Speaker Biographies

Daniel Esty, Commissioner, CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection

Daniel C. Esty is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

DEEP is the state agency charged with conserving, improving and protecting the state's natural resources and environment and ensuring that Connecticut has a clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable energy supply.

Commissioner Esty was appointed by Governor Dannel P. Malloy in March, 2011 to serve as Commissioner of what was then the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). He became Commissioner of DEEP when that agency came into being in July of that year. DEEP brings together what had been DEP, the Department of Public Utilities Control (DPUC) and an energy policy group from the state's Office of Policy and Management (OPM).

This new agency is focused on better integrating energy and environmental policies and helping Connecticut to build a sustainable and prosperous 21st century economy.

Prior to becoming Commissioner, Esty was the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University. He also served as the Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business & Environment at Yale.

Commissioner Esty is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on environmental policy issues and the relationships between environment and corporate strategy, including the prizewinning book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage.

Commissioner Esty's career includes serving in a variety of senior positions for the US Environmental Protection Agency as well as practicing law in Washington, DC. and serving as an advisor on the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign and transition team.

Commissioner Esty holds a B.A. from Harvard, an M.A. from Oxford, and a law degree from Yale.

Barbara Kates-Garnick, Massachusetts Undersecretary for Energy, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

2012 Summit Co-Chair

Energy Undersecretary Dr. Barbara Kates-Garnick's experience has spanned public and private arenas in the energy, regulatory and public policy sectors.

Dr. Kates-Garnick was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick after serving several years as an independent consultant in academia and private business. Most recently, she advised the Polytechnic Institute of New York University on issues related to urban systems, clean technology, energy policy and entrepreneurship. At New York University, she created a successful proposal for the $1.5 million New York City Accelerator for Clean and Renewable Energy, a showcase for clean energy technology. She has also served as a consultant to Con Edison, and on a team revising New York City's sustainability plan, known as PlaNYC.

Her previous energy positions with the Commonwealth include serving as a former Department of Public Utilities (DPU) commissioner and member of the Energy Facilities Siting Board, and as a DPU director responsible for developing Massachusetts' first natural gas deregulation policy. She is also a former assistant secretary in the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs, where she managed various aspects and budgets of the Public Utilities Division and the Department of Energy Resources - both of which now falls under EEA and will be part of her portfolio of energy agencies and programs.

Dr. Kates-Garnick's private sector achievements include serving as an officer at KeySpan where, as corporate affairs vice president, she developed energy policy strategy and directed the governmental communications and community relations teams. She also founded the New England office of New Energy Ventures, a successful electric supplier that now operates
nationally as Constellation NewEnergy.

Dr. Kates-Garnick earned her PhD at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and an undergraduate degree in political science at Bryn Mawr College.

David McHale, Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer - Northeast Utilities

2012 Summit Co-Chair

David R. McHale is executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Northeast Utilities (NU). McHale is responsible for Corporate Strategy & Environmental Affairs, Customer Care, Information Technology, Supply Chain, Real Estate, Property Management, Energy Supply and Integration Planning.

McHale first joined NU in 1981 as a student intern in the Economic and Load Forecasting organization. He was hired full-time in 1982 as a research analyst in Marketing and Consumer Economics. In 1986 he joined the company's Financial Planning group and in 1989 he joined the Treasury organization and was promoted to manager of Investor Relations. In 1993 he was promoted to manager of project and short-term finance, and in May 1995, elected to the position of assistant treasurer. He was promoted to vice president and treasurer in July 1998 and was elected executive vice president and chief financial officer in 2005. McHale assumed his current role in April 2012.

McHale has represented NU as an expert financial witness in various regulatory dockets before the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, the New Hampshire Public Utility Commission and the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority. He is a Board member of the Northeast Utilities Foundation, a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, a member of the Southern Connecticut State University Board of Governors and is a member of the Hartford Hospital Board of Directors.

McHale is a native of Thompson, Connecticut. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Southern Connecticut State University in 1982 and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from the University of New Haven in 1986. He is a 1997 graduate of Stanford University's Executive Financial Management Program and a 2003 graduate of the School's Executive Program in Strategy and Organization. He resides in West Simsbury, Connecticut.

Frank Murray, Jr., President & CEO, NYSERDA

Francis J. Murray, Jr. was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on January 26, 2009.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Murray served as Senior Advisor at the international environmental consulting firm Ecology and Environment, Inc., where he provided strategic policy and market development guidance on environmental and energy issues to a number of private sector and not-for-profit clients. Mr. Murray also represented the Pace Energy and Climate Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council in the New York Public Service Commission proceeding to establish an energy efficiency portfolio standard program.

Mr. Murray received his Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

Bimal Patel, MHA, R.Ph., Vice President, Operations and Support Services, Hartford Hospital

Bimal Patel is vice president of Support Services at Hartford Hospital, the flagship 867 bed tertiary care center of Hartford HealthCare, a regional, integrated health care network with more than 15,000 staff members. Hartford Hospital, an acute-care teaching hospital established more than 150 years ago, has more than 7,000 staff members, including physicians, and is the only level one trauma center in the area and operates the only air ambulance service in Connecticut.

In his role, Mr. Patel manages the hospital's vast infrastructure of 2.5M sqft space over 70 acres in multiple campuses. He is also responsible for radiology, pharmacy, lab and dietary services; the hospital cafeteria; facilities construction; engineering; plant maintenance; security; fire and industry safety; and laundry services. In 2010, he was instrumental in developing a facilities master plan for the next 20 years and accomplishing 200,000 square feet of upgrades to the hospital on time and on budget. This included adding 45 private beds to the hospital, renovating hospital lobbies and expanding the Emergency Department. Under his leadership, Hartford Hospital broke ground for the 1,250 spaces car-parking garage in 2011.

Prior to joining Hartford Hospital in 2009, Mr. Patel served as administrative director of Professional and Support Services for Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Penn. The hospital, which is part of the Guthrie Health System, is a 230-bed acute-care teaching hospital that was named among Solucient's Top 100 U.S. hospitals as well as a Top 100 cardiovascular hospital. Mr. Patel has a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from L.M. College of Pharmacy, which is affiliated with Gujarat Technology University in Ahmedabad, India, and a master's in health administration from Pennsylvania State University. Mr. Patel completed a management fellowship with Owen Healthcare and was certified at Penn State in long-term care.

Katie Scharf Dykes, Acting Deputy Commissioner – Energy, CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection

Katie Scharf Dykes is the Acting Deputy Commissioner for Energy at Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP). As Acting Deputy Commissioner, Katie oversees the work of both halves of the agency's Energy branch: the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) on the regulatory side, and the Bureau of Energy and Technology Policy on the energy strategy side.

Katie joined CT DEEP in March of this year, after having served as Deputy General Counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality since 2010. In that role she provided legal counsel on a variety of energy and environmental issues including climate change and sustainability.

Prior to that, she served as Legal Advisor to the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy. At the Department of Energy, she worked on issues related to regulatory reform, electric power transmission, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

Katie holds a bachelors degree in history and environmental studies from Yale College, a master's degree in history, also from Yale, and she is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Dr. Jane Snowdon, Senior Manager and Research Staff Member - IBM

Dr. Jane L. Snowdon is a Senior Manager and Research Staff Member in the Industry Solutions and Emerging Business Department at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., where she develops strategies and drives research efforts worldwide to create innovative solutions for smarter buildings. Her current area of research is modeling, analytics, simulation and optimization of buildings to identify energy and cost savings. Jane is a member of the U. S. DOE Energy Innovation Hub for Energy Efficient Buildings led by the Pennsylvania State University. Jane has thirty years of research and engineering experience in the industrial, travel and transportation, and small and medium business sectors. Jane received her Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, M.S. from the University of Michigan, and B.S. from Penn State, all in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Jane chairs the Advisory Board for the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech where she is also a member of the College of Engineering Advisory Board. Jane serves on the City University of New York (CUNY) Institute of Software Design and Development (CISDD) Advisory Board and is a past Board member for Stony Brook University's Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) Medical Division and Penn State University's Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department. She is a Senior Member of IIE, IEEE, and a Member of INFORMS, Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE), and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).