YPE Holiday Party 2024
Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) SF Bay Area is hosting a winter party to celebrate the holidays!
Join us for a fireside chat with Kate Gordon, the CEO of California Forward (CA FWD), a statewide organization dedicated to a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economy. Gordon has spent the past two decades working at the intersection of climate change, energy policy, and equitable economic development. Most recently, she served within the Biden-Harris administration as Senior Advisor to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Miranda Ehrlich, Senior Director of Campaigns at Greenlight America, will moderate.
After the fireside chat, stick around for an end-of-year celebration of the YPE community. Dinner and drinks will be provided. Wear your finest ugly sweater or sparkles for this special YPE holiday event!
This event is hosted at the headquarters of Fifty Years, a VC firm based in San Francisco, backing founders using technology to solve the world's biggest problems.
50 Years is a no-shoes office--the perfect opportunity to showcase ugly holiday socks to match your ugly sweater!
About Our Speaker & Moderator
Kate Gordon is the CEO of CA FWD, a statewide organization dedicated to a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economy across every region of the state. Gordon has spent the past two decades working at the intersection of climate change, energy policy, and equitable economic development. Most recently, she served within the Biden-Harris administration as Senior Advisor to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. During her time at the Department of Energy, Gordon led a variety of locally focused initiatives to help drive a more sustainable and resilient energy transition, including creating the Community Benefits Plan framework for DOE funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act; driving the agency’s efforts to site clean energy projects on DOE lands through the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative; and collaborating with the White House to lead the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities. Gordon continues to serve on the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board (SEAB).
Prior to her time in the Biden-Harris administration, Gordon served for several years in California state government as the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and Senior Climate Policy Advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom. In this role, Gordon launched or led several initiatives to better integrate climate and economic development strategy across the state, including the Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, the Regions Rise Together initiative, and the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF), now known as California Jobs First. As founder and head of California’s interagency “climate cabinet,” she also led the creation of the first-ever integrated California climate budget as part of the Governor’s 2020 budget proposal. Gordon’s policy work in California earned her CA FWD’s 2022 California Steward Leader Award.
Before entering public service, Gordon was the founding director of the Risky Business Project, co-chaired by Mike Bloomberg, Hank Paulson, and Tom Steyer and focused on quantifying and communicating the financial risks and economic impacts of climate change on key U.S. regions and sectors. Gordon has also served in senior leadership positions at several nonpartisan think tanks including the Henry M. Paulson Institute, the Center for the Next Generation, the Center for American Progress, and the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Gordon got her start on energy and climate issues working at the national Apollo Alliance, where she ultimately served as co-Executive Director until the merger with the Blue-Green Alliance in 2011.
Gordon earned a J.D. and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. Gordon serves on multiple boards, including for Brown Advisory and Element Resources. She teaches a regular course on “Climate: Politics, Finance, and Infrastructure” at the University of California, Berkeley and serves as a Non-resident Scholar at Carnegie California.
Miranda Ehrlich is the Senior Director of Campaigns at Greenlight America, a nonprofit focused on mobilizing local support for clean energy projects across the country. Miranda was previously the Federal Field Director for the Sierra Club, where she led the Sierra Club’s field strategy for the Inflation Reduction Act. Miranda began her career in clean energy as a community organizer working to retire coal plants, and earned a Master's Degree in Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her free time, Miranda can often be found in the woods foraging for wild edible plants and mushrooms. She currently lives in San Francisco, California.
About Fifty Years
Fifty Years (50Y) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm that supports entrepreneurs solving the world’s biggest problems with technology. 50Y has seeded many startups shaping the world for the better — companies like Memphis Meats (culturing meat to eat), Solugen (engineering enzymes to produce industrial chemicals sustainably), and Astranis (building small satellites to cover the earth in internet). 50Y even seeded the company that built this very site — Substack! You can see a full list of the teams that 50Y is supporting here.
50Y also runs Impact.Tech, a community of entrepreneurs combining purpose with profit. Impact.Tech hosts events for those interested in having a massive positive impact through technology entrepreneurship.
50Y Community Norms
No Shoes: Leave your worries and shoes at the door! We don’t discriminate — bare, sock’d, or slipper’d feet are welcome. If you absolutely need to wear shoes, shoe covers can be found in the narrow closet near the front door.
Plant-Based Space: For environmental, ethical, and health reasons, Fifty Years HQ is fully plant-based. Please respect this norm when eating in HQ.
Transportation
Location: Fifty Years Headquarters (50Y HQ), 192 Museum Way, San Francisco, 94114
Driving: 50Y HQ is settled in a hilly, residential neighborhood in the Corona Heights district. To make sure you’re in the right place, look for the landmark Randall Museum (199 Museum Way) — our neighbor. HQ is right across the street in a tall, brown, building. It looks like a home!
Parking: You can legally park in the Randall Museum parking lot until 10pm at night. It is right in front of HQ.
Walking: Google Maps will often guide you through a nearby park (Corona Heights), but it can be hilly and confusing. Best way to get there is to follow Google Maps driving directions even when you are walking.