About the Symposium

On September 30, 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul designated Commissioner Rory M. Christian as the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Public Service Commission. On June 10, 2021, Mr. Christian was
appointed Commissioner, and his term runs through February 1, 2027.

Mr. Christian began his career in the energy industry with KeySpan Energy where he first served as a civil engineer before transitioning to a role engaging government agencies operating in Long Island and New York City. Mr. Christian then transitioned to Exelon Energy, where he developed new products targeting public sector clientele and helped facilitate the creation of multiple partnerships and alliances.

Mr. Christian then served as the Director of Energy Finance and Sustainability for the New York City Housing Authority, where he oversaw the Authority’s then $500M+ utility portfolio with the aim of reducing annual energy expenditures while achieving city, state and federally mandated greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements. More recently, he was the Director of New York Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund where he provided strategy management, programming, business development and stakeholder collaboration for the Clean Energy program in NY.

He enjoys teaching and has taught energy efficiency courses at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. He also volunteers time with workforce development organizations such as Green City Force and is a longtime supporter and former Chair of WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s (WE ACT) Board of Directors. Mr. Christian is a long-time resident of New York City and currently resides in Brooklyn with his family.

Justin E. Driscoll is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the nation's largest state-owned electric utility.

He oversees NYPA’s 17 generation facilities and 1,550 circuit-miles of high-voltage transmission, as well as the Power Authority’s work as an energy efficiency project developer and as energy supplier for its governmental customers, including New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York City Housing Authority, state agencies and local governments. Under Justin’s leadership, NYPA is advancing New York State’s efforts to achieve an affordable and the transition to a clean energy economy.

Justin also leads a multidisciplinary effort to advance the development of at least 1 GW of new, zero‑emission nuclear energy in Upstate New York, building on the state’s broader efforts to ensure long‑term grid reliability and affordability. Additionally, he has prioritized the development of NYPA’s utility-scale renewable portfolio through the advancement of solar, battery storage, and other innovative clean energy projects.

Elina Teplinsky, Pillsbury’s Global Energy Industry Leader and a leading member of the firm’s International Nuclear Projects and Hydrogen teams, focuses on international nuclear energy matters, including advice to U.S. and global clients on transactional and regulatory issues.

Elina is a trusted advisor to nuclear owner-operators, reactor and equipment suppliers, investors, architect-engineering companies and technical consulting firms on complex nuclear transactional and regulatory matters. She frequently serves as lead outside counsel on new build projects, equipment and fuel procurements, M&A transactions and joint ventures in the nuclear sector. She has worked on transactions for more than 30 countries in North and South America, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, Russia and the former CIS, Asia and Africa.

Rita is currently Chief Executive Officer of Wyoming Energy Futures, LLC and is solely dedicated to TerraPower’s Advanced Nuclear Power Demonstration Project in Kemmerer, Wyoming. She previously served 10 years as Rocky Mountain Power’s Vice-president for Wyoming. Rita had a distinguished 23-year career in the United States Air Force. She is a combat Veteran with service in both Afghanistan and Iraq as well as with the National Guard’s Counterdrug Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Randy Wolken is the President & CEO of MACNY, The Manufacturers Association, which serves over 350 companies employing more than 200,000 individuals across a 26-county region in Central and Upstate New York. He is also President & CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance of New York, a statewide coalition representing more than 2,500 companies from Long Island to Buffalo.

Mr. Wolken joined MACNY in 2001 and has dedicated the last 25 years to strengthening the business climate and expanding opportunity across Central and Upstate New York. Prior to joining MACNY, he served as Executive Director of the Samaritan Center; as a Senior Budget Analyst in the Onondaga County Division of Management and Budget; and as an officer on active duty at both Griffiss Air Force Base and Fort Drum.

Under his leadership, MACNY has evolved into a comprehensive resource for manufacturers, offering advocacy, workforce development, leadership training, HR services, and energy solutions. The organization plays a leading role in advancing Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, helping individuals access career pathways while supporting the talent needs of a rapidly changing manufacturing economy.

Emma Rebhorn was nominated to the NJ Board of Public Utilities by Governor Murphy and confirmed by the New Jersey State Senate in January 2026.
 
Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Rebhorn served as the Deputy Executive Director of Climate Jobs National Resource Center and Action Fund, the national hub of more than a dozen state-based, labor-led coalitions advocating for worker-centered climate action on behalf of millions of union members. At CJNRC/AF, Commissioner Rebhorn supported unions and climate jobs coalitions nationally and abroad in driving ambitious subnational action to create good union jobs, lower utility costs, and expand clean energy. Commissioner Rebhorn brings a deep understanding of the role working people—including those who build, operate, and maintain our utility infrastructure—must play in shaping energy and regulatory systems that are sustainable, reliable, and affordable.
 
Raised in a union family in New Jersey, Commissioner Rebhorn spent more than 15 years in the labor movement prior to her appointment, including as a member of the Communications Workers of America, and brings to her role extensive litigation, corporate counsel, and advocacy experience in practice areas including antitrust, bankruptcy, civil rights, labor, and employment law. Previously, Commissioner Rebhorn was General Counsel to Health Professionals and Allied Employees, a statewide federation of healthcare and allied workers affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, and began her career as Assistant General Counsel to the United Steelworkers International Union, the nation's largest private sector union.
 
Commissioner Rebhorn earned her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and her JD from Tulane University and is a graduate of the Harvard Trade Union Program.

Ekin Senlet serves as co-chair of Barclay Damon’s Regulatory Practice Area and Co-Leader for the Firm’s Nuclear Energy Team. She concentrates her practice on complex energy regulatory, siting, permitting, and infrastructure matters throughout New York State. She represents utilities, independent power producers, developers, investors, and other energy-sector participants in proceedings before the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC), the Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES), the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board), and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).

Ekin’s practice spans the full life cycle of major energy projects, from early-stage regulatory and siting strategy through development, permitting, financing, construction, operation, acquisition, and disposition. Her experience includes major generation and transmission siting proceedings; regulatory approvals associated with ownership transfers, corporate transactions, and project financings; due diligence for financial closings involving significant energy assets; electric and natural-gas rate proceedings; management and operations audits; regulatory compliance; and other matters affecting utilities and generation facilities. Her portfolio includes domestic and international developers and owners of offshore and onshore wind, solar, hydropower, battery energy storage, biomass, conventional generation, and other complex energy assets.

A growing component of Ekin’s practice focuses on nuclear energy policy, the development and siting of new nuclear generation, and the evolving regulatory framework for advanced nuclear technologies in New York. Her work draws on extensive experience with New York’s historic generation-siting regimes and the State’s evolving approach to permitting large-scale electric generation facilities. She advises clients on how new nuclear development intersects with state generation-siting requirements, environmental review, transmission and interconnection considerations, reliability planning and the broader state and federal regulatory framework applicable to nuclear facilities.

Andrew Shaw uses his public policy experience and knowledge of Congress and the Executive Branch to guide clients on federal legislative and regulatory issues impacting the energy and environmental sectors. He advises clients on a range of issues, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Clean Air Act (CAA) regulations, climate change mitigation and adaptation, clean/renewable energy incentives, nuclear power, oil and gas, grid modernization, trade and foreign policy. In addition, he develops and implements government affairs strategies for domestic and international clients in engaging with Congress, the Executive Branch, industry associations and nongovernmental organizations.

Andrew worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a clerk for both the Federal Facilities Enforcement Office in Washington, DC, and the EPA’s Region 7 headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas. At the EPA, he focused on compliance and enforcement issues related to the CAA, the Clean Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

In addition, Andrew worked for Representative Dennis Moore (D-KS), advising on issues and initiatives in the agriculture, education, energy, environmental and transportation sectors. He assisted in developing consumer safety legislation — which subsequently became law — that requires companies manufacture child-resistant portable gasoline containers.

Assil Halimi, Ph.D., is a nuclear engineer and entrepreneur specializing in advanced reactor design, high-burnup fuel performance, and nuclear techno-economics. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of Apollo Atomics, Inc., a company developing a family of compact pressurized water reactors. He completed his Ph.D. at MIT, where his work quantified how power uprates, high-burnup operation, and CHF-margin-controlled strategies can significantly reduce reactor cost. He has published extensively in top nuclear engineering journals, collaborated with EDF, Westinghouse, NuScale, Rolls-Royce, and Holtec, and holds multiple patents on innovative fuel and reactor designs. Before MIT, he was a Core Physics Engineer operating Belgian nuclear plants and previously held R&D roles at Safran Aerosystems, National Instruments, and General Electric.

Dr. Bohn is the Director Energy Economics at the Anthropocene Institute. He had been Chief Research & Innovation Officer and Head of Research & Engagement at the Swiss Re Institute. Most recently, he served as Chief Science Officer and Head of GX Labs at State Street Global Exchange in San Francisco. Before moving back to California, he established the Portfolio Analytics and Valuation Department within State Street Global Markets Japan in Tokyo. (He is fluent in Japanese.) He previously ran the Risk and Regulatory Financial Services consulting practice at PWC Japan.

Rachel Phillips is Team Pennsylvania’s Senior Vice President, Impact & Innovation. Her work has taken her across the globe to build and operationalize strategies for public and private organizations. Rachel’s work in North America has primarily centered on supply chain and operations challenges, while her work in the Middle East focused on large-scale transformations. She also brings firsthand experience in the nuclear energy sector from her time at Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California and now leads Team Pennsylvania’s work to advance nuclear energy as an economic and energy opportunity for the commonwealth, including leading the development of the Pennsylvania Nuclear Energy Roadmap.
Before joining Team Pennsylvania, Rachel served as Chief Operating Officer of Kearney’s Product Excellence and Renewal Lab (PERLab), where she honed her ability to build strategic partnerships, scale operations, and drive impact. Her career began in the U.S. Air Force and California Air National Guard; these experiences shaped her passion for unlocking team potential and building leaders. Rachel earned her Master of Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and her Bachelor of Science in Economics from California Polytechnic State University.

Carl is a native New Yorker and earned his degree from Babson College. In his final year of undergraduate studies, he began a decade-long career in nuclear energy as CEO of Elysium Industries, a molten salt reactor company -- where he led partnerships, technology development, and government relations.

In 2023, he co-founded Exodys Energy, a nuclear fuel recycling developer, alongside U.S. Navy nuclear system designers and recycling operators from La Hague, in France. The State of New York also partially owns the company.

Carl advises multiple nuclear initiatives across industry and government, including the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Recycling Task Force, and was elected as a co-lead of the DOE Nuclear Fuel DPA Consortium’s Reprocessing & Recycling Committee. He also serves on the advisory board of Nuclear New York, an independent, non-partisan advocacy organization that helped advance New York State’s recent nuclear expansion announcements.

He supports developing the next-generation nuclear workforce through his role on the Industrial Advisory Board of Excelsior University and authored a Chapter in the latest edition of the Molten Salt Reactor & Thorium Fuel Cycle textbook.

Hunter leads finance and capital formation for Oppenheimer Energy, a clean nuclear energy and speed-to-power project developer. He oversees corporate fundraising, project finance, capital structuring, and investor engagement. He is a seasoned finance professional who previously held banking roles at Goldman Sachs and Citibank and investment roles at several private funds. His experience spans energy and infrastructure, structured finance, debt capital markets, private equity, and commercial real estate investment.

He recently served as a Global Energy Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) and currently serves on the Steering Committee of Nuclear New York.

Kristin is a co-founder of 501(c)3 Mothers for Nuclear, and she is passionate about advancing all clean energy sources to improve human well‑being and protect the environment. Mothers for Nuclear has been an influential voice in clean energy since 2016, earning audiences with international policymakers and media including CNBC, Bloomberg, NPR, and The New Yorker, among others. Mothers for Nuclear has made important contributions to community engagement through their work on the US DOE’s Collaboration Based Siting Program, where they partnered with North Carolina State University and the Tribal Consent Based Coalition to run community-centered engagement on nuclear used fuel storage.

Kristin is a licensed professional civil engineer, project manager, and environmental advocate with 25 years of experience in energy. In Kristin leads Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Supply Chain team for Generation, including strategic sourcing and materials value stream responsibility for California's largest source of emissions-free electricity at Diablo Canyon as well as strategic sourcing for PG&E's hydro, renewable, and fossil assets.

Kristin has previous experience in engineering, power plant decommissioning, planning, and projects. Kristin has three children who inspire her passion for environmental action. She is a past president of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear and has served on various environmental nonprofit boards. Kristin holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from Arizona State University WP Carey School of Business.

Philip Hult is a promoter of the dual goals of expanding access to energy and reducing the impacts of climate change. He currently works to promote nuclear power through public engagement and addressing the equity challenges surrounding the long-term disposition of spent nuclear fuel. He serves as the Development Director at Generation Atomic and holds a Master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Cambridge.