Elisa Botero, is a Partner at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York with 19 offices worldwide and deep expertise in the energy sector. Fluent in English and Spanish and conversational in Portuguese, Ms. Botero has advised clients on a wide range of cross-border deals, including project development and financing transactions, joint ventures, acquisitions and divestitures, and other commercial deals, with emphasis in the oil and gas industry. Ms. Botero is also experienced in international arbitration, having represented clients in high-stakes disputes in a range or sectors, including the energy sector. Qualified to practice law in Colombia and New York State, Ms. Botero was ranked by Latinvex among the Top 100 Female Lawyers in Latin America in 2022 and 2021 for her work in Arbitration & Litigation and Corporate/M&A. Ms. Botero co-heads the H2 industry group at Curtis, which capitalizes on the firm’s expertise in the oil & gas and renewable energy industries to provide clients with comprehensive advice across the hydrogen value chain.
Michael P. Darden, is a partner in the Houston office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Darden is chair of the firm’s Oil & Gas Practice Group, a member of the firm’s Energy and Infrastructure, and Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Groups, and previously served as partner in charge of the Houston office.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Darden served as the global chair of the oil and gas transactions practice and co-chair of the global oil and gas industry team at Latham & Watkins as well as the firmwide chair of the global oil and gas practice at Baker Botts. Prior to Baker Botts, Mr. Darden was Vice President, Business Development, for Nuevo Energy Company, with responsibility for U.S. and international business development, international new ventures, international legal and negotiations matters, international mergers and acquisitions, as well as real estate portfolio management and land matters in the United States. He has also worked in the international legal and/or negotiations areas for Tenneco Oil Company, BHP Petroleum and Hunt Oil Company.
Mr. Darden is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, in which he has served as an officer, director and committee chairman and was co-chair of the committee that developed the model form international farmout agreement. Mr. Darden is Board Certified in Oil and Gas Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and a member of the Houston Bar Association.
Rosa Dominguez-Faus, Ph.D., is the Technical Director with the Open Hydrogen Initiative and Senior Manager of LCA at GTI Energy. Rosa’s experience in the energy LCA research space spans more than 15 years. Before joining GTI Energy, she was a scientist and instructor at the University of California Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, where she contributed to numerous scientific papers and reports on the carbon intensity of different energy products. Rosa served as the program manager for both the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways and the 3 Revolutions consortia. In these capacities, she successfully facilitated discussions among academia, industry, and government agencies, addressing key aspects of the energy transition. Rosa got her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Rice University.