Speakers 2017

Read the full bios of all the Energy Days speakers and see what sessions they will take part in.

In alphabetical order by last name

---

Eric J. Barron

Eric J. Barron, the former dean at Penn State and former president of Florida State University, is the 18th President of Penn State.

 

 

Denise Brinley

Denise Brinley is the senior energy advisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development.

 

 

 

Chéri Faso Olf

Chéri Faso Olf leads workforce strategy for Tesla, Inc., as a post-merger continuation of her role as head of workforce and training development for SolarCity.

 

 

Scott Foster

Scott Foster is the director of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Sustainable Energy Division.

 

 

 

Thomas Foust

Thomas Foust is the director of the National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

 

 Nicholas P. Jones

Nicholas P. Jones began serving Penn State as executive vice president and provost in July 2013.

 

 

 

Hari Osofsky

Hari Osofsky is a leading scholar of and contributor to public policy work on energy transition and climate change and is the incoming dean of Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs.

 

 

 Andrew Ott

 

Andrew Ott, the president and chief executive officer of PJM, oversees the largest power grid in North America and the largest electricity market in the world.

 

 

 

Russell C. Redding

Russell C. Redding is the 26th Secretary of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

 Bill Ritter, Jr.

Bill Ritter, Jr., former governor of Colorado, is the founder and director of the Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) at Colorado State University which launched in 2011.

 

 

 

Neil A. Sharkey

Neil A. Sharkey is vice president for research at Penn State.  In this role, Sharkey is responsible for overseeing a research enterprise with annual expenditures consistently exceeding $800 million dollars.