Meet your advisory board.

Jeff Miller is Chairman of the Board of Directors, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton, where he leads the Executive Committee.

Since joining Halliburton in 1997, Mr. Miller has served in several roles, including Chief Operating Officer. In this capacity, he was responsible for developing and executing the Company’s operational strategy and aligning short- and long-term objectives with the Company’s overall strategy.

Mr. Miller holds a Bachelor of Science in agriculture and business from McNeese State University in Louisiana, and a Master of Business Administration from Texas A&M University. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the Advisory Council for Texas A&M University Dwight Look College of Engineering.

Reginald (Reggie) DesRoches is the eighth president of Rice University, where he also serves as a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and professor of mechanical engineering. As president, DesRoches serves as the chief executive officer of the university and its 7,500 students, seven schools and more than 700 faculty. DesRoches’ top priority as president is to help Rice reach a new level of distinction nationally and internationally for impactful research, award-winning scholarship and insightful creative work. He leads the strategic efforts to ensure that the academic and research programs are world-class, and aligned with the university’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity. He previously served as Rice’s Howard Hughes Provost and William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering. In these positions he initiated and expanded the development of several undergraduate and graduate classes and programs.

His primary research interests are in the design of resilient infrastructure systems under extreme loads and the application of smart materials, where he has published over 300 articles. Reggie is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the society’s Structural Engineering Institute. He received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2002 — the highest honor bestowed upon scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. Most recently, he was an elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. He has been the recipient of the Distinguished Arnold Kerr Lecturer Award in 2019, the John A. Blume Distinguished Lecturer in 2018, as well as the 2018 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Distinguished Lecturer Award – one the highest honors in the earthquake engineering field.

John Grotzinger is a geologist interested in the evolution of sedimentary basins, hydrocarbon reservoir systems, and the robotic exploration of Mars. He has worked in energy exploration in sedimentary basins in northwestern Canada, northern Siberia, southern Africa, the western United States, and the Middle East. He received his B.Sc. in geoscience from Hobart College in 1979, an M.Sc. in geology from the University of Montana, and a Ph.D. in geology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1985. He joined the MIT faculty in 1988, working on a variety of problems in sedimentary geology, including an early synthesis of microbialite reservoir systems.

In 2005, he moved from MIT to Caltech, where he is the Harold Brown Professor of Geology. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and received the 2012 Halbouty Award of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Between 2007–2014, he served as the Chief Scientist for NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission for which he received NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2013. From 2014–2019 he served on the Science Advisory Board for Shell International Exploration and Production.

Jennifer Holmgren is the CEO of LanzaTech, a carbon recycling company, which deploys carbon capture and reuse facilities to make fuels and chemicals from waste carbon. Prior to LanzaTech, Holmgren was vice president and general manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company.

Holmgren is the recipient of numerous awards including the William C. Holmberg Award for Lifetime Achievement in advanced bioeconomy by the Digest, the most widely read online bioeconomy journal, and the Edison Achievement Award for her contributions to the world of innovation. She sits on the advisory council for the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Holmgren holds a Bachelor of Science from Harvey Mudd College, a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Maynard Holt is the Founder & CEO of Veriten, a new and differentiated information platform dedicated to seeking “truth in energy.” Established in 2021 and built off the momentum created by the “Close of Business Tuesday” podcast, Veriten is an energy-focused knowledge platform that brings diverse perspectives to the energy transition discussion, improving the ability of industry leaders, policy makers, and investors to make investment and strategic choices.

Maynard previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. from 2016 to 2021 and has over 27 years of experience in energy investment banking. A co-founder of TPH, Maynard served as Co-President from 2007 to 2016 and prior to joining TPH, Maynard previously served as a Managing Director with Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1994 to 2007. At Goldman, Maynard worked in Leveraged and Structure Finance (1994 to 1998) and Energy & Power / Natural Resources (1999 to 2007). Maynard holds a BA in economics and Russian from Rice University and a master’s in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Walter Isaacson is the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values at Tulane. He previously served as the chief executive officer of the Aspen Institute, where he is now a Distinguished Fellow. Mr. Isaacson has also held positions as the chairman of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine. Walter’s written works include his most recent biography, Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). He is a host of the show “Amanpour and Company” on PBS and CNN, a contributor to CNBC, and host of the podcast “Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.” He is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University.

He began his career at The Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He joined TIME in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor, and editor of digital media before becoming the magazine’s 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003. He is chair emeritus of Teach for America. From 2005-2007 he was the vice-chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other international broadcasts of the United States, a position he held from 2009 to 2012. He had been a member of the New Orleans City Planning Commission.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the American Philosophical Society. He is a fellow of Lowell House at Harvard and of Pembroke College at Oxford. He serves on the board of United Airlines, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Society of American Historians, New Schools for New Orleans, the U.S. Defense Department Innovation Board, and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. He is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City.

Before co-founding Imperative, Pulakesh spent ten years at BASF Venture Capital sourcing and executing investments in the energy, agriculture, chemical, and industrial sectors. ‍

During that time he served as a director or observer on the boards of early stage technology companies.
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Prior to his role in venture capital, Pulakesh gained over ten years of experience in international business development, sales, marketing, and chemical process scale-up.
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He serves on numerous industry advisory boards, including the NREL Investor Advisory Board, Activate, and Rocky Mountain Institute.
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Pulakesh has a PhD from Stanford University and a M.Sc. from IIT Kanpur, India.
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He has published in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored more than 15 patents.

Andres leads the organization’s objective to advance cleaner, affordable energy and collaborate with participant companies to accelerate their commercial success. Andres joined Halliburton in 2011 and held multiple leadership roles within the company to include director of asset performance for Global Business Lines and strategic business manager for Production Enhancement. Most recently, he led the strategy and execution of the Company’s sustainability programs, as well as compliance with global environmental and chemical regulations.

Andres holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Rice University. Andres completed executive programs in strategy and marketing at Caltech and The University of Texas.