Argus North American Biofuels, LCFS & Carbon Markets Summit

Rajinder Sahota

Deputy Executive Officer, Climate Change and Research, California Air Resources Board

Rajinder Sahota is the deputy executive officer, climate change and research, with the Air Resources Board whose primary portfolio of responsibilities includes management of the Cap-and-Trade Program, development and implementation of the State's AB32 Scoping Plan, and Energy Policy. Due to the global nature of climate change and interest in CA's programs, the role requires coordination and collaboration with subnational and national governments pursuing climate change mitigation action. Other climate programs within the division include the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, methane reduction strategies, and fuels initiatives. Prior to this position, Rajinder managed the design and implementation of the Cap-and-Trade Program, including its linkage with Quebec's program. She holds a BS and MS in Atmospheric Sciences from UC Davis.

Bill Peters

Clean Fuels Program Market Analyst, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Bill Peters is the Market Analyst for Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program, where he’s worked since 2016. He works on various aspects of the program from rulemaking to implementation and market monitoring. Prior to that he was a reporter and deputy editor for Argus Air Daily in Washington, DC and Portland, Oregon where he worked on covering North American carbon, emissions, and renewable electricity policy and markets.

Matt Steele

Policy Analyst, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Matt Steele is a climate policy analyst with Oregon DEQ. He joined the agency in 2020 as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program team and moved to the climate policy team in 2022. He works on the development and implementation of initiatives to address climate change, including the Climate Protection Program. Prior to working for DEQ he worked as a consultant focused on research, development, and implementation of projects aimed at improving biogas production and mitigating methane emissions.

Scott Lewis

President, World Energy

Scott has been in the renewable fuels industry for more than 20 years now and understands the importance of culture and government that values reduction in carbon as currency. His experience centers around building out and managing commercial programs for Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel, and now Sustainable Aviation Fuel production facilities. His advocacy in the U.S. and Canada for better policies governing the renewable and biofuel market has driven important and positive change for World Energy and the industry as a whole.

Today, Scott leads World Energy’s commercial SAF operations, helping to build strategic relationships with suppliers, customers, government officials, and joint venture partners.

Grant Zimmerman

Chief Executive Officer, Amp Americas

Grant Zimmerman is CEO and director of Amp Americas, a pioneer in converting dairy waste into carbon-negative renewable transportation fuel and power. He joined the company as senior vice president of business development in 2015, and assumed the role of CEO in 2016. As CEO, Zimmerman is focused on growing the market for RNG and other carbon-negative renewable products that combat climate change and improve air quality. Under Zimmerman’s leadership, Amp Americas’ operations have eliminated more than 1,400,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions per year, equivalent to taking about 300,000 cars off the road for one year. Prior to Amp Americas, Zimmerman was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company in the global energy and materials and corporate finance practices where he served clients in strategy and operations. Before McKinsey, Zimmerman served in commercial and finance roles with Enron and the Enron bankruptcy estate. Zimmerman earned his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, graduating with high honors. He also holds a MPA and BBA, Honors from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bruce Fleming

Chief Executive Officer, Montana Renewables

Bruce Fleming is Chief Executive Officer of Montana Renewables, a controlled subsidiary of Calumet Specialty Products (NASDAQ: CLMT).

Fleming was previously Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions at Tesoro Corporation and an officer of Tesoro Companies Inc. from 2004-2016. He founded and was Managing Director of Hong Kong-based Orient Refining Ltd 1997-2004, and served in various operations, business development and planning roles with Amoco Oil and Amoco Corporation from 1981-1996.

Fleming holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Princeton University) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (University of Delaware).

Claudia Borchert

Climate Change Bureau Chief, New Mexico Environment Department

After joining New Mexico’s Environment Department in 2020 to work on climate change policy, Claudia Borchert became the Bureau Chief of NMED’s newly formed and the state’s first Climate Change Bureau in November of 2022. The Bureau’s current focus is promulgating the rules and the program to implement a clean transportation fuel standard for New Mexico, which the state legislature approved earlier in
2024. The Bureau is also currently implementing New Mexico’s Advanced Clean Cars and Advanced Clean Truck rule, which requires an increasing percentage of zero-emission cars and trucks to be delivered to the state. Also, with the assistance of a $3M EPA grant, the Climate Change Bureau, together with the leadership team of New Mexico’s interagency Climate Change Task Force, is developing a comprehensive climate action plan for New Mexico, that will consider how businesses, industry, governments, organizations, and individuals can take action to achieve the statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction target of at least 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.

Paul Machiele

Fuel Center Director, US Environmental Protection Agency

Paul Machiele is the Center Director for Fuel Programs in the Assessment and Standards Division of EPA in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Throughout his 37 year career at EPA he has been responsible for a wide range of regulations and initiatives covering gasoline, diesel fuel, and alternative fuels, as well as light-duty vehicles, heavy-duty highway engines, and nonroad engines. He has managed the Fuel Programs for the last 18 years, leading the development of the gasoline and diesel low-sulfur standards and renewable fuel standards. In 2009 Mr. Machiele was the recipient of SAE’s Barry D. McNutt Award for Excellence in Automotive Policy Analysis and in 2011 became an SAE Fellow. He received a bachelor degree in Engineering from Calvin College and bachelors and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Derek Nixon

Cap-and-Invest Auctions and Market Section Supervisor, Washington State Department of Ecology

Derek Nixon currently serves as Washington State’s cap-and-invest auctions and market supervisor. In this role, he is responsible for coordinating auctions, trading, and market surveillance of the cap-and-invest program. Among other hats, he helped shape the design of the Washington cap-and-invest market during the 2022 rulemaking that established the program. Derek enjoyed working for five years in the California Cap-and-Trade program, specializing in EITE allocation and organized wholesale electricity markets. Prior to obtaining an MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Davis, Derek worked as a financial analyst in solar PV as the industry ramped up U.S. deployment.

Paola Mellow

Executive Director of the Low Carbon Fuel Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Paola Mellow is the Executive Director of the Low Carbon Fuel Division at Environment and Climate Change Canada, where she is responsible for implementing the Clean Fuels Regulations, a key part of the Government of Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan to lower emissions by 40% from 2005 levels. . Prior to her current role, Paola has been responsible for developing number of other key climate change policies as Director of the Electricity and Combustion Division, including greenhouse gas regulations that will accelerate the phase-out coal-fired electricity in Canada, regulations for natural gas-fired electricity, and the output-based standard for electricity under the federal carbon pricing system. Paola graduated from the University of Victoria with a Master’s degree in Economics, and combines a strong analytical background with people management excellence to advance Environment and Climate Change Canada’s reputation as a world class regulator.

Abbey Brown

Clean Fuel Standard Technical Lead, Washington Department of Ecology

Abbey Brown is the Technical Lead for the Clean Fuel Standard at the Washington Department of Ecology. She has spent her career working on climate, energy, and air quality policy for governments and non-profits in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Washington State, including Environmental Defense Fund and the World Resources Institute’s NDC Partnership. She holds a B.A. in Political Studies from Bard College and a M.A. in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Dan Lieberman

Global Sustainability Strategy & Engagement Lead, Nuseed

Dan Lieberman joined the Nuseed Carinata global team May 2023 in the role of Sustainability Strategy & Engagement Lead. Dan brings over two decades’ experience at the climate-energy nexus across the public and private sectors in both consulting and industry. At Nuseed, Dan is advancing the Carinata program’s sustainability strategy and engagement with external stakeholders globally. His work is focused on unlocking opportunities to remove atmospheric carbon, regenerate soil, and grow non-food sustainable energy sources that can replace fossil oils.

Prior to joining Nuseed, Dan spent 16 years at Chevron, where he held various roles that spanned corporate strategy and sustainability, communications, and government relations, serving most recently as Senior Advisor for Climate Policy for global legislative and regulatory affairs.

Dan has previously held roles in corporate strategy and as a managing consultant for the consulting firm ICF International. There he helped public and private sector clients develop and navigate nascent carbon markets and approaches to greenhouse gas management and accounting. In the standards space in particular, Dan led or contributed to numerous publications on the estimation, modeling and forecasting of GHG emissions and markets and contributed to the development of methodologies and tools under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol, IPCC Good Practice Guidelines, US EPA Inventory of GHG Emissions and Sinks, and others.

In addition to his extensive sector experience Dan also earned an M.B.A. in Strategic Environmental Management from the George Washington University School of Business, and a B.S. in Economics and Environmental Science from Brandeis University.
Dan and his family reside in Livermore, California.

Carrie Song

Senior Vice President, Commercial, Global Renewable Products, Neste

Carrie Song is currently the Senior Vice President at Neste, the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and a forerunner in developing renewable and circular feedstock solutions for polymers and chemicals. She leads the commercial operations of Neste’s Renewable Products business unitin the Americas, Europe, and APAC regions. She oversees financial performance deliveries, end to end value chain optimization, and business development of Neste’s full renewable product portfolio. Carrie joined Neste in 2020 and in her previous role as the VP Renewable Road Transportation, she was responsible for Neste’s increasing development and expansion efforts in the Americas region. Carrie has a track record of success in driving business growth for various Fortune 500 companies in a variety of industries, including global commodity trade, capital goods, consulting, energy, and oil and gas. Carrie holds a BA in Economics, a Master in Management, and a Master in Marketing

Keith Sawyer

Manager of Alternative Fuels, Avfuel Corporation

Keith Sawyer, manager of alternative fuels for Avfuel Corporation, has worked in the energy business since 1977, including 10 years in the aviation industry. After a 40-year career with Chevron, Sawyer joined Avfuel—a leading independent global supplier of aviation fuel and services with 650+ branded FBOs and 3,000+ fueling locations worldwide—in 2016 as its regional business development/supply chain manager where he was responsible for developing and nurturing relationships with fueling locations throughout the Western U.S., Canada and Alaska. To further capitalize on his expertise in the fuel market, Sawyer became Avfuel’s manager of alternative fuels in 2017, leading all aspects of evaluating and developing the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) market and its suppliers and securing SAF supplies for Avfuel’s customers while representing Avfuel within the environmental and fuel supply chain groups associated with GAMA, NBAA, NATA and IBAC. During Sawyer’s tenure at Chevron, he oversaw petroleum and natural gas product supply chain management, cargo operations, general aviation business, branded programs, aviation investments, and marketing in various markets, operating out of Perth, Western Australia; Houston, Texas; San Ramon, California; Almaty, Kazakhstan; San Francisco, California; and Vancouver, British Columbia. Sawyer received a bachelor’s degree in economic geography from the University of British Columbia, as well as completed the university’s executive development program, and Alberta’s Banff School of Management business and marketing development program.

Earl Holle

Renewable Fuels Commercial Optimization Manager, Phillips 66

Earl Holle is Manager, Renewable Fuels Commercial Optimization for Phillips 66, a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company. He is responsible for optimizing renewable feedstock, production, and sales. He has 38 years’ experience at Phillips 66 and held leadership roles in engineering, operations, reliability, strategy, business development and optimization. Since 2019, his focus has been scaling renewable fuels production including sustainable aviation fuel. Earl graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelors’ degree in Chemical Engineering.

Sean Newsum

Managing Director, Environmental Affairs, Airlines for America

Sam Wade

Director of Public Policy, RNG Coalition

Sam Wade serves as the Director of Public Policy at the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. Previously Mr. Wade worked as Chief of the Transportation Fuels Branch at the Californian Air Resources Board, where he oversaw the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program for four years. In other roles at CARB, Mr. Wade served as Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs, developed the Cap-and-Trade rule, and authored portions of California’s first Greenhouse Gas Scoping Plan. He’s also worked in energy policy at Pacific Gas and Electric and with a bioenergy/biochar start-up. Sam holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Davis, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii, and an M.P.A in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University.

Patrick Serfass

Executive Director, American Biogas Council

Patrick Serfass is Executive Director of the American Biogas Council. Patrick has led the American Biogas Council since he helped create it in 2010. The American Biogas Council now represents nearly 400 organizations and 5,000 professionals as the voice of the US biogas industry. The ABC is dedicated to maximizing carbon reduction and economic growth using biogas systems. Beyond biogas, Patrick has more than 20 years’ experience growing clean energy industries, like solar, hydrogen, biochar, and woody biomass. In Patrick’s early career, he was a physical oceanographer, architectural engineer and designed unmanned deep ocean vehicles. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College.

Kristine Clark

Director of Clean Energy Technology, CF Industries

Kristine Clark is CF Industries' Director, Clean Energy Solutions. In her role, Kristine is responsible for strategy and commercial aspects of decarbonization at CF Industries including carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), renewable power, and clean hydrogen production. She also supports market development strategy for low-carbon fertilizer, including demonstrating value through biofuels and food and beverage value chains. Prior to her time at CF Industries, she was a manager of gas capacity planning at Xcel Energy and a process engineer at Black and Veatch. She studied chemical engineering at the University of Oklahoma.

Dan Kim

Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer, NXT Clean Fuels

Dan has served as Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer, NXTClean Fuels since 2022. Dan is currently leading work with select stakeholders to advance scalable ecosystems to accelerate economical production and delivery of energy/fuels to decarbonize industry and transport sectors.

Prior to NXTClean Fuels, Dan focused on the development of sustainable alternative energy platforms (synthetic fuel, electric and hydrogen) with the Pilot Company, Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary and one of the largest travel center networks in North America. Dan was also the former Chief Financial Officer of World Energy, industry leading producer and distributor of SAF, RD, and biodiesel and one of the first producers of SAF in the world.

Dan has been active in the global energy sector for 30 years in operating companies and financial institutions which included ExxonMobil, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Dan earned a MBA from Yale University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.

Geoff Tauvette

Executive Director, Canadian Council for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (C-SAF)

Geoff is a senior leader in commercial aviation and an engineering professional at the forefront of airline sustainability with more than 25 years of experience in integrating aviation fuel procurement, environment, and climate risk management, giving him a unique perspective on creating a sustainable aviation fuels market in Canada to support decarbonizing the aviation industry.

His past responsibilities have centred around setting direction on aviation environmental sustainability strategies, being an industry advocate in the design of aviation climate policy and regulatory measures and reducing aviation emissions through stakeholder collaborations to advance the use of sustainable fuels and other emissions reduction initiatives.

Geoff holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering. He is also an ambassador with the Alberta Energy Futures Lab, a sustainability-driven, innovation-focused initiative whose vision is to accelerate the clean transition of Alberta’s energy system and a board member of the Clean Resource Innovation Network.

Kristine Klavers

Managing Director - Low Carbon Petroleum & Refining, EcoEngineers

Kristine Klavers has been working in the global energy industry for 30 years and has deep experience in the entire energy chain including energy commodity markets, refining operations and vehicle engine design, petrochemicals and transportation fuels markets. Since moving to the U.S. in 1996, she has worked in energy market consulting, first launching and building the global consulting business at Hart Energy, focusing on global fuel quality, biofuels and refining. At Argus, Ms. Klavers built their Americas consulting business reflecting subject matters from crude, gas, LNG, metals, fertilizers, petrochemicals and biofuels and biomass. Prior to coming to the U.S., she worked as a process engineer designing refineries for JGC in Japan and as an Oxygenated Fuels Specialist for Arco Chemicals (LyondellBasell) in the United Kingdom. She holds a Master of Science in chemical engineering from Twente University in the Netherlands, and Tokyo Institute of Technology holds a patent for her methane coupling catalyst. Ms. Klavers actively participates in the National Petroleum Council; she acts as a coach in Women of Energy; and she is the president of the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce.

Steve Csonka

Executive Director, CAAFI (Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative)

Steve is a commercial aviation professional with 38 years of broad, strategic airline, aviation OEM, and SAF experience. Over his career, Steve has been a strong industry advocate who has worked in roles of developing pragmatic solutions to the challenges of aviation growth, and such engagement led him to accepting the current CAAFI Executive Director role in 2012. CAAFI (the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, www.caafi.org) is an industry partnership fostering the development and commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). CAAFI engages in public-private-partnership activities designed to convene the group of participants needed to stand up an entirely new industrial sector.

Steve also continues to serve in leadership, steering committee, consultancy, and BOD roles with multiple aviation industry organizations in areas of applying technology and business concepts to enable commercial progression with SAF, both through the work of CAAFI, as well as independent activities through his consultancy.

Kurt Kovarik

Vice President of Federal Affairs, Clean Fuels Alliance America

Kurt serves as Vice President, Federal Affairs for Clean Fuels Alliance America, leading members in advocating federal policies that support the industry’s growth. Since joining Clean Fuels Alliance America, Kurt has helped the industry secure a long-term extension of the biodiesel tax incentive, preserve important protections against unfair international trade and ensure the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard program. Kurt continues to organize the industry’s advocacy for equitable tax, infrastructure and environmental policies.
Prior to joining Clean Fuels Alliance America, Kurt worked for more than 20 years in the office of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), leading efforts on the Renewable Fuel Standard, the biodiesel tax incentive and increased use of clean fuels. An Iowa native, Kurt graduated from Luther College with a degree in political science.

Laura Hutchinson

Manager, RMI

Laura is a Manager with RMI’s Climate Aligned Industries program. She focuses on market mechanisms that can facilitate decarbonization of heavy industries including aviation, oil and gas, and steel.

Laura currently is working to accelerate the decarbonization of the aviation sector by scaling the use of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) certificate system through the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA). She also co-leads the Book and Claim Community for heavy transport in partnership with the Smart Freight Centre. Previously at RMI, Laura helped develop a sectoral transition strategy for steel within the Mission Possible Partnership, and helped create MiQ — a methane emissions performance certification system for natural gas.

Rob Speld

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Manager, KLM

Scott McDonald

Director, ADM

Krista Sutton

Principal Process Engineer, New Energy Risk

Krista Sutton joined the New Energy Risk’s due diligence team in 2022 as principal engineer where she leverages a breadth of knowledge in the downstream and midstream oil & gas industry to help energy transition projects get financing. Her varied career has involved project development, design, commissioning, startup, optimization, and day-to-day operations of multibillion-dollar refining assets around the world spanning many different fuels’ technologies, both conventional and biofuels, including commissioning the first Ecofining Renewable Diesel unit during her time at UOP.

Chris Hairel

Vice President, Consulting, Argus