Andy Abranches

VP, Wildfire Mitigation
PG&E

Andy has been with PG&E since 2008 and has worked in engineering and operational roles across the utility. As the VP of Wildfire Mitigation, his team is responsible for the overall direction of PG&E’s Wildfire Mitigation Strategy, including the filing of PG&E Wildfire Mitigation Plan. The work performed by his team guides both operational decision-making during fire season and long-term resiliency planning for PG&E. Andy also serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Cal Poly Wildland Urban Interface – Fire Institute and is an Advisor to Watch Duty.

Anjana Agarwal

Principal
The Ad Hoc Group, Inc.

Anjana is a Principal at The Ad Hoc Group (AHG), a boutique growth advisory firm that works with climate tech startups. At AHG, Anjana leads their work in the climate and grid resilience and wildfire risk mitigation sectors, and works closely with multiple companies that partner with utilities to manage risk from extreme weather events.
Anjana has cross-cutting experience in energy and infrastructure spanning the public and private sectors across different geographies. Prior to AHG, she worked at Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading super-app company, the World Resources Institute, the Indian government’s Public Private Partnerships team, and as a corporate attorney.
Anjana has an MBA from Chicago Booth where she was a Tobaccowala scholarship recipient, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a Bachelors in Law from the National Law School, India’s top ranking law school. Anjana resides in the New York city area with her husband and twin toddlers.

Garrett Bradford, GISP

Christopher Anthony

Founder & CEO
FireWERX

Chris Anthony is the Founder and CEO of FireWERX, where he leads a cross-sector effort to modernize wildfire preparedness, response, and resilience by accelerating the adoption of technology and innovation for the fire service.
Prior to FireWERX, Chris served nearly 30 years in the fire service, concluding his public career as Chief Deputy Director of CAL FIRE. He held leadership roles across resource management, fire protection, fire prevention, law enforcement, and administration, giving him a comprehensive, end-to-end understanding of the fire service. He is known for translating between frontline operations, executive leadership, and policy - aligning stakeholders to move solutions into practice.
As Chief Deputy Director, Chris helped guide statewide wildfire suppression, prevention, and resource management during a period of unprecedented fire behavior and community impact. He oversaw the implementation of major investments from the Administration and Legislature that expanded CAL FIRE’s capacity to meet the growing scale and complexity of wildfire in California.
Chris is a Senior Fellow at the University of California San Diego’s Societal Computing and Innovation Lab and serves on the boards of Earth Fire Alliance and the California Fire Safe Council. He is a Registered Professional Forester, an honorably retired California Peace Officer, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Genny Biggs

Program Director, Wildfire Resilience Initiative & Special Projects
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

As program director for wildfire and special projects, Genny leads the Wildfire Resilience Initiative and the foundation’s special opportunity grantmaking.
Genny has more than 25 years of experience in the philanthropic and non-profit sectors. She joined the Moore Foundation in 2001. From 2005-2008, she earned master’s degrees in environmental management and international relations from Yale University, with a concentration on integrated conservation and development. Genny returned to Moore in 2008, having served during the intervening years as a summer associate in the David & Lucile Packard Foundation’s Conservation and Science Program and as a research fellow for the Environmental Grantmakers Association. Previously, Genny worked for National Geographic Magazine. She earned her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University, with honors.

Bill Clerico

Founder & Managing Partner
Convective Capital

Based in San Francisco, Bill loves both the forests of Northern California and the creativity and pace of San Francisco. He started Convective because he believes resilience is the defining challenge of the next few decades — and that startups can build the tools that we need to thrive in an increasingly volatile world. Prior to Convective, Bill was co-founder & CEO of WePay, a fintech company that was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in 2017, an angel investor in over 60 startups and a part-time partner at Y Combinator.

Hillary Franz

Kate Dargan Marquis

Executive Advisor, Shaping Wildfire Strategy for the Next 50 Years

Kate Dargan Marquis currently works on wildfire resiliency strategy through many pathways and institutions. Most recently, she served in 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 California Fire Safe Council.
Prior to her current leadership and advocacy work, Kate was a pioneering California firefighter and chief for 30 years, becoming California's first woman State Fire Marshal. A proud graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 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 longstanding challenges.

Brian Fennessy

Director
U.S. Wildland Fire Service

Brian Fennessy is the inaugural Director of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS), a newly established agency within the Department of the Interior tasked with unifying and modernizing federal wildland fire management programs.
With nearly five decades of experience in fire service leadership, Fennessy began his career in the late 1970s on elite federal hotshot crews under the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management as a crew superintendent before joining the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 1990, where he became Fire Chief in 2015.

In 2018, Fennessy assumed leadership of the Orange County Fire Authority, one of California’s largest fire departments, where he championed aviation programs, technology integration, and mission-driven culture initiatives.
Since 2019, Fennessy served as Chair of the FIRESCOPE Board of Directors. In 2023, he was named the International Fire Chiefs Association (IAFC) 2023 Career Fire Chief of the Year and California Fire Chiefs Association (CalChiefs) Fire Chief of the year. Prior to accepting the DOI USWFS/Fire Chief position, he served as the President of the California Fire Chiefs Association.
As Director of USWFS, Fennessy oversees efforts to streamline decision-making, strengthen interagency coordination, and enhance wildfire response capabilities nationwide. His appointment reflects a commitment to operational excellence, firefighter safety, and community resilience during an era of increasingly severe wildfire seasons.

Scott Gregory

Deputy Director of Technology
CAL FIRE

Scott Gregory is the Deputy Director of Technology for CAL FIRE. He currently directs the technology, telecommunications, and innovation portfolio for the organization. His extensive background spans over 25 years, including leadership roles in government and private industry. Prior to joining CAL FIRE, Gregory served as the first Chief Innovation Officer for the State of California, where he pioneered numerous firsts in California's tech landscape, including the state's first open data platform, the creation of the State of California Innovation Academy and the state’s innovation lab. He also played a significant role in creating California’s statewide GIS infrastructure as the State Geographic Information Officer. Gregory holds a BA in Geography from Sacramento State University and an MBA from Regis University.

Toby Hardman

Executive Vice President
Gallagher RE

Toby Hardman is Executive Vice President and Head of Sales for Gallagher Re North America. He leads business development and client relationships across the region, with a particular focus on supporting some of the largest and fastest-growing wildfire insurers. Toby brings deep expertise in portfolio and capital optimization, structuring solutions that trade into traditional reinsurance, insurance-linked securities, and carrier partnerships. He has a comprehensive understanding of wildfire risk—how insurers are managing the peril on the ground and how the capital markets view and respond to this evolving challenge.

Rebecca Harned

Senior Scientist, Fire Risk
UL Fire Safety Research Institute

Rebecca Harned possesses over 20 years working at the intersection of technology, science, and policy for disaster risk reduction. Her greatest passion is working with progressive leaders at the bleeding edge in developing and implementing science and technology with the goal of strengthening local resilience to fire and flood in the US and globally. She serves as a Principal Research Scientist with the UL Fire Safety Research Institute where she is focused on developing a comprehensive National Fire Risk solution that provides a consistent framework to measure various types of fire risks at the local level, on a nationwide scale. Rebecca most recently served as the Advisor on technology and data modernization to the US Fire Administration (USFA) within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Previously, she served in various Senior leadership and management capacities within the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), FEMA, the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation, the National Association of State Fire Marshals, amongst other organizations.

Gabe Kleinman

Board Chair
Megafire Action

Gabe Kleinman is an Operating Partner on the venture investing team at Emerson Collective. Prior to joining EC, Gabe was at Obvious Ventures helping build the firm from the ground up. He previously served in leadership roles at Medium, IDEO, and Creative Artists Agency. Gabe co-founded and serves as Board Chair of Megafire Action, a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to ending the megafire crisis through policy solutions. He received a B.A. in Philosophy and Anthropology from Cornell University.

Jennee Kuang

Senior Program Officer
Resources Legacy Fund

Jennee Kuang is the Wildfire Program Director at RLF. The program focuses on public policy and funding solutions to accelerate wildfire resilience in the Western U.S. Before coming to RLF, Jennee was an Environment Program Fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she developed the foundation’s wildfire resilience grantmaking strategy. Earlier in her career, Jennee served as special assistant to the Chief Innovation Officer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She holds a BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Arun Mani

Principal, Deal Advisory & Strategy
KPMG

Arun Mani, a Principal with KPMG, is an Energy and Water sector strategist who operates at the intersection of regulation, operations, and technology to advise clients worldwide on a variety of energy and water related topics – decarbonized supply, sustainable demand, intelligent infrastructure, and foundational technologies.
With 30+ years of advising utility and energy companies' management and Boards, and investors, on a variety of topics pertaining to infrastructure decisions, Arun has a broad understanding of the electric, gas, and water sectors and relevant issues. Arun has led intra-industry efforts to focus and unite utilities and energy service providers through share forums, public panels, and one-on-one sessions to discuss and improve electric, gas, and water supply, transmission, and local distribution operating practices.

John Mills

Co-founder & CEO
Watch Duty

John is the CEO and Cofounder of Watch Duty, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit delivering real-time wildfire alerts and intelligence across the United States. Used by millions of residents and first responders, Watch Duty was recognized as one of TIME’s 100 Most Innovative Companies, Fast Company’s #1 nonprofit, and received Apple’s 2025 Social Impact Design Award.
Before Watch Duty, John spent years in Silicon Valley building technology for underserved markets. In 2012, he founded Zenput as CTO, a retail food service operations platform acquired in 2022. After moving off-grid to Sonoma County in 2020, he experienced firsthand the lack of reliable wildfire information and set out to solve it for both his community and himself.
Today, Watch Duty includes 50+ staff and 300+ volunteers and serves all 50 states, with plans to expand into floods and other hazards.

Former U.S. Fire Administrator & Executive Leadership Advisor/Public Safety Advocate

Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, DrPH, MPH

Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, a prominent figure in the realm of fire safety and emergency response, serves as the Chief Fire Safety Strategist with the UL Research Institutes. Previously, she served as the U.S. Fire Administrator, a role she filled with distinction from October 2021 to January 2025. Under her leadership, the U.S. Fire Administration saw the implementation of groundbreaking initiatives, such as the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS), which will revolutionized national emergency response analytics by replacing a legacy data system that had been in place for nearly five decades. Dr. Moore-Merrell's foresight and ability to secure federal government funding have been instrumental in ensuring the successful delivery of high-quality outcomes for this project. As U.S. Fire Administrator, she co-chaired the Commission on Wildfire Mitigation and Management, established by the bi-partisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, leading to148 wildfire related recommendations being delivered to Congress in 2023. Her tenure is further marked by her role as the visionary creator and chair of the Inaugural World Fire Congress, held in May 2024. This monumental event, orchestrated under the auspices of DHS/FEMA and the U.S. Department of State, brought together top fire officials from across the globe to foster international dialogue and collaboration on fire safety issues.

Bob Rowe

Former CEO
NorthWestern Energy

Bob Rowe served as CEO of NorthWestern Energy from August 2008 until retiring in January 2023.
Bob is a Venture Partner with The Westly Group and a Senior Advisor to Guggenheim Partners.
He chairs the American Gas Foundation Board; is a member of the EEI Institute for Energy Transition Advisory Committee; the EEI Global Executive Leadership Network; and is a Senior Fellow at the University of Florida Public Utility Research Center. Bob serves on multiple non-profit boards, including Yellowstone Forever, the non-profit partner of Yellowstone National Park; the University of Montana Foundation Board of Trustees; and, the Lewis & Clark College Board of Trustees.
Earlier in his career, Bob was a Montana Public Service Commissioner and President of the National Association of Regulated Utility Commissioners. Before that, he was a public interest attorney.

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.

Matt Weiner

Co-founder & CEO
Megafire Action

Matt Weiner is the Co-Founder & CEO of Megafire Action. Matt possesses 15 years experience advising Members of Congress and the California State Legislature. He is the former Executive Director of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation, where he advised Chair Zoe Lofgren, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 42 Members of Congress on California statewide policy matters including wildfire. He served as Chief of Staff to California State Senator Henry Stern during the Thomas and Woolsey Fires and was the Climate and Environment advisor to former Congressman Henry A. Waxman.

Tracy Young

Founder
TigerEye

Tracy Young is the co-founder of TigerEye, an AI platform acquired by Lennar in 2026. Previously, she co-founded and served as CEO of PlanGrid, the leader in construction productivity software, which Autodesk acquired for $875 million in 2018. Tracy led PlanGrid through years of massive growth, from inception to product market fit, and from $0 to $100 million in ARR.
Tracy has been recognized on Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech list and named a Top 50 SaaS CEO by the SaaS Report. She has spoken at TEDWomen, Techonomy, Salesforce's Dreamforce, and SaaStr, and was a visiting partner at YCombinator.

Principal & GIS Consultant
Milliman

Garrett Bradford is a principal at Milliman’s San Francisco office, recognized for pioneering geospatial analytics in hazard risk assessment and insurance innovation. He has led transformative projects such as the WUI Fire Protection Score and played a pivotal role in FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 for the National Flood Insurance Program, shaping how flood risk is quantified nationwide. Garrett’s expertise underpins the evaluation of geographic triggers for parametric insurance products, including products related to both wildfire and drought. His insights drive advancements in climate resiliency planning and risk-based pricing, making him a trusted advisor to insurers, government agencies, and the broader risk management industry.

President & CEO
American Forests

Hilary Franz is the President and CEO of American Forests, the nation's oldest nonprofit dedicated to forest stewardship and conservation, where she leads bold initiatives – across 45 states – to restore our forests, end the wildfire crisis, and ensure tree canopy for every community.

Before joining American Forests, she served two terms as Washington State's Commissioner of Public Lands where she developed the state's first Wildfire Strategic Plan and Forest Health Plan; managed over 6 million acres of public lands; restored one million acres of forestland; conserved over 250,000 acres of forests; and secured more than $500 million in wildfire, forest restoration, and community resilience funding. During her tenure, 95% of wildfires were kept to 10 acres or less – a landmark achievement. With nearly three decades of experience spanning natural resources management and conservation, public service and nonprofit leadership, Franz is a nationally recognized champion for forest conservation, wildfire and natural disaster response, climate resilience and healthier communities.

Phil Hardy

Partner
Capital Counsel LLC

Phil Hardy is a partner at Capitol Counsel, LLC and founder of Collective Strategies, with more than 25 years of experience in lobbying, strategic communications, media relations, and public policy across the public and private sectors. He offers deep expertise in federal, state, and international government procedures. Hardy has strong relationships across government and key industries, with specialized knowledge in detection, prevention, mitigation, and suppression of wildland fire, with an emphasis on aerial firefighting, fire retardants and thermal imagery, both in low Earth orbit and via uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). He also has extensive experience in cloud-based AI and MI technology for forest and rangeland management, as well as reforestation, timber harvesting, and processing. Hardy holds dual citizenship with the United Kingdom.

ADVISORY BOARD