2023 Mobilize Speakers
The leaders and champions helping to advance sustainable technology adoption for a better tomorrow
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SPEAKERS, MODERATORS, & KEYNOTES
Zach Henkin
Director of EV Program Research
Zach Henkin is the Director of EV Program Research at the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), where he leads research and analysis focused on adopting and using electric vehicles and infrastructure at scale. Zach brings over ten years of experience researching transportation electrification, has designed numerous large-scale demonstration projects relating to consumer EV adoption, and lectured on EV and charging programs worldwide. Zach has an MBA specializing in renewable energy, formerly served as a planning commissioner and economic development commissioner and is a Third Derivative (D3) cleantech mentor.
Mike Coley
President ASE Education Foundation
Mike Coley has been with ASE for more than 25 years, serving as President of the ASE Education Foundation since 2019. Prior to that, he served as Senior VP for ASE, directing Operations, Test Development, Customer Service, and MIS workgroups, along with coordination with ASE’s testing contractor, Prometric. In that role, he led the conversion of ASE tests from paper-pencil to computer, the construction of ASE’s first CRM system, and the development of the ASE Renewal App. Prior to joining the ASE staff, Coley managed his family’s automotive repair business in San Antonio, Texas, and served on the ASE Board of Directors, including a term as Chairman in 1991. Coley has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from SMU in Dallas, Texas, an MBA from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and previously taught Automotive Emissions classes at Northern Virginia Community College
Paola Santana
Founder & CEO
Paola Santana is a lawyer, public procurement expert and serial tech entrepreneur, creating the next breakthrough in government systems. She's the founder and CEO of GLASS, a Silicon Valley startup revolutionizing how governments buy with pioneering G-Commerce. Previously, she co-founded Matternet, a Silicon Valley company pioneering drone logistics networks. Under her leadership, Matternet engaged with The White House, US Congress, FAA, and NASA to enact the first drone regulation in the United States in 2016, and became the world’s first drone delivery platform authorized for permanent operations over a populated city in 2017. She co-established the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court, and worked at the National Elections Court coordinating the Elections Litigation Chamber. She has also collaborated with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the OECD, developing striking public infrastructure projects and strategic partnerships integrating exponential technologies. She’s best known for her ability to create things from scratch at the intersection of the public, private and regulatory domains, and for her track record introducing cutting-edge technologies into highly-regulated markets. Her most recent experience includes co-drafting the public-private partnership enabling the first multi-state Hyperloop system in the United States. A Fulbright scholar and graduate from George Washington, Georgetown and Singularity University, she’s been featured as CNET Top 20 Latin in Tech, Forbes Next 1000, LinkedIn Top Professionals Under 35 in Enterprise Tech, and served as Lead of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Advisory Group and appointed member of the first FAA Drone Advisory Committee.
Michael Laughlin
Technology Manager
Mr. Laughlin is a Technology Manager in the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Technology Integration (TI) program, bringing almost 30 years of alternative fuel and advanced transportation technology experience to his role. He manages a portfolio of competitively awarded DOE TI programs to demonstrate and deploy alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure, including projects to deploy electric vehicles and infrastructure for communities across the U.S. and develop educational products for workplace charging initiatives. He also manages TI technical work with DOE national laboratories to create technical assistance products for education and outreach, including the DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center and the Fuel Economy Guide. He serves as the liaison between TI and the VTO Energy Efficient Mobility Systems (EEMS) program, translating EEMS technical findings into insights for TI stakeholders. Mr. Laughlin also serves as the Director for the 21st Century Truck Partnership, a government/industry collaboration for advanced commercial medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicle research with major commercial vehicle OEMs and industry suppliers.
Gordon Linton
Former Federal Transit Administrator and State Legislator
Gordon Linton’s highly transformational and accomplished career in public policy and public service has been recognized for shaping horizons and creating new channels of opportunity. When announcing his presidential appointment, President Clinton called him a “distinguished Public Servant“. His policy recommendations, legislative achievements and executed projects focused on delivering measurable results. They operate within the nexus of the social, economic and political challenges inour diverse society. As a student of cause and effect and a practitioner of change and results the lasting impact of his work continues.
Terri Mestas
Chief Development Officer
Terri Mestas is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience leading private and public organizations with a domestic and international presence. She leads LAWAs $30B Capital Improvement Program, that includes projects such as the Automated People Mover, the new Terminal 9, new Concourse 0, new Cargo Facilities, new Roadways into LAX, Runway and Taxiway Projects, among other projects. She leads a team of dedicated staff members with support from over 450 companies executing work at Los Angeles International (LAX), Van Nuys and Palmdale Airports.
Dr. Kate Forrest
Senior Scientist
Dr. Kate Forrest is a senior scientist in the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine. She has nine years of experience in clean energy and transportation research. Her research focuses on zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, vehicle-grid integration, and energy storage opportunities for achieving California’s greenhouse gas and air quality goals.
James Makil
Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO)
James Makil has spent over 15 years in information security which includes professional experience with Realtor.com, Move.com, Redspin Inc, Rapid 7, and Cynergistek before joining Nth Generation. He has helped hundreds of institutions understand the risks and threats of Internet security and conducted numerous security assessments in a number of industries. He has completed over 280 different assessments, many using the NIST cybersecurity framework (CSF). His experience spans the financial sector (FFIEC/GLBA/PCI-DSS), credit unions (NCUA), the gaming industry, the energy sector (NERC), the Transportation Systems Sector (NIPP-RMF) and healthcare (HIPAA). Mr. Makil holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems and an MBA with a focus in Information Assurance.
Blake Lane, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Blake Lane is a Senior Scientist at the Advanced Power and Energy Program of the University of California, Irvine where he manages the Vehicle and Fuel Research Operations. Blake has initiated research thrusts for cooperative driving automation impacts on zero-emission vehicle technologies within the HORIBA Institute for Mobility and Connectivity2. Additional research foci are optimal rollout of alternative fuel and vehicle technologies, techno-economic and market projections for alternative fuels, and the analysis and integration of the transportation sector with the electricity and hydrogen power grids. Blake earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, where he also earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Blake was awarded the National Science Foundation’s Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship in 2015.
Larry Rillera
Air Pollution Specialist
Larry Rillera is an Air Pollution Specialist with the California Energy Commission. Through the Clean Transportation Program, Larry leads policies, investments, and teams for zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) workforce training and development, equity outreach and engagement, and partnership activities. He serves on many State interagency teams, public-private-partnership ventures, engages with community based organizations and businesses to advance clean energy and transportation throughout the state. Larry was the architect of innovative financing mechanisms for solar panel manufacturers and for the “Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Financing Program” through the State Treasurer’s Office. Larry was former Manager of Legislative Affairs for Caltrans, Superintendent of Parks and Facilities with the City of Palm Desert, and horticulturalists for the City of Newport Beach Larry received a Bachelor of Science in Plant Science at the University of California at Davis and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Southern California.
Alex Pawlowski
Senior Regulatory Strategy Specialist
Alex Pawlowski is a Senior Regulatory Strategy Specialist at Kia America, where he works in three key areas for Kia: vehicle environmental regulations, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and policy, and Vehicle to Home opportunities. Alex received his master's in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee where he conducted research in multiple projects funded by the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Asad Lesani
Vice President
Smart Infrastructure Products
Asad Lesani is the Vice President of Smart Infrastructure Products at Ouster. He has a Ph.D. in Transportation from McGill University, Canada, and B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. He has more than ten years of experience in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Transportation Safety. After finishing his Ph.D., Asad co-founded Bluecity Technology Inc in 2018, a startup that developed an AI-Powered Multi-Modal Traffic Monitoring and Data Analytics Platform Powered by Lidar Technology. The solution has been deployed at over 250 intersections globally, helping cities improve road safety and mobility. The company was later acquired by Velodyne Lidar Inc in 2022 and merged with Ouster in 2023.
Dean Tedtaotao
LA County Fleet Superintendent
Dean Tedtaotao is a Shop Superintendent in the Fleet Management Division of the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works. The department provides public infrastructure and municipal services to protect and enrich the daily lives of over ten million people in Los Angeles County. He currently oversees the fleet operations for approximately 450 of the department’s 3100 vehicles at Hollydale Shop in Los Angeles which is one of 6 maintenance shops strategically located throughout Los Angeles County. Dean is a graduate of the General Motors ASEP program and is currently the Vice-President for the Municipal Equipment Maintenance Association. He has worked for Public Works for 23 years.
Priscilla Englert
OEM Automotive Instructor
Priscilla Englert graduated from CSULA with a bachelor's in Industrial Technology with an emphasis in Manufacturing Design. She landed her first job as a Design Engineer and designed internal combustion engine pistons for race teams and enthusiasts. After a few years, Priscilla went back to school at the University of La Verne to complete a teaching credential program and get her Master’s Degree in Education. With her newfound skills, she worked as a high school automotive technology teacher at Bonita High School in La Verne for 10 years. She has been an Automotive and Toyota T-TEN instructor at Citrus College since the Fall of 2019. Priscilla finds joy in bringing her passion for cars and the industry to the table and sharing it with her students.
Frederick Gruner
Principal Engineer
Fred holds over 50 patents and is a Principal Engineer at NVIDIA Corporation, as a lead safety architect for driverless cars. Fred’s patents have resulted in an increase in revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars for the companies he worked for, higher reliability and confidence in computational results in supercomputers, and savings of hundreds of engineering years for OEMs. Fred has been employed with NVIDIA Corporation as a Principal Engineer and Lead Architect, where he has worked on video processors, graphics processors, and mobile processors. Fred’s areas of expertise include network packet processing, computer vision, video processing (one of the core technologies in self-driving cars), graphics processor design, CPU architecture, automotive functional safety, artificial intelligence, and highly reliable computing.
Ghazal Razeghi, Ph.D.
Microgrid and Smart Grid Technologies Manager
Dr. Razeghi is the Microgrid and Smart Grid Technologies Manager and a senior research scientist at APEP and provides expertise in optimization, non-linear programming, alternative transportation, and electricity market modeling and analysis. One of her current research topics includes vehicle to home (V2H) and use of EVs as a grid resource to reduce energy costs and increase resiliency. She received the Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from UC Irvine.
David Sosa
Manager, Collision Research & Development Workshop
David Sosa is currently serving as the manager of the Collision Research & Development Workshop for Rivian Automotive. In this role David works alongside an incredibly talented technical team who specialize in the testing and validating the Rivian specific repair processes and procedures. Before joining the Research & Development team David worked as a Collision Repair, Technical Specialist developing the Rivian specific repair procedures, guidelines, and position statements.
Francis Alvarez
Senior Research Analyst
Francis Alvarez, Senior Research Analyst on the Center for Sustainable Energy’s (CSE) Transparency and Insights team, has three years of industry experience working with data to leverage insights that promote informed program decisions. He has worked with program data from California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) to forecast program participation for statewide goals and predict the impacts of leading indicators on participation. Francis is also the Co-director of the San Diego Regional Clean Cities Coalition where he is responsible for coordinating efforts to promote clean and sustainable transportation to local stakeholders. Francis holds an M.S. from San Diego State University and a B.S. from University of California at San Diego.
Stan Young, Ph.D.
Mobility Innovations,
Equity Team Leader
Dr. Young serves as the Mobility Innovations and Equity team leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Chief Data Officer for the Eastern Transportation Coalition. Previously he served on staff at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Transportation Technology, the Kansas DOT and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Young is the technical architect of the Eastern Transportation Coalition Traffic Data Marketplace, developed and commercialized Bluetooth traffic monitoring, and co-developed the Department of Energy’s Mobility Energy Productivity metric. Dr. Young is a graduate of Kansas State University and served in the United States Peace Corps.