Meet Our 2026 Speakers
Keynote Addresses
Greg Curtis - Executive Director, Holdfast Collective
Greg is the Executive Director of Holdfast Collective, Patagonia’s non-profit shareholder. Previously, Greg served as Deputy General Counsel for Patagonia for more than 8 years and led the company through its recent ownership transition. Prior to Patagonia, Greg was in-house counsel at a large multinational corporation and worked for a number of years in private practice as a corporate lawyer. Greg serves as a board member for 1% for the Planet and Circ and is a graduate of Brown University and University of Connecticut School of Law.
John Melby - CEO, Xpansiv
John Melby is a widely recognized and accomplished leader in energy and environmental markets, with over two decades of experience driving innovation in renewable, carbon, natural gas, and power markets.
Melby guided the creation of the world’s largest registry platform for renewable energy and carbon, and launched new products for power, carbon, demand response, energy efficiency, and transmission capacity markets. Prior to forming Xpansiv, Melby was the co-founder of Noble4 Advisors and the Melby Group, where he advised governments, energy companies, financial institutions, and exchanges. He served as Managing Director of North American Markets for Green Exchange, an international commodities exchange purchased by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He also served as the President and CEO of APX, a leading provider of infrastructure and services for the renewable energy markets, where he oversaw the company’s rise to become the leading infrastructure platform for all major renewable energy markets.
Panel Sessions
Session 1: 11:00-11:50 am
AI & Growing Energy Demand
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Agriculture & Food Systems
M. Paige Oliver is the Global Leader of R&D Sustainability Programs for Corteva Agriscience™. Paige has been with the company for over 24 years in multiple roles across R&D, including Discovery Chemistry, Formulation Chemistry, Integrated Field Science, Seed Product Development, and most recently in R&D Sustainability. She even spent a few years supporting R&D in a Human Resources role. Within Integrated Field Science, she led business scientists in the United States, China, and as the APAC Integrated Field Science Leader based out of Singapore. Paige and her family have repatriated to the United States where they currently live in Zionsville, Indiana.
In her current role, Paige works across sub-functions for R&D and with aligned business teams across Corteva to develop valuable solutions for our farmers that allow them to have an effective, more sustainable choice. She also works with a team focused on adopting a more environmentally friendly facilities footprint at Corteva R&D Research Centers. The goal is to model our sustainability goals and develop technology to make it a reality for our farmers.
Paige is a passionate advocate for engaging employees and leading efforts to support food security in local communities. Paige initiated food security efforts, supported by Corteva, during her time in China and expanded to APAC while in her regional role. Currently, she is the Indianapolis Global Headquarters Food Security Network Lead, serves on the Board at Midwest Food Bank, Indiana chapter, and on the Indiana State Department of Ag Indiana Grown Commission.
M. Paige Oliver - Global Leader of R&D Sustainability Programs, Corteva AgriscienceTM
Marcia Hooper co-founded Branch Venture Group, a venture capital firm and angel network focused on food and agriculture startups, targeting products, technology, ag-tech, and sustainability. She has over 35 years of investing experience, having been a partner at Advent International and Ampersand Ventures. Marcia has served as a Director of over 50 private and publicly listed companies. She also serves as a Senior Advisor to Bowside Capital, a PE firm focusing in the small capitalization market. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics from Brown University and earned her master’s degree in chemistry from Columbia University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Marcia J. Hooper - Co-Founder, Branch Venture Group
Session 2: 12:00-12:50 pm
Energy in Geopolitics
Emmie Oliver is the Knowledge Lead for Carbon Markets, Nature-based Solutions, and Biodiversity at Boston Consulting Group. Based in New York, she works with BCG clients across private, public, and social sectors to navigate the evolving landscape of environmental markets and advance nature-positive strategies. Before BCG, Emmie was at the Natural Infrastructure Initiative at the World Resources Institute, where she worked primarily with multilateral development banks on mainstreaming nature and biodiversity into infrastructure project portfolios. She started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay focused on agroforestry. She holds a Masters in Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Sewanee: The University of the South.
Jeff Colgan - Richard Holbrooke Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs; Director, Climate Solutions Lab
Christian Roselund - Senior Policy Analyst, Clean Energy Associates
Insurance & Climate Risk
Nat is the co-founder and CEO of LGND, a geoAI company focused on querying the Earth over space and time.
Nat was the co-founder of Kettle and AI-driven Insurtech protecting people and society from climate change. Kettle sells property insurance and reinsurance in climate exposed areas such as California and Florida, using its own proprietary AI models. Kettle raised $30M across Seed and Series A from top venture investors
Nat is also the co-founder a GP of Kindergarten Ventures. An early-stage VC fund he runs with his partner, David Rosenthal, of Acquired.
Nat has previously been a co-founder/founding team member of BRCK, Wayfinder, and FellowAI. He sits on the board of Wayfinder. In 2012-13 he worked in The White House’s Office of Science & Technology Policy and was the first Chief Data Officer of USAID. He was the CEO of the open-source software company Ushahidi. Prior to that he worked on large scale clean tech projects in Asia for the Clinton Foundation. He graduated Brown in 2008 with a BA in Religious Studies and MA in Environmental Science.
Nat Manning - CEO & Co-Founder, LGND
Sam is CEO and co-founder of Vert Asset Management. He chairs the Investment Research Group and is Portfolio Manager of the Vert Global Sustainable Real Estate Strategy. Sam has been a featured speaker on sustainable investing at financial advisor conferences in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia.
Sam is the author, with Larry Swedroe, of Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing. He is a member of the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s Investment Committee.
Prior to launching Vert, Sam spent 20 years at Dimensional Fund Advisors where he led the European Advisor business and launched the Global Sustainability Core Fund.
Sam has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Davis.
Sam Adams - CEO & Co-Founder, Vert Asset Management
Session 3: 2:00-2:50 pm
Batteries and the Grid
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Sustainable VCs
Gillian has more than two decades of experience in capital markets, impact venture investing, blended finance, real estate development, and climate tech, working at organizations like JP Morgan, Citigroup, Société Générale, and Lockheed Martin. As the Managing and Founding Partner of Rapid Ventures, a climate tech acceleration studio, she is committed to driving scalable climate innovations into under-resourced cities and communities across the U.S. Gillian’s expertise lies in developing and unlocking innovative financial products. She strategically layers dilutive and non-dilutive capital resources to maximize the runway for pre-seed through Series A climate tech and deep tech startups, while also meeting the diverse needs of various equity investors and debt providers.
An accomplished Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Gillian has advised numerous early- and growth-stage startups on critical topics such as customer discovery, market segmentation, product-market fit, and capital strategy, working with top-tier incubators and accelerators like Cleantech Open Northeast, Urban Future Lab, NSF I-Corps, Dartmouth Greenshot, and Techstars. She currently serves on the advisory boards for early-stage companies including Akava, Munivestor, 10Power, and Rune Aero.
Gillian holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BA in Political Science from Rutgers College.
Gillian Francis - Managing & Founding Partner, Rapid Ventures
Marieke Spence is Executive Director of Impact Capital Managers (ICM) and the affiliated ICM Institute, with the joint mission of advancing member performance and scaling the impact investing marketplace with integrity and authenticity. Under her leadership ICM’s trade association has grown its membership of leading private capital impact funds from 10 to over 150 members, and from ~$2B to over $80B in collective AUM; established network standards on impact measurement and management; published field-building reports on legal innovation in impact investing and financial returns and impact on exit; launched the Mosaic Fellowship, which to date has placed 100+ top graduate students from under-estimated backgrounds at ICM member funds as summer associates; and with Daniel Pianko, launched the Better Money, Better World podcast. With Mark Berryman of Capricorn, she created ICM’s LP Advisory Council.
Prior to joining ICM, Marieke was a Director of the Global Philanthropists Circle at Synergos, a peer learning community of 400+ philanthropists and social investors, where she launched affinity groups focused on impact investing and sustainable food systems. Before Synergos, Marieke was a Senior Consultant at TCC Group, a social impact strategy consulting firm. She has studied impact investing as a Summer Fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and is co-author with Jacob Harold, Joshua Spitzer, and Jed Emerson of “Environmental Impact Investing: Co-Managing the Ecological and Economic Household,” published in Social Finance (Oxford University Press, 2016). Marieke was formerly Director of Corporate Communication and Strategy at The Kessler Group; producer of On Point, a nationally-syndicated news program on National Public Radio; and Assistant Director of Communications at the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a MALD in International Business and Communication from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a BA from Brown University, and is an alumna of the inaugural Impact Investing Programme at Oxford University’s Said Business School.
Marieke Spence - Executive Director, Impact Capital Managers
Climate careers workshop: 4:00-4:50 pm
Viraj is a second-time climate entrepreneur. He received an environmental studies degree from Brown University, where he also co-founded Kulisha, a startup that created sustainable protein from food waste. He later worked at Optoro, a company that has raised $300M to accelerate circular economies. Viraj enrolled in a joint program at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School before co-founding EarthAcre, a technology startup that powers direct payments to indigenous communities for nature stewardship.
Viraj Sikand - Co-Founder and CEO, EarthAcre
Mark Tracy is professor of the practice of sustainable finance at the Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society (IBES). Professor Tracy has spent the majority of his career in the private sector working at the intersection of food, finance, climate, and technology. Tracy has served in a variety of leadership roles at venture backed and private companies including Cargill, Indigo Ag, and Perennial (formerly Cloud Agronomics). He is a named inventor of two United States patents, and a board member of two nonprofits - the Rhode Island Public Health Institute and Hope Health. Professor Tracy is also the co-founder and board chair of EarthAcre, which works with indigenous communities on new financial models for nature stewardship.
Mark Tracy - Professor of Sustainable Finance and Investing, Brown University