Emerging Venture Analysts (from 2006 to 2008)

Students are at the heart of the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center's mission. These graduate and advanced undergraduate students assist in core research, design and development of energy-efficient technologies, and completion of comprehensive business models, market analysis, dissemination and distribution strategies. These students come from a wide range of disciplines and colleges throughout the UC Davis campus, obtaining degress in business, economics, sustainability and engineering.

While working with the EEC, they are involved in a variety of U.S.-based as well as international projects assessing and implementing energy efficiency opportunities in agriculture, cooling, lighting, and transportation. We are particularly proud of our alumni who have all gone on to find interesting positions within the public or private sector. Each is making their own unique contribution to the energy/efficiency field.

To see who are current Emerging Venture Analysts are, please click here.

Julian Cardona was a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis (2008-2009) and a Business Development Fellow for the Graduate School of Management, Center for Entrepreneurship (2008-2009).  He holds a B.A. in Finance and International Relations and an M.S. in Public Administration and Public Policy. For the last two years, he has worked on conservation finance, designing and implementing long-term financial vehicles to support protected areas in Colombia.  His main academic interest focuses on economic valuation of ecosystems; he is particularly keen on learning new methodologies to estimate financial feasibility of ecosystem services.  Similarly, he is also interested in green business ventures development in areas such as renewable energy, integrated water management, recycling and bio-business.  Upon completing his Humphrey Program, he plans to set up his own financial consultancy firm that will serve as a "matching point" between international investors and green entrepreneurs in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.  While at UC Davis, Julian shared his professional expertise and learning new methods of environmental finance.  He will worked as an Emerging Venture Analyst with the Energy Efficiency Center analyzing various projects for the Program for International Energy Technologies (PIET).  For more information about Julian and his work, please click here.

Mananya Chansanchai was a PG&E Energy Efficiency Fellow for 2008-09.  She is a graduate of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. In her first year of business school, she held Co-Director board positions on three student-led Clubs: Events for Challenge for Charity and Women in Leadership and Career Development for Net Impact.  In her second year of business school, she joined the Energy Efficiency Center as an Emerging Venture Analyst.  Mananya's work has included developing a business plan for a UV wastewater disinfection technology, which won first-place in the Clean Energy/Environmental Sciences category at the Little Bang Poster Competition, market sizing of lighting technologies for K-12 schools in conjunction with the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) and completion of an E3 calculator for Bi-Level Smart Lighting for PG&E’s Emerging Technologies Team.  Mananya graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Business Management Economics and has a diverse background in the banking and hospitality industries.  During her Summer MBA Internship, Mananya worked at McKesson Corporation in its Business Technology Solutions group developing a business case management model for IT investments.  For more information about Mananya and her work, please click here.

Jeff Gleeson is a graduate of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.  He was a PG&E Energy Efficiency Fellow for 2008-09.  While at UC Davis he was the Director of Marketing for the Associated Students of Management and the President/Director of Communications for the Davis Marketing Association.  During his first year of business school, Jeff led a team of scientists and engineers to second-place in the biotechnology category of the Little Bang Poster Competition – an achievement that took them to the semifinal round of the Big Bang! Business Plan Competition.  Jeff graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2006 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering with a dual emphasis in Water Resources and Transportation.  After graduating from Cal Poly, he worked in the private sector as a civil engineering analyst.   His work ranged from hands-on storm water treatment design to the procurement of federal funding for local transportation and "Safe Routes to School" projects.  In the summer of 2008, Jeff worked as a marketing consultant for a clean-tech lighting startup in the Bay Area. Jeff's research at the EEC focused on thermal storage refrigeration and a product called the Energy Vault.  The Energy Vault will shift peak refrigeration loads to off-peak hours by storing thermal energy in the middle of the night.  Jeff and the Energy Vault team targeted open-air grocery store refrigerators and residential units. The Energy Vault project was named the winner of the energy efficiency sector of the Little Bang Poster Competition in 2009.  Also while at the EEC, Jeff worked to construct a life cycle cost calculator that considers ancillary costs and benefits, beyond simple payback, for energy efficiency measures like bi-level induction lighting.  This work tied into the use of California's E3 calculator. Jeff is now working full-time with the Mass Market team of PG&E’s Customer Energy Efficiency division.   He joined PG&E summer of 2009. For more information about Jeff and his work, please click here.

Evan Johnson is a student at California Polytechnic State University where he is working on a B.S. in mechanical engineering.  For the fall 2009 quarter he served as an EVA and intern for the EEC, working on the Program for International Energy Technologies on a project that aims to develop an innovative energy storage method for the Galapagos Islands.  He also worked on the ‘Lighting the Way’ project to bring small-scale solar lighting to Zambia.  For more information about Evan and his work, please click here.

Amy Barr is currently a Project Manager with the Heschong Mahone Group, Inc, focusing on implementing utility-sponsored energy efficiency incentive programs, process evaluation studies, and coordinating the State's benchmarking efforts.  Amy was a 2006-07 and 2007-08 PG&E Energy Efficiency Fellow.  While at the EEC, she researched and developed a detailed report on opportunities for incorporating energy efficiency, while maintaining affordability, for the UC Davis West Village Project.  She also provided the California Lighting Technology Center with market research for its Lighting California's Future projects, led the weekly EVA meetings, and provided research assistance for the UC Davis 'Smart Energy' Garage Lighting Initiatives.  Additionally, Amy was the team lead for the successful UC Davis team that won the 2008 Bank of America Low-Income Housing Challenge, a competition for undergraduate and graduate students requiring concept development of site location, design, financing, community support, and energy efficiency.  Amy received her MBA from UC Davis in 2008 with a concentration in Strategic Development. She has a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.  For more information about Amy and her work, please click here.

Daniel MacDonald graduated with an MBA in 2008 and is an alumni of the Energy Efficiency Center’s (EEC) Emerging Venture Analyst program.  In 2007, he served as Director of Academic Affairs for the Associated Students of Management and was Co-President of Davis Net Impact, a chapter which received the 2007 “Trailblazer Chapter of the Year” award.  From July ‘07 - June ‘08, as an Edison International Energy Efficiency Fellow, he created and led two energy efficiency-based business plan teams in numerous classes and competitions.  He also helped spearhead and structure EEC partnerships with Davis Net Impact for "Focus the Nation - UC Davis" and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) for the "Summer 2008 Bridge Program in Energy Efficiency".  During the summer itself, Dan served as an MBA Climate Corps Intern at EDF where he helped a corporate partner build multiple business cases related to empowering and capitalizing upon energy efficiency.  Daniel received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English from Georgetown University and currently serves in Sector San Francisco’s Incident Management Division for the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.For more information about Dan and his work, please click here.

Diana Mejia was a 2007-08 PG&E Energy Efficiency Fellow.  She received her MS in Biological Systems Engineering, specializing in food engineering. She was a 2007-08 UC Davis Graduate School of Management Business Development Fellow.  Diana has a BS in Industrial Engineering from California State University, East Bay and worked as an intern at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. After recieving her undergraduate degree, she worked at Anheuser-Busch as a group manager in operations and as a process engineer at Barry Callebaut.  Her experience in the food industry motivated her to expand her knowledge in the biological sciences at UC Davis.  While at the EEC, Diana's research emphasis was on food engineering and analysis of the energy used by California’s commercial cooling facilities for fruits and vegetables, a California Energy Commission-funded project that explored industrial practices that potentially could increase overall energy efficiency in food warehouses.  Diana also worked on developing a more efficient biogas digester for rural communities in Guatemala.  Her team, Advanced Enological Closures (AEC), won the UC Davis Big Bang! Business Plan Competition, receiving $15,000 to develop their innovative corking concept for wine bottles.  AEC also competed in the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Challenge. Diana is currently working at PG&E. For more information about Diana and her work, please click here.

Josaphine Tuchel is a Senior Program Manager in Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Energy Efficiency group, focusing on the agricultural and food processing sectors in California.  Her work at PG&E also includes collaboration with the Emerging Technologies team to assess the energy-saving potential within the Ag & Food Processing market for applicable emerging technologies and to facilitate industry adoption.  Josa received her MBA from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management in June 2007 and focused her studies on finance, strategic management and entrepreneurship. She has a B.A. from the University of San Diego in International Relations.  While getting her MBA, she worked as an Emerging Venture Analyst (EVA) at the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) and developed a business plan for a less energy demanding food drying and blanching technology developed by a UC Davis researcher and was a finalist in the Little Bang! Business Plan Poster Competition.  Other EVA projects included evaluation of solar-powered water pumping for irrigation and frost protection and energy efficient fans for animal feeding facilities.  Josa was a PG&E Energy Efficiency Fellow for the 2006-2007 Academic Year.  Her background includes pricing and financial analysis in the hi-tech and banking industries and business development and consulting in the wine industry.

Jonathan Woolley received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis).  His research focus was on renewable energy technologies, alternative transportation fuels, the intersection between science and policy, and exploration of strategies for sustainability.  While at the EEC, Jonathan’s helped coordinate development the West Village Development Project, an effort to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration between campus planning, operations, academics, community extension, and industry partners as well as create a "Living Laboratory" for energy-efficient/sustainable technologies and policies.  This effort is one of the first in the nation. Jonathan’s Master’s thesis was the characterization of the performance of auto-thermal reformation of gasohol fuel mixtures as a mode for on-vehicle production for hydrogen enriched internal combustion.  He was instrumental in the design and build out of a project to provide renewable wintertime heat in a new community center for the UC Davis Baggins End Cooperative.  Jonathan is currently working on an energy efficiency retro-fit project for small scale commercial buildings and is an engineer with the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center.  For more information about Jonathan and his work, please click here.