About
David Gottesman
Co-President
Before Wharton, David was an engagement manager at the consulting firm GreenOrder, where he developed and implemented sustainability strategies for Fortune 500 firms.
David worked closely with GE on its multi-billion dollar ecomagination initiatve, advising on the structure, growth strategy, and marketing strategy for GE’s $18B clean tech portfolio. He also consulted to a leading utility, identifying nontraditional capital sources to expedite low carbon power development.
David interned at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, where he developed policy briefs on regional and sub-national cap-and-trade schemes. His work at the Allco Renewable Energy Group focused on project development for solar and biomass
David interned in summer 2012 as an Associate with the Power Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. David’s commentary on business and environmental issues has been published in Harvard Business Review and BusinessWeek. He is a recipient of the Diane & Robert Levy Term Fellowship at Wharton and is a cum laude graduate of Yale University
Jenni Allen
Co-President
Before Wharton, Jenni was a senior consultant at Booz & Company, where she advised Oil & Gas clients across Europe and Africa.
Jenni worked on the shipping strategy and ramp-up planning for a Nigerian LNG development, and worked with a European gas major to improve its government relations and community affairs functions. She supported the $3bn transformation of the IT function of an oil super-major.
Since coming to Wharton, Jenni has represented the school at the National Energy Finance Challenge and at the Renewable Energy Case Competition, and took the winter modular course in Alternative Energy Policy.
Jenni interned in summer 2012 with Dow Chemical on their Leadership Development Program in Michigan.
Jenni holds a masters in Economics, Politics & Philosphy from University of Oxford, and her favorite topic is public policy on electricity markets.
Shern Frederick
Co-President
Shern is a second year MBA candidate at The Wharton School. He previously worked for The World Bank, lending and advising on energy-related development in Latin America and the Caribbean. While there, he guided the Government of Jamaica on managing the effects of the global financial crisis on the energy sector, and supported efforts by the Government of the Dominican Republic to establish a commodity hedging program to manage exposure to volatile oil prices.
Prior to this, Shern worked in energy trading with Calpine Merchant Services COmpany in Houston, and with JP Morgan in New York. In these roles, he supported power and natural gas traders managing more than 30,000 MW of power generation assets and over 2.5 Bcf/day of natural gas and pipeline capacity, as well as covering coal and emissions.
Shern spent summer 2012 as an Associate with the Oil & Gas group at Morgan Stanley in Houston. He holds the CFA designation, and is the recipient of the Joseph Wharton Fellowship as well as the Morgan Stanley MBA Fellowship. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Operations Research & Financial Engineering from Princeton University.
Carter Leggett
Treasurer
Prior to attending Wharton, Carter worked at First Reserve Corporation, a private equity firm with $20 billion under management focusing specifically on the energy industry. At First Reserve, Carter focused primarily on evaluating and executing opportunities in the oilfield services industry and was responsible for monitoring the firm’s investment in KCA Deutag, an international drilling company. Before joining First Reserve, Carter worked for Select Energy Services, an oilfield services company formed in 2008 to provide wellsite solutions to oil and gas producers. Prior to Select, Carter worked for Citi’s Energy Investment Banking Group focusing on M&A and capital raising assignments. Carter graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in Economics.
Tony Zhang
VP of Careers
Prior to attending Wharton, Tony worked at Khosla Ventures, a technology and cleantech venture capital fund. Tony analyzed opportunities in smart grid, solar, wind, biofuels, energy efficiency, and energy storage. He also worked closely with portfolio companies on marketing, hiring, strategy, M&A, and finance. Previously, Tony worked in the Technology investment banking group at Goldman Sachs and in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Merrill Lynch. Tony graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Business Administration.
Katherine Healy
VP of Careers
Prior to attending to Wharton, Katherine worked for Morgan Stanley as an Associate in Strategy and Business Management. During her four and a half years with the firm, she worked in three different divisions and in each was responsible for the development and execution of strategic initiatives to increase profitability and for the performance of general business management. During her last two years she focused on integrating Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney after Morgan Stanley and Citigroup entered into a joint venture for their retail businesses. Previously, Katherine worked for Amaranth Advisors LLC, a global multi-strategy hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT. She was part of an 8-person team responsible for developing new funds (specifically an energy fund), winning new investors and servicing existing investors. Katherine graduated from Duke University in 2006 with a BA in History and Certificate in Markets and Management. Katherine interned in 2012 with Chevron in the Finance MBA Leadership Development Program.
Shruthi Cariappa
VP of Careers
Shruthi Cariappa, a Forté Fellow at The Wharton School, is an entrepreneur running a commodities trading and mining company based in Indonesia and Hong Kong, and doing business throughout Asia. Shruthi spent seven years growing her business that specializes in commodities like coal, metal scrap, iron ore, crude oil and other minerals.
Shruthi holds a B.E. degree in Environmental Engineering from Visveswaraya Technological University, Karnataka (India). Shruthi is a native of India and is fluent in Hindi and Bahasa.
Stevan Jovanovic
VP of Education
Prior to Wharton, Stevan was a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and a member of the Energy and Industrial Goods groups. Based out of Boston, he advised Fortune 500 companies on a variety of operational and strategic issues. At Wharton, Stevan serves as a Non Profit Board Leadership Fellow, and plays on the Wharton Rugby team. Stevan holds a MS in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he worked as a researcher designing and building a micro turbine generator for distributed power generation. Stevan was born in Serbia and speaks four languages.
Will Conkling
VP of Alumni
Prior to Wharton, Will worked in Boston as a wind energy developer and consultant, leading and assisting on commercial scale wind farms in the US and abroad. Will was a Project Manager at Citizens Energy, leading the company’s development efforts in Maine and New York. While at Citizens, he also helped take the company’s wind activities international by securing work in Venezuela. Later, at a startup wind energy consulting firm, Will led business development and served as project lead for wind developer clients in the northeastern United States. Will is proficient in Spanish and he holds a B.A. in Government and Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Will grew up in a house that is off the grid and solar powered.
Zina Bash
VP of Internal Affairs
Zina Bash is a second year MBA Candidate. Prior to attending Wharton, she served as Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she advised U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX) on issues relating to intellectual property, administrative law, and antitrust law. Before that, she was an Associate at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she specialized in administrative, constitutional, and commercial law. She crafted an argument before the Supreme Court to prevent a federal agency from closing down an Alaskan gold mine; negotiated settlements with SEC investigators to avoid enforcement proceedings against clients; and monitored large international companies to assist in their compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. Prior to working in private practice, Zina served as a law clerk to the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where she advised and drafted opinions involving constitutional, criminal, antitrust, and administrative law, including in cases involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Surface Transportation Board.
Zina graduated from Harvard Law School, cum laude, in 2007, and from Harvard College, cum laude, in 2004. She is from Texas and speaks Spanish fluently.
Mit Shah
VP of Internal Affairs
Prior to attending UPenn, Mit worked at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a clean-tech focused market research firm, where he researched and analyzed the technological, economic and regulatory drivers in Indian renewable energy sector. Mit graduated cum laude from University of Michigan with a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. Mit is currently a candidate for the CFA designation.
Jiayi Liang
Communications
Jiayi Liang is a first year M.B.A. student majoring in Strategic Management and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is passionate about energy and clean technology, and is actively engaged in the research with the US Department of Energy (DOE) on the outlook and commercialization roadmap of electronic vehicles in the US.
Prior to Wharton, Jiayi was a senior consultant with A.T.Kearney, working on assignments in the energy, utility and processing industries and in the technology sector. She advised the largest provincial power grid operator in China, whose annual revenue is over $40 bn, on its corporate strategy. Her client is currently leading China’s biggest electric vehicle project by providing charging infrastructure system. She contributed to A.T.Kearney’s whitepaper The Outlook of Alternative Energy and won the BEN Environmental Challenge Open in 2011 by devising a business plan for carbon-neutral GPS applied to 10,000 taxis in Beijing.
Jiayi received her B.A. in international economics in Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Meghan Leggett
Conference Co-Chair
Meghan is a second year MBA Candidate at Wharton. She previously worked at Crestview Partners, a private equity firm with $4 billion under management employing contrarian, value oriented investment philosophy. At Crestview, Meghan focused primarily on evaluating, structuring, and monitoring opportunities in the energy industry; specifically she was responsible for monitoring the firm’s investments in Oxbow Carbon and Select Energy Services. Before joining Crestview, she worked for Donovan Capital, a merchant bank that provided financial services to management teams within the oil and gas sector looking to obtain private financing. Prior to Donovan, Meghan worked for Citi’s Energy Investment Banking Group focusing on M&A and capital raising assignments. Meghan graduated Beta Gamma Sigma from the University of Texas with a B.A.A. in finance.
John Mongan
Conference Co-Chair
John comes to Wharton from McKinsey & Company where he worked on operational and strategic initiatives for companies in the CPG and Energy Industries. This summer, John will be interning at GE Energy Financial Services. At Wharton, John has been involved in the Energy Club through his roles as a Business Development Director and Industry Panel Organizer during the 2011 Wharton Energy Conference. He is also a Leadership Fellow where he mentors students in the class of 2014, and a Non-Profit Board Leadership Fellow where he serves as a board member at the Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, an economic development organization in Camden, NJ. He is originally from Wilmington, DE and completed an undergraduate degree in Systems Engineering at the University of Virginia.
Kristina Kazarian
Conference Co-Chair
Kristina graduated from Wellesley College in 2005 with a double major in Economics and Political Science and was also a member of both the Lacrosse and Field Hockey teams. After graduating Kristina joined Fidelity Management and Research Company as an Associate on the Consumer Team covering small cap packaged foods, agriculture/meat processors, and the ethanol industry. In 2008 she was promoted and became Fidelity’s Large Cap Diversified Utility and Power Analyst. Kristina continued to cover the Power and Diversified Utility sector until leaving Fidelity in 2011 to pursue her MBA at Wharton. Kristina spent summer 2012 at Blackstone in the Restructuring and Reorganization group.
