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Welcome to our eighth Common Sense Colloquy , a Q&A with John Di Stasio , president of Large Public Power Council . John was formerly the General Manager and CEO of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) from June of 2008 through April of 2014. He has an extensive background in the energy industry, but is also the owner of Di Stasio Vineyards in Amador County, California. In short, he’s a man of diverse – and fascinating - interests. He’s also smart, direct and wi

Welcome to our seventh Common Sense Colloquy , a Q&A with Melanie Kenderdine , a principal at Energy Futures Initiative . RENEW PR President Ben Finzel has worked with Melanie as both a colleague and client over the past two decades. Melanie has held senior-level positions at the U.S. Department of Energy under two administrations. Most recently, she served as the energy counselor to Secretary Ernest J. Moniz and director of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis.

Welcome to our sixth Common Sense Colloquy , a Q&A with Bob Perciasepe , the president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) . RENEW PR President Ben Finzel works with Bob and his excellent team on the Carbon Capture Coalition (client). Bob is the very definition of the phrase “a gentleman and a scholar.” In addition to being smart, he is both savvy and personable. Bob’s career includes leadership roles in federal, state and city government as well as the

Welcome to our fifth Common Sense Colloquy , a Q&A with Kateri Callahan , the new President and CEO of CMC Energy Services and former President of the Alliance to Save Energy . RENEW PR President Ben Finzel had the privilege of working with Kateri twice on groundbreaking communications campaigns in support of the Alliance to Save Energy’s work on home and transportation efficiency. Kateri is a recognized and respected leader on energy efficiency. To paraphrase the Barbara M

Welcome to our fourth Common Sense Colloquy , a Q&A with Bill Richardson , the former Congressman, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, former Secretary of Energy and former Governor of New Mexico. RENEW PR President Ben Finzel had the good fortune to work for Governor Richardson twice – as a congressional staffer and as a presidential appointee in the Energy Department. Governor Richardson is many things – a force of nature, a global “fixer” who has hel

Welcome to our third Common Sense Colloquy , a Q&A with Lisa Jacobson , the president of The Business Council for Sustainable Energy . We have been fortunate to work with Lisa and her terrific team on the launch of the annual Sustainable Energy in America Factbook for the past three years. Lisa is an energy policy rockstar and has headed BCSE for over a decade. This month, we asked Lisa to give us a sense of the work she does and share advice about communicating in the curre

Welcome to our second Common Sense Colloquy, a Q&A with Dan Reicher , the executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University . We have had the privilege of working with Dan on behalf of an initiative on carbon capture for the past two years. And nearly 20 years ago, agency president Ben Finzel worked with Dan when he was Assistant Secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy

Welcome to our first Common Sense Colloquy, a Q&A with Marcene Mitchell of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) . Marcene is Global Head of Strategy and Business Development in the Climate Business Department of IFC . We had the privilege of working with Marcene and her team in 2016 on a partnership program designed to help improve linkages between IFC and key energy and environment constituencies. Last month, we reached out to Marcene to get an update on IFC’s climat

Beginning next month, we’ll launch our new Q&A series, The Common Sense Colloquy , here on the RENEW PR blog. Each month or so, we’ll post a short interview with a client, former client, colleague, partner or other interesting person we think you might want to hear from. Each interview will feature a handful of questions designed to illuminate a perspective on an issue, share insight on a program or educate about a mission along with two "common sense" questions to help illu