Executive Council

Barry K. Worthington serves as the Executive Director of the United States Energy Association (USEA) where he directs the Association’s domestic and international activities. He has served in this capacity since September 1988. Previously, he served as a Vice President of the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation and prior to that served in several capacities with Houston Lighting & Power Company, now known as Center Point. Worthington has also written extensively on energy and environmental matters, and addresses many conferences on national and international energy issues.

Betty L. Arndt is Vice President, Communications, for Johnson Controls, Inc. In this role, she is responsible for all internal and external communications for the Building Efficiency Business.

Ms. Arndt is on the advisory committee for Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communications Journal and is the former Vice President of Marketing for the International Business Marketing Association. She is currently serving on the Corporate Advisory Council of State Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton’s Wisconsin Women’s Prosperity Initiative. She is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, and MAPI – Manufacturers Alliance. Additionally, Arndt is on the Board of Trustees for Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum of Art.

Betty has a B.A. degree from Marquette University and a M.A. from the University of Wisconsin.

Clay Nesler is the Vice President, Global Energy and Sustainability for the Building Efficiency business of Johnson Controls. In this role, he is responsible for overall energy and sustainability strategy, policy, communications and innovation on a global basis. He is also a member of the Johnson Controls sustainability leadership team responsible for setting overall sustainability strategy and policy across the corporation.

Since joining Johnson Controls in 1983, Clay has held a variety of leadership positions in technology, new product development, marketing and strategy in both the United States and Europe. He has been active in ASHRAE as an author, speaker and technical committee chairman. He is the recipient of the 2005 CoreNet H. Bruce Russell Global Innovator’s Award for development of the Solutions Navigator™ game board-based collaborative planning tool. He is also listed as the co-inventor of ten U.S. Patents. Clay received his BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Clay currently serves on the Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming, the Executive Committee for the Energy Efficiency Forum in Washington, D.C. and the advisory committee for the Climate Registry.

David J. Brady is President and CEO of the Houston-based International Facility Management Association (IFMA). He has 25 years of experience in association management. Previously, Mr. Brady served as Executive Vice President and COO. He joined the staff in 1993 as Director of Membership Services, and has also held the positions of Vice President of Education and Event Management, and Vice President of Administration and Member Resources. Mr. Brady is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan. He serves on a variety of Boards of Directors.

Kateri Callahan brings more than 20 years of experience in policy advocacy, fundraising, coalition building, and organizational management to her position as the President of the Alliance to Save Energy. Ms. Callahan spearheads the organization’s initiatives to advance energy efficiency worldwide to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment, and greater energy security. She leads a staff of over 50, with operations in 12 countries, and an annual budget of $10 million. Working with the Board of Directors, she directs policy advocacy, market transformation, education and outreach, communications and technology deployment programs at the Alliance.

Prior to her tenure as Alliance president, which began in January 2004, Ms. Callahan spent 14 years as head of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, promoting energy-efficient, advanced transportation technologies powered by batteries, hybrid drive systems and fuel cells.

Jennifer Layke
Deputy Director, Climate & Energy Program, World Resources Institute

Jennifer Layke is Deputy Director, Climate and Energy Program. Her work focuses on business, climate change strategy and policy and renewable energy. Jennifer Layke has been at WRI leading business and climate change initiatives since 1997. Ms. Layke founded The Green Power Market Development Group, a partnership with twelve major U.S. businesses including Alcoa, General Motors and DuPont with a collective goal of developing 1000 MW of cost-competitive, new green power in the US by 2010. In 2003, Ms. Layke launched Climate Northeast, a corporate partnership that builds strategies for companies to thrive in a carbon-constrained economy and she is co-author of A Climate of Innovation: Northeast Business Action to Reduce Greenhouse Gases. In 2005 Ms. Layke’s work began linking business action to climate with policy activities and in that capacity became deputy director of the climate and energy program at WRI. She has represented WRI in the Chicago Climate Exchange as well as in numerous NGO and business partnerships. She has also authored three reports evaluating international MBA programs on their inclusion of social and environmental issues in management training. Ms. Layke’s international experience includes consulting at the World Bank and at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on technology transfer under the Montreal Protocol. She earned an A.B. in Asian Studies and Political Science from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA., a M.S. in Natural Resource Policy and an MBA from the University of Michigan. In 1990, she was awarded a Watson Fellowship for sociology research in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Jonathan Lash
President, World Resources Institute

Jonathan Lash has led the World Resources Institute as its President since 1993. Mr. Lash is president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), whose research, analysis and policy recommendations provide practical solutions to global challenges of environment and sustainability. He is recognized internationally for his expertise on climate change, energy security, and resource, environment and development policies. Mr. Lash has broad experience with public policy processes at the international, federal and state levels, and with corporate and business practices worldwide.

Mr. Lash has been a catalyst in engaging business and industry in environmental and sustainability issues. From 1993 until 1999, Mr. Lash served as co chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, a group of U.S. government, business, labor, civil rights, and environmental leaders appointed by President Clinton that developed visionary recommendations for strategies to promote sustainable development. In 2006 he played a key role in the creation and success of the United States Climate Action Partnership, a group of leading companies and environmental groups that in January 2007 issued a highly influential “Call to Action” on global warming.

A frequent writer about issues of sustainability, Lash’s article in the Harvard Business Review, “Competitive Advantage on a Warming Planet,” distills more than a decade of active engagement with the private sector on climate issues. In June 2005, Mr. Lash was named one of the world’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Finance, in the annual ranking of Treasury & Risk Management magazine, the only leader of a non-profit environmental organization on the list. Mr. Lash was profiled in Rolling Stone’s “Warriors & Heroes,” a look at “Twenty-five leaders who are fighting to stave off the planet-wide catastrophe.” The piece noted that he “has arguably done more than any other environmentalist to bridge the bitter divide between industry interests and green groups determined to halt global warming.” In December 2007, he was named “one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” for the year by Ethisphere Magazine, recognizing his “commitment to ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility.”

Under Lash’s leadership, WRI has developed innovative approaches to measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, led efforts to demonstrate the financial importance of environmental risks and opportunities to capital markets successfully catalyzed the first global assessment of the state of the world’s ecosystems, and pioneered the use of digital technologies – such as satellite imagery - to solve environmental problems.

As the head of a leading international organization with partners in more than 50 countries, Lash has been involved in research and policy discussions with companies, governments, and civil society organizations all over the world. He has served on a variety of international commissions and boards, including the DuPont Biotechnology Advisory Panel; the Tata Energy and Resources Institute (India); the Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation (Japan); the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development; Generation Investment Management, The VIVA Trust, and the Avina Foundation. He has chaired advisory groups to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Secretary General of the OECD.

Steve Nadel
Executive Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE)

Steve Nadel is the Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit research organization that works on programs and policies to advance energy efficient technologies and services. He has been at ACEEE for nearly 20 years serving as Deputy Director of the organization and Director of ACEEE’s Utilities and Buildings programs prior to his promotion to Executive Director in 2001. Mr. Nadel has worked in the energy efficiency field for nearly 30 years and has authored over 100 publications on energy efficiency subjects. His current research interests include equipment efficiency standards, utility-sector energy efficiency programs and policies, and state and federal energy and climate change policy.

David Rodgers
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, U.S. Department of Energy

David E. Rodgers supports the Assistant Secretary in day-to-day management of the EERE energy efficiency portfolio. He has been with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for 18 years and has served in the Department’s energy efficiency programs for buildings, industry, and transportation. He assumed his current position in March of 2009. Mr. Rodgers has experience with regulatory development, R&D management, deployment activities, partnership development, business systems, and planning and analysis. He has received degrees in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master’s in Public Management from the University of Maryland. He is a former Presidential Management Fellow.

The Honorable Branko Terzic
Global Regulatory Policy Leader, Energy & Resources Group, Deloitte Services LP

At Deloitte, Branko Terzic serves as a international energy consultant to corporations, multilateral lending agencies and governments on energy, utility and infrastructure. He is currently a member of the National Petroleum Council and has been nominated Chairman of the Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Production from Coal and Other Fossil Fuels of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Sustainable Energy. Mr. Terzic also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the North American Energy Standards Board, on the Executive Committee of the Bordeaux Energy Colloquium and as Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Group for the RSA CarbonLimited project.

Mr. Terzic is a Professional Engineer and Fellow (FRSA) of United Kingdom’s The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA).

Barbara Bauman Tyran
Director, Washington Relations Member Services, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

Barbara Tyran is Director, Washington Relations, in EPRI’s regional office in Washington DC. She serves as the principal liaison between EPRI executive management, and Congress, the Administration, the national trade associations, the national leadership of the state public utility commissions, and the Washington energy community.

Ms. Tyran joined EPRI in 1998 after serving for several years as Manager of Federal Government Affairs for two electric utilities, Kansas City Power & Light (now Great Plains Energy, Inc.) and Empire District Electric Company. Previously, she was the Washington Representative for the Detroit Edison Company (now DTE Energy).

Prior to that, Ms. Tyran worked as a management consultant, initially with Booz Allen & Hamilton in their Institutional Management Consulting Division and subsequently, with CC Pace Corporation, where she was engaged with energy-related clients in both the private and public sectors.

Ms. Tyran holds a BA degree with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Yale University. A past President of the Washington Stanford Alumni Association and former member of the Yale Board of Governors, she is the 2007 recipient of the Stanford Associates Award of Merit for outstanding volunteer service. Ms. Tyran is also the founding Co-Chair of the Capital Interfaith Hospitality Network, a non-profit organization serving the needs of homeless families in Washington.

Paul vonPaumgartten
Director, Energy & Environmental Affairs, Johnson Controls, Inc.

Paul von Paumgartten manages Johnson Controls High Performance Green Buildings business, which includes structures that are designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an economical and resource-efficient manner. He is Chairman of the Marketing Committee and serves on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) Steering Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). A former member of the USGBC Executive Committee, Mr. von Paumgartten was honored with the organization’s Leadership Award in 2005 for his years of service.

Previously, Mr. von Paumgartten served as the National Manager, Lighting Services, and as Director of Performance Contracting. Before joining Johnson Controls, he was in management positions with McGraw Edison Company; and President of his own consulting firm, Productive Environments.

Maria Vargas
Director, Strategic Partnerships, Climate Protection Division, U.S. EPA

Maria Vargas is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Climate Protection Partnerships Division in the Office of Air and Radiation within the EPA. This division is responsible for ENERGY STAR - a voluntary, non-regulatory partnership that assures high quality, profitable investments in energy-efficient and environmentally superior technologies - as well as a host of other voluntary programs including Climate Leaders and the Green Power Partnership In her job, Ms. Vargas manages the ENERGY STAR brand and oversees all communications and marketing activities for the division.

Ms. Vargas has worked for the U.S. EPA since 1986. Prior to her current position, Ms. Vargas was the Co-Director of the ENERGY STAR Buildings and Green Lights Partnership. Before that her work at EPA included serving as marketing director for the ENERGY STAR program and policy work on the issues of ozone depletion, global climate change, and related environmental and energy issues.

Ms. Vargas received a Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) in Political Science and Economics and a Master's degree from the University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon) in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning.

Mark F. Wagner
Vice President, Government Relations, Johnson Controls

In his role at Johnson Controls, Mark Wagner develops potential business opportunities with the federal government in the area of energy efficiency, building controls and security solutions. His areas of expertise include energy policy, federal sites that showcase energy efficiency, renewable energy, and electronic security systems, as well as advanced battery technology for hybrid electric vehicles. During his decade with Johnson Controls, he has been instrumental in developing programs with the federal government, including Energy Savings Performance Contracting and other public-private partnerships. Previously, Mr.Wagner served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Economic Security. He received his B.A. degree in Political Science from Indiana University in 1975 and his Law degree from the Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington in 1983.

Suzanne Watson
Policy Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE)

Suzanne Watson is the Policy Director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), based in Washington, D.C. She coordinates ACEEE's federal and state policy efforts. Prior to joining ACEEE in 2008, she served as the Director for the Office of Innovation at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, as Energy and Climate Policy Director for NESCAUM, a not-for-profit firm in Boston, as Senior Policy Advisor for the Northeast-Midwest House and Senate Coalitions on Capitol Hill, and as founder and director of the Maine Environment & Energy Center. Ms. Watson has worked extensively on the linkages between energy policy, environmental quality, and economic development issues from the early nineties to today.

Ms. Watson received her B.A. in political science from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine,
and was awarded a Juris Doctor and Master of Intellectual Property Law from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire.

Mary Ann Wright
Chief Executive Officer, Johnson Controls-Saft and Vice President and General Manager, Hybrid Systems, Johnson Controls Power Solutions

Mary Ann Wright is the Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Controls-Saft and Vice President and General Manager, Hybrid Systems for Johnson Controls. Wright joined the company in March 2007.

Wright is responsible for accelerating the growth and executing the launch of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle battery programs with emphasis on state of the art technology, manufacturing and electronics integration.

Prior to joining the company, Wright most recently served as Executive Vice President Engineering, Product Development, Commercial and Program Management for Collins & Aikman Corporation. Prior to joining Collins & Aikman, she served as Director, Sustainable Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Vehicle Programs at Ford Motor Company. In this capacity she was responsible for all hybrid, fuel cell and alternative fuel technology development. Wright also served as Chief Engineer of the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid, the industry's first full hybrid SUV. In 2005, she led the launch of Ford’s first hydrogen-powered fuel cell fleet program. She began her career at Ford in 1988, holding a variety of positions in finance, product and business planning, and engineering. She also played a major role in the launch of multiple vehicles at Ford including the initial Mercury Villager and Nissan Quest, and successive versions of the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.

Wright has been recognized by Automotive News as one of the "Leading 100 Women in the Automotive Industry." In 2008, she was named as one of the “Top 50 Women to Watch” by the Wall Street Journal.

She earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and International Business from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration degree from Wayne State University. She serves on the Board of Governors at Argonne National Laboratory, the Board of Directors for the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), Washington DC and the Executive Board of the Greater-Milwaukee, WI YMCA. She is chairing the fundraising effort for a LEED-certified animal shelter in Dearborn, MI. She is a coach and mentor for F.I.R.S.T Robotics, an international competitive program for high school students dedicated to instilling a passion for math, science and technology.

Terry F. Yosie, Ph.D.
President & CEO, World Environment Center

Terry F. Yosie joined the World Environment Center in October 2006 as the President & CEO. In this role, he develops and implements strategies to advance sustainable development through the business operations of WEC member companies and in partnership with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and other stakeholders. Dr. Yosie has held senior level positions in government, corporate and consulting organizations. He served as Vice President at the American Chemistry Council from 1999 to 2005, and managed a global CEO Task Force in 2004 to 2005 to develop the Responsible Care Global Charter to improve chemical industry performance and sustainable development commitments in 52 countries.

Dr. Yosie is a consultant with the EPA Science Advisory Board. He earned his doctorate degree in humanities and social sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and has been selected by the University as one of its Most Notable Alumni.