Speakers

Mark P. Mills
Executive Director & Senior Fellow | National Center for Energy Analytics

Mark P. Mills is a contributing editor at City Journal, executive director of the National Center for Energy Analytics, a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, and a co-founding partner in Montrose Lane, an energy-focused investment fund. He is also a former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Mills is the author of The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s (Encounter Books, 2021) and hosts the podcast The Last Optimist. His other books include Digital Cathedrals (2020) and Work in the Age of Robots (2018). He also coauthored The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy (Basic Books, 2005) with Peter Huber.

His writing has appeared in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, and RealClear. He has also made media appearances on CNN, Fox News, NBC, PBS, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2016, he was named “Energy Writer of the Year” by the American Energy Society. Earlier in his career, he worked as a technology advisor for Bank of America Securities and coauthored the Huber-Mills Digital Power Report, a technology investment newsletter.

Mills has testified before Congress multiple times and has briefed state public service commissions, legislators, and federal agencies on energy and technology policy. He previously served in the White House Office of Science and Technology under President Ronald Reagan and later advised private-sector firms, the Department of Energy, and U.S. national laboratories on science and technology policy.

He began his career as an experimental physicist and development engineer, working at Bell Northern Research and at RCA’s David Sarnoff Research Center on technologies including microprocessors, fiber optics, and missile guidance systems, where he earned several patents. He holds a degree in physics from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

Jacques Besnainou
Executive Advisor | Westinghouse Electric Company

Jacques BESNAINOU is an Executive Advisor at Westinghouse Electric Company. Most recently, he served as the Chief Commercial Officer and led the company’s global commercial strategy to deliver integrated enterprise-wide solutions and deepen customer relationships. He joined Westinghouse in June 2022. Mr. Besnainou has more than 30 years of experience in the nuclear and energy industries and has held executive leadership roles in France and the United States. At AREVA Group, he led the Back-End Business Group and the growth of the North American business. Previously, he successfully developed and sold Ecobilan, an innovative start-up specializing in life cycle analysis. More recently, Mr. Besnainou was President of Kurion, Inc., and provided executive consulting and strategic counsel across the energy and nuclear industries.

Mr. Besnainou holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and engineering from École Polytechnique, along with a master’s in engineering and public policy from École des Mines deParis, both in France.

Anna Broughel
Lecturer in Sustainable Energy Transition Policy | School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Anna Broughel is a Lecturer in Sustainable Energy Transition Policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she teaches graduate courses in energy policy, economics, digitalization, and systems analysis. She serves as President-Elect of the United States Association for Energy Economics, following previous service as Secretary-Treasurer, Vice President of Communications, and Council Member. Anna’s career spans academia, government, and industry. She previously served as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she co-managed a behavioral research portfolio in the Solar Energy Technologies Office, and as an energy economist and principal consultant at Tetra Tech, advising public and private sector clients on energy and environmental policy. She also led the fellowship program at the Clean Energy Leadership Institute, building a national network of clean energy professionals. Her research focuses on the economics of the energy transition, including digitalization, artificial intelligence, behavioral economics, energy policy, and technology adoption. She has published in leading energy journals and contributes commentary to Forbes and The National Interest. A Fulbright Scholar, Anna earned her Ph.D. in Economics, Policy, and Human Dimensions from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in association with Syracuse University. She completed postdoctoral research at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Bob Fryklund
Chief Upstream Strategist | S&P Global Energy

Bob Fryklund is the Chief Upstream Strategist at S&P Global Energy. Bob has 46 years’ experience working for majors, independents, and consultancies, with more than half of that in executive leadership roles. He focuses on advising companies, boards and leadership teams on areas that lead to high impact value creation – portfolios, IPO’s, restructuring, M&A.

He is globally recognized expert on Upstream and won the AAPG Presidents award for his Thought Leadership. A frequent keynote speaker for both public and private events, he is also a well-known moderator and media source.

Bob gives back to the industry via mentoring women leaders, and he also sits on multiple industry boards- IPAA, ARPEL, AAPG CAB, AAPG Trustee Associate and Hamilton College. He holds an AB in Geology from Hamilton College and resides in Houston, Texas.

Nathaniel Gilbraith
Manager – Energy Market Design | New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)

Nathaniel (Nate) Gilbraith, PhD is the Manager of Energy Market Design for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which operates New York’s high-voltage transmission system, manages the state’s competitive wholesale electricity markets, and conducts comprehensive power system planning. Dr. Gilbraith joined the NYISO in 2015 and has held roles of increasing responsibility across the organization. These include roles within Market Mitigation & Analysis, Market Operations, and Market Structures. In his current role, Nate leads the evolution of energy and ancillary services market design to facilitate reliability through markets for a changing electric grid. Dr. Gilbraith earned a Doctor of Philosophy, PhD, from Carnegie Mellon University as well as a Master’s of Science in Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University. Dr. Gilbraith has been featured in industry publications Utilities Policy and RTO Insider as well as the New York Times.

Amanda Harker Steele
Senior Energy Economist | Southwest Power Pool

Dr. Amanda Harker Steele is a Senior Energy Economist at Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) that manages the electric grid and wholesale power market for much of the central United States. At SPP, Dr. Harker Steele focuses on developing new and revising existing market design concepts. She and her team are tasked with ensuring such concepts are grounded in foundational economic principles to maintain the assurance of economically efficient and also reliable market outcomes for SPP and its members. Prior to joining SPP, Dr. Harker Steele worked as a Research Economist and site-support contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Her research portfolio focuses on understanding the economic efficiency and distributional equity implications of changes in the way energy is produced and consumed. Her work has been featured in Energy Policy, Energy Research and Social Science, and Energies. Additionally, Dr. Harker Steele serves as the President of the Three Rivers Chapter of USAEE.

Karr Ingham
Economist and President | Texas Alliance of Energy Producers

Karr Ingham is an Amarillo, Texas economist, and serves as Petroleum Economist and President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. For over 25 years, he has worked as a metro/regional economist in Texas and elsewhere, and as an oil and gas/energy economist. He is a frequent commentator on the state’s oil and gas economy as well as markets and prices for crude oil and natural gas, and on state and national energy policy issues. He served as the Consulting Petroleum Economist for the Alliance from 2003-2024, and became the organization's Executive Vice President in 2019. Ingham was named President of the Alliance in July 2024. Mr. Ingham is a native of Stratford in the northern Texas Panhandle, and is a magna cum laude BBA Economics graduate of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas (and taught undergraduate economics there for a short time as well). He is a council member, vice president for conferences, presenter, and panel moderator for the US Association of Energy Economics. Ingham also co-chairs the Supply and Demand Committee of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He is a member of the Texas Comptroller’s Economic Roundtable, a group of statewide and national economists convened to offer economic insight to the Comptroller in terms of the general condition of the Texas economy and the ongoing revenue outlook. He is the creator of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers Texas Petro Index, a tool for tracking growth rates and industry cycles in the Texas oil and gas exploration & production sector, as well as the Alliance Texas Permian Basin Petroleum Index.

Eunjung Lim
Professor, Division of International Studies | Kongju National University

Eunjung Lim joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar from April 2026 to February 2027 from Kongju National University (KNU), where she serves as Professor in the Division of International Studies. She previously served as Vice President for International Affairs and as Dean of the Institute of Korean Education and Culture and the Institute of International Language Education at KNU (June 2021–May 2023).

Her research focuses on international cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, comparative and global governance, and energy, nuclear, and climate change policies in East Asia. She previously served as a board member of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC) from May 2018 to July 2024 and as a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Just Transition of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth. She currently serves as a member of the Policy Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Unification and as a member of the governing board of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN).

Before joining KNU, Dr. Lim was an Assistant Professor at the College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. She has also taught at several universities in the United States and Korea, including Johns Hopkins University, Yonsei University, and Korea University. In addition, she has been a researcher and visiting fellow at various academic institutions, including the Center for Contemporary Korean Studies at the University of Tokyo, the Institute of Japanese Studies at Seoul National University, the Institute of Japan Studies at Kookmin University, and the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ).

She received a BA from the University of Tokyo, an MIA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Koroush Shirvan
Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Koroush Shirvan joined the faculty in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering in July, 2017. He is also the Director of Nuclear Reactor Technology course for utility executives. His group released the first opensource bottom-up advanced nuclear capital cost analysis tool in 2021. Since then, the tool capability has been expanded to construction schedule, risk, financing, operation and maintenance, decommissioning, and fuel cycle cost. He is an active consultant for majority of large nuclear utilities in north America and Europe on matters of cost and risk projection of new nuclear projects.

Jim Simpson
Founder and Chief Executive Officer | East Daley Analytics

As CEO and co-founder, Jim launched East Daley Analytics to disrupt a market by driving transparency in energy commodity and capital markets. On this mission, East Daley Analytics has become the go-to, trusted source for the most accurate and detailed North American energy expertise by connecting micro-level commodity data with macro-level capital market insights.

Jim commonly refers to this as “connecting the molecules to money.” As a 23-year veteran of the energy industry, Jim’s experience analyzing and managing energy information and commodity risk for the gas and power industries has enabled him to understand the complex market dynamics that create market events. As a former co-owner and executive at BENTEK Energy, Jim built and led the research group that pioneered the standard for today’s natural gas supply and demand analytics. Bentek Energy was sold to Platts/S&P Global in 2011. Earlier in his career, he spent extensive time at Enron modeling large structured transactions in both gas and power, as well as trading natural gas.

Jim was recognized as one of the top CEOs for the 2020 Titan 100 and one of the top 50 executives in the Denver Business Journal’s 2019 Who’s Who in Energy. He has spoken at numerous industry events including LDC Gas Forums, the BENTEK Natural Gas Conference, TPH’s Hotter ‘N Hell Energy Conference and the Energy Information Administration National Convention. He has also been quoted for his energy industry expertise in several publications such as Natural Gas Intelligence, Platts, The Denver Post and Hart Energy and has authored articles on the energy financial market in publications Oil & Gas Journal, Oil & Gas Financial Journal and Seeking Alpha. Jim also currently serves on the Board of Directors at Navarik Corp.

Greg Upton
Executive Director & Associate Professor - Research | LSU Energy Institute

Dr. Greg Upton's research interests span energy and environmental economics. He has contributed to over 40 publications and presented research to more than 200 industry, government, and academic audiences, including testifying in committees of both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature and a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He is regularly interviewed on live talk radio and other news outlets and has been quoted or cited over 250 times in local and national media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and NPR. Dr. Upton is the 2026 president of the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), a member of the University Advisory Board to the Center for Legislative Energy & Environmental Research (CLEER) and an appointee to the National Petroleum Council (NPC). He is a legislatively appointed member of the Clean Hydrogen Task Force created by House Concurrent Resolution 64 of the 2024 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature as well as the Task Force on Local Impacts of Carbon Capture and Sequestration created by Senate Resolution 179 of the 2023 Regular Special Session of the Louisiana Legislature. He is part of the Baton Rouge Business Report Forty Under 40 class of 2024 and an LSU alumnus, receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from LSU in 2014.