Advisory Board

Andy Abranches

Senior Director, Wildfire Preparedness & Operations
PG&E

  • Andy has been with PG&E since 2008 and has worked in Electric Operations, Gas Operations, Finance, HR and Risk Management. Andy currently works as the Sr Director for PG&E’s Wildfire Preparedness and Operations Team. In his current role, he leads the teams responsible for PG&E’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan, Risk Modeling and Analytics work, Ignitions Investigations and Wildfire Strategy. The work performed by his team guide both operational decision-making during fire season and long-term resiliency planning for PG&E.

    Andy is currently the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Cal Poly Wildland Urban Interface – Fire Institute.

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.

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 Berleman, Ph.D

Appalachians Fire Director
The Nature Conservancy

  • Sasha is working to lead a change in the way we live with fire in her role as Appalachians Fire Director with the Nature Conservancy. With her prior team at Audubon Canyon Ranch's Fire Forward Program, Sasha planned and lead cooperatively controlled burns and trained 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.

Genny Biggs

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

  • As program director for wildfire and special projects, Genny leads the Wildfire Resilience Initiative and the foundation’s special opportunity grantmaking, to advance outcomes across the foundation's programs.

    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

  • 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.

Kate Dargan Marquis

Sr. Wildfire Advisor
Gordon & 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.

Tom Gardali

CEO
Audubon Canyon Ranch

  • Tom Gardali is the CEO of Audubon Canyon Ranch, which includes the Fire Forward program. The Fire Forward program conducts prescribed burns and teaches others to steward lands with fire in order to create resilient communities. Tom is a conservation scientist with over 30 years of experience studying and restoring some of California's most imperiled species and ecosystems. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and edited one book. Tom’s work currently focuses on projects that have multiple benefits which he defines as efforts designed to simultaneously benefit local communities of people, enhance ecological function, and improve habitat quality for fish and wildlife. Intentional fire is not only a necessary tool for obtaining the multiple benefits of ecological health and fuels reduction, it also has the potential restore people’s connection to the land.

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.

Jennee Kuang

Senior Program Officer
Resources Legacy Fund

  • Jennee Kuang is a Senior Program Officer at RLF and co-leads the organization’s wildfire resilience program. 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.

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.

Dan Preston

Dan Preston

CEO
Newco

  • Dan was most recently the CEO at Metromile (trading as MILE on NASDAQ and later acquired by Lemonade), a leading digital auto insurer offering per-mile insurance built using sensor data and machine learning from the ground up. Prior to Metromile, he was the co-founder and CTO at AisleBuyer, a mobile retail innovator that was acquired by Intuit in April 2012. Dan received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Brandeis University and a master’s degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning from Stanford University, with publications across astrophysics, computer vision, and remote sensing.

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.

George Whitesides

Candidate for California's 27th Congressional District & Co-Founder of Megafire Action

  • George worked on President Obama’s transition team in 2008, and then served as Chief of Staff for NASA for the Obama administration.

    George was the first CEO of Virgin Galactic, the human spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson.

    George co-founded Megafire Action, the first organization dedicated to solving our nation’s megafire crisis. He also initiated Caltech’s Keck Institute workshop on “Detecting and Tracking Fires that Matter” in 2021 and is an advisor to several philanthropic efforts working to make wildfire a manageable challenge through innovation and science policy.

    George is currently a candidate for California's 27th Congressional District.