<>OVERVIEW TALKS
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<>Please click on the titles below for each speaker's presentation.
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<>“Cellulosic Ethanol: Fuel of the Future?”
<>        Chris Somerville, Energy Biosciences Institute – UC Berkeley
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<>Chris Somerville is the Director of the Carnegie Institution Department of Plant Biology and a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University.   He has published more than 200 scientific papers and patents in plant and microbial genetics, genomics, biochemistry, and biotechnology.  His current research is focused on the characterization of proteins, such as cellulose synthase, implicated in plant cell wall synthesis and modification. He has been a member of the scientific advisory boards of numerous academic institutions and private foundations in Europe and North America.  He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, The Royal Society of London, and the Royal Society of Canada.  He has received numerous scientific awards.
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<>“Geopolitical Implications of Biofuel:  Mapping the Future”
<>Gerald Harris, Global Business Network
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<>When we think of the Geopolitics of Biofuels, I am immediately hit with several key questions I don’t know the answer to: What are the key forces shaping the evolution of biofuel markets? Where are the key forces now and in what different directions might they go?  Depending on the answers to those questions, I can then think geopolitically, but it leads me to different scenarios that in some cases favor the interest of the U.S., but in others portend some real challenges. Should the geopolitical interest of the United States be the primary lens from which we view the geopolitical concerns?
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<> Gerald Harris is a senior consultant with Global Business Network. Since joining GBN in April 1993, Gerald has worked with a wide range of organizations in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. He has been the lead consultant for most of GBN's electric utility industry scenario projects and is a recognized and published expert in the field. His project work in this area has included leading four international multi-client studies that produced global scenarios on the long-term development of the electric utility industry. He has worked with individual electric utilities to create focused scenarios for corporate plans and to support potential investment strategies. Gerald has led scenario projects for companies in the heavy equipment industry, oil and natural gas industry, engineering and construction industry, and information technology industry.  Gerald’s work outside the corporate sector has included working with non-governmental organizations in community development, regionalism, environmental policy, and education.

Prior to joining GBN, Gerald spent 13 years at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, northern California’s largest utility. As director of business planning for the engineering and construction division, he led a multi-disciplinary management team that produced PG&E’s first long-term scenarios, and a cross-company team charged with linking business planning goals to R&D objectives. Gerald received his B.A. in economics from Morehouse College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA in finance and business economics from the University of Chicago.