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.  

Robert Lance Cook has nearly 40 years in the O&G industry, most recently serving as VP of Global Wells Technology and Chief Scientist of Wells at Shell. He also led Shell’s pioneering drilling and completions efforts in Alaska and Bakken/Antrim shales, the development of Shell-designed steerable motors enabling extended reach and horizontal drilling, managed Shell’s deep water technology development, and led two Shell joint venture technology efforts in expandable casing and well manufacturing. Lance holds nearly 100 US patents and is a co-founder of and CTO of Sage Geosystems.

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.​

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.

Bob Pilko provides global energy consulting to the upstream oil & gas and geothermal industries with and for U.S. domestic and international companies.   Initially in 1978 with Schlumberger International, through Blade Energy Partners, and continuing today as Mazama Energy, Inc.’s Strategic Business Advisor, Bob applies practical technical and business development expertise to operators’ projects – including Mazama’s Super-Hot Rock advancements.

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.