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11:30 - 12:00 PM: Opening Remarks
WELCOME: Rita Beale - President, NCAC-USAEE, and CEO, Energy Unlimited LLC
HOST: Bret Strogen - Vice President, NCAC-USAEE
Ms. Rita Beale is an energy economist with a background in wholesale markets and supply/trading. As CEO & President of Energy Unlimited, Ms. Beale performs strategic business advisory and acts as an independent expert witness. Her career was launched in New York City as a Wall Street oil and natural gas commodity research analyst advising institutional clients and investors on derivatives hedging and trading strategy, also publishing market price opinions based on global supply & demand trends. She served as Goldman Sach’s representative at OPEC meetings.
In business advisory, Ms. Beale led Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables Americas at IHS-Markit (CERA), co-led Crude Oil, Natural Gas and LNG at Energy Ventures Analysis Inc, and was an integral part of Andersen’s energy risk management practice. She has acted as strategic advisor for more than $5 billion of M&A investment by private equity and infrastructure funds, participated in bankruptcy restructurings, and utility rate case proceedings.
Ms. Beale’s physical industry experience includes P&L responsibility for electric power supply in ERCOT and WECC and natural gas storage trading throughout the United States.
Ms. Beale holds a Master of Science from Colorado School of Mines and Bachelor of Science from Rider University and is an alumnus of the East-West Center in Hawaii.
Bret Strogen has been the Vice President of the National Capital Area Chapter of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics (NCAC-USAEE) since 2020. In early 2021, Bret started his own company, Strogen Strategic Sustainability, through which he supports innovative energy-related start-up companies with guidance and support in the areas of business development, partnership facilitation, policy analysis, sustainability assessment, and grant applications.
From 2013 until 2021, Bret served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, on-site consultant, and political appointee in the Department of Defense. At the Pentagon, Bret provided technical guidance and management support for the DoD's energy technology R&D and demonstration investments (including interagency alternative fuels and micro-nuclear reactor efforts); facilitated development of DoD and Army-specific energy policies, strategies, external partnerships, and congressional engagements; and oversaw the Army’s energy performance contracting and utilities privatization programs.
Bret completed his BS at the University of Delaware, and his MS and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley—all in environmental engineering. His doctoral and postdoctoral research entailed modeling the life-cycle environmental and economic impacts of scaling up alternative fuel production, storage, distribution, and vehicle infrastructure systems. Bret is a licensed Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania and resides in Washington, DC.