Staff

Kibby Araya, Communications Associate, [email protected]

Kibby Araya is the Communications Associate for the Greentech Leadership Group. She’s responsible for promoting the news of GTLG programs: Smart Electronics Initiative (SEI), Open Energy Initiative (OEI), and the REDD Offset Working (ROW) Group.

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She also coordinates and contributes multimedia content to the promotional materials, including the website, newsletter and social media outlets to increase outreach efforts to energy and climate change experts from the private, public, academic, and nonprofit sectors.

She received her B.A. degree in environmental policy from Spelman College in Atlanta and M.S. degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York.

Tony Brunello, Executive Director, [email protected]

Tony Brunello is the Executive Director of the Greentech Leadership Group and Partner at California Strategies. In both positions, Brunello is focused on enabling cutting edge products and services related to energy-saving consumer electronics, energy data, green buildings and cap and trade markets to be successful. Prior to his current positions, Brunello was a Deputy Secretary for the State of California overseeing energy and climate change activities in the California Energy Commission and other entities working on renewable energy and grid planning, electronics efficiency standards, the cap and trade market and other programs.

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Brunello also has extensive experience in the public and private sector working in Washington DC and around the globe with the World Bank, Pew Charitable Trusts and U.S. Government finding sustainable solutions to difficult problems. He received his M. Sc. at University College London in Resource Economics and his B.A at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Economics and Environmental Studies. He lives in Sacramento close to the policy world, but escapes to his hometown of Lake Tahoe with his family whenever he can.

Jared Ficker, President, [email protected]

Jared Ficker is the President and Founder of the Greentech Leadership Group. He also leads the energy and environment practice as a Principal at California Strategies, LLC where he focuses on issues affecting land use, environmental policy, renewable energy, climate change, alternative fuels, development, mitigation, water supply, water quality and local, state and federal permitting. Ficker also is a principal at Consilience Partners, LLC, which invests in early-stage clean technology companies. He is serving as CEO of Clean Marine Systems, LLC, a portfolio company in which his company has invested.

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Ficker’s previous government experience was with the Department of Interior working on legislative issues and setting up a network of environmental research institutions with universities around the country. He also has been active on a number of candidate and issue campaigns, including most recently the No on Prop. 23 effort with GTLG.

Ficker completed coursework for a doctorate at the University of California, Davis and has a B.A. in both Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was recognized as one of the Environmental Studies Program’s outstanding students.

Tahawar Hussain, Senior Research Fellow, [email protected]

Tahawar Hussain is Senior Research Fellow for the Greentech Leadership Group, focusing on issues relating to Title 20 proceedings at the California Energy Commission, energy data proceedings at the California Public Utilities Commission, and demand response at the California ISO.

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Prior to joining GTLG, Hussain held the 2012-13 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change at the University of California, Davis. While working for the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy at UC Davis, he undertook a renewable energy research project for Senate Republican Caucus of the state legislature.

Hussain was also a former Director of Policy at the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), a public sector institution set up to develop renewable energy in Pakistan. At the AEDB, he contributed to various renewable energy plans and policies that were adopted by the Government of Pakistan on a national level, including the policy for use of biodiesel as an alternative fuel in 2008. He holds the honor of being the youngest member of the Energy Expert Group formulated by the Government of Pakistan to develop an integrated energy plan for 2009-2022.

Hussain also served as a Visiting Lecturer at the National Institute of Management and is a member of the Pakistan Engineering Council, where he was a part of the think tank on national energy policy in 2009. His work has been published in the annual Wind Energy Yearbook of the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) since 2005.

Evan Johnson, Senior Advisor, REDD Offset Working Group, [email protected]

Evan Johnson is Senior Advisor to Greentech Leadership Group, focusing on issues relating to climate change, land use, and forests. Prior to his work with GTLG, Johnson consulted on climate change and forests, working with research institutions and nongovernmental organizations to provide expertise related to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). Working with the Woods Hole Research Center and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, he developed and managed projects to increase collaboration and information flow between tropical forest countries and facilitate cross stakeholder dialogue on deforestation issues.

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He has served as an expert advisor on forest finance to the UN Forum on Forests and was a co-author on the 2011 State of the Forest Carbon Markets report with Ecosystem Marketplace. He has also worked with the Global Canopy Programme, the Center for Resource Solutions and numerous other organizations. Prior to his experience in climate change issues, Johnson worked for six years in the environmental communications field with Island Press and The Nature Conservancy.

Johnson received a Master’s Degree at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on the economics and policy of climate change. He holds a dual-major Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and English from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.

Genesis Rivas, Research Fellow, Open Energy Initiative, [email protected]

Genesis Rivas is the Research Fellow for the Greentech Leadership Group. She assists the Executive Director with the Open Energy Initiative, a GTLG program focused on providing access to energy use data and helping to establish a smart grid in California.

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Prior to joining GTLG, Rivas worked with the California Air Resources Board (ARB), where she supported the Ombudsman with stakeholder assistance, including air quality regulation interpretation and compliance assistance, participated in outreach events, and worked on other projects.

She also worked at the North Coast Air Quality Management District, where she became involved in GHG emissions inventory, criteria pollutant data analysis, and technical writing. Her interests are in climate change mitigation and energy efficiency.

Rivas received her Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Science from the University of California, Davis.