The Clean Energy Speaker Series (CESS) is held at the Haas School of Business each year during the fall semester. CESS is a formal MBA 294 Selected Topics class and can be taken for 1 unit of course credit. Speakers are often Haas or UC Berkeley alumni who are leaders in the energy, natural resources, or impact investing industries.
The primary objective of CESS is to give students an introduction to a wide variety of topics in energy and sustainability, while also challenging students’ views of what can be achieved by innovative organizations and individuals. Industries covered include renewable energy generation and storage, industrial decarbonization, venture capital and accelerators, clean transportation, Big Tech, retail sustainability, and public policy. CESS is a great opportunity to explore potential career paths and make valuable connections with successful professionals and Berkeley alumni. Speakers typically provide background on their firm and details about their role, while also sharing tips on navigating the clean energy industry, a quickly changing space that can be challenging to break into for early-career professionals.
Past speakers have worked in some of the following areas:
- Utilities and corporates: PG&E, NRG, EDF, Enel
- Energy software: Leap, AutoGrid, Granular Energy
- Transportation: Tesla, Rivian, Lyft, Forum Mobility
- Investing and development: Intersect Power, Generate Capital, Cypress Renewables, Brookfield, Shell New Energies, Wells Fargo
- Start-ups: Quidnet Energy, NovoHydrogen, Ammobia, Coreshell, Twelve
- Big Tech: Google, Meta
- Other: Bloom Energy, SunPower, Makani Technologies
- And many more!
Please contact the Director of Speaker Series, Augustine Santillan (asantillan@berkeley.edu), with any questions and for virtual attendance information.