The Wharton Energy Network is led by an alumni board who is passionate and committed to serving their fellow alumni.
Warren Wang (W'00, ENG’00) | President
Warren Wang is an Associate Director in the Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure practice of Guidehouse (formerly Navigant Consulting) based in Los Angeles, CA. His areas of expertise and interest include research, development and demonstration (RD&D) management, emerging technologies integration, and strategic partnership and acquisition planning. He is responsible for program management and delivery of services to the California Energy Commission’s RD&D Division and previously supported the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with pioneering smart grid and distributed energy system demonstrations from 2010-2015 while based in Pittsburgh, PA. He has also led and executed smart cities (and communities) projects with utilities serving major U.S. cities to enhance service delivery to residents and businesses while improving environmental and community resiliency.
Warren began his career with Arthur D. Little’s Technology and Innovation Management practice in Palo Alto, CA. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s dual degree Jerome Fisher Management and Technology (M&T) Program.
Mark Boyadjian (WEMBA'15) | Treasurer
Mark founded Arevia Power in 2015. Mark has led over $500M in solar project fundraising over the last eight years. Mark has direct experience in raising capital throughout a solar project’s lifecycle: from development capital to Tax Equity and permanent financing. Before starting Arevia Power, Mark held corporate and project finance, and M&A roles at Axio Power, SunEdison, and GCL New Energy. Mark was responsible for leading the funding of SunEdison’s first non-recourse $85M development capital loan. In addition to fundraising, Mark has deep experience in tax credit and PPA structuring. Mark was responsible for structuring and closing SunEdison’s 2012 New Markets and Solar Tax Credit twinned project in Massachusetts and for the 2012 CPS Energy 36MW Partial Prepay project.
Lemar Brown (WG'00) | VP, Houston Programming
Lemar Brown is an energy executive with global experience in the upstream, downstream, LNG, and power, who retired after ~25 years with Royal Dutch Shell and Goldman Sachs. She then launched the Negocium Group and provides short-term consulting on strategy and negotiations. Lemar taught the Capstone Project Course to Executive MBA students at Mays Business School at Texas A&M University until 2019.
Lemar’s most recent position at Royal Dutch Shell was Business Opportunity Manager in Upstream Americas, where she negotiated the divestment of Shell’s Eagle Ford Shale to Sanchez Energy Corporation for over $630 million. Lemar was promoted to Global Strategy Manager for Shell Downstream where she worked internationally and developed strategy for a newly created business, which resulted in marketing new products made from an oil and gas production waste product. As the Vice President of the Cove Point LNG terminal, she had P&L responsibility for Shell’s regasification capacity and successfully negotiated a ~$500 million, 4-party expansion settlement agreement.
Lemar interned and worked for Goldman Sachs after business school. She has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, an MBA from the Wharton School, and was the Goldman Sachs Fellow at Wharton.
Sarah Dar (WG'24) | VP, Southeastern U.S. and Campus Engagement
Sarah is currently on the Corporate Development M&A team at NextEra Energy, the largest renewable energy company in the world. Prior to NextEra, Sarah spent time in investment banking at JP Morgan’s Power and Renewables team and in consulting at Deloitte. She graduated with an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as a co-President of the Wharton Energy Club, and a BS in Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Kathryn Gardner (WG’20, L’20) | VP, Membership
Kathryn (Katie) Gardner is Head of Product at Banyan Infrastructure, a SaaS platform that digitizes, automates, and creates transparency through the loan lifecycle of infrastructure projects. She previously worked at one of Newmont Mining Corporation’s northern Nevada operations as an Underground Mine Engineer.
Katie graduated from the Carey JD/MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School, and holds a BS in Mining Engineering from the University of Kentucky. She is a professionally licensed mining engineer in the state of Nevada.
Nic Renard (WG'22) | VP, Europe
Nic is the UK-based Vice President of Climate Solutions at Ardent, a Climate Tech startup based in Wilmington, Delaware, pioneering membranes for deep industrial decarbonization in hard-to-abate sectors. Halfway through his MBA, Nic spent a year at HiiROC, a UK-based clean hydrogen startup, working closely with the CEO as Development Director from pre-series A to series B. In his last year at Penn, Nic co-chaired Climate Leaders @ Penn, the university's association for graduate students interested in climate topics.
Nic is a Chartered Engineer and began his career in Defense & Aerospace. He has a Mechanical Engineering MEng degree from Imperial College London and spent 8+ years at Rolls-Royce, working on both military and civil projects in the UK and in India.
In his spare time, Nic likes travelling and enjoying the great outdoors with his wife and two children.
Rishika Ghosh (WG'21) | VP, Campus Engagement
Rishika Ghosh is the Senior Manager of Partnerships and Clean Energy Products at the Philadelphia Green Capital Corp. (PGCC), the green bank affiliate of the Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA) focused on driving a robust & equitable clean energy market in Philadelphia. She has over a decade of academic & professional experience in wind engineering and sustainable development. Rishika is a board member of the Clean Air Council. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as a co-President of the Wharton Energy Club, and holds a BS and an M.Eng in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.
Dan Sheehan (WG'22) | VP, New York City
Dan is an Associate in Morgan Stanley's Project and Infrastructure Finance group in New York. Dan previously was at Deloitte in their Audit & Assurance practice focused on banking and capital markets. Dan is an MBA graduate of Wharton, he was co-president of the Wharton Energy Club, and earned a B.A. from Holy Cross.
Rob Weber (W/ENG'82) | VP, Philadelphia and Campus Engagement
Rob Weber (W/ENG '82) is Sr. Business Development Director for Navitas Semiconductor’s high power Wide Band Gap Industrial Sector. He was previously Product Line Director for Microchip Technology’s Silicon Carbide business unit. Prior to Microchip, Mr. Weber was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of AgileSwitch® LLC, a power electronics firm acquired by Microchip in 2019 that produced innovative electronic technology (gate drivers) used in renewable energy and e-transportation applications.
Emeritus Board Members
We are grateful to our past board members for their service to the Wharton Energy Network community.
Sid Radhakrishna (WG’20) | Immediate Past President
Sid is currently a member of the Operators Guild, a professional network for operations and finance leaders in high-growth companies. Within the Operators Guild, he leads OG Horizon, an affinity group for company builders in climate, hard tech, and deep tech.
Sid most recently spent four years at Form Energy, a company commercializing and manufacturing iron-air energy storage systems for a cleaner and more reliable electric grid. As a member of Form’s finance team, Sid helped the company scale from a 60 employee R&D startup to a 700+ person manufacturer. Most notably, he helped stand up Form Factory 1 – a 550,000 square foot commercial scale manufacturing facility in Weirton, WV – including securing nearly a half-billion dollars in state and federal incentives to fund its construction. Prior to Form, Sid was at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $3.5 billion fund founded by Bill Gates to invest in visionary companies that are accelerating the energy transition throughout the global economy.
Sid graduated with an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Gautam Suresh (MSE'21)
Gautam was recently an Analyst at Andurand Capital, a London/Malta based investment fund, where he worked for Andurand's Climate and Energy Transition Fund, a thematic fund focused on equity, carbon, and commodity expressions of the energy transition.
While pursuing his masters at Penn, Gautam worked at Bloomberg New Energy Finance as an Energy Storage Analyst, publishing reports on disruptive battery technologies and startups. Gautam also worked as a policy researcher at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, working on projects ranging from the European Hydrogen Economy to Green Bonds. Before Penn, Gautam researched thin film solid-state batteries at the Laboratory of Energy Storage & Conversion in University of California, San Diego, under the tutelage of Professor Shirley Meng.
Gautam holds a B.S. in Nanoengineering from the University of California, San Diego, a M.S.E. in Nanotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Certificate in Energy Management & Policy from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at Penn.
Zachary N. Goldstein (WG’18)
Zachary Goldstein is Vice President of Nature-Based Solutions Investments at Carbon Direct Capital, an investment fund focused on carbon management, and chairs the Advisory Board of Bison Fuels, a green hydrogen developer + integrator. Prior to this role, Goldstein served as Head of Investments at Aspiration Partners (now Catona Climate), focused on carbon removal investments. Previously, Goldstein worked as a Vice President at Goldman Sachs Renewable Power (now MN8 Energy) with fellow Advisor Michael Conti. Prior to Goldman, Goldstein worked at True Green Capital Management LLC, an asset manager in the distributed energy space, and as a Project Finance attorney at Latham & Watkins, Baker Botts, and Sidley Austin LLP. Zach received an A.B. summa cum laude from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, a J.D. from Columbia Law School and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School. He lives in New York City.
Hayley Nystrom (McCurdy) (MES’20)
Hayley Nystrom is an Investment Associate at Blue Bear Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in the digital layer o the energy transition seeking high growth companies across the energy, infrastructure, and climate industries. Hayley was previously an Equity Research Analyst at Terra Alpha Investments, a public equity manager. Hayley is knowledgeable about corporate environmental disclosure, combining financial and environmental data to inform investment decisions, and sustainable investment strategies.
While pursuing her masters degree at Penn, Hayley joined Energy Impact Partners, a venture capital fund focused on the future of energy, where she sourced potential investments in climate tech and co-authored the firm’s inaugural environmental metrics report. At Penn, Hayley served as a co-chair for the Wharton Energy Conference and worked for Wharton Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL).
Hayley holds a BA in Political Science from Texas Christian University, a Masters of Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Certificate in Energy Management and Policy from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.