Advisory Board

Andy Abranches

Senior Director, Wildfire Preparedness and 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.

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.

Genny Biggs

Program Director, Wildfire Resilience Initiative and 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.

Dan Preston

Dan Preston

Former CEO
Metromile

  • 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.

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.

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.