Maria is the CEO and Founder of Ardinall Investment Management; an investment firm focused on climate change, energy access and sustainable energy infrastructure that she started in 2017. Prior to Ardinall Investment Management, Ms. Dreyfus spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs, where she most recently served as a Portfolio Manager and Managing Director in the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) Group.

She sits on the Center on Global Energy Policy advisory board at Columbia University, on its executive committee, and serves as co-chair of its Women in Energy program. Additionally, Ms. Dreyfus is a member of the MIT Corporation’s Development Committee and sits on the MIT Economics Department’s Visiting Committee. She also serves as a New York State Secure Choice Savings Program Board member.

Her current and past non-profit board memberships include New America Alliance, Breakthrough New York, and Girls Inc. of NYC. She is a member of the Economic Club of New York, the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC), and the Milken Institute’s Young Leaders Circle.

Ms. Dreyfus has held her CFA since 2004 and holds a dual degree in economics and management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Roger Aines is the Chief Scientist of the Energy and Homeland Security Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Aines leads the Carbon Initiative at LLNL, which aims to understand, develop, and implement technologies for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—so-called negative emissions technologies.

Aines has been at LLNL since 1984 working on nuclear waste disposal, environmental remediation, application of stochastic methods to inversion and data fusion, management of carbon emissions including separation technology, and monitoring and verification methods for sequestration. With Amy Aines, he authored the recently released Championing Science, a book that helps scientists communicate more effectively with decision makers.

Kurt Waltzer is the principal for Energy Systems Innovation (ESI), focused on working with civil society, market leaders, and policymakers to help develop systems-level solutions for the most challenging parts of decarbonization.

Prior to launching ESI, Kurt was CEO and Managing Director at the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), where he focused on managing CATF’s resources and strategy, as well as growing the organization from a US-based NGO to a global climate organization.

Over the past two decades he has successfully developed efforts and obtained outcomes in policy, markets, and technology innovation that relate to reaching a net zero emissions system. A particular focus has been creating the policies and networks needed to support technology through development phases – from early stage to deployment. Efforts have included a concentration on carbon capture and storage where Kurt helped develop strategies and lead efforts that resulted in the adoption of major CCUS policies, such as the enhanced and expanded US 45Q tax credit. He has also incubated programmatic advocacy efforts across a range of technologies, including SHR geothermal, nuclear fission and fusion, and zero carbon fuels (hydrogen/ammonia).

Prior to working at CATF, Kurt worked on clean energy policy issues for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and Izaak Walton League of America as well as the Ohio Environmental Council. Kurt has an MBA from the University of Michigan as well as a BS in economics and a BS in biology from Ohio State.