Board of Directors

Julia Bovey has worked to expand renewable energy policy and projects from four perspectives: advocacy, federal and state regulatory, and project development. She currently directs external affairs for the Equinor Wind US portfolio, including the development of Empire Wind for New York, Boardwalk Wind for New Jersey, and Equinor’s Massachusetts offshore wind energy lease off Massachusetts.

Julia first worked on offshore wind in 2004, when she left a 15-year career in journalism to join the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. At CLF, she helped advance public support and regulatory policy for New England’s first proposed wind projects, as well as utility reform, cleaner transportation, and energy efficiency.

These efforts lead to her appointment by President Obama to serve at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as Director of the Office of External Affairs, where she worked to a gain the political and public support necessary to break down the regulatory barriers preventing renewables, energy efficiency, and demand response from fair access to electric markets.

After Superstorm Sandy exposed the need to reform the electric grid on Long Island, Julia was appointed the first-ever Long Island Director of the New York State Department of Public Service, where she also worked on New York’s nation-leading clean energy policy “Reforming the Energy Vision.”

Julia worked as an independent renewable energy consultant for one year before joining Equinor’s Empire Wind project team. She holds a BA and an MS from Columbia University. She, her husband, and their sons live in New York City, and enjoy swimming and fishing off Long Island’s unspoiled ocean beaches.

Katy Briggs is the Global Service Area Leader of DNV GL’s Renewables Advisory services. In this role, she focuses on strategy, innovation, and the digitalization of DNV GL’s renewables services, which help companies deploy, optimize and invest in renewable energy. Previously, Ms. Briggs led DNV GL’s wind energy Asset Optimization group in North America, focusing on wind energy performance, turbine availability, reliability, cost modeling, benchmarking, and operations strategy assessment. Ms. Briggs has 15 years of technical experience, including 12 years in the renewable energy industry. She has a B.S. and Master’s degree in Physics.

Becky Diffen is a partner based in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Austin office. She focuses her practice on mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, project development, and tax equity financings in the renewable energy industry. Becky has over 18 years of experience in the renewable energy industry and previously worked as a utility-scale wind power developer.

Becky is a co-author of Wind Law, the first and only legal treatise focused on the wind industry. She has been recognized in Chambers USA, Law360 Rising Stars, and A Word About Wind’s “Top 100 Legal Power List,” among honors. In 2019 she received the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Initiative Law & Finance Award from the Department of Energy recognizing her nationally as a top lawyer advancing innovative clean energy financing solutions.

Becky is a member of the board of directors of Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE), as well as serving as chair of WRISE’s national webinar committee, co-chair of the 2020 and 2021 WRISE Leadership Forums, and a member of the Advisory Board of the WRISE Austin Chapter. Becky is a magna cum laude graduate of Carleton College and earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, & Energy Law and now teaches a class on renewable energy law as an adjunct professor.

Raheleh Folkerts is the Head of Global Marketing Projects for Lightsource bp where she brings more than 15 years of experience in marketing, communications, and public relations. In her role, she drives best-in-class global marketing and communications strategic planning including community engagement, greenfield marketing, and crisis communication.

Prior to joining Lightsource bp, Raheleh was the Senior Director of Marketing at 7X Energy, Inc where she increased brand awareness of the company which helped lead to the sale of the company’s 9GW solar portfolio. Previously, Raheleh led the  marketing and communications team for Renewable Energy Systems (RES) in the Americas where she drove the strategy, development, and execution of the marketing and communications plans to help increase growth from 592 MW to over 10 GW and expand the company’s solution offerings from wind to four more technologies. She has a BA in English from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Kaiga is a transformational leader in the energy industry who has, for over two decades, developed and implemented innovative growth and client development strategies for national and global professional service firms.

Elizabeth is currently Chief Commercial Officer at DNV, North America. In this role she leads commercial activities and manages customer relationships & quality assurance. Her work focuses on providing strategies and solutions to support an equitable global transition to safer, reliable, and sustainable energy. She also chairs DNV’s Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Board.
Prior to joining DNV, Elizabeth led business development efforts for the Renewable Energy Practice at CohnReznick LLP. Elizabeth held similar positions within the Energy & Utilities Practice at Marsh & McLennan, Arthur Andersen LLP, and ICF Consulting.

Elizabeth serves on the Board of Directors for Women of Renewable Industries & Sustainable Energy (WRISE). She also serves on the Board of Directors for Solar Sister, an organization that delivers clean energy solutions to off-grid rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, by leveraging a network of women entrepreneurs. Elizabeth is a strong supporter of diversity, equity & inclusion, and has received recognition in that capacity from the YMCA of Greater New York, the Houston Business Journal, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Elizabeth holds a Master of Arts Degree in Global Marketing from Emerson College.

Lan Adair Sasa is a Director at Enhanced Capital, the impact investing platform of P10 Holdings (NYSE: PX). She focuses on climate finance investments in carbon reduction technologies that support the transition to a clean energy future. Enhanced Capital is committed to socially responsible investment initiatives that benefit underserved communities, promote economic growth & job creation and advance environmental sustainability.

Lan established her career at US Bank, as a leader in its Environmental Finance group.

During her 11 years at US Bank, Lan served a multitude of roles, eventually becoming Vice President where she managed a tax equity underwriting and closing team and oversaw the deployment of over $5.6B of tax equity for 7.6GW of solar, wind and storage assets. With this background, Lan provides strategic perspective to deploy capital and best position investors for reliable and strong returns.

Lan serves on the on the Advisory Board for North Sky Capital National Impact Fund which provides low-income communities capital for operating businesses that create positive social and environmental impacts.

Thompson serves as Senior Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice at the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). As a member of ACORE’s leadership team, Thompson is responsible for collaboratively driving and implementing ACORE’s DEIJ strategy focused on leveraging ACORE’s public and private networks to build opportunities for smaller renewable energy companies owned and operated by women, Black, Indigenous, and people of color leaders while advocating for national policies and industry best practices that accelerate social and economic justice as a part of our nation’s transition to a renewable energy economy.

Thompson brings to the WRISE Board of Directors over 15 years of experience leading, designing, sustaining, and measuring the impact of transformational DEI-focused initiatives on behalf of leading Fortune 500, Ivy League, and trade associations and serves on the Renewables Forward Board of Direction.

As Senior Vice President of Finance & Capital Markets for energyRe, Gandhi is an accomplished leader in the renewable energy industry. Asha Gandhi currently leads energyRe’s activities across finance, capital markets,  investor relations, and financial strategy.

Prior to joining energyRe, Gandhi was the Senior Managing Director of Finance at EDP Renewables North America where she oversaw the creation of financing solutions to fund EDPR NA’s growing business in excess of $7 billion through tax equity investments, cash equity divestments, and project Finance for projects in Canada and Mexico, and managed over $10 billion of operating portfolios of renewable assets, capital markets, treasury and portfolio management for EDPR NA.

Prior to EDPR NA, Gandhi actively led development projects in women’s empowerment, solid waste management and rural renewable energy projects through Indicorps and before that analyzed risk for Morgan Stanley’s Multi Asset Class.

Gandhi brings to the WRISE Board of Directors over a decade of experience in managing multi-billion-dollar portfolios and developing innovative financial strategies to support growth in the sector.

She holds a B.A. in Economics & Productions Operations Management from Drexel University and has furthered her education with executive courses at Harvard and Rice Universities.

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