Wharton Energy & Climate Conference

building the bridge

scaling today's energy systems for the future

october 30, 2026

About

Conference Overview

The Wharton Energy & Climate Club is excited to invite you to the 2026 Energy & Climate Conference at Convene in Philadelphia on Friday, October 30th, 2026.

Join C-Suite executives, startup founders, investors, regulators, students, and leaders at the cutting edge of their fields. Through keynotes, panels, and conversations throughout the day, attendees will share industry best practices and success stories. The event will foster collaboration between the leaders at the forefront of the industry today and those who will shape the industry going forward.

Building the Bridge
Scaling Today's Energy Systems for the Future

The US is at an inflection point where energy demand has never been higher, driven by the rise of AI, industrial and manufacturing automation, and broad electrification. The demand glut has only highlighted the aging energy and grid infrastructure in place to serve it today. Closing the growing gap will require ongoing grid revitalization and efficiency gains, adding new capacity quickly and safely, and managing the needs of government entities, companies, and consumers.

Our conference will look at how the energy industry is building the bridge between the present infrastructure and demand into the future. A complex array of stakeholders is involved in this transition, and success depends on how well each group aligns: modernizing and optimizing existing physical infrastructure, accelerating new capacity additions, and navigating the policy and market dynamics that shape how quickly the grid can scale. We look forward to hearing from representatives across the landscape to share challenges, perspectives, and ideas.

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Keynotes

Kiran Bhatraju

Founder & CEO, Arcadia

Jason Liu

CEO, Wood Mackenzie

board_robbv2
Jim Robb

President & CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)

Dr. Kris Singh

President & CEO, Holtec International

Speakers and Moderators

James Alderson Smith

Managing Director, Head of Industry Coverage, Crux

Adriel Barrett-Johnson

Director, Strategy & Finance, X-energy

Craig Bealmear Oklo
Craig Bealmear

Chief Financial Officer, Oklo

Tom Bonner

Director of Policy, Advocacy and External Affairs, PECO

Tim Burdis

Director, State Policy Solutions, PJM Interconnection

Vanessa Chan, PhD

Vice Dean of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Penn Engineering

Ed Crooks

Vice Chair, Americas, Wood Mackenzie

Katie Gardner
Katie Gardner

Co-Founder and CEO, Terrament

Larry Gasteiger

Executive Director, WIRES

Marly Gillece Smith

Managing Director, Power, Renewables & Energy Transition, Bank of America

Jonah Glickman-Unterman

Head of Strategy, Vulcan Elements

Enrique Glotzer

Managing Director, Energy & Climate, BRG

Asim Haque
Asim Haque

Executive Vice President, Government & Member Services, PJM Interconnection

Julia Hoos
Julia Hoos

Head of USA East, Aurora Energy Research

Nina-Morris-web-1
Nina Morris

Director of Sustainability, University of Pennsylvania

John Paquette

Assc. Director, Corporate Development, NANO Nuclear Energy

Quill Robinson

Senior Professional Staff Member, Energy, Critical Minerals, Conservation, DFC, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Rich Roloff

Chief Financial Officer, LS Power

KaamSahely,Vinson&Elkins
Kaam Sahely

Partner, Vinson & Elkins

Lovely Sharma

Investor, Aramco Ventures

Daniel Slesinski

Technology-to-Market Advisor, ARPA-E

Gianluca Signorelli

Head of Capital Markets, SB Energy

Rob Smith

Sr. Director of Southeast Origination, Guzman Energy

Avra SOSV
Avra van der Zee

General Partner, SOSV

Olivia Wassenaar

Partner, Global Head of Infrastructure Group, Apollo

Jeff Weiss

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Distributed Sun and truCurrent

Jon Yoder

President and CEO, MN8 Energy


2026 Schedule

Please join us before programming begins at Convene. 

Brief remarks by the conference co-chairs.

Dr. Kris Singh, President and CEO of Holtec International, provides our morning keynote. 

The U.S. faces record power demand, and meeting it will require historic amounts of capital. This panel explores investment opportunities and risks contemplated by current leaders in the energy finance market.
  • Rich Roloff, Chief Financial Officer, LS Power
  • Marly Gillece Smith, Managing Director, Power, Renewables and Energy Transition Banking, Bank of America
  • Gianluca Signorelli, Head of Capital Markets, SB Energy
  • Olivia Wassenaar, Partner, Global Head of Infrastructure, Apollo
  • Jeff  Weiss, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Distributed Sun and trucurrent (moderator)

James Alderson-Smith, Managing Director, Head of Industry Coverage, Crux Capital

Energy security is back in the national security limelight. Speakers look at how trade policy, supply-chain competition with China, shifting U.S. federal incentives and global LNG and mineral flows are changing where and how energy gets built, and what that means for companies and investors working across borders.
  • Ed Crooks, Vice Chair, Americas, Wood Mackenzie
  • Jonah Glick-Unterman, Head of Strategy, Vulcan Elements
  • John Paquette, Assc. Director, Corporate Development, Nano Nuclear
  • Quill Robinson, Senior Professional Staff Member, Energy, Critical Minerals, Conservation, DFC, House Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • Tim Burdis, Director, PJM (moderator)

Join us for catered lunch. 

Our afternoon keynote conversation with Jason Liu, CEO, Wood Mackenzie and Jim Robb, President and CEO of North American Electric Reliability Corporation will be moderated by Nina Morris, Director of Sustainability at the University of Pennsylvania. 

The grid is now the bottleneck: long interconnection queues, transmission that takes a decade to build, and scarce transformers, turbines and critical minerals. Grid operators, regulators and infrastructure leaders discuss what it will take to build faster, from permitting and market design to rebuilding domestic supply chains for the hardware the transition depends on.
  • Craig Bealmear, Chief Financial Officer, Oklo
  • Larry Gasteiger, Executive Director, WIRES and President, Gasteiger Energy
  • Asim Haque, Executive VP, PJM
  • Julia Hoos, Head of USA East, Aurora Energy Research (moderator)

Katie Gardner, Co-Founder and CEO, Terrament

After two decades of flat electricity demand, load is growing again, driven by data centers, onshored manufacturing and electrification. The panel looks at who will supply that power, how fast it can come online, who pays for it, and how hyperscalers, utilities and developers are reshaping how energy is procured.
  • Tom Bonner, Director of Policy, Advocacy, and External Affairs, PECO
  • Rob Smith, Sr. Director of Southeast Origination, Guzman Energy 
  • Kaam Sahely, Partner, Vinson & Elkins
  • Jon Yoder, President and CEO, MN8 
Advanced nuclear, long-duration storage, next-generation geothermal and other emerging technologies are moving from pilot projects to commercial deployment. Founders and investors talk candidly about crossing the “valley of death”: first-of-a-kind financing, finding offtakers, scaling manufacturing, and which technologies will matter at grid scale this decade.
  • Adriel Barrett-Johnson, Director, X-energy
  • Enrique Glotzer, Managing Director, BRG Consulting
  • Daniel Slesinski, Technology-to-Market Advisor, ARPA-E
  • Avra van der Zee, General Partner, SOSV and Senior Advisor, Elemental Impact
  • Lovely Sharma, Investor, Aramco Ventures (moderator)

Kiran Bhatraju, Founder and CEO, Arcadia, provides our closing keynote in conversation with Vanessa Chan, PhD at Penn Engineering. 

Brief remarks by the conference co-chairs.

Please join us for happy hour at Harper’s Garden, just steps away from Convene! Address is 31 S 18th St.  

Location

Convene

30 South 17th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Dress Code

The dress code for this event is business casual. No ties or formal wear required.

our 2026 sponsors

We want to extend a huge thank you to our sponsors. Without them, this student-run event would not be able to provide the caliber of content and connections as we have for nearly two decades.

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