The Grid We Need

All times Eastern Time.

1. 8:15 AM

   Doors open

   Registration & informal arrival

2. 8:30–9:00 AM

   Breakfast

   Breakfast buffet. Coffee and tea available throughout the morning.

3. 9:00–9:10 AM

   Welcome

   Anna Foglesong, Executive Director, Connected Grid Initiative

4. 9:10–9:30 AM

   History of the Grid

   Richard Miller, former VP for Energy and Environmental Law at Con Edison
   How we arrived at the grid of today

5. 9:30–10:00 AM

   Big Swings: Why Now?

   A moderated conversation with Brian Deese and Neil Chatterjee.
   Moderator: Aliya Haq, President, CleanEcon

6. 10:00–10:30 AM

   Audience Q&A / open discussion

   Moderator: Aliya Haq

7. 10:30 AM

   Formal program concludes

8. 10:30–~11:00 AM

   Networking

   Coffee and remaining breakfast items available.

Agenda subject to change.

• Anna Foglesong

  Executive Director, Connected Grid Initiative

  Anna Foglesong is Executive Director of the Connected Grid Initiative (CGI), a strategic funder and partner dedicated to advancing transmission solutions to power America’s future. Prior to CGI, Anna held strategy and policy roles at MISO and PG&E. Anna led efforts in both organizations to ensure reliability amidst the changing resource mix and increasing extreme weather, through modifications to planning, markets, operations, and systems.
  Anna started her career in consulting and has undergraduate and business degrees from Dartmouth College.

• Aliya Haq

  President, CleanEcon

  Aliya is the President of CleanEcon, a nonprofit initiative that unleashes clean energy innovation to power a new era of economic growth and shared prosperity. Prior to launching CleanEcon, Aliya led the policy team at Breakthrough Energy, the organization founded by Bill Gates to accelerate clean tech innovation and deployment. During her tenure at Breakthrough, she also served as the interim Executive Director for Invest in Our Future (IOF), a collaborative of more than a dozen philanthropies to ensure that federal clean energy investments strengthen communities.

• Brian Deese

  Co-Founder and CEO of Foundry-Logic

  Brian Deese is the Co-Founder and CEO of Foundry-Logic, an energy services holding company, and an Innovation Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, Deese served as Director of the White House National Economic Council (2021-2023), Senior Advisor to the President for Climate and Energy Policy (2015-2016), and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (2013-2015). Deese also served as Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, where he built and grew the firm’s sustainable investment business to over $100bn of assets under management. Deese currently serves as Co-Chair of the Roux Institute’s Climate Tech Incubator Advisory Committee and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Global Development. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and Yale Law School.

• Kaitlyn Krieger

  President, Harmonic Philanthropy

  Kaitlyn goes deep in each of the Fund's focus areas, building direct relationships with policymakers, funders, and the people closest to the work—and bringing them together when it counts.
  She grew up in Los Angeles—her father a musician and teacher, her mother a housing advocate dedicated to equitable and affordable housing.
  Outside of Harmonic Philanthropy, Kaitlyn has worked as a user experience designer and software product manager, focusing on two-sided marketplaces like TaskRabbit. She holds a BA in Political Science from Yale University. In her spare time, she enjoys working on joyful software side-projects, hiking in West Marin, and building LEGO with her two children.

• Neil Chatterjee

  Chief Government Affairs Officer, Palmetto

  Neil Chatterjee, Former Commissioner and Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), joined Palmetto in early 2025 as the Chief Government Affairs Officer. Neil is a policy reformer with extensive experience across the energy landscape both domestically and internationally. He built a reputation as a bipartisan operator who builds alliances and cuts through red tape with an eye on promoting innovation, and is an advocate for harnessing technology to mitigate threats to critical energy infrastructure.

• Richard Miller

  former Vice President for Energy and Environmental Law, Con Edison

  Richard Miller retired as Vice President for Energy and Environmental Law at Con Edison in 2023. He joined Con Edison in 2003 and worked on various matters for the Company, including federal energy policy, energy efficiency, renewable power, greenhouse gas regulation, and the Con Edison steam system. Previously (1998 to 2003), he was Senior Vice-President for Energy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he oversaw City energy policy during the transition to restructured electric markets. He is also a former President of the Northeast Energy Bar Association.
  He is currently co-chair of the New York City Bar Association Energy committee, and a member of the New York City Water Board. He has recently authored an article for the Power & Energy Magazine entitled “Pearl Street Station: Powering The First Distribution Network” and has written about Nikola Tesla’s first laboratory in Manhattan. He also gives history of electricity walking tours in lower Manhattan. Edison, Tesla & NYC's First Electric Grid Tour.
  He is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University School of Law and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, West Africa. He lives in Brooklyn and has used the bicycle as his primary form of transportation since 2003. He currently averages about 6,000 bicycling miles annually in the city for commuting, running errands, and leisure trips (especially to Fort Tilden in the Rockaways).