2023 Speakers

Christopher Anthony

Former Chief Deputy Director
Cal Fire

  • Chris Anthony served California as a Governor Appointee overseeing CAL FIRE's Fire Protection, Resource Management, Support, and Administrative functions as the Chief Deputy Director. He was responsible for the implementation of strategic initiatives and policies critical to ensuring operational readiness, wildfire resiliency, and incorporation of innovative technological advancements into day-to-day operations. During his appointment, he worked with tribal, local, state, federal, non-profit, and private entities to ensure efficient implementation and coordination of investments made by the Administration and Legislature to address the increasing size, severity, and scope of wildfire impacts in California.

Sasha Bereleman, Ph.D

Director, Fire Forward
Audubon Canyon Ranch

  • Sasha is working to lead a change in the way we live with fire in the Bay Area. With her team at Audubon Canyon Ranch's Fire Forward Program, Sasha plans and leads cooperatively controlled burns and trains emerging leaders in prescribed fire management. Sasha earned her doctorate in wildland fire science from the University of California at Berkeley focusing on prescribed fire use for restoration of ecosystem health. She is a Prescribed Fire Burn Boss and a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) coach and leader. Sasha is a board member of American Wildfire Experience.

Jason Brooks

Co-founder & CEO
Fire Aside

  • Jason is the Co-founder and CEO of Fire Aside. Fire Aside is a leader in providing solutions to fire agencies, fire safe councils, and HOAs to help their communities adapt to wildfire. Fire Asides platform provides the tools for defensible space and home hardening evaluations which is now used in 4 states. This past fire season they supported over 3,200 evaluations a week and helped communities remove 175,000 cubic yards of high risk vegetation near structures.

Bill Clerico

Founder & Managing Partner
Convective Capital

  • Splitting time between San Francisco and Mendocino County, Bill loves both the forests of Northern California and the energy and pace of Silicon Valley. He is passionate about technology’s potential to create new tools for firefighters, policy makers, utilities, insurance companies, landowners and other stakeholders in order to restore a healthy relationship with fire.

    Prior to starting Convective Capital, Bill was Co-founder & CEO of WePay, a fintech company which was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in 2017. Bill is an active angel investor in over 50 seed-stage companies and was previously a Part-Time Partner at Y Combinator.

    When he isn’t talking to founders, you’ll find him skiing, working on his timber ranch in Boonville CA, or volunteering with the Anderson Valley Fire Department. Bill lives in San Francisco and Boonville with his wife Katey, son Sully, and Rhodesian Ridgeback Penny.

John Collison

Co-founder & President
Stripe

  • John Collison is President and Co-founder of Stripe, the software company that is expanding internet commerce by making it easy to process transactions from anywhere.

    John and his brother Patrick Collison started Stripe in 2010 while John was studying physics at Harvard. Their goal was to make accepting payments online simpler and more inclusive, after learning firsthand how difficult it was. Today, the 7,000 person Stripe team powers online businesses around the world.

    Prior to Stripe, John co-founded Auctomatic, which was acquired by Live Current Media in March 2008.

Kate Dargan Marquis

Sr. Wildfire Advisor
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  • Kate Dargan Marquis currently works on wildfire resiliency strategy through many pathways and institutions. She advises the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, she most recently worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Assistant Director for Preparedness and Response and serves as Board Director and Chief Strategy Officer for Intterra, a wildfire and public safety software company she co-founded in 2010. She is also a longtime Board member and past Co-Chair of the CA Fire Safe Council. Prior to her advocacy phase, Kate was a pioneering California firefighter/chief for 30 years, the first woman State Fire Marshal for California, and a proud Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate. She has worked at the community, public agency, industry, technology, and policy levels of the National Fire Service and is widely recognized for her consensus-building style and innovative approaches to old problems.

Indra Den Bakker

Co-founder & CEO
Overstory

  • Indra is the CEO and Co-founder of Overstory, a company using machine learning and satellite imagery to provide high-quality, actionable insights on vegetation, starting with utilities' biggest operational challenge: vegetation management. With a background in Computational Intelligence and as the author of a Deep Learning book, Indra aims to improve decision-making about Earth's forests and vegetation. Overstory's platform specializes in tree species identification and health assessment, aiding utility teams in reducing the risk of wildfires and power outages.

Sonia Kastner

Co-founder & CEO
Pano AI

  • Sonia Kastner is the CEO and Co-founder of Pano AI, the leader in early wildfire detection. Previously, Sonia spent over ten years building and leading supply chain and manufacturing organizations within fast-growing, mission-driven start-ups. Her global leadership experience spans Nest Thermostats, multiple solar energy companies, and extensive consulting across the IoT ecosystem. Prior to starting her career in technology, she worked in economic development for New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Anukool Lakhina

Co-founder & CEO
BurnBot

  • Anukool Lakhina is the Co-founder & CEO of BurnBot. Prior to BurnBot, Anukool was the Founder & CEO of data analytics company Guavus which was acquired by Thales in 2017. Since 2017, Anukool has been focused on solutions to the wildfire crisis. In addition to BurnBot, Anukool and his wife run Wonder Labs, a social enterprise that provides philanthropic support to communities on the front-line of wildfire impacts. Anukool is also a Partner at Convective Capital, a venture capital fund supporting entrepreneurs tackling the wildfire crisis. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Boston University.

Michael Wara

Director of Policy, Sustainability Accelerator
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

  • Michael Wara is Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment as well as Senior Director of Policy at the Sustainability Accelerator in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Wara runs a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, data scientists, economists and public health experts focused on three topical areas: environmental justice, the energy transition, and wildfire. He conducts partner engaged research with a wide array of stakeholders aimed at developing solutions to climate and energy challenges. His team also develops and provides neutral analysis to support sound policy making across the domains in which they work. Wara has served in a variety of roles for the state of California including as a Wildfire Commissioner, as a member of the California Catastrophe Response Council, and as an advisor to the California Senate, Public Utilities Commission, and the Office of Electric Infrastructure Safety. Wara has a JD from Stanford Law School and a PhD in Ocean Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Bob Roper

Wildfire Policy Consultant
Roper Consulting

  • Bob has been in the fire service for over 45 years starting as a volunteer firefighter, then rising to executive positions. He served in the Ventura County Fire District for 34 years, the last 15 as Fire Chief, and then became the Nevada State Forester.

    During his career, Bob became focused on the wildland fire problem due to its dynamic nature and challenges. He is now the Policy Advisor to the Western Fire Chief’s Association and serves on the Congressional Wildland Fire Management and Mitigation Commission.