Speakers

Rakesh Aneja has leadership responsibility for Daimler Trucks’ North American (DTNA) eMobility organization based in Portland, Oregon. In this role, Aneja finds purpose in building and leading global, high performing teams that are driven to deliver socially responsible, customer-centric heavy- and medium-duty eMobility vehicles. He has 25+ years of diverse professional and educational experiences related to commercial vehicles spanning multiple countries — U.S.A., Germany, and India. Aneja serves on DTNA’s Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council and as executive sponsor for DTNA’s Women’s Interactive Network (WIN) and STEM Employee Business Resource Groups. He also serves as Board Chair for Downtown Boxing Gym, a not-for-profit organization with the mission to empower Detroit students to be productive members of society through education, athletics, mentorship, and intervention. Aneja received his Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, Indiana, U.S.A. and his Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.

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Jillian (Jill) Evanko is President and Chief Executive Officer of Chart Industries, Inc, serving in this capacity since June of 2018. Evanko joined Chart in February of 2017 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Chart, she was the Chief Financial Officer of Truck-Lite Co., LLC as well as having held multiple operational and financial executive positions at Dover Corporation and its subsidiaries. Prior to joining Dover in 2004, Evanko held financial and operational roles at Arthur Andersen, LLP, Honeywell Corporation and Sony Corporation. In addition to serving on Chart’s Board of Directors, Evanko also serves as an independent director of the Board of Parker Hannifin Corporation as well as a director on the Board of McPhy. Evanko is the winner of the 2020 ExxonMobil Power Play Rainmaker award, the 2020 S&P Global Platts Energy Award for Chief Trailblazer, and the World LNG Executive of the Year 2020. Evanko serves on the nonprofit Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

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Having spent his entire 28-year career working on battery packs and power electronics, Greg Fritz is a pioneer in the field of electrification with a deep, broad global network. Fritz worked at some of the most innovative industry leading start-up, Tier 1, and OEM companies: Ovonic Battery, Hitachi Automotive, Magna E-Car Systems, Better Place, Fiat-Chrysler and the ACTIA Group. He is well-versed in many different battery chemistries (PbA/NiMH/LFP/NMC/LMO/LTO/LMP) in a wide array of architectures (H2/EV/PHEV/HEV/SS) and market. (rail/bus/truck/auto/scooter/bike/AGV/mining/marine stationary). He is currently the EV Business Unit Manager at ACTIA Power USA, the front office in North America for the ACTIA Group. With strong commercial and technical skillsets, he is the Voice of the Customer leading business development, account management and product strategy cross-organizationally. Fritz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering & Manufacturing from California State University, Chico. He is the holder of two patents, co-author of various papers and frequent speaker at industry events.

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Jason Gies is the Director of Business Development for eMobility at Navistar. As one of the leaders of the eMobility team, he is responsible for aligning strategic partnerships, supporting both IC Bus and International Truck customers as they look to electrify their fleets and help set the direction for the ongoing eMobility initiatives. Gies has been cited in many industry publications, including Frost & Sullivan, on electric vehicle market trends and powertrain systems. Leading up to his career at Navistar, he spent nearly 15 years in the commercial vehicle space. Most recently, he was a vital member of the team responsible for creating AxleTech electric vehicle systems, growing it and selling it to Allison Transmission in 2019. Before AxleTech, Gies spent nine years in engineering, program management, and business development at Hendrickson, supporting new product launches from concept to production for defense and commercial vehicles.

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Charlie Jatt is the Head of Commercialization for Trucking at Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. As the Head of Commercialization for Trucking, Jatt is responsible for commercialization efforts for Waymo Via, Waymo’s trucking division, including defining and executing the go-to-market strategy, managing business development and partnership efforts with fleets, and ensuring operational success for commercial deployments. Previously, Charlie was Waymo’s Head of Strategy and Business Operations. Prior to Waymo, he worked at Bain & Company, where he consulted for a number of industries, across a wide array of capabilities, such as strategy, operations, pricing, and organizational design. Jatt holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics, with a focus in Computational Science, from Stanford University.

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James K. Kamsickas is chairman and chief executive officer of Dana Incorporated, which supplies engineered solutions that improve the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of powered vehicles and machinery around the world. Under Kamsickas’ leadership, the company has grown sales by 30 percent and executed 12 acquisitions over the past four years, establishing Dana, historically a mechanical company, as a complete electric-vehicle propulsion system supplier. With more than 38,000 people globally, Dana has approximately 150 major manufacturing and technical centers in 33 countries on six continents. It is a people-centric organization with a strong focus on inclusion and diversity, demonstrated by Kamsickas actively participating in the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, which is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion within the workplace. Dana has been named a top employer of choice around the world and its World Headquarters was named Top Workplace in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan the past four years. Prior to joining Dana in 2015, Kamsickas was president and CEO of International Automotive Components (IAC) for eight years. In addition, he served as head of Lear Corporation’s Interior Systems Division and held several additional senior leadership roles within that organization.

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Born in Australia, Craig Knight has a diverse industrial background, with over 25 years’ experience in International Sales and Marketing and Business Management. After studying Chemistry and Pure Mathematics at the University of Sydney, Knight went into commercial roles, and later completed an MBA at the University of Sydney. He held positions based in Australia, USA, Singapore and China in the chemical sector, before moving into hydrogen fuel cell technology. Knight believes we all have a personal obligation to make a positive impact, and he has made it his mission to be a facilitator of decarbonization for the wellbeing of future generations.

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Paul Kroes is the strategic insights leader for Thermo King Americas. In this role, he drives insights regarding customer and market performance, as well as technological trends and implications for the company. Kroes has been with Thermo King since 2007. As an engineer for the company for five years, he designed Thermo King vehicle powered transport refrigeration and auxiliary power unit (APU) powered units. He has held escalating roles in product management where he has been a key contributor to developing ThermoLite®, a product line of solar and power management solutions. Kroes also has multiple patents ranging from wireless temperature sensing to solar power solutions. Prior to joining Thermo King, Kroes began his career in 2005 with Caterpillar as an applications engineer. Kroes has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Minnesota. Thermo King – by Trane Technologies a global climate innovator – is a worldwide leader in sustainable transport temperature control solutions. Thermo King has been providing transport temperature control solutions for a variety of applications, including trailers, truck bodies, buses, air, shipboard containers, and railway cars since 1938.

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A Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Tony Martyn is a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London.  In his 30-year career in transportation engineering and operations management, Martyn has developed and implemented transport solutions for the public transport, road haulage and vehicle recovery sectors.  Martyn specializes in low volume, high-mix specialist vehicle environments.  A passionate, inquisitive individual driven to understand how things work, Martyn comes from a long line of engineers. His forbearers established the Gloster Aircraft Company during the First World War and funded the start-up of what was the Dowty Group, a leading manufacturer of aircraft equipment once listed on the FTSE 100. He has spent his entire career developing innovative solutions to the problems facing operators and the public alike.  Martyn joined Clean Cold Power as Chief Technology Officer in 2018, and has been working to make the Dearman Engine™  technology power the most viable zero-emission TRU for the global marketplace.  He has presented at leading industry events and appeared on the BBC.

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Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., is the CEO and co-founder of Locomation, a leading developer of safe and reliable autonomous driving technology for semi-trucks. An experienced entrepreneur and formerly a Special Faculty at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Meriçli has two decades of experience in developing and deploying complex robotic systems for commercial, military, and scientific applications – and he has played key roles in over a dozen high profile applied robotics projects. He is a well published expert in AI, robotics, and machine learning.

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Rachel Moses leads Commercial Services, Business Development & Green Cities at Electrify America. Moses has spent her career at the bleeding edge of EV charging technology. She joined Electrify America at its inception in 2017, leading site acquisition strategy and development of the ultra-fast charging network. Prior to Electrify America, Moses led infrastructure solution development at Greenlots, guiding sales and market development for the firm’s open standards-based electric vehicle (EV) charging platform. Prior to Greenlots, she worked for Better Place, an industry pioneer in EV battery and charging systems. There she served as Commercial Analyst and Technical Sales Manager, managing the operation and deployment of a first-of- its kind EV charging infrastructure. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of New South Wales.

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Shana Patadia is the Director of Strategy for the Energy Solutions Team at ChargePoint. Patadia received her Business BS, Economics BA, and Energy Resources Minor at UC Berkeley and Environmental Management Masters at Duke University. At ChargePoint, she is focused on fleet electrification and has met with many fleets to understand their operations and develop products to address their core needs as related to charging.

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Alan Westenskow is the Director of Business Development for Proterra where he identifies and develops financing options and procurement solutions for electric heavy-duty vehicles and charging infrastructure. Westenskow has worked at Proterra for 6 years and prior to his work at Proterra, he spent 16 years as a public finance municipal advisor providing financing solutions to local governments for energy, transportation, and other public infrastructure projects. He developed Proterra’s battery leasing program and helps lead Proterra’s energy business where he helps customers with their charging, infrastructure, and energy needs.

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Salim Youssefzadeh is CEO and Co-Founder of WattEV and has a mission to speed up the transition of US trucking transport into zero emission faster than anyone could expect. WattEV uses a combination of business and technology innovation to create infrastructure and data driven workflow that provides truckers and fleet operators the lowest total cost of ownership. Youssefzadeh graduated from UCLA in 2011 with a BS in Electrical Engineering with emphasis on Computer Science and a BS in Applied Mathematics and graduated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2014 with a MS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA.

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Cathy Zoi joined EVgo as CEO in 2017 and has led the company’s growth and its establishment as the preeminent public fast charging network in the US. Zoi came to EVgo as a distinguished executive with decades of experience in the clean energy, investing, and policy communities. Zoi has held numerous CEO and senior executive positions in the energy industry, government, academia and non-profit sectors. Zoi was founding CEO of Frontier Power, a rural electrification company incubated by SunEdison. Zoi was an energy investor at Silver Lake and Bayard Capital, a board member for Ice Energy, SES, and Pacific Solar, and a management consultant at ICF and Next Energy. She served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary and Acting Under Secretary at the Department of Energy and was also the founding CEO of both the Alliance for Climate Protection, established and chaired by U.S. Vice President Al Gore; and the Sustainable Energy Development Authority, a $50m fund to commercialize clean energy technologies in Australia. In the early 1990s, Zoi was Chief of Staff for Environmental Policy in the Clinton White House and she pioneered the Energy Star program while at the U.S. EPA.

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