Francis O’Sullivan is Director of Research and Analysis at the MIT Energy Initiative, and a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
His research interests span a range of topics related to energy technologies, policy, and economics. His current research is focused on unconventional oil and gas resources, the energy-water nexus, and solar energy. He has extensive expertise regarding the production dynamics and associated economics of North America’s shale plays. His work also includes the study of global gas market dynamics and the LNG trade, and he is actively studying the implications for international energy markets of emerging unconventional hydrocarbon resource plays, particularly those in China and Australia.
O’Sullivan has written and spoken widely on these topics, and has made presentations to the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy; the United States Environmental Protection Agency; the Brookings Institute; the Bipartisan Policy Center; the Center for Strategic and International Studies; the National Governors’ Association; the National Association of Regulated Utility Commissioners at CERAWeek; the American Physical Society, and to a range of other academic, policy and industry forums. He is an author of the 2011 MIT Future of Natural Gas Study, and a member of the MIT Future of Solar Energy study group. O’Sullivan is also an elected member of the National Academies’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.
Prior to joining MIT, O’Sullivan was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he worked extensively in the areas of economic, investment and risk analysis, strategic planning, and operations in the private equity, oil and gas, electric utility, and renewable energy sectors.O’Sullivan received his BE degree from the National University of Ireland, and his EE, SM, and PhD degrees from MIT, all in electrical engineering.
Jacquelyn Pless is the Fred Kayne (1960) Career Development Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and an Assistant Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Her research interests are in the economics of innovation, energy and environmental economics, and public economics. In particular, her research explores the drivers of innovation for social progress with a focus on energy and environmental innovation. Her current projects are examining the effects of policies, their interactions, and management on firms' and scientists' innovations and decision-making.
Before joining academia, Jacquelyn held various positions in the public and private sectors. She started in policy, working in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and then at the National Conference of State Legislators supporting state and tribal governments on energy policy and project finance issues. She was also a research economist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the head of analytics for a boutique consulting firm helping companies in their reorganizations.
Jacquelyn is also an Honorary Research Associate with the University of Oxford, a Research Affiliate of CESifo, and a Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow on stakeholder capitalism. She holds MS and PhD degrees in mineral and energy economics from the Colorado School of Mines and a BA in economics and political science from the University of Vermont (Honors College).
Libby is a business and technology leader with experience research, product development, entrepreneurship, corporate strategy, and venture capital.
Libby served as the Global Director of Innovation for GE’s Ecomagination strategy, in which GE invested over $20B in clean innovation and generated over $300B in revenue. In this role, Libby led the development of physical and digital products, new business models, and global partnerships to address challenges in water, energy, and transportation. Libby also led strategy development for GE in the energy sector, and commercial development for the GE Ventures energy portfolio.
Prior to GE, Libby served as the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy, Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, where she worked with the White House and across the Department to establish a portfolio of new advanced manufacturing research and Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. Earlier in her career, Libby developed solar energy technologies at SunPower and Alion Energy, and co-founded a company focused on energy and cold-chain infrastructure in Africa and India.
Libby has served as an ex-officio member of the Secretary of Commerce Manufacturing Council, co-founded the MIT Energy Club, and serves on the founding board of the Boston Chapter of the Women’s Energy Network. Libby holds a BS & MS from MIT.
Tod Hynes is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he teaches a graduate course called Climate & Energy Ventures and Co-founded and advises the MIT Climate & Energy Prize. He is also a Senior Advisor for Climate & Energy at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and is the Vice Chair of the Board of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, a world leading provider of independent climate science.
Tod founded Clymate Studios to help others help the climate. He has started and invested in 20+ companies in the climate and energy space since 2002. He stared a wind development company before tax equity investors entered the U.S. market, and he started XL Fleet, one the first fleet vehicle electrification companies which scaled across the U.S. and Canada and went public in 2020. From 2004-2008 he was the Dir. of Alternative Energy at Citizens Energy where he launched the company’s wind development business and assessed various clean energy and carbon offset development opportunities.
He co-chaired the Energy Committee of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC), the organization that greened the 2004 U.S. presidential Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He was treasurer and steering committee member of the Boston Climate Action Network from 2003-2008. In 2001, Tod started one of the first social networking companies, but he decided to focus on climate.
Mr. Hynes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science from MIT.
