I serve as the Regional Global Practice Manager for the Chicago region of 1898 & Co., the business and technology consulting arm of Burns & McDonnell. We are enabling the clean energy transition through a full suite of services including business strategy & transformation, asset planning & management, transaction support, policy & regulatory support, enterprise technology, and cybersecurity to energy and other critical infrastructure industries.I have over 30 years of experience in the energy industry, spanning management consulting, engineering, and research & technology development. Previously, I served as SVP of Research & Technology Development at GTI Energy, overseeing teams of research scientists and engineers advancing technologies across unconventional energy supply, gasification, bioenergy, CCUS, hydrogen, advanced power cycles, energy delivery infrastructure, building energy efficiency, industrial energy systems, and transportation, and co-founded the Low Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI), a collaborative R&D partnership with EPRI focused on advancing technologies in hydrogen, biofuels, synthetic fuels, and ammonia to reach Net Zero by 2050.Prior to GTI Energy, I spent 20+ years in management consulting in the energy & utilities sector, providing strategy, resource planning, and operations improvements at the intersection of emerging technologies, regulation/policy, and energy markets. I began my career working as a hands-on field engineer in the power generation segment, working to optimize performance and reliability across nuclear, fossil, and renewable power generation fleets.I believe we have an unprecedented opportunity in transitioning our energy system to reach a low-carbon future. It must include "all of the above" options to meet the energy needs of all customers affordably and reliably, and not leave any communities behind. Our future system will be more integrated, complex, and will include new energy carriers and energy conversion technologies. Integrating new with existing infrastructure will be key to achieving affordability, reliability, and resilience. Supportive policies/regulations and effective energy market structures will play a key role. Collaboration, leverage (through public-private investment), and effective risk management will enable us to scale the technologies needed to achieve net-zero by 2050.