Dr. Melinda Cep has more than fifteen years of experience in rural and agricultural policy, most recently in the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, where she was the senior director of lands, water, and agriculture. Before that, she served as the first working lands and natural solutions executive at the National Audubon Society, designing strategies and initiatives to advance national climate solutions and habitat conservation on working lands.
Cep has occupied senior staff positions with the US House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, the World Wildlife Fund, and the US Department of Agriculture. She was deputy chief of staff at USDA, where she managed regulatory and policy work across the department and coordinated the implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill for the Office of the Secretary.
Cep grew up on her family’s farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and a doctorate from the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.
David A. Naylor is the President and CEO of Rayburn Electric Cooperative, a generation and transmission cooperative serving four distribution cooperatives across sixteen counties in northeast Texas.
David has over 30 years of experience in the utility industry, beginning with C. H. Guernsey & Company where he served as a managing consultant for Rayburn. David’s leadership, expertise, and innovation resulted in him first joining Rayburn as the Executive Vice President and then becoming its current President and CEO.
He has led several major initiatives, including Rayburn’s 25% purchase of the Freestone Energy Center, leading Rayburn to become the first Texas utility to securitize debt relating to Winter Storm Uri, and overseeing the acquisition of the Rayburn Energy Station in Sherman, Texas. Under his leadership, Rayburn has experienced a transformative period of organizational growth and innovation.
He is a licensed Professional Engineer, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. As a resident of Rockwall, David remains actively engaged as a community leader and stakeholder.
Lorenzo Simonelli is Chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR). Baker Hughes is an energy technology company that combines innovation, expertise and scale to provide solutions for energy and industrial customers worldwide.
Simonelli was named Chairman of the Board in October 2017 and has been President and CEO since the Company’s creation in 2017, where he oversaw the successful merger of GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes Inc. Since 2013, he served as President and CEO of GE Oil & Gas.
Previously, Simonelli served as President and CEO of GE Transportation, a global transportation leader in the rail, mining, marine and energy storage industries. During his five-year tenure, he expanded and diversified GE Transportation by focusing on advanced technology manufacturing, intelligent control systems, and a diverse approach to new propulsion solutions.
He has also served as CFO Americas for GE Consumer & Industrial, as well as General Manager, Product Management for GE Appliances, Lighting, Electrical Distribution and Motors.
Simonelli joined GE’s Financial Management Program in 1994, where he worked on assignments in GE International, GE Shared Services, GE Oil & Gas, and Consolidated Financial Insurance.
He currently serves on the Board of Iveco Group N.V. He served on the Board of C3.ai, Inc. from 2020-2021 and on the Board of CNH Industrial N.V. from 2019-2021.
Originally from Tuscany, Italy, Simonelli is a Business & Economics Graduate from Cardiff University in South Wales. He is married and resides in Houston.
Gil Quiniones leads ComEd, an Exelon company, which powers the lives of more than 4 million residential and business customers in Chicago and across most of northern Illinois. He is responsible for the management of an electric grid that delivers safe, reliable electricity to those customers and for empowering them to manage their energy use. Under Quiniones’ leadership, ComEd was named the most reliable utility in America by PA Consulting, based on analysis of system reliability statistics, including the frequency and duration of customer outages. With over 6,300 employees, ComEd is one of the largest employers in the region, maintaining numerous workforce and education partnerships with the diverse communities it serves.
Professional History
Before joining ComEd, Quiniones served more than a decade as president and CEO of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the nation’s largest state-owned electric utility. Under his leadership, NYPA played a key role in New York State’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative to use market forces and new technology to empower customers and encourage the growth of clean renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Before joining NYPA in 2007, Quiniones held several positions in the administration of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, including more than four years as senior vice president of energy and telecommunications. He started his career at Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies and an electric and gas utility serving parts of southeastern New York and northern New Jersey, including New York City. He worked for 16 years at Con Edison, where he cofounded Con Edison Solutions, the utility’s unregulated energy services company.
Civic and Board Involvement
In June 2024, Quiniones was named to the Board of Directors for Intersect Illinois, a leading economic development organization, promoting the state as a location for investment by businesses. In July 2024 he was named to the board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which is working to address food insecurity in the metropolitan region. He is the Co-Chair of the Corporate Coalition of Chicago, dedicated to addressing racial and economic inequities in the city. Quiniones also serves on Civic Federation Board of Trustees, the board of World Business Chicago and the board of the Illinois Utilities Business Diversity Council (IUBDC). He is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Economic Club of Chicago.
In August 2022, President Joseph Biden named Quiniones to the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Board, which advises the White House on how to reduce physical and cyber risks and improve the security and resilience of the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors.
In past years, Quiniones has served as a board member for a number of leading energy industry organizations including the Alliance to Save Energy, GridWise Alliance and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
Education
Quiniones attended De La Salle University in the Philippines, where he received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He has performed graduate coursework in engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He has completed the Executive Education Program at Columbia Business School and the CEO Academy at The Wharton School. Quiniones earned the Corporate Director Certificate at Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program.
Ani Dasgupta is President and CEO of World Resources Institute (WRI), where he spearheads global efforts to drive systemic change across climate, nature, and human development. Dasgupta is the author of The New Global Possible: Rebuilding Optimism in the Age of Climate Crisis. Ani’s visionary leadership is defined by action to transform economies, cities, and communities for a prosperous and inclusive future.
A widely recognized leader in climate policy and finance, sustainable cities, and poverty alleviation, Dasgupta has built transformative cross-sector, multinational partnerships with governments, corporations, and civil society. He brings a global perspective to ensure that environmental solutions are both scalable and equitable, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, TIME Magazine, Financial Times and many more global media outlets. He took the helm at WRI after seven years as global director of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Under his leadership, the WRI Ross Center grew to become one of the largest programs of its kind with teams working in 150 cities, with a reach of more than four hundred cities across the globe.
Prior to joining WRI in 2014, Dasgupta worked at the World Bank for nearly two decades. His work spanned urban development, poverty, and infrastructure in East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. He served as director of knowledge and learning at the World Bank, where he developed the bank’s first knowledge strategy. He also worked extensively in the World Bank’s Jakarta office as head of infrastructure, where he was deeply engaged in post-2004 tsunami reconstruction in Aceh. His technical work at the Bank centered on community-based development, urban environment, disaster management, solid waste management, water supply, and sanitation.
Originally from Delhi, India, Dasgupta developed an early interest in buildings and design. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture, with an emphasis on low-income housing, at the School of Planning and Architecture in India. He attended a special program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on affordable housing and later joined the Department for Urban Planning at MIT. Dasgupta holds master’s degrees from MIT in city planning and architecture.
He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and has two children.
Rudy D. Garza is the President & CEO of CPS Energy, the nation’s largest electric and natural gas public utility, overseeing an energy portfolio of over 10,000 megawatts, over $15 billion in assets, close to $4 billion in annual revenue, and a workforce of over 3,600 employees. CPS Energy is the fourth-largest energy provider in Texas and the fifth-largest in the nation for solar capacity.
Rudy is responsible for CPS Energy’s diverse energy portfolio, which includes nuclear, solar, wind, battery storage, natural gas, and coal, powering over 1.4 million homes and businesses in South Texas. Rudy’s leadership team has led innovative initiatives, including grid modernization, customer experience enhancements, and community resiliency.
Rudy has 30 years of experience in the utility industry, serving in both the public and private sectors. He previously served as Chief Customer & Stakeholder Engagement Officer, Senior Vice President of Distribution Service & Operations, and Vice President of External Relations. Prior to joining CPS Energy, Rudy served as Assistant City Manager of Business Support Services and Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the City of Corpus Christi, driving advocacy efforts before the Texas legislature and U.S. Congress.
He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Texas.
Rudy currently serves on the national board of directors for the Keystone Policy Center, the American Gas Association, and the Large Public Power Council, and regionally on the boards of the Brooks Development Authority, the Texas Public Power Association, and the University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering. He recently served as the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County Campaign Co-Chair, where he exceeded a fundraising goal of $46 million.
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