Sven Thesen of Better Place Joins EnergyBiz Leadership Forum as Keynote Speaker

Energy Central, the leading resource in the global power industry for news, events, databases, insight and analysis, announced today that Sven Thesen of Better Place will join T. Boone Pickens of BP Capital Management, Charles E. Phillips, Jr. of Oracle Corporation, Dan Reicher of Google.org, Jim Rogers of Duke Energy, and LeRoy Nosbaum, CEO and chairman of Itron as a keynote speaker at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum (http://www.energybizforum.com).

The Forum will be held in Washington, D.C., on March 8-10, 2009, at the Renaissance Mayflower. The event will focus specifically on the impact of the Obama stimulus package on the power industry, as well as the short- and long-term consequences of the energy and economic crises.

The Forum marks the broadest-based gathering of all the major influences on energy, and includes leaders representing energy production — renewables, clean coal, and nuclear — as well as utilities, regulators, legislators, consumers, business, and finance. The event will consist of five interactive sessions of peer-to-peer discussion, roundtables and Q&A between attendees and presenters.

Better Place aims to end the world’s dependence on oil for personal transportation by building a network for charging electric cars powered by renewable energy. As head of Utility Operations and Sustainability Strategy, Sven Thesen is responsible for driving the company’s sustainability efforts and strategic relations with key utility companies.

Prior to joining Better Place, Thesen managed the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) emission reduction team and assisted the United Nations in revising the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. As a result of his contributions to the IPCC, he and other contributing engineers and scientists were awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

“Mr. Thesen represents a key part of the energy independence equation, highlighting the possibilities and realities presented by the electric car,” says Mark Johnson, Energy Central vice president of knowledge services and publisher of EnergyBiz magazine. “The electric car and infrastructure to support it are quickly becoming a cornerstone in the move toward innovative and sustainable energy, and now the question becomes how utilities support that vision.”

In addition to the keynotes, presenters include:

— Dr. John Anderson, President and CEO, Electricity Consumers Resource
Council (ECRC)
— John Bates, COO, Nuclear Innovation North America, LLC
— Ray Beavers, General Manager/CEO, United Cooperative Services
— Jacques Besnainou, President, AREVA, Inc.; President and CEO, AREVA NC
Inc.
— Kevin Burke, Chairman, President and CEO, Con Edison
— Fred Butler, Chairman and President, National Association of
Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC); Commissioner, New Jersey Regulatory
— Michael Chesser, Chairman and CEO, Great Plains Energy; Chairman,
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
— Hank Courtwright, Senior Vice President of Member and External
Relations, Electric Power Research Institute
— Rich Creegan, Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Itron
— Mark Crisson, CEO, American Public Power Association (APPA)
— Glenn English, CEO, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
(NRECA)
— Mark Gerken, CEO, Amp-Ohio
— Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Chair, House Committee on Science and
Technology
— Richard Kelly, President, CEO and Chairman, Xcel Energy
— Tom Kuhn, President, Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
— Scott Lang, President and CEO, Silver Spring Network
— Michael Mudd, President and CEO, FutureGen Alliance
— H. Britton Sanderford Jr., Chief Technology Officer, Sensus Metering
Systems
— Kim Saylors-Laster, Vice President, Energy, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
— Marc Spitzer, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC)
— David Springe, President, National Association of State Utility
Consumer Advocates, Consumer Counsel of the Citizen’s Utility Ratepayer
Board of Kansas
— Susan Story, President and CEO, Gulf Power
— Guerry Waters, Vice President, Industry Strategy and Marketing, Oracle
Utilities
— Barry Worthington, Executive Director, United States Energy
Association

Energy Central is joining with media partner USA TODAY to present the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum. The Forum invites all utilities, regulatory representatives, legislators, policymakers, financiers, technology suppliers and other business professionals responsible for future energy policy creation, design, implementation and rollout to attend this precedent-setting discussion. See the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum Web site for details, including a full schedule of speakers and topics for the event.

Energy Central, headquartered in Aurora, Colorado, and established in 1996, is the leading resource connecting professionals in the global power industry to news, events, databases, insight and analysis. Using web sites, e-newsletters, direct marketing channels, events and print publications, and employment services the company delivers critical business information to top executives, managers, leaders and industry influencers. Energy Central currently publishes EnergyBiz and Intelligent Utility magazines. Sierra Energy Group is the research and analysis division of Energy Central, providing trusted, high-value, accurate information on global power issues. Employment Services Division is the leading talent sourcing and acquisition service in the US power industry.