Catherine Flowers has spent 20 years working at the nexus of civic engagement, community development, equity, and climate advocacy.

She Co-Founded Energy Well Texas, a new kind of electric company and serves as the finance chair for the Clean Energy Fund of Texas (the state’s first Green Bank).

Catherine lived in Louisiana for many years when Hurricane Katrina hit, and she subsequently moved her family to Houston. She was hired by the City of Houston to develop the Department of Neighborhoods, whose mission is to improve the quality of life in Houston through people-focused programs and strong community partnerships.

As a consultant, she’s managed national social campaigns, and partnered with elected officials, municipalities, and community organizations. She has held numerous roles on local boards & commissions and executive positions including VP of Capital One Bank where she expanded the affordable housing inventory and mentored Community Development Corporations.

As CEO of Bread of Life, she expanded its services to meet the diverse needs of Harris County and served over 100,000 families after Hurricane Harvey. She is also the founder of Altruistic Endeavors NGO, a disaster relief organization that responds to life disasters. The NGO also operates apiary and urban farms.

Catherine has studied at the University of St Thomas, William Carey, and recently enrolled in a Ph.D. program with a focus on community engagement.

Sonrisa Lucero is Special Advisor for Stakeholder Engagement in the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity.

Sonrisa Lucero was most recently the Equitable Buildings Decarbonization Manager at RMI where she led the efforts to integrate equity into carbon-free buildings policy and advocacy.  Previously she worked to advance equitable sustainability and climate policy at the City and County of Denver in the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. 

A lifelong activist for social justice, Sonrisa is skilled at building coalitions and guiding diverse stakeholders to equitably advance sustainability and combat climate change.

Sonrisa was born and raised in Denver, CO and graduated from Stanford University with an Individually Designed Major, Environmental Systems Engineering.

As President of Shell USA, Inc., Gretchen Watkins oversees the strategic integration of all Shell businesses in the United States and leads the US Country Coordination Team. Since being named to this post in 2018, she has become the company’s leading voice across a wide range of energy-related policy and societal issues.

From May 2018-June 2021, Gretchen also served as Executive Vice President of Shell’s Global Shales business, overseeing the exploration, development, and production of Shell’s Upstream shale oil and gas portfolio, which included assets in the US, Canada, and Argentina. 

Gretchen came to Shell because she admired the company’s forward-looking approach to the global energy transition. Over the last four years, she has advanced those efforts, promoting Shell’s Powering Progress strategy through investments in lower-carbon energy businesses while reducing the carbon intensity of the company’s US portfolio.

Before joining Shell, Gretchen served as the Chief Executive Officer of Maersk Oil. Under her leadership, the company delivered above-target operational and financial results, enabling a safe and successful enterprise sale of Maersk Oil to Total in 2017.

Gretchen began her career as a Facilities Engineer for Amoco in the Gulf of Mexico. She then worked as a Trading Manager for Amoco and BP before commencing an international career that has included a variety of senior executive roles at BP, Marathon Oil, and Maersk. She has led joint ventures and negotiated contracts with countries and companies across the upstream, midstream, and downstream businesses.

Gretchen is a passionate advocate for social and environmental justice. As co-Chair of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Racial Equity Committee, she helped craft a set of guiding principles enabling the region’s business community to address bias, strengthen underserved communities, promote inclusion and remove barriers to achievement.

Gretchen graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has had executive education at Cambridge and Stanford Universities.

Mr. Berger founded Sunnova in 2012 and has since then served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of the Board. With more than two decades of experience in the electric power industry, Mr. Berger is an energy entrepreneur who has always supported free market competition, consumer choice, and the advancement of energy technology to power energy independence. Before Sunnova, Mr. Berger served as Founder and Chief Executive Officer at SunCap Financial, a residential solar service provider. He also founded Standard Renewable Energy, a provider, and installer of renewable energy and energy-efficient products and services. Mr. Berger received his Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.