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  David Sandalow Inaugural Fellow @ Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP)

  David Sandalow is the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) and Co-Director of the Energy and Environment Concentration at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is the lead author, most recently, of the Sustainable Data Centers Roadmap, Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap and Guide to Chinese Climate Policy. Mr. Sandalow chairs the ICEF Innovation Roadmap Project. In that capacity, he has led development of roadmaps on sustainable data centers, artificial intelligence for climate change mitigation, low-carbon ammonia, biomass carbon removal and storage, industrial decarbonization, direct air capture and carbon dioxide utilization, among other topics. He is a director of Enagás, SA, a Distinguished Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Mr. Sandalow is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Yale College.

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  Zara Ahmed (moderator) Chief Operating Officer @ Carbon Direct

  Dr. Zara Ahmed is responsible for marketing, policy, communication, coordination, and execution across Carbon Direct. Dr. Ahmed's primary focus is strategic planning, program development, and U.S. policy engagement. Prior to working at Carbon Direct, Dr. Ahmed was the Government Affairs and Policy Lead for the COVID-19 Response at the CDC. She rejoined CDC in August 2021 after two years at the Guttmacher Institute as the Associate Director for Federal Issues. Before her time at the Guttmacher Institute, Dr. Ahmed spent 10 years with CDC. She holds a BA in political science from Brown University, MPP and MPH degrees from the University of Michigan, a MBA from the University of Oklahoma, and a DrPH from the University of North Carolina, where she is also an adjunct faculty member.

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  Sara Neff Microsoft

  Sara Neff is the Partner/General Manager for Sustainability and ESG for the Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation team, where she is helping its data center fleet meet Microsoft's ambitious goals of achieving carbon negative, water positive, zero waste, and the protection of more land than it uses by 2030. Prior to that, she served as Head of Sustainability for the Americas for Lendlease. She has been named a Los Angeles Woman of Influence by the Los Angeles Business Journal, a 40 under 40 awardee by ULI, a Los Angeles Power Woman in Real Estate by Bisnow, a Women in Sustainability Leader by Green Building & Design magazine, a Woman of Influence by Globe St Real Estate Forum, a Best in Building Health awardee by the Center for Active Design, and was the recipient of NAREIT’s 2020 Leader in the Light Leadership Personified award. She is a LEED Fellow and holds a BS from Stanford and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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  Julio Friedmann Chief Scientist @ Carbon Direct

  Dr. Julio Friedmann is Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct. He works directly with clients, the Science team, and the leadership of Carbon Direct to solve major technical challenges around carbon management and CO2 removal. Dr. Friedmann recently served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy where he was responsible for DOE’s R&D program in advanced fossil energy systems, carbon capture, and storage (CCS), CO2 utilization, and clean coal deployment. More recently, he was a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia. He has held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including Chief Energy Technologist. Dr. Friedmann is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts in the U.S. on carbon removal (CO2 drawdown from the air and oceans), CO2 conversion and use (carbon-to-value), hydrogen, industrial decarbonization, and carbon capture and sequestration.

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  Colin McCormick Chief Innovation Officer @ Carbon Direct

  Dr. Colin McCormick provides science and technology expertise across a wide range of engineered carbon removal methods and industrial decarbonization sectors. He also supports Carbon Direct’s work in data science and remote sensing, life-cycle analysis, and carbon removal policy analysis. Dr. Colin McCormick previously served as the Senior Advisor for R&D at the US Department of Energy where he helped oversee the full applied energy research portfolio, and as a Professional Staff Member for the House Science & Technology Committee. Prior to this he conducted research in applied quantum optics and atomic physics at UC Berkeley and NIST. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs program, Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a Member of the District of Columbia Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency.