ICR25

Johan leads a diverse team and global programming cutting across ocean health, climate resilience, and environmental security in the Arctic, Eastern Pacific, Asia-Pacific, and Southwest Indian Ocean, markets and finance, and technology and innovation. Prior to joining WWF, Johan worked for Paul Allen’s Vulcan, representing the organization in Washington, DC, and working globally to develop, launch, and scale science, technology, environmental, and national security programs. Johan has co-founded and served as CEO of a technology start-up, and he has also led programming at the intersection of the environment, national security, and technology at the Stimson Center and the Monterey Institute.

Nancy J. Balkus, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Infrastructure, Energy and Environment, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Virginia. She provides executive leadership on all matters pertaining to formulation, review and execution of plans, policies, programs and budgets for Air Force built and natural infrastructure, environmental, and installation energy. These include facility management, military construction, utilities privatization, energy security, contingency energy, and environmental compliance and restoration.

Zeshan is founder and Managing Partner of MBX Capital, a $100M early-stage firm focused on human and environmental health. Current areas of interest include: applied AI in healthcare, advanced materials, computational chemistry, brain science, and environmental remediation.

Dr. Rene LeBlanc has 21 years of experience in a variety of development and production operations as well as commercial experience in supply chain development for the energy storage industry.  He joined Lithium Americas after managing efforts to develop the critical materials for Tesla Inc’s battery supply chain, and more than a decade of production operations for FMC Corporation’s Lithium Division.  Rene earned his Bachelors and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.

Jeanette Jackson is the CEO of Foresight, the nation’s largest cleantech accelerator. Foresight works with innovators, industry, investors, government, and academia across Canada to identify, develop, and ensure the adoption of clean tech solutions.

Mark G. Lauby is the senior vice president and chief engineer at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). Mr. Lauby joined NERC in January 2007 and has held several positions. Prior to joining NERC, Mr. Lauby worked for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for 20 years. Mr. Lauby began his electric industry career in 1979 at the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nelson Yip has nearly 25 years of experience in utility operations, engineering, planning and energy policy. He is shaping Con Edison’s resiliency plans and clean energy and sustainability strategy. As director of Strategic Planning, he advises senior leaders and their teams on building safe, reliable, clean and resilient infrastructure. He fosters innovative, sustainable and industry-leading solutions, while enabling effective decision-making and considering equity.

Justin helps clients protect inventions across a wide range of technologies, from wireless communications and TVs, to agrivoltaics and EVs. As a member of the Intellectual Property Owners Association he has served as panel moderator for its Green IP Committee, and he was named as a “Voice for a Green Future” by Sagacious IP in its 2024 GREEN100 Report. Prior to joining Banner Witcoff, Justin was a patent agent and patent attorney at Jones Day and a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Justin has a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University and a law degree from Georgetown University.

Dr. Tom Wall is the Director of Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Climate Resilience and Decision Science (CCRDS), which combines Argonne’s deep capabilities in climate science and modeling, advanced computing, infrastructure risk analysis, and decision science, to translate climate science and modeling into actionable information for decision makers. This information has driven proactive resilience planning and investment across the utility sector—from large investor-owned utilities to small municipal utilities—as well as among state and local governments, and local communities. Tom has over a decade of experience in climate resilience, and critical infrastructure analysis and protection; he leads infrastructure-focused projects for the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local governments, and industry stakeholders.