Executive TeamExecutive Team
Jigar Shah
CEO

A renowned visionary committed to renewable energy, Jigar Shah launched SunEdison in 2003 based upon a business plan he developed in 1999 for a university class. That plan became the basis of the SunEdison business model: Simplify solar as a service. This model changed the status quo, allowing organizations to purchase solar energy services under long-term predictably priced contracts and avoid the significant capital costs of ownership and operation of solar energy systems. Under Shah’s guidance, SunEdison pioneered the solar power services agreement (SPSA) model, which has turned solar services into a multi-billion dollar industry. SunEdison now has more solar energy systems and megawatts under management than any other company.

Shah is an expert on energy project finance, changing energy policy, working with entrenched stakeholders, convincing different type of customers to embrace energy technology. Today, Shah works closely with some of the world’s leading influencers and guides policy makers around the globe on key issues surrounding renewable energy, global warming and sustainability. Shah holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA from The University of Maryland. He sits on the boards of the Prometheus Institute and Greenpeace USA.

Peter Boyd
Director of Operations

Peter joined as Director of Operations after serving as Launch Project Director for the Carbon War Room since February 2009, following over ten years in the Virgin Group.

He has recently moved to Washington DC after two years as CEO of Virgin Mobile South Africa, leading the first and only Virtual Mobile Operator on the African continent, tripling its size over the period. Prior to that, he was VP of Marketing for Virgin Mobile USA in New York, leading the launch of the inaugural Virgin Festival USA and its Pro-social initiative, while the company grew from 0.5m to 5m customers. This followed various managerial and marketing roles in the Virgin Group in London.

Peter’s started his career at McKinsey & Company (working in London, India and South Africa) after graduating from Oxford University with BA Honours in Philosophy, Politics & Economics.

Ann Davlin
Director of Development

Ann Davlin has more than 20 years of experience in capital raising, brownfields development and government and environmental policy arenas, including six years in the environmental insurance industry.

As managing director, Bayberry Green Fund, a division of Bayberry Capital Group, Ann led the team to establish the fund’s structure and oversaw deal flow and capital raise. She created a $100,000,000 site pipeline, raising capital from pension funds, high net worth individuals and institutional investors.

For three years, Ann ran Davlin Development Group, a consulting firm that worked with individuals and institutions to source and develop brownfield real estate opportunities domestically and internationally. Ann advised on remediation and site reuse including raising capital, using government and tax incentives, obtaining environmental insurance, innovative technologies and land reuse.

Ann served for six years as Director, Government Programs, at AIG Environmental, where she worked with military, developers, communities and government officials to use environmental insurance as a tool to address financial security and assure the remediation and reuse of former government sites.

She was the tri-state brownfield coordinator for the Regional Plan Association and has extensive experience with state and federal regulators. She served on the New York State Brownfields Pocantico Roundtable, which devised the NYS initial brownfields legislative strategy. Ann also was the special assistant for environmental projects to Senator Al Gore, and served in both the White House and the Department of Defense creating and implementing environmental policy.

Her Board and Advisory Committee appointments include: Fuel:Bio Holdings, LLC, Green-Links, the parent of Green Drinks USA; and The FD Element Agency; Steering Committee for Clean Economy Network. She holds an MPA in Environmental Policy from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs. She is an adjunct teacher at the Columbia University Center for Environmental Research (CERC), and has lectured at Yale School of Architecture and New York University Wagner School.

Claire Tomkins
Director of Research

Claire Danielle Tomkins is an expert in water and energy markets and the environment, with 10 years experience working on a broad range of environmental management issues and an entrepreneurial background that has led her to spend time at Silicon Valley startups and investigating energy technologies.

Tomkins recently earned her PhD in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University, where she was one of a handful of interdisciplinary scholars in the Economics and Finance Group pioneering new market models for energy and water. At Stanford, Tomkins worked closely with top scholars in the legal, natural resource, and economics programs to create applied market models that have relevance to public utilities, financial institutions, and policy makers.

Prior to joining Carbon War Room, Tomkins served as Director of the Gigaton Throwdown Initiative founded by well-known entrepreneur and investor Sunil Paul. The Initiative brought together a unique group of academics, entrepreneurs, and business leaders to study at-scale energy solutions to climate change. The report released by the group received national media attention and raised the level of discourse in Washington D.C. around the scale up potential for new energy technologies, defining “gigaton scale.”

Justin Fishkin
Senior Portfolio Manager

Justin returned to his native Washington, D.C. in 2007 to serve as Principal & Senior Investment Strategist of The Cypress Group and Co-Founder of Cypress Capital Partners.

He joined Cypress from CR Intrinsic Investors – a division of S.A.C. Capital Advisors – where he developed an investment strategy focused on political, legislative and regulatory events and their company-specific value implications.

Prior to becoming an investor, Justin was an investment banker with Lazard Frères and Goldman Sachs, both in New York.

In his spare time, Justin serves in leadership capacities for various social, entrepreneurial and philanthropic initiatives. He is the Founder of The Holster Project, Co-Founder of digital indie music label Holster Records and serves on the Advisory Boards of Street Soccer USA, Altiplano Ventures and Look At Life.

He graduated with a BA in Economics from Duke University and attended the General Course at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Suzanne Hunt
Senior Advisor

Suzanne Hunt is leading the Carbon War Room’s work in aviation, renewable fuels, and biochar. In 2007 Suzanne founded Hunt Green LLC, which provides strategic advising for decision-makers in business, government and not-for-profit arenas on a range of renewable energy, sustainable mobility, agriculture, and green design challenges.

Suzanne serves as a Senior Advisor to the Living City Block initiative and is a founding advisor to the annual Art Center Sustainable Mobility Summit, the Climate Lab, and the Latin American Council on Renewable Energy. Some of her recent initiatives include work on the role of agriculture in climate change, renewable energy and green building in South America, and the use of Web 2.0 and GIS (Global Information Systems) technologies to build the “information infrastructure” needed to accelerate the successful deployment of climate change solutions. Previously, Suzanne directed the Worldwatch Institute’s bioenergy program, where she orchestrated the landmark study, "Biofuels for Transportation: Global Potential and Implications for Energy and Agriculture.” She makes frequent speeches and media appearances around the world and provides thought leadership through numerous publications and board memberships. In 2007 Science Magazine featured Suzanne as a “Pioneer”. Suzanne also helps with the ongoing implementation of sustainability practices at her family’s 6th generation farm and winery, Hunt Country Vineyards, in upstate New York.

She holds a BS in Environmental Science from Penn State and a dual master’s degree in International Affairs and Natural Resource Management from American University and the UN’s Univer­sity for Peace in Costa Rica.

Murat Armbruster
Senior Advisor

Murat is a founding partner of the clean technology hedge fund, Atlas Capital Investments, LP. After graduating from the University of Michigan with high honors, Murat launched GlobaLearn in 1993, the first K-12 eLearning website to help prepare our nation's children for global citizenship. GlobaLearn was acquired by Houghton Mifflin in 2001 and featured in Don Tapscott's bestselling Growing Up Digital. Murat represented the education sector as a member of the U.S. delegation led by Vice President Gore to the G-7 Information Society Summit. During the 2004 presidential campaign, he served as Deputy Executive Officer to General Wesley K. Clark during his bid to become the Democratic Party's nominee. In 2005, he was a founding partner and Chief Operating Officer of Adina for Life, a San Francisco-based beverage company focused on fair trade and sustainable business practices. Murat is a member of the Social Venture Network, has a black belt in karate, and speaks French and Mandarin.