John Flory, President, Clean Hydrogen Buyers Alliance (CH2BA)
John Flory is President of the Clean Hydrogen Buyers Alliance (CH2BA) which helps buyers find low capital cost ways to access the clean hydrogen market. This includes helping the North American Energy Standards Board develop the first carbon-differentiated standard hydrogen contract building on core elements such as carbon intensity, energy attribute certificates, mass balance, book-and-claim, drop-in fuels and registries.
John has over four decades of experience starting up, operating and consulting with a wide range of energy and environmental commodity companies and governmental entities. He brings a unique “hands on” experience of independent entities whose market infrastructure facilitates demand growth for entities of all sizes and credit quality. Such infrastructure experience covered transactions from real-time to 20 years in tenor and embodied risk principles consistent with the guidelines of the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Some indicative activities include:
- Setting up the California Independent System Operator and California Power Exchange,
- Co-founding North American Energy Credit and Clearing to be a capital efficient mechanism to bring exchange clearinghouse-style risk management practices to the physical power and natural gas markets;
- Managing the use of AI systems for optimizing the use of energy storage, distributed generation, demand response, EV charging and renewable assets to reduce costs, and lower emissions while maintaining grid reliability
Zane McDonald, Executive Director, Open Hydrogen Initiative (OHI)
Zane McDonald brings over a decade of experience exploring low-carbon technology and policy solutions. Zane currently works for GTI Energy as the Founder and Executive Director of the Open Hydrogen Initiative, an industry-leading research body with over 40 stakeholders representing a diverse cross-section of the hydrogen and energy community.
Zane is also the Co-Founder and Board Chair of the Carbon Business Council, a member-driven nonprofit coalition of companies unified to drive economy-wide decarbonization via carbon management technologies. Zane helped to developed the association from inception to becoming the preeminent industry voice for carbon management innovators with over 100 member companies.
Prior to being with GTI Energy, Zane led Global Hydrogen Analytics at S&P Global Platts and as a lead contributor to flagship modeling at the International Energy Agency.
Zane received a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Marshall University and M.Sc. in both Energy Economics and Transportation Engineering from University of California, Davis.
Patrick McKinnon, Director - Credit and New Markets, Marabou Midstream
Pat McKinnon is a seasoned energy executive with over 35 years of experience spanning trading, infrastructure, credit, and product innovation. He currently serves as Director of Credit and New Markets at Marabou Midstream, following his leadership role as First Vice President of Energy Markets and Digital Distribution at Navitas Assurance Partners.
Pat’s career includes executive roles at major institutions such as Euler Hermes Energy (Allianz) and CME Group, where he was instrumental in expanding market solutions and pioneering new tools for energy risk and credit management. He held operational and trading positions at Occidental, Cinergy, and led a consortium of producers as President of Buffalo STX Energy.
Pat’s career reflects a unique blend of operational depth and strategic vision, spanning compliance, marketing, trading, and infrastructure development. He is recognized for his contributions to product innovation and market evolution, and has played active roles in project equity, executive leadership, and advisory capacities.
Known for his creative approach to complex challenges, Pat remains a respected voice in the industry, frequently contributing as a speaker and advisor on energy markets, risk and regulatory issues.
Brett Perlman, CEO, Gulf Energy Catalyst
Brett A. Perlman has had a multifaceted career spanning management consulting, senior government leadership, and nonprofit executive roles.
He is currently an Impact Fellow in Residence at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative where he focuses on strategies to address climate change as well as new energy technology commercialization. In addition, he is the CEO of Gulf Energy Catalyst, a newly formed organization focused on transforming the Gulf Coast’s energy economy.
From 2017 to 2024, he served as CEO of the Center for Houston’s Future, where he led several major energy and climate initiatives, including the creation of the HyVelocity Hub, which secured a record $1.2 billion U.S. Department of Energy grant, and the formation of a coalition of more than 35 companies collaborating to build the foundation for the Gulf Coast’s clean hydrogen ecosystem.
Brett served as a Commissioner on the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where he led the state’s landmark electricity restructuring. His consulting experience includes work with McKinsey & Company as well as his own firm, advising senior executives and private equity firms on clean energy and utility transformation.
He holds advanced degrees in public policy from Harvard University and in law from the University of Texas, and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University.
Keith Sappenfield, Chair, NAESB WGQ Contracts Subcommittee
Keith M. Sappenfield II is the Chair of Contracts Subcommittee of the Wholesale Gas Quadrant of the North American Energy Standard Board (NAESB). He has been an active member since NAESB’s inception (as the Gas Industry Standards Board) thirty years ago and has worked on development of most of its natural gas related standard contracts. He is currently leading NAESB’s work in developing a Standard Base Contract for the purchase and sale of Hydrogen. Concurrent with, and prior to, his NAESB participation he has worked for energy companies such as Cheneire Energy, EnCana Marketing, Reliant Resources (now part of NRG), BP Gas, and ANR Pipeline.
He is a Registered Professional Engineer (Civil) and an active member of the State Bars of Texas and Michigan and has worked in the field on operations as well as in the office on legal and regulatory matters.
William S. Garner, Co-Chair - Global Energy & Natural Resources Practice Group, Greenberg Traurig, LLP
William Garner, Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Global Energy & Natural Resources Practice Group, focuses his practice on domestic and international hydrocarbon and inert gas transactions and transitional energy development. He has worked on projects in the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Poland, Kazakhstan, U.A.E., United Kingdom, Algeria, Turkey and Mexico. He has robust experience in carbon capture sequestration, biofuels, and hydrogen.
Prior to joining the firm, William served as an investment banker for the world's leading oil and gas investment banking boutique, advising on domestic and international upstream and midstream transactions. William was senior counsel at a multi-practice global law firm, and was former executive vice president and general counsel of KN Energy (NYSE:KNE), now part of Kinder Morgan, and Spectra Energy (NYSE:SE), now a division of Enbridge.