dikeman
Partner, Energy Transition Ventures
Neva Espinoza
Vice President, Energy Supply and Low-Carbon Resources, EPRI
Ali Farzbod
CTO, SeebeckCell Technologies
Juliana Garaizar
Head of Houston Incubator, Vice President of Innovation
Russell Gold
Senior Editor, Texas Monthly
John Hall
President + CEO, HARC
Ben Jawdat
Founder + CEO, Revterra
Kent Johnson
CEO + Co-founder, CLS Wind
Moji Karimi
Co-founder + CEO, Cemvita Factory
Akilah LeBlanc
GM Commercial Innovation Partnerships, Shell
Fernando Machin
CEO, BOxES
Sebastien Mannai
CEO, Acoustic Wells
Federico Marques
CEO, Moonflower Technologies
Katie Mehnert
CEO + Founder, ALLY Energy
Danielle Nasser
Operations Manager, Applied Bioplastics
Ralph Owens
VP of Operations, Global ROC LLC
Sandeep Pednekar
CEO, Renewable Energies, Inc. (REI)
Jenny Philip
Chief Strategy Officer, Greater Houston Partnership
Roy Robinson
CEO, Excipio Energy
Michael Skelly
Founder & CEO, Grid United
Jeff St. John
Editor-in-Chief, Canary Media
Karen Sorber
CEO + Co-founder, Micronic Technologies
Andy Steinhubl
Vice Chair/Chair-elect of the Board, Center for Houston’s Future
Bobby Tudor
Chairman + Founder, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
Sylvester Turner
Mayor, City of Houston
Patricia Vega
President + CEO, Quantum New Energy
Christopher Westmoreland
CEO, Renu Energy Services Inc.
Jeffery Wolfe
CEO + Co-founder, Veloce Energy
More speakers will be announced soon—check back regularly for additions!
Greentown Houston Agenda
All times are CT.
8:30 – CHECK-IN + BREAKFAST
9:30 – WELCOME + THE ENERGY TRANSITION IN HOUSTON
With Greentown Labs’ Head of Houston Incubator + VP of Innovation Juliana Garaizar
9:45 – SETTING THE SCENE: PARTNERSHIPS AND CAPITAL FOR CLIMATE ACTION AT SCALE
Featuring Sylvester Turner, Mayor of Houston.
9:55 – COMMERCIALIZING ENERGY TRANSITION TECHNOLOGIES: PARTNERSHIPS PERSPECTIVE
Featuring a panel including EPRI Vice President, Energy Supply and Low-Carbon Resources Neva Espinoza, Shell GM, Commercial Innovation Partnerships Akilah LeBlanc, and Center for Houston’s Future Vice Chair/Chair-elect of the Board Andy Steinhubl, moderated by Syzygy Plasmonics CEO Trevor Best.
It takes a village to commercialize hard, deep tech climate solutions. In this session, we’ll hear from a variety of voices who partner with climatetech startups—through joint development agreements, investments, and more—about how to get these technologies to market, alongside a startup entrepreneur who will add in their own crucial perspective.
This conversation will also explore examples of these solutions that are tough to commercialize yet critical to climate action, such as hydrogen.
10:25 – DEPLOYING ENERGY-TRANSITION TECHNOLOGIES: THE STARTUP’S PERSPECTIVE
Featuring Varea Energy Founder Anna Dai, Cemvita Factory Co-founder and CEO Moji Karimi, and Revterra Founder and CEO Ben Jawdat; moderated by Energy Transition Ventures Partner Neal Dikeman.
Every day, Greentown’s climatetech startups are developing game-changing solutions to power the energy transition. But what does it take to get those technologies out of the lab and deployed at scale?
Commercialization is extremely challenging, especially for energy transition startups that are typically developing physical products that are capital-intensive, take many years of development in the lab, need enthusiastic partners with high tolerance for risk, and require patient capital from investors. These barriers are even higher for underrepresented founders, including women and people of color.
This discussion will feature Greentown startups and alumni across sectors and at different stages of growth who can share successful examples of deployment, speak to the many challenges and barriers they’ve overcome along the way, and identify the partners needed to commercialize climatetech innovations.
11:00 – GREENTOWN LABS STARTUP PITCHES
Featuring Excipio Energy, Moonflower Technologies, MMT, Renu Energy Services, and Veloce Energy.
11:15 – BREAK
11:30 – SETTING THE SCENE: FOSTERING AN EQUITABLE CLIMATETECH WORKFORCE
Featuring HARC President + CEO John Hall.
11:40 – DEMYSTIFYING CAREERS IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION TO ACTIVATE THE CLIMATETECH WORKFORCE
Featuring Quantum New Energy CEO Patricia Vega, Greater Houston Partnership Chief Strategy Officer Jenny Philip, and Applied Bioplastics Operations Manager Danielle Nasser; moderated by ALLY Energy Founder + CEO Katie Mehnert.
There’s a place for everyone in climatetech, whether they’ve previously worked in traditional energy, have experience tackling climate change, or are new to the climate and energy fields. The projected growth of the climatetech industry and its ability to train and employ people means that there is abundant potential to create wealth and jobs, especially for low-income communities and communities of color.
This session will provide a wide-ranging look at the career opportunities presented by the energy transition, how those who are eager to dive into the field can do so, and ways to make the transition just and equitable.
12:15 – GREENTOWN LABS STARTUP PITCHES
Featuring Acoustic Wells, BOxES, Eugenie.ai, Micronic Technologies, REI, and Syzygy Plasmonics.
12:30 – LUNCH
1:30 – SETTING THE SCENE: BUILDING A MORE RESILIENT FUTURE
Featuring Canary Media Editor-in-Chief Jeff St. John.
1:40 – REBUILDING AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE FOR OUR RESILIENT FUTURE
Featuring Grid United Founder + CEO Michael Skelly, Texas Monthly Senior Editor Russell Gold, and Greentown Labs Head of Houston Incubator + VP of Innovation Juliana Garaizar.
How can we harness the incredible opportunities presented by renewable energy, grid modernization, and infrastructure improvements to build the economy of tomorrow? This discussion will explore the many-faceted promise of renewable energy and the incredible opportunities it brings across climate action, the economy, job growth, and resilience.
2:15 – GREENTOWN LABS STARTUP PITCHES
Featuring ALLY Energy, CLS Wind, Ennuity Holdings, Global ROC, SeebeckCell Technologies, and Wootz.
2:30 – GREENTOWN LABS MEMBER SHOWCASE
The Greentown Labs Climatetech Startup Showcase is your chance to meet the entrepreneurs who are changing the world. Join us to speak with Greentown founders, learn about their climate solutions, and make valuable connections. The showcase will highlight climatetech companies innovating across the key carbon-emitting sectors—electricity, agtech, buildings, manufacturing, and transportation—and on resiliency, adaptation, and platform solutions.
4:00 – CLOSING KEYNOTE
Featuring Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Chairman and Founder Bobby Tudor.
4:20 – CLOSING REMARKS
With Greentown Labs COO and General Counsel Ryan Dings.
4:30 – NETWORKING
5:30 – 7:30 – Greentown 10th Anniversary Party
Join us to celebrate the Greentown community’s first 10 years of impact, and let’s raise a glass to the next decade of climate action!
Virtual-attendee Experience
All speaking sessions at both Greentown HQ and Greentown Houston will be livestreamed on the event’s Hopin page, and there will also be a virtual startup showcase and virtual networking. For a full schedule of events for virtual attendees, please visit Hopin.
