Carbon Program

Dr. Julio Friedmann is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Global Clean Energy Policy at Columbia University, where he leads a new initiative in carbon management. He is also CEO of Carbon Wrangler, LLC. Recently, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy, where he held responsibility for DOE’s R&D program in advanced fossil energy systems, carbon capture, and storage (CCS), CO2 utilization, and clean coal deployment. Dr. Friedmann is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts in the U.S. on carbon removal (CO2 drawdown from the air and oceans), CO2 conversion and use (carbon-to-value), and carbon capture and sequestration. Dr. Friedmann received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Southern California.

Marcius Extavour comes to the XPRIZE with more than 6 years experience working at the intersection of science, energy policy, education, and technology development. As the Director of Technical Operations for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, Dr. Extavour combines his experience in partnership building and strategy with his training in physics and engineering to help lead the transition to a clean energy future.

Before joining XPRIZE Dr. Extavour served as Director of Government and Corporate Partnerships in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. In this role he brought together academic researchers, industry labs, and public sector leaders to build research and educational partnerships.

Dr. Extavour is active in science and energy policy more broadly, having held positions at the

U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resource as the OSA/SPIE/AAAS Congressional Science & Technology Policy Fellow, and at the Council of Canadian Academies, a science policy consultant to the Government of Canada. In the private sector, Dr. Extavour has developed risk management software for North American electric power markets at Ontario Power Generation, and designed and fabricated optoelectronic devices at Nortel Networks Research Labs.

Dr. Extavour received a PhD and MSc in physics from the University of Toronto, where he explored the quantum mechanics of light and matter near absolute zero. He also holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto, where he built a pancake-making robot and combined nanomaterials with solar cells. Outside of the office and the lab, Dr. Extavour loves teaching, and is active in engaging youth and young scientists interested in careers inside and outside of academia.

Hana Kajimura leads sustainability at Allbirds, pushing the brand to integrate environmental and social sustainability into all aspects of the business including product, supply chain, and operations. She also shapes Allbirds’s innovation narrative and storytelling, translating sustainability initiatives into engaging consumer-facing stories. 

Prior to joining Allbirds, Hana worked in management consulting at Bain & Company, advising Fortune 500 clients across industries including technology, healthcare, private equity, and energy. Hana has also worked with Google X and Environmental Defense Fund on clean energy projects. 

Hana holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University.

Adam serves as the Global Lead for Sustainable Shopping at Amazon. Adam began his sustainability career as a student activist working to pass the California Desert Protection Act, which created Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks. At age 23 he became the national president of the Sierra Club, and later served on the board of Greenpeace International. He went on to help companies launch sustainable products as the Chief Sustainability Officer for Saatchi & Saatchi. He co-founded the technology company Trove, which today manages the recommerce programs for Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, Lululemon and Levi’s. He’s the author of three books, most recently, Strategy for Sustainability, published by Harvard Business Press. He lives with his wife Lyn and three kids between San Francisco and Bolinas, CA.  

Catherine leads climate market strategy at X (formerly Google X), the innovation lab at Alphabet Inc. Her work spurs the company to think strategically toward unlocking the full potential of early pipeline technologies such as machine learning, geospatial engineering, and advanced materials science for greater environmental benefit and commercial success. She began her career at Bain & Company developing business strategy for top CEOs across several industries and countries to outperform the market. As an accomplished financier and investor, Catherine advised on over $4.5 billion of capital market transactions and invested in listed equities worldwide. In 2015, she pivoted her career to address the climate crisis. At Emerson Collective, an investment platform founded and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, she helped to build and lead the environmental venture investing practice, where she also formed unique partnerships with major corporations and conservation nonprofits to collaborate on differentiated market-based solutions addressing conservation and climate change. Catherine holds a BS and BA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and graduate degrees from Harvard University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a Sloan Fellow and a recipient of the Miller Social Change Leadership Award for co-founding the GSB Impact Fund.  

Sophie Purdom invests with conviction in early-stage climate technology founders and their companies via her $75M venture capital fund, Planeteer Capital. She writes Climate Tech VC to bring perspective and data to 50,000+ subscribers, and helps steer CTVC’s climate market intelligence platform. Prior, Sophie started a carbon-negative fertilizer company, launched an early institutional ESG fund, and learned to make pretty decks at Bain & Co. She was born in a British village, but feels most at home playing handball on the streets of New York.

As Chief Innovation Officer, Toby leads a team that identifies and develops new standards frameworks and related partnerships for Verra and has been responsible for establishing a number of ground-breaking standards initiatives. Toby led the creation of the original VCS framework covering Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), which has become the foremost global carbon accounting standard for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), being used by hundreds of projects worldwide.

Previously, Toby ran Conservation International’s (CI) Climate and Land Use, Markets and Policy program, after directing the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), a partnership comprising The Nature Conservancy, CI, Rainforest Alliance, Wildlife Conservation Society and CARE International. CCBA created the leading social and environmental standards for forest carbon projects and government programs.

On the forest carbon policy front, Toby has developed legislative proposals adopted within various U.S. climate bills and has helped establish bilateral agreements between leading U.S., Brazilian, Indonesian and Mexican states.  He also served on the REDD Offsets Working Group, providing recommendations to the California Air Resources Board on how tropical forests could be brought into the state’s cap-and-trade scheme, and has been an adviser to the Carbon Fund of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

Mia Diawara is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, where she invests in unreasonably ambitious teams building climate tech that will move the needle for the planet and its people. She also focuses on making sure this work is carried out inclusively and equitably. Prior to joining Lowercarbon, Mia spearheaded decarbonization strategy across a portfolio of over $90B in assets under management at TPG, where she developed and kicked off the execution of the firm’s first comprehensive climate roadmap and advised portfolio companies on climate risk, emissions reduction, and ESG strategy. At TPG, she was instrumental to the development of the fund’s climate impact assessment methodology for TPG Rise Climate - their climate focused impact fund. Mia holds a B.S. in Science, Technology, and Society, with a focus on Environment & Sustainability, and an M.S. in Civil Environmental Engineering with a concentration in Atmosphere and Energy—both from Stanford University.

Richard Jackson is Senior Vice President, Operations Support, at Occidental Petroleum, where he leads the Regulatory, Land and Competitor Intelligence functions. He oversees Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary focused on low-carbon technology and business opportunities with an emphasis on developing carbon capture, utilization and storage projects that capitalize on Occidental’s enhanced oil recovery leadership.

With more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, Richard has significant expertise in worldwide oil and gas project development, technology and business management. His previous roles include Vice President, Investor Relations, President and General Manager for Permian Resources – Delaware Basin, and Vice President of Drilling Americas.

Richard serves on the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s Climate Investment Board and Executive Committee and on the American Petroleum’s Institute’s Upstream Committee. A graduate of Texas A&M University, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in PetroleumEngineering.

Diego Saez-Gil is an ecopreneur originally from Argentina. He’s the co-founder of Pachama, a leading technology startup with the mission of restoring nature to solve climate change, by harnessing satellite data, AI and the internet to help drive funding to effective reforestation and nature conservation. Diego has been selected as Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum and has been awarded as Innovators 35 Under 35 by the MIT Technology Review. His company Pachama has been awarded as the Most Innovative AI Company of 2021 by FastCompany as well as 20 Most Impactful Startups by Fortune Magazine. Diego is a serial technology entrepreneur having co-founded Bluesmart and WeHostels, two travel tech companies acquired by major industry leaders. Diego studied entrepreneurship at Stanford Graduate School of Business and completed a Masters in Project Management at LaSalle University in Barcelona. Diego is a descendant of indigenous people of South America and currently resides in the forest mountains of California.

Architect and urban planner with expertise in sustainable certifications; Technical Coordinator of the Green Building Council Brasil for 7 years; member of the LEED International Roundtable; co-creator of Women in Green Power Breakfast in Brazil; Advisor to Project Drawdown; graduate of Singularity University at NASA Research Park in Mountain View, CA. www.mariafujihara.com