What’s next for Green Banks in the Northeast? Join Kerry O’Neill, Vice President of Residential Programs at the Connecticut Green Bank; Michael Baer, Managing Director of Program and Business Development at the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank; and Jessica Renny (FES/SOM ’17), Associate at the New York Green Bank to hear their take on how the Green Bank model has evolved in recent years and what changes they see coming in the near future. There will be a particular emphasis on how these changes might impact clean energy and energy efficiency financing. This panel will be moderated by Alex Kragie (SOM '16), Program Director at the Coalition for Green Capital.
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Kerry has responsibility for all single family and multifamily financing programs at the Green Bank. With over 25 years of increasingly senior roles in strategy, marketing and operations, Kerry has executive management experience in sectors as diverse as financial services, business outsourcing, direct marketing and educational services. Prior to joining the Green Bank as Director of Residential Programs in 2013, Kerry was Senior Advisor at the Clean Energy Finance Center, a non-profit organization which she co-founded. The center developed innovative approaches to attract greater private and public sector capital to finance large-scale energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. Kerry also co-founded Earth Markets, a consulting firm that developed and managed community-based social marketing programs to accelerate demand for energy efficiency. Earth Markets was the program manager for the Connecticut Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge, an innovative 14-town residential efficiency program funded by a $4.2MM grant from the US DOE BetterBuildings program. Prior to that, Kerry was EVP of Transaction Management, Product Development and Strategy at Clayton Holdings, an industry-leading provider of credit risk analytics and due diligence services in the mortgage-backed securitization market. Kerry earned a BS in computer science and engineering from MIT and a master’s degree from NYU Tisch School of the Art’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
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Michael Baer is the Managing Director of Program and Business Development at Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, and is responsible for overseeing the development of RIIB’s new programs for clean energy finance and brownfields remediation along with program policy development at the Bank. Prior to joining RIIB, Michael spent three years working in New York for the Governor Cuomo Administration, as a special assistant to the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation and as a Senior Advisor at the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. Michael started his career at JPMorgan Asset Management where he spent eight years as the Chief Financial Officer for JP Morgan Asset Management’s US Equity, Global Multi Asset Group, Private Equity, and Hedge Fund of Funds investment platforms. Michael earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Babson College and a Master of Science of Global Affairs at New York University. Michael is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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Jessica Renny is an Associate representing NY Green Bank's Investment & Portfolio Management team, where she supports the origination, evaluation, and execution of scalable clean energy and efficiency project investments across New York State. Prior to joining NY Green Bank, Ms. Renny was a Summer Associate on the investment team while pursuing her MBA, supporting the negotiation, diligence, and execution activities for a residential solar transaction. She also interned at Facebook as a Sustainability Program Manager, where she performed market research and analyzed carbon reduction opportunities at the company’s data centers and offices. Previously, Ms. Renny was an energy and environmental consultant at ICF International. Her work included developing greenhouse gas emission inventories for clients, evaluating the effectiveness of an $8 billion set of funds to finance climate change mitigation and resilience projects, and supporting the management of two public-private partnerships to reduce emissions. Ms. Renny holds Master of Business Administration and Master of Environmental Management degrees from Yale University, where she focused on clean energy finance. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Alex Kragie is a Program Director with the Coalition for Green Capital, where he oversees Green Bank creation and operations work on a range of different CGC projects. From July 2016 to June 2017, Kragie was the Acting Executive Director of the Montgomery County Green Bank, the nation’s first local Green Bank. Prior to his work in Montgomery County, Kragie was the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, where he helped create the nation’s first Green Bank, the Connecticut Green Bank. In addition to his work with the Connecticut Green Bank, he managed Connecticut’s first-in-the-nation statewide microgrid program, as well as the Lead by Example energy efficiency program and the EVConnecticut electric vehicle program. Before he began his work in Connecticut, Kragie helped create the Coalition for Green Capital in 2009, and served as Vice President of the organization. He also worked on the Obama-Biden Transition Team, and served as a Regional Field Director on the 2008 Obama for America campaign. Kragie earned his M.B.A from the Yale School of Management, and his B.A. from Dickinson College.