Arizona's Energy Resilience Summit: Local to Global Perspectives

Bob Burns

Senior Sustainability Scholar at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and Professor of Practice at the School for the Future of Innovation at Arizona State University

Commissioner Bob Burns has lived in Arizona for the past 50 years and played an important role in making Arizona a better place to live, work and play. After serving as an Aviation Electronics Technician in the US Navy, Bob was honorably discharged and in 1962 moved with his wife Gayle to Arizona where he began his career at a division of General Electric which later became part of Honeywell. As a computer programming analyst, Bob was instrumental in writing and installing many computer software systems for plants in the steel, paper, petrochemical, fuel distribution, and electrical generation industries. As a lead programmer, Bob wrote and tested standardized control panel software packages for many power generation facilities.

Ann Marie Chischilly is the Executive Director of the NAU Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP). In the last 25 years, ITEP has served over 95% of all U.S. tribes through environmental trainings, educational outreach, technical assistance and policy development. At ITEP, Ms. Chischilly oversees four environmental programs (climate change, air quality, solid waste and educational outreach) and established the "Tribal Clean Energy Resource Center" to assist tribes in transitioning from fossil fuel based energy to sustainable/clean energy solutions. Ms. Chischilly currently serves on three Federal Advisory Committees including EPA’s National Advisory Committee (NAC), the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), NOAA’s Sustain National Climate Assessment Advisory Committee (SNAAC). She also served on DOI's Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resources Science. Before joining ITEP in 2011, she served for over ten years as Senior Assistant General Counsel to the Gila River Indian Community, where she assisted the Community in implementing the historic Arizona Water Settlement Act and founded the Gila River Indian Community Renewable Energy Team.

Eduardo González was appointed Deputy Trade Commissioner of ProMéxico, the Mexican federal government agency responsible for coordinating strategies aimed at strengthening Mexico’s participation in the international economy. He holds a degree in Public Accounting, certifications in management and risk management, and a portfolio of business promotion within major Mexican companies with international Exposure, in addition to having represented the Mexican Government in different contexts including as commercial delegate for the Mexican Export Development Bank (Bancomext) in The Hague, Netherlands, and more recently, before coming to Phoenix, as State Director of the ProMexico office in the state of Baja California. Key target sectors include advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defense, advanced business services, renewable energy, IT/ software, bioscience and healthcare, optics/ photonics, and research and development.

Max Gruenig

Max Gruenig is the President of Ecologic Institute US and has been with Ecologic Institute since 2007. His work focuses on sustainable development in the energy and transport sector, as well as urban sustainability and resilient cities. In particular, he is leading the efforts by Ecologic Institute in the Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP). He is also coordinating the Post-Carbon Cities of Tomorrow (POCACITO in the US) and POCACITO in Germany and the European research project Post-Carbon Cities in Europe: A Long-Term Outlook (POCACITO). In 2004, Max Gruenig received his degree in Economics from the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin (HU Berlin, Germany). The main focus of his studies was natural resource economics and auction theory. Max Gruenig has lived and worked in Germany, the United States, Iceland, and Japan. He is a native speaker of German and is fluent in English and French. He is a founding member of the European Institute for Sustainable Transport (EURIST), a member of the Sustainability Advisory Board for NaturEnergiePlus and a member of the Consumer Research Network run by the German Federal Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV).

Professor Kristin Mayes served on the Arizona Corporation Commission from 2003 until her term expired on December 31, 2010. She helped co-author the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard, which requires that by 2025 utilities must generate 15 percent of their overall energy portfolio from renewable sources, like wind solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal and other technologies. The Standard contains the most aggressive distributed generation requirement in the country, requiring utilities by 2011 to acquire 30 percent of their energy from residential or non-utility owned installations, like rooftop solar panels on someone's home or on a shopping mall. She also helped establish one of the most ambitious energy efficiency standards in the nation, requiring utilities to sell 22% less energy by 2020 than they would have under current forecasts.

Mayor Doug Von Gausig A third-generation native Arizonan, Doug is currently Mayor of Clarkdale. He serves on the Yavapai County Water Advisory Committee, the Northern Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, the Verde River Basin Partnership, and other water-oriented committees, and is the President of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. He spends much of his time on water resource issues and on conservation of the Verde River. Doug is a consultant specializing in environmental and riparian issues, and has lived in the Verde Valley of central Arizona, on the Verde River, for 35 years and is an expert birder. Doug nominated, surveyed and implemented the first Important Bird Area in the State of Arizona, the Tuzigoot Important Bird Area. Doug has a wide range of expertise in biology, hydrology, ecosystems services, ornithology, limnology, public engagement, and environmental systems.

Senator Bob Worsley has been a State Senator from Mesa since 2012. He and his family have lived in Arizona for more than 36 years. He came to the senate bringing with him an array of entrepreneurial skills. He began his career as a CPA with Price Waterhouse, went on to found SkyMall in 1989, and sold it to Rupert Murdoch 13 years later. He then founded NZ Legacy which has been active in energy development and mineral exploration since 2002. He built a 27 MW biomass energy plant, fueled by the remains of the Rodeo-Chedeski fire which burned over 450,000 acres of forest land in 2002; Novo Power is currently fueled by forest-thinning efforts and employs 100 people. He has been involved with energy and technology issues as they apply to border security, citizen engagement, data collection and management by state agencies, and the required infrastructure for our future autonomous vehicles. In 2017, he will chair the Transportation and Technology Committee, and serve on the Commerce and Judiciary committees.

About the Moderator:
Wes Herche is a Research Scientist at Arizona State University (ASU) with the Global Security Initiative (GSI), conducting research in the anticipation and mitigation of national security risks associated with climate and energy security. Additionally he serves as a cross-functional “bridge” and leader to the GSI affiliated faculty and staff who represent a diverse array of academic research backgrounds and disciplines, and as a University liaison fostering relationships with government and private-sector entities outside of ASU in the defense, intelligence, and energy spaces. He has been an invited guest lecturer at the Department of Energy Pacific Northwest National Lab as part of the “National Security Seminar Series: Cyber and Energy/Environment Concentrations”. Within ASU he has also been a course developer, instructor and special advisor in several schools and departments. Before coming to ASU in 2014, Mr. Herche spent nearly a decade working in the US Defense and Intelligence Community as a Senior Intelligence Officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

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The American Council on Germany (ACG) is an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes dialogue among leaders from business, government, and the media in the United States and Europe. The ACG strengthens transatlantic understanding and coordinates policy initiatives on key issues in an era where economic and financial issues are as important as the diplomatic and military issues that dominated the early postwar decades of the relationship.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a national non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. In order to generate the political will necessary for passage of our Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal we train and support volunteers to engage elected officials, the media, and the public. See our website for more information.

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