Tuesday September 24th at 3:15-5:30PM EST
Doors open 3:15pm, remarks at 3:45pm

200 Park Avenue, on 21st Floor
(MetLife Building, above Grand Central Station)

Evening Activities

3:15pm – Doors open (check-in, elevators to 21st floor)
3:15-3:45pm – Refreshments, meet and greet
3:45pm – Leader Remarks

• Clean Industrial Revolution | Conversation between Barbara Humpton, CEO Siemens USA & Bill Gates, Founder, Breakthrough Energy
• Driving Climate Tech Deployment | Lukas Walton, Founder, Builders Vision
• Investing for Decarbonized Tech Growth | Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer, Microsoft
• Actionable Climate Leadership Requires Innovative Climate Technology and Collaboration | Mike Boots, EVP Breakthrough Energy, Helen Gurfel, Head of Sustainability & Innovation, CBRE Investment  Management, Rob Bernard, Chief Sustainability Officer, CBRE Group

4:30-5:30pm – Networking & Drinks—Meet the Climate Tech Innovators

Clean Industrial Revolution – a conversation between Barbara Humpton & Bill Gates

Bill Gates
Founder, Breakthrough Energy

Bill Gates is chair of the Gates Foundation and founder of Breakthrough Energy and TerraPower. In 1975, he co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend, Paul Allen, and today he is chair of the Gates Foundation. Bill is also the founder of Breakthrough Energy, an effort to commercialize clean energy and other climate-related technologies, and TerraPower, a company investing in developing groundbreaking nuclear technologies.

At Breakthrough Energy, he’s putting his experience as an innovator and problem-solver to work to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies. Bill uses his experience partnering with global leaders across sectors to help drive the policy, market, and technological changes required for a clean energy transition.

Through his private office, Gates Ventures, he focuses on Alzheimer’s research and other issues such as healthcare, interdisciplinary education, and technology. He has three children.

Barbara Humpton
CEO, Siemens USA

Barbara Humpton is President and CEO of Siemens Corporation, where she guides the company’s strategy and engagement in serving the company’s largest market. Siemens USA employs approximately 40,000 people serving customers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and generated $17 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2020. She views the true purpose of technology as expanding what’s humanly possible. She’s also passionate about diversity, STEM education and what she calls a worklife blend that honors her priorities both at Siemens and as a grandmother.

Driving Climate Tech Deployment

Lukas Walton
Founder, Builders Vision

Lukas Walton is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Builders Vision, an impact platform founded in 2021 dedicated to shifting markets and minds for good. Lukas and his philanthropic and investment teams are centered on collaborating and learning from entrepreneurs, organizations, innovators, and community leaders to seed and scale meaningful solutions to the most pressing environmental and social challenges. They are driven by the beliefs that the most successful businesses of the future will be the ones that are purpose-driven and that those closest to the problem are best equipped to solve it. Builders Vision’s focus areas include oceans, food & agriculture, and energy.

Investing for Decarbonized Tech Growth

Melanie Nakagawa
Chief Sustainability Officer, Microsoft

As Microsoft’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Melanie Nakagawa leads the company’s commitments to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030. She brings nearly two decades of experience at the nexus of policy, business, and technology, most recently serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Climate and Energy on the National Security Council at the White House. Prior to the White House, Melanie helped launch Princeville Capital’s inaugural global growth equity climate technology fund, investing in companies delivering transformative solutions to climate change. She also served as a strategic advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry on climate change and environmental issues and held roles in the U.S. Senate and with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Melanie has a JD and MA from American University and AB from Brown University.

Actionable Climate Leadership Requires Innovative Climate Technology and Collaboration

Mike Boots
EVP Breakthrough Energy

Mike joined Gates Ventures (Bill Gates’s private office) in 2016, where he leads its Washington, DC office. In 2020, Mike helped establish Breakthrough Energy and as Executive Vice President, oversees the organization’s global policy and external affairs functions.

Prior to joining Gates Ventures and Breakthrough Energy, Mike was a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, where he advised the institute and philanthropic foundations on issues at the intersection of business, civil society and the environment. Before that, he led the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he served as the environmental advisor to President Obama in 2014 and 2015. In that role, he was responsible for aligning White House leaders and members of the Cabinet to execute the Administration’s environmental, climate, clean energy and conservation priorities. During his six years at the White House, he spearheaded a series of initiatives related to climate change, conservation, federal supply chain sustainability and resilient infrastructure.

Mike has held a variety of positions related to energy and the environment – at a public affairs firm, for the Governor of California, in the non-profit sector and in the Clinton Administration. He has a B.A. in communications from UCLA and a M.P.A. from the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Helen Gurfel
Head of Sustainability & Innovation, CBRE Investment Management

Helen Gurfel is the Global Head of Sustainability & Innovation at CBRE Investment Management. She is also a member of the Executive Committee and the Global Investment Committees. Helen leads the firm’s efforts in establishing and executing CBRE Investment Management’s Sustainability Vision. Helen collaborates closely with the firm’s teams around the globe on sustainability and innovation-related topics, ranging from product architecture and capital-raising to asset-level strategies and solutions.

For over two decades, Helen has been a leader in developing and executing sustainability and venture investment strategies. Helen earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. She is a member of the ULI Technology Council and the GRESB Standards Committee.

Rob Bernard
Chief Sustainability Officer, CBRE Group

As CBRE’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President of Client Sustainability Solutions, Rob Bernard is at the forefront of working to decarbonize the built environment, a sector responsible for approximately 40% of global carbon emissions. Mr. Bernard leads a global strategy enabling clients to define, meet and accelerate their commercial real estate sustainability and carbon-reduction objectives. He also oversees CBRE’s own operational sustainability work, which includes a goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. Mr. Bernard has 20 years of experience at the intersection of sustainability, business and technology solutions. From his role as Microsoft’s first Chief Environmental Strategist to today, he has shown how the fusion of technology and business innovation can simplify complexity and drive sustainability.