Climate Week at Columbia Business School

Alexander Sarrigeorgiou '79SEAS, '80SEAS is Chairman & CEO of Eurolife FFH Insurance Group and Chairman of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies. He is Vice President of Insurance Europe and serves on the boards of A.M. Nomikos Shipping, Grivalia Hospitality, and the Wharton Club of Greece. He is also involved with the Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE), the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), and chairs the Hellenic Advisory Board for South East European Studies at the University of Oxford. He previously served on the Board of S&B Industrial Minerals, the Greek Capital Commission, and the Wharton EMEA Executive Board. Mr. Sarrigeorgiou holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MSc and BSc in Civil Engineering from Columbia University, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Piraeus. He has held leadership roles in multinational corporations in both Greece and the United States.

Alexis Abramson is the dean of the Columbia Climate School and a Professor of Climate. She is a climate thought leader and an expert in sustainable energy technology, with extensive experience in academic administration. Professor Abramson’s research has focused broadly on thermal transport, from designing nanostructured materials to addressing building energy efficiency. Before coming to her role at Columbia in January 2025, Professor Abramson served as the dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Prior to her tenure at Dartmouth, she was the Milton and Tamar Maltz Professor of Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University and served as a director of that university’s Great Lakes Energy Institute where she focused on creating sustainable energy technology solutions. Abramson also co-founded Edifice Analytics, a start-up that conducts virtual energy audits and manages building efficiency optimization.During the Obama administration, Abramson held the role of chief scientist and manager of the Emerging Technologies Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office. She has previously served as a technical advisor to Breakthrough Energy Ventures, established by Bill Gates to invest in startup companies with significant potential to mitigate climate change. Professor Abramson’s research has included novel techniques for thermal characterization of nanostructures, the design and synthesis of unique nanomaterials for use in alternative energy applications, and strategies to accelerate technology commercialization at universities and research institutions. She has also written about gender imbalances in academic settings and the importance of taking a human-centered and multidisciplinary approach to education and research, particularly in STEM and related fields. Professor Abramson earned her BS and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Amanda Rohrer is a Principal at Blackhorn Ventures. In her role, she is responsible for sourcing and diligence of new investments, providing advisory support to portfolio companies, and leading the firm's investment strategy and market insights research. Amanda has over a decade of investing experience at firms such as Spring Lane Capital, Social Finance, and Cambridge Associates. Previously, Amanda led investment due diligence at Cambridge Associates that guided over $2 billion of capital commitments across the energy, real estate and infrastructure sectors. Amanda received her BA from the University of Virginia, and her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

Bruce Usher is a Professor of Practice at Columbia Business School, where he lectures on climate change, business, and finance, and is the recipient of multiple teaching awards. Professor Usher is also on the faculty of the Columbia Climate School and previously chaired Columbia University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. 

Professor Usher’s latest book, Investing in the Era of Climate Change (Columbia University Press), was published fall 2022 and selected as a top-10 business book by Publishers Weekly. 

Professor Usher is an active investor and advisor to entrepreneurial ventures focused on climate change, and chairs the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. 

Cornelius Pieper is the global topic leader for Climate & Sustainability in BCG's Industrial Goods practice and part of the practice's global leadership team. In his work with corporate clients, he works with clients from many industrial sectors on a value-creation oriented transition to a low-carbon economy. 

Focus topics of his work include the role of clean tech as source of competitive differentiation and chain of custody solutions for high-emission industries as enabler for low-carbon value creation. As in past years, he is part of the BCG delegation to COP30 and is leading BCG's support for the First Movers Coalition. He joined BCG in 2004 in Germany and is now based in Boston, USA.

Costis Maglaras is the 16th Dean of Columbia Business School and the David and Lyn Silfen Professor of Business. He is an electrical engineer that got his degrees at Imperial College and Stanford University. He joined Columbia Business School in 1998.

His research lies at the nexus of applied mathematics, economics, and engineering, with recent focus on quantitative finance, information networks, and urban mobility systems.

As Dean, he has led the School through a major transformation, including its move to the Manhattanville campus and investments in areas like AI, entrepreneurship, climate change, and the growing intersection of business and society.

Daniel Weiss is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Angeleno Group LLC (“AG”), a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm with a global platform focused on high growth investments in next-generation clean energy and climate solutions companies. In addition to his firm management responsibilities, Mr. Weiss leads investments and serves on boards of multiple AG portfolio companies. Before the formation of AG in 2001, Mr. Weiss was an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, working in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions and international and high technology practice groups. He represented multiple Global 1000 clients, including utilities and energy-related companies, in a wide array of private equity and corporate finance transactions. Currently, Mr. Weiss serves on boards for several non-profit and educational institutions, including the California Community Foundation, World Resources Institute, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability Advisory Board (where he serves as co-Chair). Previously, Mr. Weiss served on the Federal Reserve Bank’s 12th District Economic Advisory Council, Stanford Law School Board of Visitors, and City of Los Angeles Redistricting Commission (appointed by the Honorable Eric Garcetti). Mr. Weiss was appointed by President Obama in 2015 to serve as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington, DC. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, Mr. Weiss has taught, lectured, and published articles on topics of climate finance, sustainability and the low carbon economy.  Mr. Weiss holds a JD from Stanford Law School, an MA from Stanford University, and a BA with High Honors from UC Berkeley.

Eliza Cushman is a Partner at Congruent Ventures, where she supports all aspects of new deals, including investment sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management. She also works closely with Congruent’s later-stage portfolio companies as they reach a growth inflection point. Previously, Eliza was an Associate at KKR, where she originated and executed private debt and capital markets solutions for corporate and private equity clients. She has also worked with multiple early-stage venture capital funds and startups. She began her career in investment banking in the Leveraged Finance Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Finance from Wake Forest University.

Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at Columbia Business School and faculty director of its Climate Knowledge Initiative. He has written six books, including Climate Shock and, most recently, Geoengineering: the Gamble. His teaching, research, and writing focus on climate risks and climate policies. Gernot writes a monthly, globally syndicated column and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere.

Maria Persson Gulda is Co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer at Stegra and holds several board positions in the green transition. Maria led the Stegra project from the start, from the idea of making green steel on a large scale, to full pace construction phase. In her role as CTO, she was responsible for the plant design, including the production of green hydrogen and selection of the associated equipment and technology. Before joining Stegra, Maria was a partner at McKinsey and led digital transformations for the steel and paper industry. Maria is Doctor in Applied Physics from Harvard University. She wrote her dissertation on the topic of metallic structures and defects.

Michael Intrator is Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CoreWeave, the AI Hyperscaler. Mike co-founded CoreWeave in 2017 and has since led the company to become one of the leading cloud platforms today -- delivering cutting-edge hardware and proprietary software to world-changing AI labs and enterprises, accelerating the next era of computing.

At CoreWeave, Mike has driven exponential revenue growth and led major expansion efforts that has more than quadrupled the company’s data centers globally in the last year alone. Mike has been recognized as a tech leader on Business Insider’s Top 10 People in Artificial Intelligence Hardware list, EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the NJ region, and The Information’s Enterprise Tech Power List. CoreWeave has achieved recognition on the Forbes Cloud 100 2024 list, as well as TIME100’s Most Influential Companies in 2024.

Prior to CoreWeave, Mike was a co-founder and CEO of Hudson Ridge Asset Management and the Principal Portfolio manager at Natsource Asset Management.

Mike holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs, where he focused on environmental policy, and a Bachelor of Arts from Binghamton University.

Nick Ellis works at Amazon’s $2Bn Climate Pledge Fund managing the investment portfolio and strategic relationships. He previously managed Amazon’s $1Bn Industrial Innovation Fund portfolio and advised Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) most valued startup customers and CEO’s at Y Combinator, Stanford StartX, and Alchemist Accelerator. 

Prior to Amazon, Nick advised CEOs on corporate development matters at global staffing agencies such as TrueBlue (NYSE:TBI), startups like Checkr.com and Wonolo.com, and maritime shipyards nationwide. Early in his career, Nick served as VP of Innovation at TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) reporting to the CEO and Board of Directors. TrueBlue acquired Nick’s software startup Job Rooster in 2011. Nick started his career as an investment banker advising California government agencies on the issuance of over $400 million in municipal bonds. 

He is a life Fellow at the Aspen Institute and has been recognized for his work as a White House Fellow finalist, a New Leaders Council Fellow, and a West Coast Venture Capital Fellow. Nick is a graduate of the London School of Economics (MSc) and Stanford University (BA), where he captained the men's Division I water polo team to consecutive NCAA championships. When he’s not plugged into his devices, Nick enjoys cocktails with his wife, roughhousing with his identical twins, swimming, and sunset bicycle cruises around his home island of Alameda, CA.

Shih-Fu Chang is Dean of Columbia Engineering and Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor. He leads the education, research, and innovation mission of the School and has greatly contributed to its growth and advancement, propelling it to be one of the top engineering programs in the nation.

As one of the most influential experts in multimedia, computer vision and artificial intelligence, his research has led to development of innovative image search tools, which have been used by major media companies and law enforcement agencies in fighting online human trafficking crimes. He has also launched AI tools for online disinformation detection and attribution.

Dean Chang is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery, and IEEE, and an elected member of Academia Sinica. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Amsterdam and the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates. He is the inaugural director for Columbia Center of AI Technology in collaboration with Amazon. He received his BS from National Taiwan University in 1985 and his PhD from the University of California-Berkeley in 1993.

Simon Brandler serves as Acting General Counsel and Vice President of Policy & Public Affairs for Brimstone, an industrial startup with an efficient, economical, and sustainable process for co-producing the cement used in virtually all concrete construction today (portland cement), a second concrete ingredient (SCM), and smelter grade alumina, a critical mineral.

Simon’s career has spanned government, politics, law, and communications, with experience in the public and private sectors as an attorney and policy strategist, as a US Senate aide, and as a speechwriter and media spokesperson. Simon previously served as Director of Policy at Alphabet/Google’s Sidewalk Labs and in New York State Government, on the executive staff of two successive attorneys general. Simon is a graduate of Yale College (BA) and Columbia Law School (JD).