The energy sector in New York has reached a turning point, a paradigm shift, a moment of self-awareness that is all too rare in the hustle of the city’s business life.
For years the basic truism has been that New York doesn’t really have an energy sector to speak of. While the local super-utility ConEd and the substantial presence of British firm National Grid have been important in driving a small-scale revolution in the city’s energy practices, the idea that New York would be the destination of choice for an energy professional starting out was unlikely. Far better to head to Houston, the traditional choice of energy corporations, to Silicon Valley, which has intermittently turned its substantial brain power to America’s energy problems, or even to regional leaders like Denver where strong academic institutions underpinned innovation.
New York Energy Week was partially founded on the idea that this old narrative was no longer true; that an increased awareness of the role that the robust and transforming US energy sector plays in the business, regulatory, research and even the cultural life of the city (we’re looking at you, Superstorm Sandy) was emerging. People who thought of themselves as bankers, or university professors, or entrepreneurs, were increasingly finding themselves self-identifying as “energy” professionals, even as it was often uncertain where the boundaries of the sector lay.
New York Energy Week celebrated and marked this transformation by naming some of the leaders bringing this new sector identity into public life. Breaking Energy worked with the New York Energy Week leadership to identify top ten leaders in four areas including cleantech, entrepreneurialism, women in energy and young energy leaders. But that was only the beginning; every day of events brought new evidence of emerging leadership and broadened participation.
In part by setting aside the increasingly irrelevant silos around professional practices and promoting interactions between everything from cleanweb programmers to oil pipeline executives, the week’s smoothly run events identified an important change in the city’s business practices reflective of broader changes in the industry and around the globe.
Breaking Energy was part of the week as a media sponsor, and I was part of the week as a member of the board and an enthusiastic supporter of the concept, the events and unique multidisciplinary approach pioneered by the forward-thinking leadership at the Energy Solutions Forum, the week’s founding sponsor. If the important thing at industry events is to meet new people and learn new things, New York Energy Week was a remarkable success for me. We’d also like to hear more of your stories about how your week went, and how you are keeping the conversation going.
The week wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions of many volunteers and steering committee members more than deserving of recognition. I’ve listed the steering committee names below:
Anna Almonte
Jacques Alazraki
Harry Charalambides
Benjamin Cramer
Eric Davis
Alejandra Espinosa
Vincenzo Giordano
Vanessa Hagicostas
Yoachim Haynes
Caroline Herbert
Katie Hoffmaster
Eric Hwang
Svetlana Izrailova
Jeff Kendall
Christina Kosmidis
Monika Kowalcyzkowski
Ida Kroll
Andrea Lee
Weijia Lee
Steven Lichtin
Jake Madoff
Paulina Marinkovic
Megan McCoy
Rafael Montilla
Filipe Mota da Silva
Sam Oldak
Robert Parker
Sara Roccisano
Ed Sappin
Geoffrey Soura
Mark Swirsky
Simon Sylvester-Chaudhuri
Mayank Teotia
Marvin Toussaint
Terri Wang
Tyler Wunsch
Matt Zolkover
