Clean Energy Leader
Energy Access Innovator
Inspired by my personal experiences with lack of energy access and security in India, I have made it my life mission to make clean, reliable energy accessible for everyone.
The four years I spent pursuing an engineering degree in India taught me what a lack of access to energy can do to socio-economic productivity.
My university was located in a region that experienced significant power issues. Each summer, for approximately three months, our access to power and water was limited to just 3-4 hours per day.
While we were not living in poverty, the lack of energy access in those months significantly impacted our way of life and our productivity.
I vividly remember how we would huddle in our computer lab to finish homework as it was the only building on campus that had a diesel backup generator. Traveling around India during my time there further exposed me to other regions where the lack of energy access was even worse.
What baffled me the most was that something invented over 100 years ago – electricity – still wasn’t available in a reliable and consistent manner to almost a quarter of the world’s population.
I saw this as a major problem that was continuing to get worse as population growth, increasing digitization, and automation started putting huge demands on energy.
I fundamentally believe that everyone must have universal access to energy – it’s a basic human right! I came to the realization that in order to achieve universal access to reliable and consistent energy, the entire energy landscape needed to be “democratized”.
It needed to shift from being centralized to a more distributed system. We have seen this before – computer and telephone access skyrocketed when those industries went from centralized to distributed – mainframes to laptops, and landlines to cellphones.
It is for this reason that I have made it my lifelong mission to solve this challenge and do it in a way that doesnt harm the environment. To enhance my skillset, I pursued a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of California - Berkeley, a premier institution and thought leader in energy. I then joined Bloom Energy in 2010 because I am convinced that the company's unique platform and ambitious mission can make a significant impact on this issue I care about in my lifetime.
As Managing Director of Corporate Development at Bloom Energy, I have been focused on expanding Bloom’s mission and addressable markets through partnerships, innovative deal structures and easily accessible financing solutions.
In January 2022, I joined the Board of the American Biogas Council as I am convinced that converting waste into energy is going to one of the key ways we are going to solve universal energy access.