Program

Vartan Badalian is accelerating the fight against climate change and developing the sustainable transport industry. He is deeply passionate about his work and personal mission to transform the transport industry. Before joining GreenBiz Group as the Transportation Analyst, Vartan worked across government, private sector, and the NGO community on all things electric vehicles and transport, previously leading the Climate Group's EV100 initiative and as corporate counsel for an EV charging startup. As an industry leader, attorney, and policy professional, Vartan brings a deep background to GreenBiz. Vartan holds a Bachelor of Science from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a Juris Doctorate from Lewis & Clark Law School. He was named a 2021 GreenBiz 30 Under 30 by GreenBiz Group, a 2022 Future Climate Leader by The Aspen Institute, and a 2022 35 Under 35 Rising Star of the Electric Vehicle Industry by Business Insider.

Driven by the urgency of the climate challenge, Sarah follows trends and innovations that are accelerating the clean energy transition. She brings more than a decade of experience in climate, clean energy and politics. She holds B.A. in Politics and Environmental Studies from Whitman College, and was an Annenberg Dean’s Scholar at the University of Southern California, where she earned an M.A. in Communications.

Melissa Bauer is the ESG Strategy Lead at eBay where she leads efforts to reduce global emissions, coordinate international shipping and packaging logistics, and scale positive impact with eBay’s community of buyers, sellers, investors, employees, leaders, and partners. Melissa has more than 10 years of ESG and sustainability experience, with deep expertise in GHG and climate foot printing and reduction, supply chain sustainability, product life cycle assessment, D.E.I., sustainable packaging, coalition building, and stakeholder and employee engagement. Prior to eBay Melissa was the Director of Sustainability and Strategic Initiatives at the Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC) and a Sustainability and Energy Consultant for the National Park Service through Hitachi Consulting. She also served as a program development manager for National Geographic, focused on large carnivore conservation in Namibia. She received a Master’s in Environmental Management from Duke University, concentrating on Sustainable Business Systems.Melissa lives in Denver, CO with her husband, and their pets. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, sports, gardening, hiking, and pretty much anything in or by the ocean. Melissa spent the pandemic attempting to bake the perfect macaron, as well as tackling Colorado 14ers, and has never met a chocolate chip cookie she didn't like.

Katherine is the Vice President of Policy at the Electrification Coalition (EC). She leads and manages the policy team at the EC, which is focused on transitioning our transportation sector to be electric. Her work spans across city, state, regional and federal levels. Prior to the EC, Katherine was the Policy Director at Plug In America, a non-profit representing the voice of the electric vehicle (EV) consumer. She led the policy team in promoting policies that work for the EV driver at the local, city, state and federal levels, including policies needed prior to purchase of the vehicle and policies needed during ownership of the vehicle. Prior to her work at Plug In America, Katherine was a Director of Government Affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), focused on policies to promote solar on the federal level as well as southeast and northeast regions, along with regulatory work at the DOE, EPA, and other federal agencies. She received her Masters degree from American University in Global Environmental Policy and Bachelors degree in Chemistry and German from Boston College, and was a Fulbright and ThinkSwiss Scholar.

Mike has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for over 35 years, is the Executive Director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency and is the trucking lead for the Rocky Mountain Institute. Mike’s specialty is brokering green truck collaborative technologies into the real world at scale. He has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Ohio State University and a Master’s in Organizational Leadership from the Indiana Institute of Technology. Roeth served on the second National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine Committee on Reducing Fuel Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, is a Department of Energy Merit Reviewer and served as Chairman of the Board for the Truck Manufacturers Association. He understands the customers, operations and intricacies of the commercial vehicle industry having held various positions in product development, engineering, reliability and quality, sales, materials and plant management with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.

Dr. Francis, a former Medical School Faculty member, is a public health executive, entrepreneur and transportation disruptor. Dr. Francis is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of EVNoire.  EVNoire’s work focuses on two pillars: E-Mobility Best Practices and Equity Best Practices. The EVNoire Team specializes in providing business solutions to enhance electrification strategies for Utilities, Non-Profits, Municipalities, Government Agencies, Public Health Organizations, and Regional and National organizations to expand this market share.  EVNoire also engages communities on workforce development opportunities in the alternative fuel/electric vehicle economy.

Garrett Fitzgerald, Ph.D., is an associate in the Electricity practices at RMI. Garrett is currently working on an extension of RMI’s Simple BoS project, Battery Balance of Systems, conducting a deep dive analysis on understanding cost drivers and barriers in the hybrid PV-Energy Storage market. His work had primarily been focused on grid integrated distributed energy generation systems and their impact on utility economics and business models.