Karen Klimowski | Acting Deputy Mission Director and Indo-Pacific Coordinator, South Asia, USAID | India
Karen is a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service and assumed the duties as the Indo-Pacific Coordinator at USAID India in April 2019. Prior to her assignment in India, Ms. Klimowski served as a Foreign Service Officer with USAID in Manila, Kampala, Nairobi, and Jakarta. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Klimowski worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she served in a variety of roles, including as senior technical advisor seconded to the World Health Organization, Africa Regional Office, in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she worked with 46 WHO African Member countries to develop health policies; and as Deputy Director of the Global AIDS Program in Lilongwe, Malawi. Additionally, Ms. Klimowski was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone. In addition to her U.S. government work, Ms. Klimowski worked for NGOs and California County governments. She received her master’s in public health from San Diego State University and Bachelor of Arts in Physiology from the University of California, San Diego.
S. P. Garnaik | Executive Director, EESL
S.P. Garnaik during his 25+ years of professional career, has served in Government, Bi-lateral and International organizations at various capacities in the field of energy policy, energy management, resource conservation etc. As Director in Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), during 2010-13, he managed Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme and Standard & Labelling (S&L) program of India. During his tenure in National Productivity Council (NPC), India; Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and ICF International; he has guided, supervised and conducted over 70 major consulting assignments in India and abroad in the techno-policy area of energy efficiency, resource conservation & management etc. As a lead trainer, he has handled over 200 technical training sessions in relevant subjects for corporates, Government agencies and academic institutions. At present, he is leading many portfolios in EESL handling project worth of Rs.1500 Crores (USD 250 mn) apart from many other responsibilities.
Taryn M Holowka | Senior Vice President, Marketing, Communications & Advocacy, U.S. Green Building Council
Taryn is the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Advocacy at the U.S. Green Building Council. Taryn joined the Council in 2002 and oversees the marketing, communications and advocacy activities for USGBC and its associated programs. Taryn’s core areas of expertise are strategic communications planning, messaging, public affairs and brand management. A skilled communicator, storyteller and multi-market brand strategist, Taryn Holowka brings 20 years of experience in building multinational brands including the popular LEED green building program. Taryn holds a Masters in Liberal Studies, Social & Public Policy, from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York College at Geneseo. She currently resides in Washington, DC with her husband and children.
Josh Jacobs | Director of Environmental Codes & Standards, UL Environment & Sustainability
Josh serves as Director of Environmental Codes & Standards for UL’s Environment & Sustainability Division. He is responsible for authority having jurisdiction engagement and outside code participation for UL. In this role he helps develop and track the environmental rating systems/standards/codes/purchasing programs that are being utilized throughout the world. As a LEED AP+ BD&C, Josh has served on over 30 sustainably focused committees, including but not limited to ASHRAE 189.1, LEED Steering Committee, USGBC’s Pilot Credit Committee, and served on the water/IEQ work group that developed the first public draft of the IgCC. He is a recurring guest lecturer at multiple universities and has spoken on sustainable building practices and purchasing on 5 continents. Josh served as Chairman of the US Mirror Committee for ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement, the 2015 NAHB Material/IEQ Working Group, Vice Chair for USGBC’s Pilot Credit Committee, and currently serves on USGBC’s LEED Steering Committee. He is also incoming 2021 LEED Steering Committee Chairman and Vice Chair of ASHRAE 189.1.
Dhiraj Wadhwa | Director, Commercial Applied & Overseas Business, Carrier India
Dhiraj is a business and sales professional with steady career advancement through increasingly responsible roles and responsibilities possessing diverse experience in Sales, both B2B and Channel Sales. A Mechanical engineer and M.B.A. by qualification having strength around fostering business relationships, people management and adaptable to dynamic business environment and culture.
Atul Saxena |Joint Director, Hines
Atul is an Electrical engineer, MBA (Operations) and is a Member of Royal institute of Charted Surveyor (Facilities Management). Having 19+ years’ experience in Corporate Real Estate Property management, Facilities management, Projects and Administration. Prior to joining Hines, Atul has worked with Mahagun India Real Estate, Embassy Group (as Head-operations for Blackstone owned Properties), Srei Infra (as AVP- facilities), The 3c company (as Vertical head- Property management engineering services), UNINOR, HCL Technologies, IL&FS Property Management etc. and managed different portfolio of managing Real Estate- Facility/ Property Management. He has managed many LEED certified Buildings (Gold and Platinum).
Harsh Thapar | Vice President, HKS India
Harsh, is an architect and sustainable designer with extensive experience of working on large building and master planning projects, internationally. He is passionate about use of building science, research and technology to create healthier and environment friendly buildings. He is these days involved with studying impacts of COVID-19 on the design of built environment. Harsh is Vice President at HKS Architects India, a leading International Design firm, headquartered in the US.
Apurva Chaturvedi | Sr. Clean Energy Specialist, USAID India
Apurva is a clean energy professional currently working as Senior Clean Energy Specialist in the energy division of Indo-Pacific Office in USAID/India. She has over 15 years of experience in clean energy and power sector. She has the experience of designing, leading and managing several clean energy programs at USAID. Her area of expertise is strategy formulation and program design & management. She is currently leading the distribution utilities, smart grids, e-mobility and energy efficiency portfolio of USAID’s clean energy program in India. Prior to USAID she worked for British Council, British High Commission, as Project Manager-Climate Change for four years. She has done her Masters in Microbiology with specialization in Environment microbiology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights.
Ms. Mili Majumdar | Managing Director, GBCI
Mili is Managing Director of Green Business Certification Institute Pvt Ltd, India and Senior Vice President, USGBC. In her current role Mili is responsible for technical adaptation and customization of the portfolio of rating systems of GBCI for the Asia Pacific region. She is also responsible for customer coordination, education, training, and developing market mechanisms for adoption of the tools and rating systems for the region. An architecture graduate and a building technologies specialist, Mili has more than two decades of experience in the field of energy and environment with a focus on sustainable development of habitats. She has worked tremendously in the sectors of green buildings, climate resilient housing, city planning and urban transportation. She has led a team of professionals to develop a portfolio of green rating systems for habitats that have been widely accepted in India. Mili has also enabled the development of a large portfolio of green jobs through training and skill enhancement.
Mr. Tanmay Tathagat | Director, Environmental Design Solutions
Tanmay leads the Environmental Design Solutions [EDS] team of consultants working on climate change policies, energy efficient building design, building code development, energy efficiency policy development, energy simulation and green building certification process. EDS is a growing advisory company created to serve as the pre-eminent business-to-business resourced for companies and organizations to understand, mitigate, and manage the transition to a greenhouse gas constrained future. EDS has an international experience of sustainable built environment policy, design, analysis, and consulting. Tanmay has extensive experience in green building design, energy simulation, architectural and mechanical design, and green building certification process. Since 2002 EDS has worked on over 200 green building and energy efficiency projects worldwide. Tanmay hails from New Delhi. He has completed his M.S in Building Design from Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA in 1996.
Mr. Gurneet Singh | Director, Environmental Design Solutions
Gurneet is an experienced sustainability and energy efficiency consultant, building performance diagnostics expert and educator and has led the energy efficiency team at EDS for over fifteen years. Gurneet, accredited LEED AP from USGBC, has successfully implemented over 75 projects, some of which are the largest and most innovative and prestigious USGBC/ IGBC LEED and GRIHA certification projects in India. He has also developed training curriculums and conducted training programs for India’s energy code (Energy Conservation Building Code –ECBC), advanced daylight analysis, passive solar design, advanced whole building performance diagnostics tools and high-performance buildings.
Ms. Nidhi Gupta | Senior Program Lead, Environmental Design Solutions
Nidhi studied architecture and holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Architecture. She has handheld several architects, developers, and corporations in India through the implementation of sustainability initiatives in the built environment domain. With over a decade of experience she specializes in sustainable design assistance including solar passive building design, daylight integration, energy optimization and alternative building materials and technologies. At Environmental Design Solutions, she is currently working towards integrating environmental thinking, approach and processes into government programs and policies. She is passionate about projects and programs that inspire behavioral change towards creating a harmonious life on our planet.
