Geothermal Energy's Global Breakthrough

Lauren Boyd leads the Geothermal Technologies Office’s efforts to improve performance, reduce costs, and accelerate deployment of all geothermal technologies. In this role, Lauren is responsible for a budget of more than $115 million for geothermal research and champions the Office’s partnerships to increase geothermal deployment and advance geothermal as an economically competitive and widely available part of the U.S. energy supply. Lauren also manages DOE's international portfolio on geothermal and represents the United States on several international steering committees.

Rebecca Schulz serves as a senior analyst and lead for geothermal technologies and oil and gas transfer at the International Energy Agency (IEA). Prior to her tenure at the IEA, she held a distinguished career spanning more than two decades at Shell, where she delivered multi-billion-dollar unconventional and deepwater projects worldwide. Her final role at Shell was as head of the U.S. Energy Transition program.

Dr. Isabelle Chambefort is the Energy Futures Theme Leader at the New Zealand Institute for Earth Sciences (New Zealand – previously GNS Science). Her role involves setting the strategic direction of the Institute’s scientific investments to support the energy sector with scientific solutions. Dr. Chambefort is a geothermal geoscientist with more than 24 years of experience in geothermal energy, ore deposits, and petrology research. Her research focuses on the magmatic-hydrothermal geochemical transition in arc systems.

Dr. Robert Mellors is a program director at ARPA-E where he works on subsurface technologies, including superhot geothermal, geologic hydrogen, and drilling techniques. His background is in geology and geophysics and he has previously worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also a researcher at the University of California, San Diego.

Rob Klenner is President of GreenFire Energy, leading the company’s mission to revolutionize geothermal energy with breakthrough next-generation geothermal technologies. Backed by over 15 years of innovation and leadership at Baker Hughes, GE, and others, he is a recognized visionary driving scalable clean energy solutions with deep technical and commercial impact.  

Caity Smith is the Director of Stakeholder Engagment at XGS. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the geothermal industry, with expertise including project management, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory and governmental work. Caity works cross-functionally to ensure seamless coordination across XGS's operations, engaging with project stakeholders including technical staff, local communities, and government agencies.​

Lev Ring is president of Sage Geosystems, Inc., an American company working to advance geothermal energy systems at home and abroad.

Drew Nelson is the Vice-President of Programs, Policy, and Strategy at Project InnerSpace. While there, Nelson works to catalyze advanced geothermal to provide clean firm energy and industrial heat as well as zero-carbon solutions for heating and cooling buildings. 

Matt Houde is cofounder and chief of staff at Quaise Energy, where he helps coordinate commercial strategy and technology development roadmap for SHR.

Vijay Vaitheeswaran is the Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor of The Economist. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting. He is an accomplished public speaker and his three books have created a stir, with accolades ranging from lengthy reviews in The New Yorker to shortlisting for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize. 

Francesco Maria joined the EU Delegation in Washington DC in November 2023 as the Counsellor for Energy and Climate.

Jenna Hill leads global strategy and innovation projects for Superhot Rock Geothermal at Clean Air Task Force, where she coordinates international partners and technical workstreams to advance next-generation geothermal as a scalable clean firm power solution.

Sophie Hemmer joined the German Foreign Office in 2018. After her diplomatic training, she initially worked in the Legal Section. In 2022, she rotated to the German Embassy Tehran, Iran, as the Human Rights Monitoring Counselor. Between April 2023 and May 2025, she occupied the newly created post for climate diplomacy at the German Embassy Washington. Since May 2025, she has been the Counselor for Energy Policy.

Mr. Situmorang (“Ibrani”) leads economic engagement of Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC. He oversees a range of bilateral cooperation including agriculture, development cooperation, digital economy, energy, environment, investment, and trade. He joined the Embassy in February 2025 and has served in the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2000.

Ambassador Christopher K. Kirigua, MBS, is currently serving as the Deputy Head of Mission and National Treasury Chief Representative in Kenya’s Embassy in Washington D.C. In recognition of his service to the nation, Christopher holds various State commendations including the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS) and Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya (OGW) by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya. He previously served as the Director General of the Public Private Partnerships at the National Treasury and Economic Planning for four years, up to November 2024.