Executive Leadership Team (2020 - 2021)
Pervez S. Agwan
Co-President
Pervez is currently pursuing an MBA at MIT-Sloan with a focus in energy/sustainability, and holds Bachelor’s & Master’s degrees in Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has spent the last few years consulting in the energy space focusing on cost mitigation solutions & operational strategy. He has worked with, & successfully implemented solutions at firms throughout the entire energy spectrum. He is particularly interested in the intersection of finance, energy, and policy related to the energy transition, and large scale de-carbonization.
Haruna Fujita
Co-President
Haruna is a 2021 MBA candidate at MIT Sloan, pursuing the Business Analytics Certificate and Sustainability Certificate. Prior to MIT, she studied Economics at Yale University and worked in energy and economic consulting with The Brattle Group on US, European, and Australian energy engagements. At Sloan, she previously served as Co-VP of Operations for MIT Energy Night and the MIT Sustainability Summit, and this summer, she will be interning at Apex Clean Energy. Haruna is passionate about the intersection of business and sustainability, with a particular interest in clean, democratized energy and decarbonization.
Rio Richardson
Vice President, Marketing
Rio is an MBA candidate at MIT Sloan, focusing on clean energy entrepreneurship. She previously worked in strategy consulting at Bain and Company, specialising in digital transformation and product development, and most recently in impact investment at an Australian sustainability-focused pension fund called Future Super. At Bain, she helped run the Social Impact working team and committee, overseeing all pro-bono projects in the UK.
Naomi Lutz
Vice President, Marketing
Naomi is a junior studying mechanical engineering with a concentration in global sustainable development and a minor in Energy Studies. She is involved with campus sustainability groups, plays on the women's varsity lacrosse team, and likes to hike and spend time outside in her free time.
Eddie Tepper
Vice President, Marketing
Eddie is a 2022 MBA Candidiate. Prior to MIT, Eddie was Director of Supply Chain at XL | Fleet Electrification where he worked cross functionally to develop deep relationships with primary and secondary suppliers to ensure capacity for XL's growing business. Eddie holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises from Syracuse University.
Austin Roth
Vice President, Marketing
Austin is currently a 2022 MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to Sloan, he worked at JPMorgan in both Houston and London focussing on conventional & renewable energy, utilities, and commodities. Austin hopes to continue his studies with a focus on entrepreneurship in the cleantech and sustainability space.
Alex Prather
Sponsorship Co-Director
Alex is currently pursuing her MBA at MIT Sloan with a focus on sustainability, cleantech innovation, and decarbonizing supply chains in the global economy. Alex comes from the impact venture capital space where she worked with Capria Ventures on entrepreneurial ecosystem development in emerging markets. Before MIT Sloan, she worked with Project Drawdown’s new initiative called Drawdown Labs on implementing decarbonization plans with major corporations. Alex also worked with Cleantech Group’s smart cities initiative to analyze private sector, risk capital and policy dynamics that contribute to the successful decarbonization of cities. In her free time, Alex enjoys getting out into nature and enjoying a good cup of coffee in new places.
Julie Tung
Social Co-Director
Julie is a Class of 2022 pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Energy and Sustainability. She was involved with the Energy Career Fair planning committee in the 2019-2020 academic year. Julie's interest lies with solar and wind power, specifically increasing the conversion to electricity. This summer, she will be interning at Entegris, working on supplier quality analytics. In her free time, she enjoys working out, reading, and playing Animal Crossing.
Vineet Jagadeesan Nair
Vice President, Community & Education
Vineet is a 2nd year SM/PhD student in the Computational Science & Engineering program. He conducts research in the Active-Adaptive Control Lab in the Mechanical Engineering department - applying tools from optimization, control theory, and machine learning to smart grids and transportation networks. Prior to MIT, Vineet completed an MPhil in Energy Technologies at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar and received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he served as the Showcase Director for the MIT Energy Conference. In addition to the Energy Club, Vineet is also involved with the MIT Concert Choir, MIT Outing Club, and the Graduate School Leadership Incubator (GSLI).
Jess Cohen
Sponsorship Co-Director
Jess is a junior at MIT majoring in Physics, and is intending to minor in Energy Studies. She is also one of the student representatives for the Renewable Energy Machines New Engineering Education Transformation Thread. She has been involved in the Energy Club for two years, through being in and then leading the MIT Climate Action Team. This year she will be an Energy Club Sponsorship Director, as well as co-director for the Climate Action Team once again. This past summer, she worked for the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg to help develop sustainable policy. This summer she will be working with ESI as a part of the Climate Response Unit and will be working on addressing environmental issues and policies. She has previously pursued carbon reduction research and has strong interests in climate justice and a just energy transition. She is also a member of Camp Kesem, Burton One, Little Beavers, and MIT Divest.
Abhishek Bose
Social Co-Director
Abhishek is a SM Candidate in the Technology and Policy Program at MIT and holds a Masters & Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, India. He works as a Research Assistant at MIT Energy Initiative focusing on investment scenarios for decarbonization pathways for energy intensive sectors - transportation, heating and industry. He has worked at internships at Tesla and energy technology prototyping labs in Belgium and France through his academic journey. Prior to MIT, Abhishek worked as a management consultant with EY advisory for oil & gas and energy majors focusing on supply chain and in India and the Middle East. He is particularly excited at the intersection of energy policy, infrastructure strategy and large scale de-carbonization.
Cathy Wang
Vice President, Community & Education
Cathy is a 2021 M.S. Candidate in the MIT Technology and Policy Program, and a Research Assistant at MITEI, where she is currently analyzing the long-term applications of energy storage. Within that role, she identified a disconnect between the many energy-related research groups on campus and the EC community, and is now working to bring these previously siloed groups together to have meaningful exchanges. Prior to MIT, Cathy spent four years at The Brattle Group, where she consulted for system operators, utilities, and regulators around the world on how to ensure the adequacy of market-based incentives to achieve reliability, resiliency, and sustainability goals. Cathy holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Mathematics from Washington and Lee University.
Kathryn Tso
Vice President, External Relations
Kathryn is a 2022 pursuing a double major in Materials Science and Engineering and History. This will be her first year working with the Energy Club, but she has experience researching in energy/climate-change related labs. She is extremely excited to start and is looking forward to creating connections between MIT and its broader communities. In her free time, she enjoys watching workout videos and occasionally following along, as well as giving her puppy (probably too many) treats.
Robert Cunningham
Vice President, External Relations
Robert is a 2022 MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan. Prior to MIT, he spent five years in energy infrastructure investing and investment banking. He is a proud Texan and is broadly interested in technological innovations and policy solutions to decouple global economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. Robert holds a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and is likely the only individual at MIT that had to retake freshman calculus.
Ryan Strobel
Vice President, Budget & Finance
Ryan is currently pursuing his MBA at MIT Sloan and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Florida. Before coming to MIT Sloan, Ryan worked in sales and sales management in the technology industry for three and a half years and before that he worked in many roles at his family's solar energy business in South Florida. Ryan is particularly interested in the commoditization of solar technologies as well as innovations around hydroelectricity.
James Camp
Vice President, Budget & Finance
James is pursuing his MBA at MIT Sloan. Prior to MIT, he served six years in the Marine Corps as a Ground Intelligence Officer and deployed to Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Israel, and South Africa. Exposure to the intelligence apparatus abroad inspired him to study energy commodities through the lens of foreign policy and international security. James holds a B.A. in Economics with from the University of Chicago. As a certified Rescue Diver, he
is excited to explore ship wrecks along Massachusetts' coast.
Flagship Event Managing Directors
Ana Fialo
Ana is a 2022 B.S. candidate in Computer Science and Urban Science & Planning at MIT, who is also minoring in Energy Studies. Previously as Co-Content Director for the 2019 MIT Energy Night, Ana will be taking on the role of Co-Managing Director for the 2020 Energy Night. Outside the energy community, Ana is involved in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Delta Psi co-ed fraternity, the Association of Puerto Rican students and is conducting research within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She has interned at GreenWatch, a Belgian clean tech start up focused on renewable energy monitoring, and will be continuing her current research remotely this summer. Ana plans to promote renewable energy production in her island home of Puerto Rico.
Timi Omotunde
Timi is a 2021 S.B. candidate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a minor in applied international studies at MIT. He is primarily interested in the potential impact of renewable energy technologies in emerging markets and global development. Most, recently he as worked as a Summer Associate for the Boston Consulting Group and as an intern engineer at a green energy company in Belgium.
Kelly Wu
Kelly is a 2020 MD for MIT EnergyHack, and a 2022 S.B. candidate in Chemical Engineering at MIT. Previously, she has served as a Sponsorship Director and Energy Night Co-MD for Energy Club. Last summer, she conducted renewables market research for Acciona Energy in Spain. Most recently, she has worked on lifecycle analysis of fuels through the MITEI SESAME project. This summer, she will intern at ExxonMobil Chemicals in a business strategy role. Kelly is interested in the economic scaling of clean technologies, as well as how to build grid resilience and electrify the transportation sector.
Drake Hernandez
Drake Hernandez is a Master of Science Candidate in the Technology and Policy Program and a Graduate Research Assistant in the MIT Energy Initiative (MITei) where he focuses on the nexus of energy, finance, and economics. He joined MIT by way of Charles River Associates’ Energy Practice where he worked on numerous advisory and disputes cases at the intersection of global energy and financial markets. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Operations Research and Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and misses Tex-Mex and Texas BBQ daily.
Leah Ellis
Leah is NSERC/Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT. She earned her Ph.D. under Professor Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, where she worked in partnerships with 3M and Tesla on improving lithium-ion cell lifetime by optimizing electrolyte chemistry. During this time, she founded the Dalhousie University Green Chemistry Initiative and the Jeff Dahn bursary in physics. Leah hopes to someday bring next-generation energy technologies to market.
Trevor Thompson
Trevor Thompson is a 2021 MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) fellow, pursuing an MBA and MS in Mechanical Engineering. He spent this summer interning at National Grid, and prior to MIT, worked for GE Renewable Energy as an Engineering Program Manager for several onshore wind product introductions. Trevor holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
Community Directors
Anna Sheppard
Anna Sheppard is a 2021 MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan. Prior to business school, she co-founded the Green Committee at L.E.K. Consulting and then worked at a solar finance start-up. Anna believes businesses are uniquely positioned to accelerate the clean energy transition and is committed to helping them move more swiftly. She also believes that funfetti is the best cake/cupcake/desert flavor of all time.
Dave Urness
Dave Urness is the Sloan Energy Club co-president and a 2021 MBA candidate. Growing up in Alberta, Canada, he has always been passionate about energy, the environment, and policy. He graduated from Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto and worked 3 years at McKinsey prior to his MBA. As a management consultant, he focused on helping older industry adapt to technology and building growth strategies for high tech firms looking at new technologies (e.g., 5G for energy and mining applications). He organized the Sloan SF Energy Trek this past year and interned as a Product Manager at Google over the summer.
