Bret Kugelmass

Bret Kugelmass, founder and CEO of Last Energy, has a bold vision: To become the first company to bring a small modular nuclear reactor online in the United States. And, as one of the fastest growing companies in this space, it’s working hard to make this a reality. It currently has commercial agreements for 80… …

Colin Wessells

Colin Wessells is the founder and co-CEO of Natron Energy, a company making sodium-ion batteries to power clean technologies. Because sodium is more abundant and more affordable than lithium, sodium-ion batteries could help bolster battery supply chains and accelerate the energy transition. Thanks to Wessells’ vision, Natron is the first – and only – commercial… …

Tim Latimer

Tim Latimer is CEO and co-founder of Fervo Energy, a startup making geothermal energy a viable alternative to fossil fuels. By repurposing technology from the oil and gas industry, Fervo drills deep below the Earth’s surface to reach hot rocks and converts that heat into 24/7 clean energy. Google is already working with Fervo to… …

Sandeep Nijhawan

In 2020, Sandeep Nijhawan co-founded Colorado-based Electra. Its mission: to decarbonize iron- and steelmaking. Iron production is a hot, energy-intensive process. Today, the steel industry is responsible for about 7% of all global carbon emissions (90% of which come from making iron). But through a novel electrochemical process, powered by renewable energy, Electra is trying… …

Ryan Gilliam

Cement production is responsible for about 8% of all global emissions—and it’s a stubborn industry to decarbonize because it is so energy-intensive. That’s where Fortera comes in. As CEO and co-founder, Ryan Gilliam is working to make it easy for existing cement plants to become more sustainable by installing technology to capture up to 90%… …

Pilar Cruz

Ensuring that the United States’ largest private company, operating in over 70 countries with more than 160,000 personnel, meets its sustainability goals is a challenge. But Pilar Cruz has proven she is the right person for the job at food and beverage multinational Cargill since her role as chief sustainability officer was created in 2021.… …